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Title: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 9 * Steve Ditko Collection
Place Published:
Publisher:Marvel [Indicia: Non-Pareil Publishing Group]
Date Published: 23408
Description:

CGC certified: VG+ (4.5). Cream to off-white pages. STEVE DITKO COLLECTION. 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.

Provenance: From the Steve Ditko Estate, CGC-certified as Steve Ditko's personal copy, and with a certificate of authenticity signed by Mr. Patrick S. Ditko, Steve Ditko's brother. Not cleaned and pressed in order to preserve all traces of Steve Ditko's handling. GPAnalysis: PBA sold a Ditko Collection 7.0 for $5000 in 12/22. Heritage sold a Ditko Collection 5.5 for $3600 in 9/21. A non-Ditko Collection 4.5 sold for $1350 in 5/23.

A note on the Ditko Collection: Steve Ditko owned from one to three copies of each of the 41 Spider-Man comics that he drew (comprising Amazing Fantasy #15, Amazing Spider-Man #s 1-38, and Amazing Spider-Man Annual #s 1 & 2). The only complete set of 41 Spidey comics belonging to Ditko was featured in PBA's 12/22 "Spidey Sale, Including the Steve Ditko Collection Part One"; an incomplete set of 23 Ditko Collection Spidey comics was offered in 2021 by Heritage; and a final incomplete set of 19 Ditko Collection Spidey comics is offered in this sale.

Ditko Collection Census: There are three Ditko Collection copies of ASM #9: 4.5, 5.5 and 7.0.

Ditko's half-Parker-half-Spidey splash page is one of his greatest compositions, a perfect schematic of the dichotomy of Spider-Man. Ditko's 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." – Andrew Rilstone, Listen Bud: The First Great Graphic Novel in American Literature. Unpublished manuscript, pp. 118-119.

A limited edition of ten hardcover catalogues is available, in addition to a few dozen softcovers. Fun reference, great keepsake, fully illustrated, chockablock with obscure facts, gags, bon mots. Softcovers are $40, deluxe hardcovers with dust jackets and limitation plates are $200. These books always go fast so don't delay. To order, contact ivan@pbagalleries.com.

Consignments welcome for PBA's Fall 2023 Comic Book sale. Top prices for Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age, Silver Age, original art and ephemera. Find out why PBA is the new fan-fave of funnybook fiends. "This is some of the best commentary I've yet seen on the quality of the content of comic books... Priceless." – R. Crumb. Send inquiries to ivan@pbagalleries.com.

Coming soon: The DC Universe Collection, featuring over 40,000 comics, comprising every comic book published by DC for retail sale between 1934 and 2014. Contact ivan@pbagalleries.com to get on the notifications list.