Sixty-three years and 999 issues separate these two books, but Steve Ditko ties them together.

For The Amazing Spider-Man #1, Ditko inked Jack Kirby’s cover pencils and drew the stories inside, helping establish Spider-Man’s distinctive look, movement and personality. For #1000, Marvel went digging through its archives.

Marvel’s aptly named “Hidden Gem” variants give overlooked artwork by legendary creators new life as modern covers. This one is more hidden than most: Ditko’s original pinup had reportedly never appeared inside a comic - or on the cover of one. Marvel released it both in its original black-and-white form and in this newly colored version by Dean White.

Nearly 30 different first-print covers were produced for #1000, featuring an all-star roster of artists, but I wanted to make sure I got this one. There’s something perfect about displaying it beside #1. Ditko’s work helped launch Amazing Spider-Man in 1963 and 999 issues later, Marvel uncovered one more piece of his Spider-Man artwork to celebrate the milestone.

A true Hidden Gem - and a pretty amazing pair of bookends.

Excelsior!

Watched The Punisher: One Last Kill last night and it’s a tidy reintroduction of Frank Castle to the MCU. The one-shot special has a definite John Wick vibe - right down to the revenge-fueled storyline involving a dog.

In honor of the show's release, here’s a look at my copy of Amazing Spider-Man #129 - where Frank Castle first stepped onto the page in 1974, long before he entered the MCU.

I watched the latest episode of Daredevil: Born Again, which featured an appearance by Jessica Jones. As a Spider-Man fan, I’ve always known that Kingpin and Punisher first made their first appearances in Amazing Spider-Man (#50 and #129) before becoming staples in Daredevil’s world. It made me realize that I didn’t actually know Jessica Jones’ comic origin - even after watching the original Netflix series. Looking it up, I found her “first appearance” story to be pretty amusing.

One of Marvel’s clever continuity rewrites placed Jessica Jones into Peter Parker’s earliest high school years, establishing that she attended Midtown High with him and quietly knew him before either became heroes. Because Amazing Spider-Man #4 takes place during that same early school-era timeline, some fans jokingly refer to it as her “first appearance by retcon.” In other words, she was later said to have been present during the events of that issue - even though the character had not yet been created.

Her true first published appearance is Alias #1 (2001), but since I own ASM #4 I’m going to go ahead and claim that one. After all - who am I to argue with Marvel? :-)

I'll admit, I didn't pre grade it as thoroughly as I should have. I expected at least an 8 or a 9 but I don't have a lot of experience with Acetate cards. Regardless, I love the card and it'll look great in my office 💯

Just wanted to share this with everyone NFS thanks