Even though I have the Steve Ditko original Spider-Man saga complete in the Omnibus last year.
I browsed the new softcover Masterwork edition made by Marvel with a retail of $25 and it contains the first 10 issues, only to see a freaking surprise in the back@ And Arrghh it’s not in the Omnibus because this recent find last year was discovered after the Spider-Man Omnibus was made.
But in April of 2008 the Library of Congress received by anonymous donation. The first COMPLETE 11 page Spider-Man story from Amazing Fantasy #15. Were talking the original one of a kind art boards here!
And even more rare is the fact that it is the complete story. Not just a page.
There is no cover though.
But the mere fact of a find like this is huge. Whoever donated it must be financially well off, because as you might know a find like this could bring you a fortune. And I’m guessing and would not be surprised over a MILLION easy. And that’s not a joke. I would not even be surprised if it hit a two million range.
The article with the piece states when contacted Ditko had no interest in it. And Lee would not be seeing the art display. But for fans this is huge.
Among the surprises from looking at the reprinted pages is that of page one in particular.
The Spider-Man image on the top right corner originally had a spider’s web all around him. It was whited out though, but the leftover lines show through. It looked much cooler seeing those original web lines. Why it was removed, I got no idea. My guess is probably editorial fearing the comic review board had it removed for looking too creepy. (And yes the review board actually did censor or had art changed because of what are now minor things like how the gun smoke vapors looked.) But this just my guess.
Also the Spider-Man logo on page one was a paste up. Which is a logo made and literally cut and pasted on the board. The original logo underneath it said Spiderman with no hypen.
Lee add the hypen cause it looked to much like Superman without it he thought. And up to issue 3 or so it was almost always printed as Spiderman without the hypen in the original stories. And really hypen just makes it what it is today and looks cool right.
Anyway the original Spiderman logo on the art board was actually drawn really fancy and had web lines all over the text. Not like the text plain Spider-Man logo that was pasted on.
All these little extras almost make me want to get the paperback just for the extras! Ugghhh too bad it wasn’t found earlier for the Omnibus.



