A Silver/Bronze gem… I was really excited about this week’s announcement of Dark Horse and Marvel’s new line of books, with the kickoff edition being The Art of The Amazing Spider-Man by the late John Romita, due this fall. Click here to read all the details. We’ll be covering this project and others as they move along — but the news also prompted me to do what I love to do: look around for some gorgeous Romita Spidey art just for kicks. After all, he’s the greatest Spider-Man artist who ever lived. So dig this piece I found at Heritage Auctions’ website, along with its description from 2002: John Romita, Sr. – Original Color Spider-Man Drawing (undated). John Romita Sr. is one of the quintessential Spider-Man artists, the man who defined the Web-Slinger for a generation of fans. This piece was discovered, unsigned, in a private collection recently and, while it was strongly suspected to be the work of John Romita, we could not be sure. The piece was shown to Romita at WonderCon 2002, where he authenticated and signed it (explaining the ” ’02” date in the signature), and identified it as a piece he did in the late 1960s or early 1970s. He commented on the “bold, confident” line of the piece, and revealed that he also did the coloring. Unfortunately, John could not recall what the piece was done for. Romita Spider-Man art is extremely prized by collectors, with color pieces such as this being exceptionally rare. The piece measures approximately 11.5″ x 17″ overall, with an image area of approximately 9″ x 11″. There is a 1″ tear in the right margin, and a heavy crease that runs across the bottom of the page, about .75″ from the edge. Additionally, there are a few small spots on the page itself, near the figure. None of these defects, however, affect the art in any way. This is truly a unique and unusual piece. — The piece sold July 4, 2002, for a relatively paltry $1,610, including buyer’s premium. I don’t know if it’s sold since but I imagine it would command a very pretty penny today. — MORE — MARVEL and DARK HORSE Team Up For JOHN ROMITA AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Art Book — and MUCH MORE. Click here. — Dig JOHN ROMITA’s Groovy Preliminary Cover Sketch for...
With 1965’s Green Lantern #40 thrown in for good measure… Fred Van Lente’s COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH is back and better than ever! Now, as a monthly feature for 2024! See, Marvel this year is celebrating the 40th anniversary of 1984’s 12-issue Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars by re-releasing each installment as a Facsimile Edition every month. And of course, what is the DC event it’s always compared to? Why, 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, of course. And that series is also being re-released monthly too. (It started in April.) It’s a great time to revisit two maxiseries that redefined comics for good and for bad. You can click here to find the previous entries, but right now the tally stands at Secret Wars 3, Crisis 3. (The Secret Wars #7 Facsimile Edition is out this Wednesday.) Ring the bell, Fred! — By FRED VAN LENTE Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #7: “Berserker!” This installment mostly just continues storylines from the previous ish without introducing anything new, except for the Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman, a character literally no one asked for. I doubt most readers realized that Jessica Drew had been de-powered, thereby leaving a hole in the Spider-Verse. But who is this person, other than the fact her new Mike Zeck-designed costume is awesome, and that she has presumably been quietly Spider-Womaning in the same Battleworld-transplanted section of Denver that Volcana and Titania hail from? (I mean, you kind of have to assume that, though that’s never spelled out in the story.) In case you were wondering, Zeck did in fact design Spider-Man’s black costume first, then retrofitted it into Carpenter’s in real time—since, don’t forget, Spider-Man’s black costume showed up on the stands before it does in continuity chronologically. Got it? The villains dump Wasp’s corpse on Heroes’ Village and drive off laughing, which seems, um, tactically unwise. I have a feeling Dr. Doom would have said this was a bad idea, had he known about it, but he’s not around to object. Galactus has finally figured out Doom has been wandering unhindered around his house for two issues and zaps him back to Battleworld. He mopes off to his room to contemplate his cosmic insignificance, forcing Volcana to sell her soul to the Enchantress to save her Wolverine-skewered boyfriend, Molecule Man. Captain America says they can’t retaliate against Wasp’s murderers because someone has to sit here and keep an...
Adam Warlock, Captain Mar-Vell and Nova all get the big book treatment…
Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 38 years ago…
The late, great pulp artist was born 116 years ago…
