Downloaded covers of The Amazing Spider-Man (and some of its annuals) for the sake of this thread. lol Took about a couple of hours and I only got up to #220. Whew. Will continue tomorrow.
June 1956: This month it's a beautifully illustrated John Severin cover for Tales of Justice #62. As mentioned with the last Severin cover I posted, by this time Severin was working exclusively for Marvel, mostly drawing westerns and war stories, but it wouldn’t last very long. By the end of 1957, he and many others were laid off by Marvel, and he had to scrounge for work. From there were jobs for I.W. Publishing, DC, Charlton, Prize, and a number of Mad wannabes, most notably Major Publications’ Cracked, where Severin would be a mainstay for the next 40 or so years. By the time 1960 rolled around, Severin was working primarily for Charlton and Marvel, mostly doing westerns once again. More on that later.
Penciled and inked by Sal Buscema. Not only was Sal the original artist of the series, but he probably drew more issues (over 120) than any other artist.
To be fair, as terrible as this story was, reading back some of the interactions between MJ and Peter in this story reminds me how much more interesting and compelling Mary-Jane was as Peter's wife, a strong female figure willing to weather all storms with Peter. Straczynski wrote a bunch of crap, One More Day included (though Joe Q was more at fault), but I have to give him credit for writing married MJ very, very well.
July 1956: Enter: the Silver Age! Penciled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Joe Kubert, this cover to Showcase #4 was the gateway which led to the revitalization of the superhero genre. With the exception of Quality’s Plastic Man and Charlton’s shortlived Nature Boy, which only went for three issues, DC was the only publisher still making superhero comics (unless you include the funny animal superheroes: Standard’s Mighty Mouse and Supermouse, the Big Cheese, and Charlton’s knockoff Atomic Mouse), and Plastic Man would end the following month with Quality closing up shop entirely right on its heels. But it would still be quite some time before superheroes dominated the newstands once again.
Comments
Anyway, here's today's cover:
"You'll pay, Osborn! Even if I have to chase you forever, you'll pay!"
Spider-Man: TAS - Turning Point
Such a classic issue. Definitely one of the most iconic Spider-Man stories alongside Amazing Fantasy #15.
Ah yes, the notorious Spidermobile. And how appropriate it appeared during a time when people still used "far-out".
Ugh.
To be fair, as terrible as this story was, reading back some of the interactions between MJ and Peter in this story reminds me how much more interesting and compelling Mary-Jane was as Peter's wife, a strong female figure willing to weather all storms with Peter. Straczynski wrote a bunch of crap, One More Day included (though Joe Q was more at fault), but I have to give him credit for writing married MJ very, very well.
Now THAT's better. That's a cover I would want to wake up to. My favorite Spider-Man story of all time.