THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #18, page 16

I remember a dealer was charging a thousand bucks for this page at a convention in Boston in the mid-1990s. At the time I thought "this guy is staunchly in favor of cocoa puffs if he thinks that ALL Ditko Spidey pages are worth that much," and I spent my money on ECs and pre-hero Marvels instead. "Sherman, set the WABAC Machine to 1993!" Nice to see it here after all these years... congratulations!

Peter, a great page, indeed! The genius that WAS Ditko! (i wish I could say IS but the guy is 82 and has made the worse life decision ever, refusing to make a claim on the character that HE created while another octogenerian takes the credit and colllects money from Marvel for it)

The Ayn Randian inspired foibles of an octogenarian aside, I always preferred the Ditko reprints in Marvel Tales and the like to the then "current" Johnny Romita issues which sometimes looked too much like a romance comic to me (don't shoot me, I was five or six at the time, my opinion of the Jazzy one's art has increased greatly with age). Ditko's genius (IS or WAS) can easily be seen on this page. The way he mixed in drama, action and comedy so effortlessly here proves beyond any doubt that the man could draw.

Classic images from a classic story.