Editorial comment

[Rob Allen]

Check out this auction for a page of original art from Avengers #13 - pencils by Don Heck, inks by Dick Ayers:

http://cgi.ebay.com/HECK-AYERS-AVENGERS-13-pg12-1964-Original-Marvel-Art_W0QQitemZ130033186754QQihZ003QQcategoryZ972QQr dZ1QQcmdZViewItem

At the bottom of the largest scan, you can see a hand-written note presumably from Stan - "Sol - Tell Artie this is one of his worst". I don't see anything much wrong with the lettering myself, and there's some controversy about whether that scrawl really says "Artie". Some others have suggested that it might say "Dick" or "D. Heck", but Stan worked directly with them, so he wouldn't need to send a message thru Sol.

What do you think?

[Simon Garth]

Wow. Despite spending most of my time on CBR in this forum, I haven't read anything that old for years - I'd forgotten just how much text there was in those old comics.

And how terrible the dialogue was.

[Allan Harvey]

There are a lot of white out corrections on the page, mostly associated with poor erasing of the penciled balloons. As the lettering was done first, before the inking, it might be that Dick Ayres complained to Stan that he had had to do a lot of correcting. Stan was then just passing the message on to Artie through Sol.

Interesting, too, that the Wasp figure on the bottom left panel is a paste over -- and she's got no feet!!