A Sense of Doubt blog post #3407 - Two from Steve Cook's Secret Oranges - Face it Tiger and Treasures in the Cupboard - Comic Book Sunday for 2406.16
I subscribe to a lot of newsletters, and I learned about many of them from Warren Ellis.
Here's two from Steve's newsletter that are somewhat related, at least in time.
Happy Comic Book Sunday and Happy Father's Day to all the fathers.
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Back in 2011, I decided to do my own homage to that legendary comics panel in The Amazing Spider-Man #42 - The Birth Of A Super-Hero! (1966). Script by Stan Lee, Art by John Romita, Sr.
The British Spider-Man Comics Weekly #36 was how I experienced Mary Jane Watson’s stunning entrance in glorious black & white, but I’m sure it was just as dramatic for me as it was for others reading the American full colour version.
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Reading the saga of Spider-Man from issue one in the correct sequence was an absolute joy. Reading Marvel or DC comics in order was sporadic at best in the early 70s, and depended mostly on luck, and visiting as many newsagents as humanly possible. There was always the hope that they’d have the issue you needed to follow the story, because back then there were no collected editions available.
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Here’s the cover to my copy of issue #36. A little brown around the edges, but still in pretty good nick for something that’s half a century old!
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All throughout Steve Ditko’s run on the comic, MJ’s appearance was always obscured from view somehow, which was a brilliant tease, and made John Romita Sr.’s reveal all the more dramatic.
Anyway, back to the photo, which was a combination of two shots. Megan was photographed at the London College of Fashion in Hackney, London, when we were both teaching there, and for the background, I photographed a friend’s house in Sandnessjøen, Norway. For a bit of Easter egg fun, you’ll notice a copy of The Amazing Spider-Man #42 on the table in the bottom left of the photo.
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There was a fair bit of internet exposure after I’d put this one together, and quite a debate raging online as to why Mary Jane has a nose ring and why her hair is bright red. Well, the reasons for this are…
(A). Because it's an homage and I decided to mix things up a little, making a contemporary Mary Jane Watson, rather than MJ from the 1960's.
(B). Because that is how Megan McGuire, my friend and colleague at the London College of Fashion looks!
As tricky as it is to find a real human being to represent a 2D line drawing of a human being, Megan has always reminded me of MJ in her manner, her looks and her joie de vivre. The fact that her hair is 100m 100y comic-book red, rather than auburn or ginger is kind of perfect, and the fact that she wears a nose ring is something that MJ may well have done too, if she'd made her first appearance in 2011.
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While enjoying the online debate and comments which were mostly in favour of the picture, some of the best retorts to the more negative comments were "Face it, nitpickers... you just missed the jackpot." by someone called chipchat and "Ugh who cares about the nose ring - Girl is totally hot." by okpanic. I couldn't help wonder though, on which planet or in which century some of these people live, and the comment that sparked that was "Even wholesome girls wear nose rings these days", I mean, WTF!?!
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A few months later I was invited to show this and others at an exhibition curated by Jason Atomic at Orbital Comics Gallery, in London’s West End, as you can see by his very jazzy flyer above.
Jason described it thus: Stripped is an exhibition featuring art that demonstrates a love of comics. Not necessarily comic art but art which celebrates the medium itself. Artistic reinterpretations of comic book iconography, the graphic devices used and the actual artifacts themselves, splash pages & spreads, select panels, logos & trade dress, corner boxes, speech & thought bubbles, backgrounds, Ben-Day dots, explosions, small ads, etc...
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This spurred me on to create a new piece starring the amazing Manko, seen here at the Stripped private view, 01.03.2012. I’ll post about that another time.
The Amazing Spider-Man © 2024 Marvel Comics
Instagram tags for @manko.sebastian & @jasonatomic
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Once upon a time, I had a small, square wooden cupboard where I kept all my comics and memorabilia. That was when I was ten. A few decades later I have come to the terrible realisation that the cupboard has got bigger and bigger, and that I am now actually living and working inside it. My name is Steve Cook, and these are the things that surround me…
My original blog began with this paragraph, so I thought I’d go a bit old school, and share some of these items with you.
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I bought this with two shillings and sixpence of my own pocket money, while on holiday in Hayling Island. The year was 1968, and the Mighty World of Marvel was beginning to have an effect.
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Three years later and Hayling Island delivered more treasure. DC’s Green Lantern/Green Arrow #86 - 1971, completely blew me away! I’m glad I still have it. It’s a milestone in the history of comics.
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When cigarette lighters were considered cool for kids!
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Here’s one I picked up in Thailand. According to my sources, the title is The Horror.
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Ugh!!! So annoying when they put a bloody great ink stamp on such a wonderful publication. Spirit World, 1971. Another classic from Jack Kirby, featuring comics and photographic montage… absolutely Genius!!!
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My Lion Summer Special from 1970, featuring the great Robot Archie, who first appeared in Lion in 1952. He was more recently seen as an acid house and techno loving guest character, in Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell’s 2000 AD series, Zenith, in 1989.
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TV21 Annual, 1968 - my favourite annual of them all. I remember this being particularly well designed on the interiors too.
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While I'm on a Gerry Anderson tip, here's The Lady Penelope Annual from 1968. Not actually from my own childhood, but this was kindly given to me a few years ago by my good friend, Sophie Aldred who played Ace in Doctor Who. You can find Sophie on Secret Oranges, here and here.
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I remember this well from my childhood, and I have a strange feeling this book was published long before the Apollo Moon Landings!
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Here’s a weird one. A package from the Netherlands arrived in the mail one day, containing a plastic ice cream container full of straw. As I rummaged through the straw I found this!!! The note secreted inside explained how my childhood friend Alison, who lives in Amsterdam, was working at Madam Tussauds over there, and had to deal with the tragedy of someone knocking over the Madonna waxwork. This unfortunate occurrence resulted in the wax head being smashed into smithereens. Having told her my strange Madonna tale at some point, she thought I might appreciate this little piece of ephemera. I did. It still makes me laugh to this day.
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This cover was one of my favourite Marvel UK covers by the brilliant Jerry Paris. He did a few of the covers while I was working there and gave me this little masterpiece (below), for which I am forever grateful. Jerry’s signature is faded due to the length of time it hung on my bedroom wall.
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And lest we forget…
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Captain Britain #8 - December 1st, 1976. I still have all of these in my cupboard.
Well, that’ll do for now. Feel free to leave a comment if you recognize any of these, or if you were in fact the culprit who knocked Madonna over.
All images, characters and facial remnants are © copyright their respective owners.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2406.16 - 10:10
- Days ago = 3271 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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