I never, ever, ever, get tired of looking at Jazzy John’s artwork… — UPDATED 9/23/26: Came upon this while I was doing some research and just felt like sharing it again. From September 2024. Dig it! — Dan — I’ll get right to it. How gorgeous is this? 1968’s The Spectacular Spider-Man #2 features one of the all-time great covers, so to see John Romita’s original painting is a bona fide treat. It only strengthens my resolve that he’s the greatest Spider-Man artist who has ever walked the Earth — and I mean absolutely no disrespect to Steve Ditko. Art is subjective, ultimately, and what Ditko started, Romita perfected. The piece sold for $63,250, plus buyer’s premium, via Heritage Auctions waaaaaaaaaaaay back in 2002. That’s the same as $110,677 in 2024. I don’t know if it’s changed hands since but I’d wager that this comics masterpiece would command even more if put back on the market. Here’s the official description from 2022: “John Romita, Sr. – Original Cover Art for Spectacular Spider-Man #2 (Marvel, 1968). One of the most recognized and beloved covers of the Silver Age, this stunning piece of art was long thought to have been destroyed in a house fire years ago. Discovered recently in a private collection, this beautifully rendered painting visually sums up the classic enmity between the Green Goblin and Spider-Man. Romita Spider-Man covers, highly prized by collectors, command top prices in the original art market, and one would be hard-pressed to find a better example of this modern master’s work. Measuring 13″ x 17.5″, this piece is in beautiful condition and will certainly be the centerpiece of even the most distinguished collection.” — MORE — This JOHN ROMITA SPIDER-MAN Illo Is So Pretty and I Want to Own It — Don’t You? Click here. — MARVEL and DARK HORSE Team Up For JOHN ROMITA AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Art Book — and MUCH MORE. Click...
Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 51 years ago — again… This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Sept. 23, 1975 — the second time this month we’ve visited that year. Why? It’ll become obvious in a second. Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Sept. 16, 1978. Click here to check it out. (Keep in mind that comics came out on multiple days, so these are the issues that went on sale between Sept. 20 and Sept. 26.) So, let’s set the scene: Two and a half weeks after deranged Manson acolyte Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme tried to assassinate President Ford in Sacramento, another delusional woman, Sara Jane Moore, tried do the same in San Francisco — and almost succeeded. On Sept. 22, around 3:30 p.m., Moore was about 40 feet away from the president as he left the St. Francis Hotel in Union Square and walked to his limo. The 45-year-old fired a shot from her .38 Special and missed Ford’s head by about five inches, hitting a doorway and sending a bullet fragment into the groin of a bystander, who was superficially wounded. (Fromme got to within three feet, but there was no bullet in the chamber when she pulled the trigger.) A 33-year-old man named Oliver Sipple, a disabled former Marine, dove at Moore and grabbed her arm before she could fire a second time. Cops had actually seized a handgun and bullets from Moore the day before, after she evidently suggested she wanted to assassinate Ford. She was, however, able to scramble to get a new one that morning. Moore was arrested at the scene, while her 9-year-old son was waiting for her to pick him up at school. She wasn’t a Manson follower but she harbored a similarly apocalyptic vision: Her motive, she later said, was to launch a violent revolution that would overthrow the U.S. government because of how it handled the Vietnam War. (Manson plotted the Tate-LaBianca murders to foment a race war.) Adding another bizarre wrinkle to an already twisted story, Moore was an FBI informant. Obsessed with Patty Hearst, the newspaper heiress who’d been kidnapped by, then joined, the terrorist Symbionese Liberation Army, Moore volunteered at People in Need, a charitable organization set up...
Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 49 years ago!
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