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Post by crazyoldhermit on Apr 27, 2019 23:48:59 GMT -5
Having never seen the '60s Spider-Man cartoon I watched some of these on youtube. Wow. That...was...something. It was shoddy and weird looking but it did capture a little of Stan Lee's voice. And, I'm really not a big cartoon guy. I generally don't find them super interesting. But this one had my full attention throughout the entire 10 minute run-time, which is worth something. You really need to check out the Bakshi episodes to get the full flavour. That mix of bright colors, trippy backgrounds and jazzy music defines Spider-Man in my soul.
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Post by kongat44 on Mar 22, 2021 20:34:36 GMT -5
The popularity of Spider-man skyrocketed after Ditko left the book. If he was the major writing force, that would not have happened. I believe this to be a Marvel lie. Yes Spider-Man did sell more comics in the Romita years than in the Ditko era, but not many more. Each year of the Ditko run sold a substantial amount of more issues, a far bigger climb than Ditko to Romita. I think this lie is to perpetuate that Ditko had to leave for the comic to flourish, and to make Stan not look so bad. Even near the end of Ditko, Spidey outsold the Fantastic Four, but oddly enough, not Archie? I guess you can't win them all.
You also had the cartoon show on to generate more interest in the Romita years.
One more thing, I think Ditko had probably been sole plotter since at least #18, judging from Stan's reactions in the comments section for that issue. But I think, because of the consistency of all the issues, that was was involved very early on, just look at the first Romita plotted by Stan supposedly, it is completely different than anything that went before.
Great thread by the way.
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Post by profh0011 on Mar 22, 2021 22:50:59 GMT -5
The Green Goblin appeared in 3 episodes of the 1967 Grantray-Lawrence SPIDER-MAN series. 1 - " The Witching Hour", featuring Grandini The Mystic, a stage magician with real supernatural powers. I suspect he was inspired by Dr. Strange, as filtered thru an episode written by Bill Everett where DS needed money and a theatrical agent told him his "magic" schtick wasn't flying with audiences anymore. 2 - " Magic Malice", which featured the 2nd appearance of Blackwell The Magician, another stage magician who employs REAL supernatural magic (he had previously appeared in " Farewell Performance"). 3 - " To Catch A Spider", the first half of the season finale, where GG is broken out of prison with The Vulture and Mysterio by Dr. Noah Boddy. Mike Royer, who worked on the show UNCREDITED, on more than one occasion had memories of it being one of the half-hour stories, and it may have been planned that way, but what got on the air was another 10-minute story, backed up by another sequel, " Double Identity", featuring the 2nd appearance of The Actor, Charles Chameo (the show's semi-version of The Chameleon). Several early story ideas in the comic-book were supplied by JACK KIRBY, passed onto his editor, who claimed HE came up with them himself. In the case of The Green Goblin (Kirby loved alliterative names), Ditko was wise enough to realize a supernatural character did not belong in Spider-Man's world. So he changed him to a would-be GANGSTER. But that Kirby story, apparently, DID turn up, somewhat, in the 1968 Krantz Films SPIDER-MAN episode... " The Evil Sorcerer" (announced as " Phantom from the Depths of Time"). In that, we have "Kotep, The Scarlet Sorcerer", who due to a powerful spell is frozen like a statue, until a misguided college professor reads a spell that brings him back to life. This was not the only time a Jack Kirby story turned up in the Ralph Bakshi episodes. "Menace from the Bottom of the World" was NEARLY-IDENTICAL to a story in ADVENTURES OF THE FLY (from Archie Comics), "One of Our Skyscrapers Is Missing", which had art by Al Williamson. Joe Simon was in charge of those issues, but he recruited his old friend Jack Kirby, who I have NO DOUBT in addition to writing and drawing some stories, was also supplying story ideas to others working on the series. So a FLY comic-book story became a Ralph Bakshi SPIDER-MAN cartoon story.
In addition, the idea of a "Mole Man" using huge machinery to DRAG a skyscraper down into the depths of the Earth, was also reused BY Kirby himself in "The Mad Menace of the Macabre Mole Man", which was also adapted into a 1967 Alex Toth FANTASTIC FOUR cartoon from Hanna-Barbera. (Imagine that, an F.F. comic-book reusing an idea from a FLY comic-book... BOTH with Kirby on the writing.)
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Post by tarkintino on Mar 23, 2021 6:40:31 GMT -5
I believe this to be a Marvel lie. Yes Spider-Man did sell more comics in the Romita years than in the Ditko era, but not many more. The Amazing Spider-Man was trailing the Fantastic Four--Marvel's biggest title at the time--in sales during the Ditko era; it was only during the Romita era when ASM became Marvel's biggest selling title. Among superhero titles from all publishers in 1966, ASM was #12. By 1969, ASM rose to #5 (with the Fantastic Four then trailing at #9). That rise occured in the Romita/Lee era, and the point where Spider-Man had become a cultural icon, and clearly Marvel's flagship character/book. One would take from the data that the dramatically rising sales did not, nor was it going to happen in the Ditko era.
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Post by kongat44 on Dec 2, 2023 23:42:40 GMT -5
Hard to say, as we don't have at this time any records of the Ditko era. Like you, 1966 which is the earliest figures I can find, and still a Ditko year for three issues, Spider-Man came in at 16'th overall with 340,155 sales, and the FF came in at 19'th with 329,379 sales. Your numbers do not add up to my numbers, which is strange, you have both comics higher than I do, the FF never cracks the top 10 in my list. I have a feeling that Spidey took over the FF's top spot earlier than Marvel likes to admit, and the Dial B for blog also stated this I think they had more figures, and stated that there was more growth in the Ditko years, but that site is no longer up. So without actual proof, we may have to let this one rest.
Oh and yes Ditko obviously planned out who was the Green Goblin, all you have to do is read the comics themselves, but I suspect he was not just going to blurt it out in such a hurried manner as how his identity was revealed. I have a feeling that Stan just wanted to be done with Ditko altogether, and move on.
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