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It's always fascinating to see how much "finish" Ditko would put on his pencils during the inking stage. In Panel 1, the guy with his hand on his face (facing the "camera") is done differently. The bricks all come into play. Check out the pencils on the cat! Poor reproduction on the finished version obscures Ditko's addition of a black man between the three guys opposite Joe Smith. Ditko does a great job of adding folds to clothing. In Panel 2, you would have thought the boxer would end up as a bald, white guy. Ditko was a pioneer in adding black men into his scenes, so that people would accept them as part of the universe (just like in reality), as opposed to making a big splash with one of the characters. Ditko's staging is always perfect, as he puts that man on the left of panel 2 right between the legs of the boxer on the mat (although the boxer may not appreciate the voyerism!). You can see all the "knobs" on the ropes in the pencilled version, but they disappear (as does the top of the door frame) in the finished. Check out how in tune Ditko is with a panel's light source. In Panel 3 of the pencilled version, the boxer's head lays almost against the corner pole of the ropes, and in th finished version, Ditko inks in the shadow of the head on the pole, as he does with the man's face directly under the boxer's head. And it's always fascinating to witness Ditko's drawing lines outside the panels, such as in Panel 1 (at the bottom) and 4 (at the right).
Click HERE to view the finished version of the splash. If you want to see enlargements of each panel, scroll down below the image here, and enjoy! Every Ditko-phile owns Roy Thomas a vote of thanks, and if you want to see that page 5 (unless we can convince him to send it to us, as well [hint, hint! :)]), go to the ALTER EGO section of www.twomorrows.com, and order Issue #9 right from them! Many thanks to Roy for being so generous!
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