Posted By Dan Greenfield on Oct 27, 2020 | 3 comments

Jazzy John’s marvelous work — now in a more affordable package…

An opinion I think of as fact: John Romita Sr. is the definitive Spider-Man artist. No disrespect intended for Steve Ditko or the many artists who came after, but when I close my eyes, it’s Jazzy John’s web-slinger that I see in my head.

Well if you dig his work as much as I do, you’re in luck: John Romita’s The Amazing Spider-Man Artisan Edition is coming from IDW in early 2021.

Dig the official solicitation info:

John Romita’s The Amazing Spider-Man Artisan Edition

Stan Lee (w)/John Romita (a & c)

Jazzy John Romita was for many the definitive artist on the Amazing Spider-Man. His sleek line work brought the web-slinger to life for a generation of fans. This volume collects issues 67, 68, 69, 71, 75, and 84 in their entirety. Additionally there is a beautiful gallery section of Romita extras.

Like all of IDW’s award-winning Artist Edition-style books, each page has been painstakingly scanned from the original art to ensure the finest possible reproduction, mimicking the experience of seeing Romita’s hand-drawn pages—it’s the next best thing to owning the art! While appearing to be in black and white, each page was scanned in color to mimic as closely as possible the experience of viewing the actual original art—for instance, corrections, blue pencils, paste-overs, all the little nuances that make original art unique.

TPB/B&W/$39.99/152 pages/8-1/2” x 12”/ISBN: 978-1-68405-824-2

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A few thoughts:

— I’ve seen a lot of original Romita art up close, and I gotta tell you, it’s worth every penny. Love seeing the raw work of a master — just check out the pages from the book posted here.

— If the description looks familiar, that’s because this is essentially a smaller-scale, paperback reprint of 2012’s John Romita’s The Amazing Spider-Man Artist’s Edition Vol. 1, which presented the art in its original, full size. But that hardcover will cost you bank on the secondary market. The original recently went for $180 on eBay, for example.

— It’s not 100 percent certain, but it looks like the Artisan Edition will be released in February or March. Amazon has it pegged for March 16 but that could be different for comics shops.

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MORE

— ROMITA, DITKO, KANE and MORE: The Greatest SPIDER-MAN Art Exhibit You’ll Ever See. Click here.

— The TOP 13 JOHN ROMITA SPIDER-MAN Covers — RANKED. Click here.