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| Images copyright MARVEL COMICS |
Issue #33 of the UK's SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY ushered in the JOHN ROMITA era of Spidey, with the Jazzy one breathing new life into the wondrous web-spinner. Romita's style was arguably more 'commercial' and, in the States, where these tales had first appeared some years earlier, sales reportedly increased after STEVE DITKO departed. It's unrecorded whether the same thing happened here, though it's unlikely as, with #35, the 40 page issues came to an end, with #36 onward sporting 8 fewer pages than before. When the mag went glossy covered with #48, the page count went up to 36, but so too did the price - to 6 pence.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy another look at the covers and some of the pin-ups from the last 40 page issues of SMCW. If you had any of these comics at the time, feel free to share your memories of them in the comments section. Go on - you know you want to.
8 comments:
Jazzy John was an excellent artist on Spider-Man even though the Ditko shapes were gone.
I accepted the Green Goblin when I was younger but he is one of the the silliest characters in the Marvel roster.
Shiny paper covers..Was the Avengers released with a shiny paper cover to begin with?
And did you send away for an iron-on t-shirt transfer shown in the advert?
Yup, Baab, Avengers was released with a shiny cover from issue #1. And no, curiously, I never did send away for any of those iron-on transfers. Wish I had now.
At some point I want to create T shirts with favourite British comic covers on. SMCW 33 has to be a candidate. The colouring is great.
Chris, #34 is also great. In fact, there's a great big canvas print of the U.S. version available for hanging on the wall. Keep your eyes peeled in some of the shops around your area that sell such things. For all I know, #33 might also be available.
SMCW 33 includes the most unnecessary word balloons ever. The original is the first issue I ever saw on the newsstand and it immediately got my attention at 6 years old and had me hooked. Romita's cover was captivating, as was the color gradations of light blue to purple, likely by Stan Goldberg.
Sales did rise with Romita's issues, and it may well be because his art was more commercial, although I believe Roy Thomas noted that sales had been steadily rising with Ditko's issues also, so sales may have grown if Ditko had stayed. We'll never know for sure.
As you say, Nick, we'll never know for sure, but apparently the same thing happened when Kirby left FF and Romita and then Buscema took over. Fascinating, eh?
I love both Ditko's and Romita's Spideys equally, in the same way as I love Ezquerra's and Ron Smith's Dredds equally - it's possible to have 2 favourites for each character.
I was a late starter with the UK S-M comics, apart from odd issues ( usually if they had a POTA poster on the back!), I didn't start buying every ish until Super Spider-Man TV Comic, so I do hope you'll keep showing us how it metamorphosised at least up to that point in time.
Another comment I missed at the time, JP. Tsk, tsk. Anyway, a mere 6 years later (which is quick for me), and here's my reply to your comment. As you know, I did keep showing you all the Spidey covers I had, but I sometimes still pick up the odd back issue, so maybe I'll show some of them at some stage in the future.
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