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Marvel hadn't quite "found" itself when the first Spider-Man annual was published. Indeed, it would be a while yet before the books started to take on the bursting-the-borders kinds of "cosmic" energy most people think of (or used to think of) when they think "Marvel".

In the early Sixties, it was still pretty much DC that set the tone, and altho what Stan, Jack and Steve were doing was breaking the mold, it was more in the way of chipping off bits and pieces, rather than throwing the whole thing against a wall! Look at the first couple of years of FANTASTIC FOUR, for instance, and notice how low key most of the covers are.

When I do a reimagining like this, the mindset from which I often work is born by asking myself How would I have drawn this, if I had been working for Marvel when the original was done? Of course, that's not usually what the end product actually shows. Had I been asked to do the cover for the first annual, assuming my skill level to be the same as it is today, it would most likely have come out much more like what Dikto drew then than what I drew yesterday. That was, after all, the style of the times.

This commission is a thing of beauty; a real masterpiece! 

Actually (!!), it WOULD be kind of interesting to take a run at FF1 as a reimagining, rather than another of the 347 "homages" (ie, characters in the same positions) I have already done.