Saturday, July 07, 2012

Discovering Spider-Man & my Spider-Man artwork

This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the Amazing Spider-Man, one of the world's most popular comic book heroes.

Star of 1000s of comic books, cartoon shows, live-action television, video games, blockbuster movies and more merchandise than you can shake a web at, the character debuted back in 1962 in AMAZING FANTASY #15. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Spidey has endured throughout the decades by being the underdog hero who never gives up. And you can't beat that costume!

As a kid, I was a huge fanatic. The earliest comics I had of Spider-Man were given to me by my older brother Albert. Some of these treasures included these gems by John Romita and Gil Kane (issue #88)....





 Through the reprint series MARVEL TALES, I got to experience the earlier stories drawn by Steve Ditko.....




By the time I stared buying my own comics at the local 7-11, I was a bonafide Spider-Fanatic...








 





















I'll be sharing memories about my favorite Spider-Man stories in later posts, and some thoughts about watching Spider-Man on THE ELECTRIC COMPANY children's show, the 1967 SPIDER-MAN cartoon show, the Sam Raimi movies and lots more. Right now though, I'd like to share some artwork I created over the last couple of days. Just some quick sketches capturing different characters from the books. 


First batch includes The Lizard, J. Jonah Jameson, Peter Parker's first genuine crush, Betty Brant, Peter Parker in his wrestler gear from AMAZING FANTASY #15 and a shot of Spidey himself:

 





Like I said, more webslinging action to come in future posts!

Spider-Man © Marvel Characters

3 comments:

Richard said...

The first Spidey story I remember reading was the introduction of the circus of crime. Then, issues of Marvel Team-up. The one with Spidey and Hawkeye against the Fear-master, or the Killraven issue. I also had, around the same time, these pocket-sized reprints with the Enforcers, Lightmaster, and the introduction of the original White Tiger- Marvel's first true latino hero!

Javier Hernandez said...

Marvel Team-Up (and Marvel Two-In-One) was such a great way to catch up quick on the Marvel Universe. You'd get a new guest every issue, thus increasing your knowledge of the characters.

And yeah, I loved White Tiger! A Kung Fu, Puerto Rican badass! Boisterous Bill Mantlo and Gorgeous George Perez came up with that gem, right?

Richard said...

Mantlo definitely, but you're probably right on Perez too. Speaking of which, have you read about the raw deal Perez got from the Nu DC? Shameful to treat anyone so dehumanizing, let alone a FREAKING GENIUS MASTER. Wish he'd try a kickstarter to relaunch his Crimson Plague and get filthy rich.

And I am fully aware of the ever-pressing need for more anthologies today...(he types ominously...)

;)