The Amazing Spider-Man #19, December 1964 [published 8 Sept 64]

I wish I had gotten this when it came out. But unfortunately I was not to read it until it appeared years later in Marvel Tales.

“Spidey Strikes Back” - 22pp - Script: Stan Lee; Art: Steve Ditko; Lettering: Sam Rosen

Even with “The Great Page Reduction of 1964” in effect, Steve Ditko did manage to give us two extra pages of story. Way to go, Steve!

Page two, panel one, shows some thugs robbing a bank, but panel two states it's nighttime. Maybe it was a really dark day, or the bank was open really late hours.

An outlook was “keeping chickee” – that’s a new phrase for me.

Of course the Jameson toady on page three bears the name of Wormly!

The Human Torch flying home reflects that the fight in ST 127 exhausted him. I don’t think the actual story referenced in the footnote bears that out!

Fancy Dan uses a double negative at the bottom of page four. Oh, shame on you, Fancy Dan; it’s back to reform school for you.

The Ox and Fancy Dan invent the Fastball Special years before it was invented by .

An unhappy Jonah Jameson always brightens my day.

I didn’t really find a lot to pick on. This is an enjoyable, fast-paced story; sort of an amusement-park-ride sort of tale. We can always do with more such things.

In the lettercol it’s revealed that at even this early stage of the Marvel Age, Stan Lee had been invited to lecture at Bard College. Before long there would be positive reviews of Marvel Comics in many college newspapers, plus the Village Voice. Marvel would no longer be a small insular little thing, but a phenomenon had begun.

Last Edited By: Joseph William Marek Aug 16 12 11:18 PM. Edited 8 times.