13 GORGEOUS PAGES: A Steve Ditko tour de force…
By PETER BOSCH
It may well be the greatest annual of all time. Sixty years ago, on June 11, 1964, Marvel released the very first Amazing Spider-Man Annual. And Stan Lee’s story was worthy of it, with six of Spider-Man’s greatest foes teaming up to do battle with the web-slinger. The mighty tale took 41 pages to tell. And, with no hesitation, it was certainly Steve Ditko at his most magnificent.
While that titanic tale would have been more than enough to satisfy any Spidey fan, there was more. Much more! Following the main story there was a 14-page gallery of villains, plus nine pages of the secrets of Spider-Man, several more full-page features and, to top it off, a three-page humorous piece with Lee and Ditko on the pains and pleasures of creating a Spider-Man story.
To celebrate this great 60th anniversary, here are all of Ditko’s incredible full-page battle scenes with each of the villains, plus a selection of the other features in the annual. Enjoy!
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By the way, it’s worth noting that Marvel Tales Annual #1 came out the same day:
Kirby, Ditko and Sol Brodsky
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MORE
— 13 WILD MEXICAN SPIDER-MAN COVERS: It’s Cinco de Mayo! Click here.
— The TOP 13 STEVE DITKO SPIDER-MAN Covers — RANKED. Click here.
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13th Dimension contributor-at-large PETER BOSCH’s first book, American TV Comic Books: 1940s-1980s – From the Small Screen to the Printed Page, was published by TwoMorrows. He is currently at work on a sequel, about movie comics. Peter has written articles and conducted celebrity interviews for various magazines and newspapers. He lives in Hollywood.
June 11, 2024
Ditko’s work looks phenomenal! They really need to make both of these issues into facsimile editions! CAN YOU HEAR ME MARVEL?!
June 11, 2024
They did. At least the Spider-Man annual was done a year ago.
June 11, 2024
Second only to The Fantastic Four’s first Annual.
June 11, 2024
Hopefully they will do a Ditko Artists Edition soon.
June 11, 2024
I was just thinking the same thing earlier today, before I even seen this article.
June 11, 2024
A classmate introduced me to Spider-Man 60 years ago, and what was appealing about him then still holds. Spider-Man looked like no other superhero, and was drawn so differently. Compare his athletic agility while web slinging or fighting to the almost static look of Superman in flight. No comparison.
June 11, 2024
I Loved those multi-color Annual Logos they used at the time!
June 11, 2024
I got this piecemeal, with the secrets of Spider-Man feature being reprinted in Marvel Tales #100 (a very early comic for me), and the Sinister Six story running in my beloved Lee/Ditko/Romita sequential reprint period in MT #150. But either way, I think one of the single greatest comic issues of all time! The only competition in my mind (and mine only, don’t come at me) for best annual would be Moore’s and Gibbons’ Superman Annual #11.