Spidey Artists Monday: Ross Andru

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

I was hoping that someone else would do this, but it looks like the writer thing is not popular enough, at least with Roy Thomas who wrote a total of 5 issues mostly focusing on Spider-Man...

This is one of my favorites, and I know Scott Taylor is a fan of his work, so I hope he would join the fun.
He drew some cartoony looking effects with some human looking models, the results are underrated work that deserves more love and appreciation cause it looks wonderful.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Ross Andru is one of my favorite artists.

This alone is enough to coronate him.

Peter MJ Kiss 2 - ASM#143 Conway-Andru.jpg

[TheCape]

I had been reading Conway/Andru run recently and it's pretty good, i especially like the Harry Goblin issues (136/37, plus that iconic scene posted above).

[Scott Taylor]

Yes! Ross Andru is definitely one of my favorites. His style is instantly recognizable, in facial features and body poses he tended to use. I feel like his renderings gave an excellent sense of movement to his panels, in a very cinematic sense. He "got" comics and the notion of how to build tension through art. And of course he is also known for how he incorporated many of the New York City landmarks into his stories. But he is probably the reason I go for more "storytelling artists" today over those who just draw really well.

He was the Spider-Man artist in the last half of the 1970s. Here is an interesting article about him and some neat anecdotes, plus how he got somewhat overlooked even back in the day and gets mostly overlooked today:

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/rememb...der-man-artist

Also, his mastery of perspective was something special. You can get a good sense of scale from his artistry, and perhaps a little dizziness, whether its Green Goblin, Silvermane and Spider-Man tossling in the air in Radio City Music Hall or the famous scene below:



I honestly don't know, but suspect Superman has a Neil Adams face there.

[PCN24454]

I always felt that they kinda looked like werewolves.

[Snoop Dogg]

underrated

[Spidey_62]

When I was younger I had a hard time getting into Ross Andru's Spidey art but these days I have come around 100%, love his work on the character. A big thing that stands out is his depiction of New York, and just backgrounds in general. They've got such life to them, as much as any of the characters themselves. It really feels like Spidey is in New York cause Ross Andru would use so much thorough reference, I even saw a huge thread on another forum where people try and find where all his photo references came from.

[Scott Taylor]

When I was younger I had a hard time getting into Ross Andru's Spidey art but these days I have come around 100%, love his work on the character. A big thing that stands out is his depiction of New York, and just backgrounds in general. They've got such life to them, as much as any of the characters themselves. It really feels like Spidey is in New York cause Ross Andru would use so much thorough reference, I even saw a huge thread on another forum where people try and find where all his photo references came from.

The article I posted mentions that one homeowner threatened to sue Marvel over the depiction of his house on the comic books at the time. Apparently unwanted guests were showing up to take photos or something.