Frank Miller Goes Full DITKO In Amazing Spider-Man Annual 14

[@nick_a60]

Dave Wyndorf was the frontman of Shrapnel (and later Monster Magnet) is a huge comics fan and was actually offered an assistant editor position by O’Neil but decided to keep going with the music instead. As Tom was alluding to, the title of his song, Negasonic Teenage Warhead was swiped by Grant Morrison for a character in his New X-Men run (who later went on to appear in the Deadpool movies). Morrison must have been a big fan because he quoted a Magnet song about Jack Kirby in his Fourth World Omnibus foreword. One odd thing about that Hitler panel is that Miller decided to give him prominent, expressive Ditko hands which is kind of funny to see.

[@jamesgreato]

Dave used to come into my comic shop in NJ every now and then. Never knew who he was until someone mentioned he was the singer of Monster Magnet. I didn’t know the rest of his history with comics though!

[@I-Ren-Zero]

Additionally Guitarist Daniel Rey would go on to write songs and produce records with/for; The Ramones, L7, The Misfits, and White Zombie.

[@seedhillbruisermusic7939]

a lot of fun for me, as a UK guy in these vids, is seeing the adverts in these old comics cos I remember them, The Space Stars and so on. These were adverts for US saturday morning shows that we in the UK never got to see. They were so intriguing. I was a bit jealous as a kid wondering what these animated shows were like cos we never got them in Britain. We got the comics but we never got the Saturday shows.

[@ivane5110]

Space Stars! Nice.

[@stormcrow1970]

The late 1970s through the late 1980s really was the Marvel Golden Age.

[@kingcormack8004]

I saw Shrapnel on a national club tour behind John Cale, the ex-Velvet Underground member. The band was extremely young, wore some military schtick and may have gotten lucky and placed a single in a movie which brought hem notoriety. It was the New Wave DIY indie era too. Did not know of the Dave Wyndorf connection.

[@timothymarkin4481]

Not a lot of comics blew my mind as a kid but I was 12 when I bought this in 1980, and Miller’s art throughout this comic really jumped out at me. Debra Whitman was Peter’s girlfriend in Spectacular Spider-Man at the time, and Peter kind of treated her like a doormat; he was always running off to be Spidey, leaving her in the lurch, and she’d just take it. There was a really great supporting cast in that era of the Peter Parker book, as Peter was a teaching assistant at the college and had a lot of co-workers. IIRC Deb was one of them. Around 1982, there was an issue of PPSSM that resolved the Deb Whitman story; I think she went crazy, or something like that.

[@jonanjello]

More Tom is always excellent. Good to see his books promoted, too. Love this annualand still own it and all the others that Miller did. Thanks for the Shrapnel reminder! I sought them out on YT and have watched their music video. Thanks gents!

[@bearsfunnypages]

Always enjoy when Tom joins . :)

[@mirkojanmacke5401]

Holy moly, hahaha, I gotta chime in with my memory of this. Had it as a young kid in German, was impressed. Didn't forget some things till now. This is great. Big fun!

[@ivane5110]

This was in the late-mid era of my comic collecting years. I remember this on the shelf, and probably speed read most of the start (never the end in case i bought or traded for it later). Such a cool idea; I always woukd forget about Doom's occult side until things like this. Whatever ones were out that month had to be very good to get my quarters instead of this. But sooo many likely suspects; '79-83/84 were the height of my love of comics. Always into it but this was when Perez, Byrne, Shauffenberger, Ditko again and so many were available. And so many great writers at the same time: Thomas, Wolfman, and more. And every genre was going on from Western, War and Funny animal to post apokalyptic and occult and crime. Even the cartoon ad was a great memory. Used to collect those as my TV guide. Very cool.

[@tremblingcolors]

Dave Wyndorf the singer for Shrapnel and later Monster Magnet would have lyric lines like "the world should have cried the day Jack Kirby died" so was a big comic fan.

[@a_pencil_and_a_piece_of_paper]

One of the best annuals I've ever read!

[@jamesgildersleeve]

Miller with Tom Palmer is a blast! I just found, in a dollar bin, a few issues of SPIDER-MAN MEGAZINE from the early '90s. As a kid in the early '90s, I remember those reprints being some of my early exposure to Ditko's '60s Spider-Man stories.

[@dedward7739]

I get some Paul Pope vibes from those fat squiggly thought lines coming from Spidey. Bend Sinister makes me think of the Fall, but that album came out much later…

[@atomiclarke6678]

Wow I had this issue as a kid and could not remember what issue it was, also I had no idea it was Miller who did the art, wish I still had this.

[@nicholastronaut]

There's a band called Bend Sinister. Probably got their name from this, or whatever it's referencing.

[@dchisholm]

holy smokes, this looks awesome

[@BombaLuLu84]

Shrapnel formed in Red Bank, NJ and played CBGB including opening for the Ramones last CB’s show. Norman Mailer was at one of their shows. They seemed to be satirizing fascist ideology & the Vietnam War with songs that used offensive humor and military props. Rock journalists believed they weren’t satire which hurt them. Kurt Vonnegut, Woody Allen, & boxer José Torres attended Shrapnel shows at Mailer’s home in Brooklyn. They were managed by Legs McNeil who created Punk magazine. Their guitarist Daniel Rey became a producer for the Ramones and other bands while other members started Monster Magnet.

[@spencerlewis9763]

One of favorite Miller books, I also had a question about that band included in the issue..

[@mechfan01]

The astral projection traces on pg 14 all line up, slick.

[@tentringer4065]

Bend Sinister is the title of a Nabokov novel

[@hemantpatel2215]

The art in this annual is mind blowing

[@adriananthony602]

Is there anywhere that the annuals are reprinted? It seems like it is a completely untapped wealth of comics.

[@WiktorProsniak]

And in Marvel Universe by Frank Miller Omnibus

[@someonesane]

The masks may be an allusion to old theatre stage masks, often depicting comedy, tragedy, demons, and gods. They often hung around the stage, not unlike what was depicted on the opening page.

[@jorgem.1564]

I am shocked I have never read this comic. I thought I've read everything Marvel from the 80s. This will be corrected.

[@stephenstamey4167]

Wow, I just won a 9.0 in auction of this book.