The next five issues from my collection are on display here. Ditko was becoming more and more ambitious in his storytelling. He was not only expanding what had been the limitations of the classic comic book panel, he was also pushing the limitations of what had been the formulaic superhero script. Much has been written about the angst of the Ditko Spider-Man stories (credit going to someone other than Ditko on that). This was heartfelt material from the artist/writer--material so powerful that not even a pushy editor could screw up the emotional power of Ditko's storytelling.
(Continued from: 21-25.)
4 comments:
ASM #29 -- As I said, this was the 2nd HALF of the 1st Scorpion cartoon. Crazy. The very last episode Grantray-Lawrence did-- the 2nd season opener-- brought back The Scorpion for a sequel. But because they'd already done BOTH Ditko stories earlier (in a single cartoon), they wound up writing an entirely NEW story. That one involved him taking a different potion, which caused him to GROW... into a GIANT Scorpion! Where's Gi-ANT Man when you need him?
ASM #30 -- As I also said, the image on this cover seems to have inspired the 2nd half of "PARDO PRESENTS", except instead of a normal guy in a cat-burglar costume, you have a cat-burglar who's able to turn himself into a GIANT CAT. "MMMMRRRRROWWWWWW!" "Here, kitty!" They even incorpoirated the police with the search-lights!
Someday I'll rent the video of those cartoons and take a look. All I recall is that as a kid I was disappointed in the Saturday morning cartoon of Spider-Man.
Wasn't this one of the reasons that Ditko got angry with Marvel? They were using his plots and images in cartoons and had promised to pay him, but no money was ever forthcoming.
The cover for #30, "The Claws of the Cat" certainly doesn't feel like most of the others of this period. In a lot of ways, this feels more like a Wally Wood action cover than Ditko's posed Spider-Man.
That cover always puzzled me. Mainly because I don't find it attractive at all. It would never have made me buy the book. Also, it just looks like something Lee would have rejected.
Post a Comment