Thursday, August 17, 2023
Spidey by Jack Kirby
So, twenty five years ago, I walk into my favorite comic shop with a photo copy of that first image, intent on getting the published cover. I'd never heard of it until then, and I dug another drawing by Jack of what I call his "rubbery" Spider-Man. Dunnae get me wrong, Kirby's Spider-man for the Marvelmania poster is the bomb, and not "rubbery" at all, but I've always enjoyed the ones that were. This shop had always eventually had everything I wanted (sixties and seventies comics), but on that day I struck out, so I asked an employee if she knew of it. She walked over to the box in the Marvel backstock where I had looked, but nada. She asked a co-worker, and he thought maybe with The Electric Co involved, it was with the Indie backstock, but that was a bust, so then the shop owner comes over and looks at my photo copy and says, "look, buddy (not derogatory a'tall, cause the owner and I have been buddies for forty years) this is a comic shop, not Toys R Us, but if I have it, it's in our young children's section." It wasn't. Since then, I've come to realize it's kinda great they dinnae have it, cause obviously editors aren't fans of "rubbery" Spider-Mans. I suspect that John Romita inked the cover, but there's no sigs (JK/JR anyone?). I've included a villian from Dingbats just cause he too is wunnerfully "rubbery"
Pretty sure that's Romita all right. His "fixes" were only a little less jarring than Al Plastino or Murphy Anderson "fixing" Jack's Jimmy Olsen. Looks like he toned down Doom as well. These guys are all decent artists, but really they are gnats at Kirby's feet.
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