It all started in AMAZING FANTASY #15
(Sep '62)...or did it?!
Below is a clear example of Ditko borrowing a visual concept from his
earlier work, and implanting it into his most famous co-creation, THE
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Back in 1958, Charlton jumped their prices to fifteen
cents, and the page count to 68 pages. Most of these books carried the
side-bar you see on this cover to OUT OF THIS WORLD #8 (May '58). The
Spider's Web design is virtually identical to the one used on the first-ever
Spider-Man page, from AMAZING FANTASY #15 (Sep '62) you see on your right.
The angle of the spider, the design of the webbing, and the center of the
web (on the Charlton book, the 69 pages message - on the Spider-Man page,
the shadowed-head of the hero) are clear templates from which Ditko could
have refered back when beginning work on the first Spider-Man tale.
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