Avengers # 11 Cover Mystery

A Few weeks back I looked at some of the interior corrections on The Avengers by Jack Kirby. This time around I thought it would be interesting to examine the cover to The Avengers # 11, which appears to have a number of artistic hands involved in its creation.


Avengers # 11 cover, Dec 1964


This cover has been a puzzle to me for many years. I have no doubt that the Thor, Iron-Man and Cap figures are pencilled  by Jack Kirby and inked by Chic Stone, the usual cover team in this period. Kirby's figure work and poses are evident, as is Stone's bold inking. Giant-Man, Spider-Man and possibly the Wasp are another matter.


   

Close-up of Giant-Man figure, by Ditko & Stone?


Examining the Giant-Man figure and the way the body is positioned, I suspect Steve Ditko drew the figure, possibly replacing a Giant-Man drawing by Kirby that Stan Lee didn't like. Minor alterations took place before the cover was published, as can be seen here.

Ad for Avengers # 11, as seen in Fantastic Four # 34

 

There was a slight alteration to Giant-Man's hand, facing up in the ad and straight in the published cover. The hand in the ad look's very much like a Ditko pose. The Wasp figure is very small, but her pose makes me suspect that Ditko also corrected/redrew her as well.

Close-up of Spider-Man figure. Ditko and Stone?

We now come to the most interesting figure on the cover, Spider-Man. There are a number of areas that are worth pointing out. This is clearly not a Kirby illustration, although he may have pencilled an initial Spider-Man figure which was either discarded or worked over. Kirby never, ever drew Spidey's mask and eyelets as accurately as is seen here (most artists that drew Spider-Man in this period, including Don Heck and Dick Ayers, had trouble following Ditko's web-lines, mask,  and costume design) . Kirby rarely remembered to draw the spider in the chest area or the webbing on the fingers or gloves correctly. There are some areas that are in error, though. The belt doesn't seem to be connected to the upper part of the costume, a mistake Kirby often made. Still, the rest of the costume is rendered correctly, including the web lines on the costume. 

My theory is that Kirby originally drew a Spider-Man figure that Stan was unhappy with and asked Steve to revise or redraw the figure, which was finished by Chic Stone. It is possible that Ditko followed Kirby's original design, ie positioned him in the same manner, but judging by the lack of definition and uninked spider and eyelets, Ditko may have loosely pencilled/outlined the Spider-Man figure, with Chic Stone completing the inking. Having observed some of Ditko's pencils in this period, it is evident that Ditko filled in a lot of the blacks in the inking process. I can see Stone's sharp line on Spidey's left leg and boot. It would also account for any mistakes that occured, as Stone was not familiar with inking Spider-Man.     

As was often the case, Stan Lee tinkered with covers up to the last minute, making changes both big and small. Sol Brodsky and Marie Severin did correction work (and I'm not certain if Giant-Man's face wasn't tinkered with by someone other than Ditko) but when folks like Kirby or Ditko stepped into the office, it was not unusual to have them fix up art.  Aside from the slight alteration on Giant-Man seen in the FF ad, I've never seen any stats of this cover that are different that the published cover. It would certainly be interesting to see Kirby's unaltered cover, but like Amazing Spider-Man # 10, which has a Kirby Spider-Man mixed with Ditko figures, the original covers may forever remain a mystery.