AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121 - A Masterpiece!

I bought this beat up copy for $90 in 2021. Pretty sure he gave me a discount. I sold it in 2023.

Back in early 1973, Gerry Conway had taken over writing the Amazing Spider-man after Roy Thomas became EIC, Stan Lee was prepping for Hollywood and John Romita now had his hands full as Marvel's art director. Gerry, like Roy, would go on to write pretty much every main Marvel character and comic, before a very brief stint as EIC. But it was THIS comic (and series) in particular that he will always be known for.

(AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121 - cover dated June 1973, on newsstands March 13th, 1973 with cover art by John Romita)


The Amazing Spider-man was Marvel's best selling comic, and part of its appeal over the years was SOMETHING big happening. Goblin's Identity revealed in 1966, Peter Parker quitting in 1967, memory loss/Doc Ock team-up in 1968, Crisis on Campus in 1969, Captain Stacy dying in 1970, the Drug Issues in 1971, and... well it had been almost 2 years since a major event happened...

What a great splash page...

(AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121 - cover dated June 1973, on newsstands March 13th, 1973 with art by Gil Kane and John Romita)


It used to bother me, the way they portrayed Norman Osborn and his mental illness... I always thought, "Oh come on, nobody's THAT delusional." Here in 2025, there are a LOT more Norman Osborns in the world than I could ever have imagined. Now I actually LIKE the way they SHOW his delusion.

(AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121 - cover dated June 1973, on newsstands March 13th, 1973 with art by Gil Kane and John Romita)


There are people who hate this issue, because of what they did in killing Gwen, and I get that. But looking at it objectively, they really hit a home run in pacing, storytelling, so much... the panel below just says so much...

(AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121 - cover dated June 1973, on newsstands March 13th, 1973 with art by Gil Kane and John Romita)


The issue spirals out of control, the way life does sometimes... where it just starts down a path that you seemingly know is bad and then... WHAK! This issue captures that so well... you can sense something BAD is going to happen and of course it does...

(AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121 - cover dated June 1973, on newsstands March 13th, 1973 with art by Gil Kane and John Romita)


Showing the kind of fall it is. This is where artists today fail so badly... this isn't 'cool' or overly flashy or sexy, but man oh man does it tell you so much... 

(AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121 - cover dated June 1973, on newsstands March 13th, 1973 with art by Gil Kane and John Romita)

When you originally read it... did you notice the 'snap'?

(AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121 - cover dated June 1973, on newsstands March 13th, 1973 with art by Gil Kane and John Romita)

And then maybe one of the most heartbreaking sequences in all of comics. But not just because of what happened... this isn't cheap, like the movie... with all of his power, and all of his bravado, with all of his experience saving others and the responsibility he's put upon his own shoulders... not even HE can escape the inevitable...

(AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121 - cover dated June 1973, on newsstands March 13th, 1973 with art by Gil Kane and John Romita)


Still just gets me every time...

(AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121 - cover dated June 1973, on newsstands March 13th, 1973 with art by Gil Kane and John Romita)

And then the anger...

(AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121 - cover dated June 1973, on newsstands March 13th, 1973 with art by Gil Kane and John Romita)

I wasn't a fan of most of the Marvel writers in the 70's. To put it bluntly, I thought most of them sucked. But absolutely loved Conway's run on Spider-Man. I know it's because I was young and maybe didn't know better - I didn't know what I SHOULD believe was good or not. I didn't care. I liked it and I still like it.

His dialogue is so much LESS overly dramatic and pompous than some of the other writers. He was younger, but in hindsight, it appears he had better (and wider ranging) reading habits than some of his co-workers at the time (who mostly seemed to have been raised on just Marvel Comic books).

CRAZY MAGAZINE #3 - Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

I bought this beat up copy for $4

Most people know the story of how William Gaines' EC Comics ruled Newsstand sales until the Congressional hearings scared the other publishers into creating a 'Comics Code' that essentially targeted all of his best selling comics - and how he instead went to publishing humor in his all new Mad Magazine using some of the same great artists and once again dominating the entertainment section of the newsstand.

Well Marvel evetually copied them, in 1974 with their own 'Crazy Magazine', done in almost the exact same format - Goofy mascot, Professionally painted cover, quality artists lampooning movies, counter culture humor, etc.

(CRAZY MAGAZINE #3 - cover dated March 1974, on newsstands January 3rd, 1974 with cover art by Kelly Freas)

They certainly had some talent working for them, though maybe not in the same 'humor' league as Don Martin, Jack Davis, or Al Jafee (Mort Drucker worked for both). Still, some quality talent there...

(CRAZY MAGAZINE #3 - cover dated March 1974, on newsstands January 3rd, 1974 with art by John Romita)

I mean, right off the bat you get Marv Wolfman's 'The Walnuts', a parody of the TV show 'The Waltons' with some great art by Marie Severin! I didn't watch the Walton's, but I was familiar with elements of it, so this was amusing to me as an 11 year old...

(CRAZY MAGAZINE #3 - cover dated March 1974, on newsstands January 3rd, 1974 with art by Marie Severin)

...but I was REALLY amused when they threw in an 'All in the Family' because I DID watch that show...

(CRAZY MAGAZINE #3 - cover dated March 1974, on newsstands January 3rd, 1974 with art by Marie Severin)

And of course being hippies of the day running Marvel Comics, they give us a Rolling Stone parody. At some point I was reading National Lampoon pretty early in my young teens (and even though I didn't always 'get' it then), I saw this was more of a homage to THEM than Mad Magazine (at some point).

(CRAZY MAGAZINE #3 - cover dated March 1974, on newsstands January 3rd, 1974 with art by Larry Hama)

Same thing (though probably immediate in this instance) with 'Foto Funkies' being a rip off of their 'Foto Funnies'. That's Roy 'Houseboy' Thomas and his wife Jean from left to right... the other guy is... maybe Steve Gerber?

Man, even in a humor magazine, Thomas can't come up with anything original.

(CRAZY MAGAZINE #3 - cover dated March 1974, on newsstands January 3rd, 1974)

Same concept - it's an excuse to show some nudity, though in Crazy's case they didn't - National Lampoon showed full nudity - so all Crazy could do was try and be funny about it. Which they sorta did I guess...

(CRAZY MAGAZINE #3 - cover dated March 1974, on newsstands January 3rd, 1974)

I was shocked to see that Crazy Magazine ran for 10 years and 94 issues! Who the hell was buying this thing? That's a longer run than 95% of Marvel's new mainstream comic titles in the 70's and 80's!

I seriously doubt I'm going to go back and discover these but if anyone has a particular issue you think needs exploring, drop me a line in the comments!