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Author:
Title: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 9
Place Published:
Publisher:Marvel [Indicia: Non-Pareil Publishing Group]
Date Published: February, 1964
Description:

CGC certified: VG/Fine (5.0). White pages. Not cleaned and pressed. Cover: Steve Ditko pencils and inks, Stan Goldberg colors. Story: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Art: Steve Ditko. Colors: Stan Goldberg. Lettering: Artie Simek. Origin and first appearance: Electro. GPAnalysis: A 5.0 sold for $1700 in 8/22.

Ditko's half-Parker-half-Spidey splash page is one of his greatest compositions, a perfect schematic of the dichotomy of Spider-Man. The bifurcated Spidey is clustered around by his supporting cast, the police and the ever-fickle pantin' public, with Electro's lightning providing the galvanic force that animates the illustration.

"The splash page of Amazing Spider-Man #9 is more or less the best thing that Steve Ditko has contributed to date, which is to say, just about as good as comic-book artwork gets. Some Ditko splashes are simply the first frame of the narrative; some are teasers, showing you a scene that will come later in the story. But what he does best is symbolic splash pages like this; abstract visualizations of the entire episode....



"This isn't merely a symbolic representation of issue nine: it's a visual manifesto for the next dozen episodes of Amazing Spider-Man. Up until now, the Gemini Face has represented an internally divided self: the fact that one guy has somehow to be both shy Peter and arrogant Spider-Man. But Peter has chucked his glasses away and unified the two sides of the face; the stories, from now on, will be less about Parker's state of mind and more about the social world he inhabits; how presenting as two different people affects his human relationships." – Andrew Rilstone, Listen Bud: The First Great Graphic Novel in American Literature. Unpublished manuscript, pp. 118-119.

Enjoying the Spidey Sale? Order a fully-illustrated softcover catalogue for 30 bucks. Only about 100 copies were printed and they're going fast. To reserve a copy, contact PBA's Director of Comics: ivan@pbagalleries.com.

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