I’ve already written about THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, this article covers several other Spider-Man titles beginning with this one, a second major title for the character that had a long and successful run of 263 issues from 1976 to 1998. Gaspar Saladino lettered the first page only of some stories, but just one of the covers. Marvel often hired him for these first page assignments I think because they felt his talent and energy might sell comics to browsers. The dynamic title on this first example shows he delivered on that promise. Gaspar always put in the name of the letterer of the remaining pages if he knew it, and their work was generally quite different. In this case there were two letterers, suggesting this was a rush job, not a good sign on the second issue of a series.

I wasn’t sure about this page one because the title seems a bit off of Saladino’s usual skill and size, but the rest is certainly by him, so call it an off day, or perhaps the treatment of LIGHTMASTER was an experiment that didn’t work well.

This title gets back on track with exciting and scary letters for VULTURE.

Another eye-grabbing title, and here Gaspar adds Art Deco style to the credits, as he sometimes liked to do.

This title uses lower case for variety and rough shapes and heavier outlines on SURVIVE for emphasis.

This divided story title uses four styles that all work together for a dramatic effect, while echoing a popular song title.

Here the title is a parody of a popular movie logo, or at least it suggests one, Gaspar didn’t go too close to the original.

Here Gaspar lettered the title spread, two pages, and the title this time is a pun based on another song title. Writer Bill Mantlo was obviously having fun with them. The treatment of CARRION is effective brush lettering.

Another line from a song in this title, which artfully follows the shape of the character’s cape.

The image I found is not good, but you can see how cleverly Saladino created the title out of dust piles.

The dynamic title on this page is eclipsed by an even more eye-catching Saladino sound effect.

Gaspar’s final work on the title was lettering for this cover, which includes a great character logo.

Next we have several one-shot giveaways. This one was done for the American Cancer Society about the dangers of smoking. Saladino lettered the evocative bottom blurb.

I think the title sums things up for this one. No lettering by Saladino on the cover, but he did letter the main story inside.

Here’s a page of the original art with Gaspar’s lettering, though there’s one balloon by someone else in the second panel, see if you can spot it.

This story appeared in a giveaway comic in support of the prevention of child abuse. Gaspar used his favorite pen name, L.P. Gregory (from the names of his own children) for his credit. Great title.

For another giveaway minicomic, Saladino lettered just the first page of the main story. I haven’t found an image of it.

An adjectiveless Spider-Man title began in 1990 and ran for 100 issues. Gaspar lettered two stories for it, this is the first…

…with the second half in the next issue. Looks like an interesting story with fine creators, and Gaspar’s lettering enhances the package.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these two covers: THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #2 and SPIDERMAN STORM AND POWER MAN. Below are the details of his story lettering.

THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN page 1 only on these issues: 2-5, 8, 14, 24, 26, 29, 35, pages 2-3 on issue 25.

SPIDER-MAN FIRESTAR AND ICEMAN AT THE DALLAS BALLET NUTCRACKER: 16pp

SPIDER-MAN POWER PACK #1: 8pp

SPIDER-MAN HI-C MINI-COMIC #1: page 1 only

SPIDER-MAN #27: 24pp

SPIDER-MAN #28: 24pp

That’s 85 pages in all. More articles in this series are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.