tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419605150672201683.post8945031963128080481..comments2024-03-01T14:01:34.480-08:00Comments on Marvel in the Silver Age: ... Look out, Here Comes the Spider-ManAirPiratePresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13136561512898563240noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419605150672201683.post-74698254989291438452015-10-05T21:06:07.815-07:002015-10-05T21:06:07.815-07:00And a better comparison would be on page 5. panel ...And a better comparison would be on page 5. panel 4 of that same story. Sorry I didn't mention it earlier.Russhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04809592629762693427noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419605150672201683.post-26771765971934938492015-10-05T04:11:10.825-07:002015-10-05T04:11:10.825-07:00Thanks for the extra info, Russ ... I have that is...Thanks for the extra info, Russ ... I have that issue of Blue Beetle so I'll look it out tonight and compare the dialogue ...AirPiratePresshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13136561512898563240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419605150672201683.post-64440738684972449682015-10-03T16:53:39.986-07:002015-10-03T16:53:39.986-07:00Stories that started straightaway on page one were...Stories that started straightaway on page one were the exception, not the rule, in the early sixties. Check out contemporary issues of Hawkman, The Fly or Unknown Worlds. The splash page, or panel was usually a teaser, but sometimes symbolic as well. Even Kirby used them on Marvel's monster comics, sometimes repeating the cover scene. I'm just guessing, but I think the first time I saw the story actually start on Kirby's page one was in those early Rawhide Kid stories (His first actual series with Stan) maybe because they were so short and had to get moving quickly.<br /><br /> I really appreciate symbolic splash pages when they're done by an artist as skilled as Ditko (or Steranko or Kirby). Ditko was an admirer of Will Eisner's Spirit, and those splashes actually WERE covers.<br /><br /> And for a Ditko-written variation on the scene where an antagonist has a reflective moment on why he feels threatened by the thought of heroes better than him, check out the Randian Question story in the back of Blue Beetle 5, page 2. It's right out of the Fountainhead (Boris Ebar is a variation on Ellsworth Toohey) and not that far removed from the Jameson soliloquy in #10.<br />Russhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04809592629762693427noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419605150672201683.post-81768085265249470692015-09-30T02:34:53.147-07:002015-09-30T02:34:53.147-07:00I'll have to dig out ASM5 and take another loo...I'll have to dig out ASM5 and take another look, but I didn't notice the blank street sign last time I looked. And I think you're right about Peter's fake pix - not something that the upright Steve Ditko would approve of, I think, so that does indicate that these early issues were mostly Stan ...<br /><br />I would like to own all those MCCs and Marvel Tales again, but my priority to make sure I have all the original comics first. I just pick them up when I see them cheap on eBay ...AirPiratePresshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13136561512898563240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419605150672201683.post-11990196578977522112015-09-30T02:31:34.510-07:002015-09-30T02:31:34.510-07:00Thanks for the fascinating additional info, Nick. ...Thanks for the fascinating additional info, Nick. It's easy to forget - fifty years on - just how much contemporary popular culture influenced what Stan was doing in the early Marvel Comics. In the UK we wouldn't have been aware of US radio shows, so that was all new to me ...AirPiratePresshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13136561512898563240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419605150672201683.post-71658170283261672572015-09-28T15:29:26.942-07:002015-09-28T15:29:26.942-07:00Here is a photo of Peery as Gildersleeve: http://w...Here is a photo of Peery as Gildersleeve: http://www.ethomsen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/great-gildersleeve.jpgNick Caputohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05096100224095280865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419605150672201683.post-91001315329705332492015-09-28T15:27:39.385-07:002015-09-28T15:27:39.385-07:00I wrote a lengthy comment the other day but it app...I wrote a lengthy comment the other day but it apparently vanished into internet limbo. My main thought centered on Jameson's speech, which I suspect was partly based on Ditko's concept of heroism and how a flawed character might rationalize his feelings, based largely on his self-published stories. Stan Lee may have come up with the basic idea of "explaining" JJ, and possibly altered/revised/softened Ditko's notes, but my guess is the general concept of Spider-Man being a heroic ideal and JJ unable to rise to his level came from Ditko, while Lee added the parts about making money and envying Spidey. Most of Ditko's Spidey tales played Jameson as a comic foil though. which he explained in an essay some years ago. JJ was the character the reader's would love to hate, comparing him to "The Great Gildersleeve", a character played by Hal Peery on the radio in the 1940s (Fibber McGee and Molly and later his own radio program) and later in movies and on TV. The actor even looked a bit like Jameson. Nick Caputohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05096100224095280865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8419605150672201683.post-45171054893890236652015-09-26T13:16:32.385-07:002015-09-26T13:16:32.385-07:00Unlike you, Al, I love the cover to ASM #5 and The...Unlike you, Al, I love the cover to ASM #5 and The Living Brain tale in #8, but that may be because I first read them in Pow! when I was a kid and, consequently, they remind me of my childhood. Take a look at the last panel on page 7 of the Spidey versus Doom story - there's a 'sign' with no words which doesn't look like a street sign. I've always thought this was intended to be a caption (Steve's idea) drawing attention to Doom's helicopter, but either Stan ignored it or Sam Rosen forgot to letter it. What's your view?<br /><br />Given Ditko's adherence to Ayn Rand's philosophy, it's unlikely that he would've been the one who came up with the idea of Peter faking the Sandman pics, or the ones showing that Spidey is Electro, so this seems to indicate that Stan was more involved with the plotting than he's nowadays given credit for.<br /><br />Hey, weren't those Marvel Collectors' Item Classics and Marvel Tales comics great? Kidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07224781868125924337noreply@blogger.com