Library of Congress Acquires Spider-Man’s ‘Birth Certificate’
Posted on: April 30th, 2008 by Matt Raymond
Comic Book Guy of “The Simpsons” has been known to have a cardiac episode or two. But an acquisition the Library of Congress just made might give his heart its “worst episode ever.” (Apologies for borrowing the pun from that particular “episode.”)
“Spider-senses” all around the Library were set tingling when we learned that the Library had just acquired 24 pages of original 1962 drawings from “Amazing Fantasy #15,” which marked the first time the world’s most famous web-slinger, Spider-Man, would appear in print anywhere. The Spider-Man origin story in “Amazing Fantasy” was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko; the pages are Ditko originals, complete with pencil erasures and white-out opaquing fluid.
The acquisition came to the Library within the past few weeks, thanks to an anonymous donor. (News had already begun leaking out — where else — in the blogosphere.)
A couple of colleagues and I got the opportunity yesterday afternoon the see the pages in person. (Don’t worry, we made sure to keep our drool far away from the art.) They do indeed appear to be in very good condition, especially considering their age. The Library’s Prints and Photographs Division (P&P) provided me with a scan of one of the pages and a detail section, which you’ll see here at right. (They are, in actuality, even a bit less yellow than the scans appear.)
I also snapped a few pictures as Helena Zinkham, acting chief of P&P, carefully splayed some of them out for us on a table. In one of the shots of the very first page, you get a clear sense of some of the areas where white-out was applied. The “SPIDER-MAN” title balloon in the banner is literally stuck onto the page.
People who are more familiar with Amazing Fantasy #15 than I are probably not surprised by this fact, but I got a good chuckle from the disclaimer that appeared at the top of the first page (pictured at left). It almost seems to be begging skeptical readers to give Spider-Man a chance, completely unaware of the phenomenon that was about to be unleashed on the world.
The excessively exclamatory paragraph reads: “Like costume heroes? Confidentially, we in the comic mag business refer to them as ‘long underwear characters’! And, as you know, they’re a dime a dozen! But, we think you may find our SPIDERMAN just a bit … different!”
Most sentient beings are already aware that Marvel’s Spider-Man is one of the most popular superheroes ever, spawning several comic-book series, graphic novels, television series, video games, toys, a blockbuster movie franchise, and adding phrases to our popular lexicon such as “true believers” and “your friendly neighborhood (fill-in-the-blank).”
The pages will be digitized within the next few weeks, although access to the images will likely be restricted to on-site use at the Library (copyright restrictions and such). The pages themselves are available to researchers with a valid reader-identification card by appointment only.
Our full news release can be found here.
I never try to guess where an editor will place a story, but I hear a rumor that J. Jonah Jameson will be giving this front-page treatment.
Tags: spider-man, spiderman, comics, comic books, superheroes, marvel, marvel comics, marvel entertainment, marvel enterprises, stan lee, steve ditko
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- http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4266
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April 30th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
It’s great to finally see some pictures of this. Hopefully the story will continue to spread and bring in some more comic book art for the Library.
And Spider-Man was a bit different at the time - DC Comics had mature heroes who used their powers wisely and didn’t have too many personal tragedies. That was the big innovation of the Lee-Kirby-Ditko-era Marvel superhero.
April 30th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
[...] There’s pictures and a more complete account at the (extremely well-written!) Library of Congress Blog. [...]
April 30th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Give Marvel a good set of copies would you? I hope you will post large non- yellow scans for the world to enjoy. Yopu are lucky you got a pass form ditko as these are stolen pages.
April 30th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Thanks for showing the pics of the originals. I wish there were more of them, but at least, these ones are enough to check that it’s the real thing.
Only a correction: the image provided by P&P is a photo, not a scan.
April 30th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
[...] Poi il colpo che taglia la testa al toro: il blog della Biblioteca del Congresso emette un comunicato che ufficializza l’acquisizione. Poi mette online le prime operazioni di scansione e archiviazione delle tavole: sono proprio loro. [...]
May 1st, 2008 at 3:46 am
Hello, je suis français.
Je suis tellement content que les pages d’origine du Amazing Spiderman 1 et du Amazing Fantasy 15 reviennent � la surface après tant d’années.
Elles étaient où exactement.?
J’espère que vous en ferez bon usage.
Cela fait partie du patrimoine des états unis!
Mettez les dans un musée, mais ne les vendez pas � droite � gauche.
Ne les séparez pas!!!
jean-luc Glayrouse FRANCE
May 1st, 2008 at 7:24 am
[...] icon with mass appeal.�? If you can’t make an appointment to see the real deal, you can view samples from the comfort of [...]
May 1st, 2008 at 8:52 am
[...] To view a sample of these drawings, visit the Library of Congress blog at http://www.loc.gov/blog/?p=290. [...]
May 1st, 2008 at 2:37 pm
[...] Thwip! The Library of Congress just recently got their mitts on 24 pages of the original drawings from “Amazing Fantasy #15″. This is great news for people concerned about preserving Spider-Man’s legacy for geeksterity. [...]
