Here's one of the big ones from Ditko's superhero stint at Marvel in the 60s. When I think of Ditko's great Spidey covers, I often forget about the two terrific annual covers he drew prior to his departure. This one is truly iconic, with the introduction of the Sinister Six. We all know that Stan went a bit overboard with the alliteration, but it fits perfectly with this team's name. What I find to be truly remarkable, it how many members of Spidey's Rogues Gallery were created in such a short period of time. The addition of the Lizard, the Green Goblin and the Chameleon could have increased it to the Nefarious Nine, and the Scorpion and Molten Man were just around the corner. Designing this type of cover can be tricky, as each character needs to play a defined role. Ditko does quite a good job, but some of the poses are a bit awkward and but I do feel as though a more dramatic layout was possible. John Romita's cover to the treasury-sized Marvel Special Edition #1 remains the gold standard in my mind.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Steve Ditko Cover of the Week: Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1
Here's one of the big ones from Ditko's superhero stint at Marvel in the 60s. When I think of Ditko's great Spidey covers, I often forget about the two terrific annual covers he drew prior to his departure. This one is truly iconic, with the introduction of the Sinister Six. We all know that Stan went a bit overboard with the alliteration, but it fits perfectly with this team's name. What I find to be truly remarkable, it how many members of Spidey's Rogues Gallery were created in such a short period of time. The addition of the Lizard, the Green Goblin and the Chameleon could have increased it to the Nefarious Nine, and the Scorpion and Molten Man were just around the corner. Designing this type of cover can be tricky, as each character needs to play a defined role. Ditko does quite a good job, but some of the poses are a bit awkward and but I do feel as though a more dramatic layout was possible. John Romita's cover to the treasury-sized Marvel Special Edition #1 remains the gold standard in my mind.
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2 comments:
...and if they waited around for Looter/Meteor Man, it could have been the Deleterious Dozen.
This is a good cover - Ditko managed to place all those characters on it, with Spider-man in the foreground, without making it look crowded or messy.
Ditko really did a bang-up job on this annual in general - that splash page of Spidey punching Electro is iconic. It was later used as the cover to the first of those Spider-man pocketbook reprints in the late '70s.
I thought you'd post a bonus cover yesterday (Nov 2nd) since it was "Sturdy Steve's" 83rd birthday!
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