Spider-Man Poster #119 Amazing Photo ASM 262 Scott Leva Marvel Comics

Description

This is an Amazing and Spectacular poster of the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #262 featuring stuntman Scott Leva as Peter Parker!

Was a notable Spider-Man photo cover meant as a tie-in to a proposed Spider-Man film of the time?

As Spider-Man returns to movie theaters this weekend with Spider-Man: Homecoming, people naturally are looking back at Spider-Man’s earlier movie past.

One of the items that people naturally think back upon is the cover to Amazing Spider-Man #262, which was to a fill-in issue by the great writer/artist Bob Layton.

The fellow playing Spider-Man on the cover was none other than Scott Leva, who was then shown in a lot of promotional material for a proposed Spider-Man film by Cannon Films in 1985…

Naturally, then, fans have looked back and put the two events together. You know, Marvel was promoting the upcoming film through the photo cover or Marvel was pushing Leva for the role by featuring him on the cover. Stuff like that.

That was not the case. I asked Bob about it and he explained that it was simply a matter of Jim Shooter liking the idea of doing photo covers, so he figured that Layton’s fill-in issue of Amazing Spider-Man was a good place to try one out. Leva was a stunt man who had done other Spider-Man work for Marvel for events, so they naturally used him. Almost certainly, that was the reason that Leva was considered for the role.

Of course, the film never came about, with or without Leva.

In 1985, Scott was tapped by Cannon Films & Joseph Zito (who was the 2nd director to replace Tobe Hooper as being the first director attached for Spider-Man) to play Spider-Man in their adaptation of the comics, He was also the actor on the first photographic cover of a Spider-Man comic book, appearing as Peter Parker, half-way in costume, on The Amazing Spider-Man, #262 (cover date March 1985). He can be seen in costume as Spider-Man, on the blooper reel for the 2000 film X-Men, on which he served as a stunt-coordinator.

In the photo we see actor / stuntman Scott Leva posing as Peter Parker who is caught by a photographer when he is changing from Spider-Man into his regular clothes. At the time Leva was hired by Marvel to dress up as Spider-Man for photo shoots and public appearances at comic cons and such places. For a while he was also in the running to play Peter Parker in a Spider-Man film that would be produced by Canon Film. Some test photos of Leva dressed as Parker were shot, but the film was never made.

The cover photo was taken by Eliot Brown, but the idea came from editor-in-chief Jim Shooter.

Eliot Brown:
“The task was to find a way to have a cover that showed Spidey without mask and the photographer taking his picture. The plot of this story took advantage of Peter Parker’s freelance job as news photog. The story, “Trade Secrets” found him on assignment to a NYC airport where he would be unavoidably surrounded by other photogs. One thing about the paparazzi, those cameras are ready to fire within a second or less. The only hilarious detail of this story was the use of Assistant Editor Bob Denatali’s name for some Organized Crime boss. I’m sure Bob’s still chuckling.

I can relate these story elements now because I read up on them. At the time it was the slightest suggestion of seeing someone taking a picture of a half-costumed Spider-Man. That’s one reason I liked taking photo-covers so much. This happened to allow both Scott and I maximum freedom in imaging the cover. With such freedom, we have this super famous cover.

I say ‘famous’ because this photo-cover had a literal showing of Peter Parker. And me. I’ve also read some of the negative comments circulating around photo-covers over the decades. How it is something “real” and thus limiting. It suppresses the imagination. Perhaps. Sometimes taking a picture is quicker than trying to get the book’s regular artist—who rarely bit off more than he could chew (–Bob!) – to throw in a cover as well as write, pencil and ink (co-ink with Carlos Garzon) the interior. Of course, I am rib-elbowing Modern Legend Artist and Creator Bob Layton.

Scott Leva was a working stuntman who filled in the down-time by happily taking Marvel’s money for such simple acting as standing around and looking heroic (another actor back in the day was none other than Jonathan Frakes! Yes, as Captain America! But this is Scotty’s story…). My favorite story about Scott was his doing stunt work in the 1983 fantasy flick Krull. Scott claimed that in one scene, stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong allowed him to get tossed into a medium close-up and leave his face in the scene. Normally a stunt man tries to hide his face. But in this case, Scot so strongly resembled the male lead, Ken Marshal, that even in the final movie—there’s Scotty!

I have mentioned before the In-Store Marketing Program which had costumed people show up at your supermarket or comic shop. Scott was well-known as a good Spider-Man. And take a look at that face—close enough to Peter Parker!

The location for this was way in the back of the 10th Floor of Marvel offices at 387 Park. This was the proof roll storage room. All those rolls behind Scott are rolled up black & white versions of comics. A lot of them! These were made at the time of the regular book being printed. Originally, they were used as proofs and sent ahead before going to press so that an editor could look over the book and perhaps make some changes”.

Near mint condition. Ships folded.