May 1st, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I find the white-out areas on the splash page in particular interesting, especially on “Sally’s” face. Looks like Ditko was unsatisfied with the first way he either penciled/inked her.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:23 pm
And who owns the two original covers done for this book? Both the Kirby one (which was published) and Ditko’s original version which was unused??
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:56 am
Wonderful gift. Hope all the pages are up soon. Does the library own much other original art? Red Raven?
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:16 am
[...] has his way. The Idea, to promote reading. This makes me think of the Library of Congress and the new item that they received this week! Tags: [...]
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:36 am
[...] The LOC and Spider-Man. [...]
May 5th, 2008 at 4:09 am
[...] its Blog the Library of Congress announces that it has been able to acquire the original art by Steve Ditko [...]
May 7th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
[...] Library of Congress Acquires Spider-Man’s ‘Birth Certificate’ from Library of Congress Blog [...]
May 7th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
[...] Posted at 5:17 pm under Comics Okay, I am an educator and yes I have been to the Library of Congress. I am ashamed to say, but I was not impressed until now. Spiderman (Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Spiderman) is now on display at the LOC. I am trying to get copies of this wonderful primary source material, but until then I can see a few samples on the LOC Blog. [...]
May 8th, 2008 at 6:29 am
What a beautiful gift. Loving the art! The original are tremendous!
May 9th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I am curious as to comment #3.
Stolen artwork? Does anyone know more about the history of these pieces?
May 17th, 2008 at 6:46 am
And who owns the two original covers done for this book?
May 18th, 2008 at 2:33 am
What a treasure trove of information! I spent my youth collecting DC and Marvel comics.
Like a dummy - I sold three crates of them for school expenses with many duplicate first editions!
May 19th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I hope this brings some much deserved attention to the Swann Collection at LC. I was lucky enough to live in DC for three years, and spent many a wonderful time doing comics “research”!
Of course, this isn’t the first time it’s happened… I believe Swann #318 is the complete issue of Captain America Vol.1 #146, pencilled by Sal Buscema, inked by John Verpoorten.
As for comment #3, I think the post refers to the fact that original art was rarely returned to the artist(s) in the 1960s. The provenance would be hard to trace unless the donor comes forward, and might suffer some embarrassment over the publicity. Perhaps the pages were “rescued” from Marvel, much like the Elgin marbles. (DC Comics regularly cut up original art pages and handed them out as souveniers to tour groups.)
This is fantastic, and I hope others will supplement the collection with more original art. (No Kirby? *gasp*)
May 21st, 2008 at 8:25 pm
great post! Spider-Man’s Birth Certificate really got me excited for this post.
Fantastic, it’s good to know they were able to preserve good stuff like this.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:14 pm
thank you showing these originals, they are truly art. I have several binders full of comics that i started reading as a kid, i will pass these on as a family treasure to my children!
May 26th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
This is one of the most satisfying and gratifying evens for an old comics fan. Mssrs. Lee and Ditko’s work will now be preserved for posterity. Congratulations to you all. –Mark Lerer
May 31st, 2008 at 7:31 am
I hope this brings some much deserved attention to the Swann Collection at LC. I was lucky enough to live in DC for three years, and spent many a wonderful time doing comics “research”!
Of course, this isn’t the first time it’s happened… I believe Swann #318 is the complete issue of Captain America Vol.1 #146, pencilled by Sal Buscema, inked by John Verpoorten.
As for comment #3, I think the post refers to the fact that original art was rarely returned to the artist(s) in the 1960s. The provenance would be hard to trace unless the donor comes forward, and might suffer some embarrassment over the publicity. Perhaps the pages were “rescued” from Marvel, much like
June 4th, 2008 at 1:30 am
Wow! That really is a “holy grail” type acquisition!
June 5th, 2008 at 1:21 am
[...] to the blog here for the rest of the entry and [...]
June 5th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Good for you! Hopefully kids and fans can go there and see it if they desire.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:56 am
How bizarre - A fictional characters birth certificate.
I will now try and get one for the Jolly Green Giant
Martin
June 8th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
This is just awesome! Stolen (comment no. 3) or not, Spidey’s original appearance deserve a prominent place in the nation’s premier library. Thank for this. I sincerely hope you’ll have more of Stan Lee’s and Steve Ditko’s other creations in the future. Congratulations.
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Wonderful gift! Thank you showing these originals!
July 29th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Marvel was notorious for not returning art to the artists in the 1960’s, and to the artist Jack Kirby in particular. Mr. Kirby was has not been treated well by the company he helped create.
I would have to say that the artist Steve Ditko is the true owner of this art, though I doubt he would ever come forward and assert his right to posses these pages.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Wow…What a great donation! I would give anything to see those in person. I blame Spiderman for turning me into the comic book and action figure geek that I am today. I’ve never managed to outgrow it. Congrats on this spectacular gift.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:46 am
This is a great story. I have always felt and still do to this day that comic books are unappreciated. Most really are works of art with in-depth storylines and incredible artwork. I’m sure that overtime they will get their due respect just like in this story. Long live Spider-Man and Marvel Comics.
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Definitly most satisfying and gratifying evens for an old comics fans.Congratulations!