ITEM! Sometimes the news eternal just can’t be denied. Despite the best efforts of all involved, I guess it was bound to get out. An “anonymous” donor has given the Library of Congress all of the original art for Amazing Fantasy #15 (Sturdy Steve Ditko’s unused cover art shown at right). If you don’t already know, and it’s time to turn in your MMMS membership card if you don’t, that comic is the first appearance of every one’s favorite wallcrawler — Spider-Man. See the story that broke the news here.
Everyone seems to be preoccupied and puzzled over why anyone in possession of such a priceless prize, which includes not only the 11-page Spidey story but the entirety of the other stories published in that same ish, would give it to the Library of Congress when they could sell it on ebay for thousands, if not millions of dollars. Well Frantic Ones, as much as it pains me to say this, there are some things more important than money. Especially if you already have slightly less than Scrooge McDuck. After a certain age, if you’ve been succeedingly successful in this life, you may find yourself in a position where you can’t live long enough to spend all of the money that you have. Then all you have left to motivate you each morning, as you get up and have your eight cups of coffee and enough St. John’s Wort to launch the space shuttle, is working on your legacy. How will you be remembered after you’re gone? As a show-stopping carnival barker and media whore who stole any credit that wasn’t nailed down? As the primary architect of a soulless entertainment empire so vast it has trouble seeing over it’s own ledger sheet? As the guy who who never met a run-on sentence that he didn’t like?
We should all probably just let this story rest and not try to find out who the anonymous donor was. What if he or she is an individual who’s trying to work off some kind of karma debt, like that My Name is Earl guy? Maybe the individual was promised a section of the Library of Congress named for him after he’s gone. Who knows? I'm just sayin'. Probably best to let sleeping dogs lie like dogs. Besides, Ditko said it was okay to do it!
Excelsior!
Smiley
1 comment:
Thanks Stan. Once again you demonstrate you are a class act, as shown by your humble synopsis here. After all, one could argue, i) AF15 was as much your input as Steve's; ii) Spiderman's success was due primarily to your nurturing and marketing the character these past 4+ decades, i.e. well after Steve left the book.
You must have some emotional trigger when informed of this news, irrespective of the monetary value left on the table. I just hope you too were asked by the donator if his/her actions were OK with you, in addition to Mr Ditko being contacted. Please let us know. Excelsior!
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