Shrieking Parts 3 and 4
Everyone loves an homage to something nostalgic and genuinely terrific. In some cases, it's like a fun little easter egg for people who are really deep into the hobby. Back in the pre-internet era, I had no idea that Amazing Spider-Man 392 was an homage to anything when I first got it in the mail.
For me, it was a fun thing to discover (years later) that the cover was the inverse of the famous Amazing Spider-Man 50, "Spider-Man No More!", which is considered by many spectacular spider-fans to be the greatest Spider-Man comic book cover of all time. Amazing Spider-Man 50 was drawn by John Romita Sr. (his son, JR JR would go on to become a prolific Marvel artist who also worked on the Spider-Man titles) who was famous for developing Spider-Man's aesthetic into what most people would recognize as the classic Spider-Man.
Back in the day, Stan Lee used to give nicknames to everyone who worked on comic books with him in order to help establish a fun rapport with his readers. He thought that having nicknames gave them a lot more personality than just slapping their first and last names on the page. When answering fan mail, he'd call people by their first name to make it seem more like a dialogue between two old friends. Those were just some of the sprinkles of fun that make Stan Lee comics great.
As far as I know, the two most famous nicknames he gave to John Romita were John "Ring-a-Ding" Romita and "Jazzy" John Romita. I'm going somewhere with this, so stop being so impatient. If you study the cover to Amazing Spider-Man 392 carefully, you can see that that the signature of Mark Bagley (penciler) and Randy Emberlin (inker) says "Mark + Randy after Jazzy Johnny". This is typical for an homage cover (the syntax is [current artist] after [original artist]), a tradition which carries on in today's comic book marketplace which is completely oversaturated with cover homages out the ass because nobody has created anything original since Amazing Spider-Man 300.
Speaking of which, even Amazing Spider-Man 301 was an homage to Amazing Spider-Man 300. In fairness, I guess you could say that Todd MacFarlane was paying homage to one of the greatest Spider-Man artists of all time: himself.
Oh, you're sick of Hollwood rebooting movies over and over because all of the good ideas have already been made into movies? Ha, that's cute. Comic books have been recycling single, static images at least since I was born. That's not an exaggeration: another classic homage cover was released on the same month and year I was born--Amazing Spider-Man 252 (which was the first comic book where Spider-Man wore the new black costume) was designed to be similar to Amazing Fantasy 15. Cool.
Dude, face it, cover homages are cool when done right. In the 80's and 90's, cover homages, clever references or little winks and nods to predecessor artists would pop up every once in a while, so it was kind of a cool thing to look for (if you even knew what to look for). I sure as hell didn't when I was 10, but I appreciate all that stuff now.
What happened? Cover homages are no longer sneaky little easter eggs. They make up a substantial segment of the modern market. Why? Because variant covers are an easy way to get collectors to buy the same thing over and over, without having to do any of that exhausting work to come up with a new idea. So yeah, why not just draw the same cover that someone already came up with a long time ago but colour it differently? Or, fuck it, use the same cover, except change Spider-Man into Winnie the Pooh dressed as Deadpool. That's real, and some ass hole actually made it.
Go ahead. Google "Spider-Man 1 homage covers." See for yourself. It's not fun or clever. It's incessant. It's a non-stop stream of marketing diarrhea spraying your mom in the face with the force of a fire hose.
Okay. Let's talk about Peter Parker: No More! Why is it clever? Well, 90's writing was not often clever (as much as it was EXTREME). But in this case, it made sense. Spider-Man 50 was all about Peter Parker giving up being Spider-Man and walking away from his responsibilities (that came with great power). Peter Parker No More is about Peter Parker retreating into the Spider-Man persona to avoid dealing with the grief of his personal life. As he loses touch with his human side, he becomes more visceral, dark and aggressive. It's very 90's and I like it.
In Amazing Spider-Man 50, the iconic scene is where Spider-Man throws his suit into a trash can and walks away from it (it's a famous splash page by Ring-a-Ding which was shot perfectly in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2). In Amazing Spider-Man 392, it's Spider-Man spinning himself into a cocoon. Also Aunt May slipping into a coma.
