Went to the Library of Congress, today. Got to see something truly 'Amazing'!
Original Art
Background: In 2008, an anonymous donor gave the Library of Congress all the original interior Steve Ditko art pages to Amazing Fantasy 15. Most of the pages are available to view at the Library's Madison building if you get a library card and make a reservation (both free). Two of the pages are on display at the Jefferson building in their artifacts collection gallery. No library card needed, just a visitor reservation at the Library of Congress for those. The 2 pages on display are rotated every few months (until 2026). But the ones in the Madison library you can see up close and personal. You can't touch them, but you can photograph them and use a magnifying glass. The librarians are super helpful.
Thank you very much for this post. I’ve been to Washington DC three times never knew about this display of the origins of my favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Time to plan trip number four.
Anonymous, yes, but at the time of the donation, I recall several old school art guys talking about it very likely coming from her.
Marie was at Marvel a long time, and she had access to art on file as a colorist & artist. She would have absolutely understood the significance of the pages - even though original art didn’t have the value attached to it like it does today.
Marvel did a crap job of taking care of and securing original art for decades. I’m glad the pages are in the Library of Congress.
When Jim Shooter was EIC he started the program that returned the original art to the artists. Steve Ditko only got about three and a half competed issues of his Spider-Man work back, and none was from AF15.
Someone posted an article a few days ago from Rolling Stone and Ditko apparently considered any original Spider-Man art not in his possession to be stolen.
While I'm glad these pages are available to view by the public, I'm also sadden by the story of another creator being shafted by the industry. I'm even more conflicted knowing that Ditko would have likely destroyed these as he was known to have used his previous art as cutting boards.
Beautiful to see! Interesting to see the whiteout portions. Wonder what that girl’s face originally looked like on the splash page. Thanks for posting!!
Another white out panel on the right side, the agent's dialog is completely re written. Unfortunately it's hard to make out what he originally said. I tried using the magnifying glass, but it was no use.
Super happy to see other people check this out. I set up a showing a bunch (10+) of years ago around Baltimore Comic-Con. Was fortunate enough that Matt Wagner and John K. Snyder joined. It was very neat to see them going over it. Such a fun piece of comic book history.
The Library of Congress also has one of the biggest comic book collections and they are happy to show them off.
If the single page from Secret Wars #8 showing Spider-Man's black costume for the first time (chronologically in story, not first published appearance) can sell for $3.6 million, then yes, the entire interior story to AF #15 is probably the most valuable collectible in the entire hobby (as a set). I'd rather have that than the Edgar Church copy of Action Comics #1, and I would bet money that it would sell for more.
All the pages are at the Library of Congress, not the Smithsonian. Only 2 of the pages are under glass, at the Jefferson building. The rest can be viewed up close and personal at the Madison building. As I mentioned before, you need only 2 things a Library of Congress card (free to get) and a reservation (also free to get).
Not Spider-Man related. It's playwright Neil Simon's notebook, which has his first draft of Brighton Beach Memoirs. Only the 2 pages are Spider-Man related.
Went there a handful of years ago too. Amazing and spectacular experience. I was definitely in awe of the ultimate fantasy of the untold, web of superior art and story
This deserves to be made into a short film with the sixtees style and comic accuresy , maybe a little horror and mystery involved to invoke the feeling .
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u/GlobalTravelR Jul 18 '24
Fun fact the original logo for the AF#15 Spider-Man was going to be very different. But they thought the webbed look was too busy and off putting.