Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jun 29, 2024 | 1 comment

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.

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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.

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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 1976’s BRING ON THE BAD GUYS. Click here.