The story concludes in Amazing 393. More of the same, except there are some little teasers for a mystery man with a Midtown High school ring. He's seen visiting Gwen Stacy's grave. Who could it be? Dun dun dunnnnnn (it's the clone. Buckle up.)
Back in the day, Stan Lee used to give nicknames to everyone who worked on comic books with him in order to help establish a fun rapport with his readers. He thought that having nicknames gave them a lot more personality than just slapping their first and last names on the page. When answering fan mail, he'd call people by their first name to make it seem more like a dialogue between two old friends. Those were just some of the sprinkles of fun that make Stan Lee comics great.
As far as I know, the two most famous nicknames he gave to John Romita were John "Ring-a-Ding" Romita and "Jazzy" John Romita. I'm going somewhere with this, so stop being so impatient. If you study the cover to Amazing Spider-Man 392 carefully, you can see that that the signature of Mark Bagley (penciler) and Randy Emberlin (inker) says "Mark + Randy after Jazzy Johnny". This is typical for an homage cover (the syntax is [current artist] after [original artist]), a tradition which carries on in today's comic book marketplace which is completely oversaturated with cover homages out the ass because nobody has created anything original since Amazing Spider-Man 300.
Speaking of which, even Amazing Spider-Man 301 was an homage to Amazing Spider-Man 300. In fairness, I guess you could say that Todd MacFarlane was paying homage to one of the greatest Spider-Man artists of all time: himself.
Oh, you're sick of Hollwood rebooting movies over and over because all of the good ideas have already been made into movies? Ha, that's cute. Comic books have been recycling single, static images at least since I was born. That's not an exaggeration: another classic homage cover was released on the same month and year I was born--Amazing Spider-Man 252 (which was the first comic book where Spider-Man wore the new black costume) was designed to be similar to Amazing Fantasy 15. Cool.
Dude, face it, cover homages are cool when done right. In the 80's and 90's, cover homages, clever references or little winks and nods to predecessor artists would pop up every once in a while, so it was kind of a cool thing to look for (if you even knew what to look for). I sure as hell didn't when I was 10, but I appreciate all that stuff now.
What happened? Cover homages are no longer sneaky little easter eggs. They make up a substantial segment of the modern market. Why? Because variant covers are an easy way to get collectors to buy the same thing over and over, without having to do any of that exhausting work to come up with a new idea. So yeah, why not just draw the same cover that someone already came up with a long time ago but colour it differently? Or, fuck it, use the same cover, except change Spider-Man into Winnie the Pooh dressed as Deadpool. That's real, and some ass hole actually made it.
Go ahead. Google "Spider-Man 1 homage covers." See for yourself. It's not fun or clever. It's incessant. It's a non-stop stream of marketing diarrhea spraying your mom in the face with the force of a fire hose.
Okay. Let's talk about Peter Parker: No More! Why is it clever? Well, 90's writing was not often clever (as much as it was EXTREME). But in this case, it made sense. Spider-Man 50 was all about Peter Parker giving up being Spider-Man and walking away from his responsibilities (that came with great power). Peter Parker No More is about Peter Parker retreating into the Spider-Man persona to avoid dealing with the grief of his personal life. As he loses touch with his human side, he becomes more visceral, dark and aggressive. It's very 90's and I like it.
In Amazing Spider-Man 50, the iconic scene is where Spider-Man throws his suit into a trash can and walks away from it (it's a famous splash page by Ring-a-Ding which was shot perfectly in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2). In Amazing Spider-Man 392, it's Spider-Man spinning himself into a cocoon. Also Aunt May slipping into a coma.
The story concludes in Amazing 393. More of the same, except there are some little teasers for a mystery man with a Midtown High school ring. He's seen visiting Gwen Stacy's grave. Who could it be? Dun dun dunnnnnn (it's the clone. Buckle up.)
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