Boy, thank goodness the people at “X-Men” magazine were willing to work with those people at “Tales of Suspense” magazine to allow this crossover. I wonder what that special arrangement entailed?
Sol Brodsky inks (uncertain, see the comments) on this attractive cover. I love anything that gives a different kind of view of those great Kirby cityscapes, and Iron Man’s then-new armour looks great on here.
Published 1964
I believe the cover inks are by Steve Ditko. BTW, the “special arangement” Stan liked to make note of was probably done to make Marvel look like a huge operation.
Hm, not really seeing Ditko there. Of course, I just checked the GCD and see that it has Ayers listed, so there doesn’t seem to be much consensus…
Bob,
I’ll take a look at my copy, but the linework looks nothing like Brodsky or Ayers. The figure of Iron-Man in particular has a distinctive line that looks like Ditko to my eye. I forwarded this to Robin Snyder, Ditko’s friend and editor, to get his thoughts.
Nick Caputo
I’ve put a larger scan here, if you need it for reference. Unfortunately the only print copies I have are too poor to judge the linework (half the linework on Angel’s wings drops out in the ESSENTIAL IRON MAN reprint).
Did notice that the Ditko checklist Blake Bell has up on his site (based on Bill Hall’s DITKOMANIA checklist) doesn’t list it. Maybe I’ll drop Blake a line and ask if he’ll take a look.