Censorship has been around longer than Steve Ditko, and while he has always
been held in the higher regard as an artist, that hasn't placed him above having
his artwork altered. The Comics Code Authority kicked in around 1955, and kicked out
alot of the "filth" (aka anything interesting) that was supposedly perverting young
minds. And while one may be able to make an argument against rampant depictions
and rape and pillage in a children's medium, the Code had set up stringent rules
of conduct to manipulate the reader's thought process, as it related to good and
evil. The Code was to be a moral authority, and the results could be rather
humourous at times.
Like all artists over the years at Marvel, Ditko had his work altered
not just for censorship reasons. Once the finished artwork was delivered
by Ditko to the New York office, it was out of his hands, and adjustments
could be made, and frequently were on artists of lesser superior ability.
It is rare, however, that one are able is to view the original product
versus the finished one. Back in the early-to-mid '60s, Marvel would
place house-ads in their books to pump the Marvel line from that, or
future months. Below is an example of how Marvel must have rushed the
original covers for the ads, and then made adjustments for the final,
finished comic, if necessary. On your left is a enlarged scan of the
cover to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #11 (Apr '64), pulled from a house-ad promoting
that month's books. On your left, is the finished/published cover. Notice
the difference?.....
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