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From The Jack Kirby Collector #18, 1/98 |
JOHN : I had heard a couple of times that he was thinking of leaving. He and Stan didn't get along well; they disagreed on plotting, they disagreed on motivations for the characters, and I found out later on they disagreed on the identity of the Green Goblin - and I think that's what broke the camel's back - but there wasn't a scramble. Stan asked me to draw Spider-Man as a guest star in Daredevil #16 and #17. That was sort of like a try-out. But frankly, I thought Ditko was just going to leave for a few months until he got over his anger, and then come back. If I had created a character like Spider-Man, and he was getting bigger and bigger every year, I wouldn't have given it up.....
Q : But sales rose.
JOHN : Well, that's the reason I'm here. (laughter) I'm credited everywhere as the man who brought Spider-Man up to number one; Fantastic Four was our best-selling title before that. When I first saw the book, Stan gave me the first 33 issues to look over, and I said, ''Gee, it looks silly. It looks dumb.'' By the time I reached the twenties, I realized Ditko was really rolling. I had an interview once that just quoted the first part of that statement, that I thought it was silly and crude. That's all that ever got into print, and it's a wonder Ditko ever talked to me after that. They never put in the other part that said how much I loved it and respected it after I got into the run.
Q : Where did Mary Jane come from?
JOHN : She was in the book about three of four issues before I took it over; but this is another reason they disagreed - I don't know if Ditko wanted her to be unattractive, and Stan wanted her beautiful, or vice versa - but they never could agree on what she looked like, so in her first few appearances it was a suspenseful gimmick where Peter Parker is supposed to meet this girl, and he kept breaking the appointment. There was this scene where this huge flower was blocking her face; all you could see was the back of her hair, and you saw her in silhouette and shadows.
Q : Who did Steve Ditko originally want the Goblin to be?
JOHN : From what I've gathered - and this is secondhand information, because I never asked Steve this - he wanted it to be someone unknown. And his theory was sensible; this is the reason Stan and he disagreed a lot. Ditko had a feeling that more real life should be put into the strips, and I thought he was a pioneer that way. He wanted politics in the strip, he wanted sociological upheaval in the strip; that's why there were riots on the campus in the strip and all that stuff. He was a very political animal, and he was very conservative too, as you probably know. He wanted all this stuff to look real, and he said, ''In real life, if there's a masked criminal, and you unmask him, 99 times out of 100 it's going to be someone you never know.'' And Stan's like, ''What are you talking about? We're not doing real life here; this is a guy who crawls on walls.'' (laughter)
Q : When you took over from Steve Ditko, and you were drawing the cover to Amazing Spider-Man #39, did you feel pressure to do the cover of your life, or did that great cover just come out?
JOHN : I don't think I felt any pressure. I thought I was on it temporarily, and I didn't fell I was in competition with Ditko. I think that's what saved me; I had no fear. That one just came to me.
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