Early Spidey!

Good ol' Spidey! He was the second superhero I went crazy over, after getting hip to Batman and his wacky world of fun...Thanks to the release of the 1972 ROCKOMIC LP (advertised on local TV by the afternoon kiddie host flanked by an actor in a terrific Spidey costume), and the reruns of the 1967 SPIDER-MAN cartoon, I got into the Webhead with great interest! Once I glommed onto the current comics-wow! John Romita Sr.! Gil Kane! Ross Andru! Jim Mooney! All those great artists on the comics of the time! 

As you can see in this masterpiece from 1972 or so, I was trying to capture the famous contorted Spidey poses, with a nod toward Romita's style. I went through a (thankfully) brief period of drawing my characters with very dwarf-like statures. Looks like a child in a Spidey suit!

But, I WAS trying to add a sense of depth (note the window frame) and excitement to the drawings right from the start! I recall doodling very few images of the characters with just straight-on static poses. I somehow knew right off the bat that you HAD to draw these guys jumping, flying, leaping and backflipping through the air, hence my feeble early attempt at foreshortening here.

Also, note that my signature is almost as big as Spider-Man's whole head! Even at age 8, I was observing how the pro artists signed their work, digging the way John Romita Sr. would sorta bury his name in the drawing somewhere...