John Romita, Sr Original Cover Art to Marvel Tales #55

John Romita, Sr Original Cover Art to Marvel Tales #55, on Vellum paper. Almost identical to Amazing Spiderman #74, the "Silvermane" Origin. Essentially same image, but Romita turned Spidey's head and upper torso slightly for the Marvel Tales Cover. Very interesting to me to compare Romita's cover to Amazing Spiderman #74 with that of his Marvel Tales #55 and identify the most minute subtle differences between the two pieces.

First signed by Romita on 4/17/1999 at the Oakland WonderCon, then later had piece signed by Stan Lee at the Big Wow Convention in San Jose on 5/19/2013. My personal notes below from when meeting Gentleman John Romita and presenting the piece to him for review, signature, and comment as to his process in creating this masterpiece:

"On Saturday, April 17, 1999, I attended the Wondercon Convention of Comic Book Arts in Oakland, CA, where John Romita was in attendance. I presented the cover art to John who autographed it for me and explained a little bit about the background of the cover which he solely created."

"John explained that the original cover art to the corresponding issue of Amazing Spider-Man #74 (Marvel Tales are Amazing Spider-Man Reprints) was done by him in two (2) pieces, with the Spider-Man portion being created by John on a separate overlay from the rest of the cover. John explained that the Spider-Man portion of the original cover was lost or unaccounted for, so when it came time for him to create the Marvel Tales cover, John used the available overlay for Silvermane and the other villains and re-inked the entire cover from the original Spider-Man #74 cover, thus creating Marvel Tales #55. Because the portion of Spider-Man swinging from the web and punching his foes could not be found, John re-drew this piece from scratch, utilizing the Amazing Spider-Man #74 as a guide, in blue pencil and then inked that portion as well."

"John said that the entire Marvel Tales cover was penciled and inked by him personally, except for the title header which is boiler plate and not from John's own hand."

Perimeter Production Stats added on 9/18/2020 by the great James Pascoe, secured on archival safe Crescent Matting Backing Board for display and presentation aesthetics.

A Romita, Sr Spidey Original Cover from 1974, 'Nuff Said!