Gservo
20th May 2002, 03:26 AM
by Michael Sangiacomo
Call Michael Burkey the Amazing Spider-Fan.
He can't climb walls or shoot webs from his wrists, but the 37-year-old radiation therapist in Akron, Ohio, claims to have the world's largest collection of original Spider-Man comic art drawn by John Romita Sr. - millions of dollars worth.
He has more than 4,000 drawings of the web slinger, including about 1,900 pages of original art from the Amazing Spider-Man comic books.
He even took time from drooling over his collection to check out the Spider-Man movie, which he loved and plans to see several more times. He liked it so much he bought Tobey Maguire's director's chair on E-Bay for more than $2,000.
It's just another tidbit for his massive collection.
Burkey, who lives in a tiny house in a quiet neighborhood of Ravenna, Ohio, also has alternate versions of unpublished comic covers, and a long run of original art from the Spider-Man newspaper strip. Each page is unique, which means Burkey doesn't worry much about theft.
"Even if someone were to steal them they would be unable to sell them," he said. "These are singular, only one page of original art exists for each comic page and collectors know who owns what."
But his Spider-Mania does not stop with paper and cardboard.
Burkey has more than 2,500 Spider-Man toys, games, statues and other pieces of merchandise dating back to 1965, just a few years after the character was created by Marvel Comics godfather Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko.
Ironically, he is not an avid collector of what started it all, Spider-Man comics.
"I pick up some for reference, but I have not read any in quite a while," he said. "I used to collect but I got tired of it during the whole Spider-clone thing. I stopped reading."
The clone saga was a year-long story line in the mid-'90s regarded by many as a low point of Spider-Man history.
Many of Burkey's most valuable drawings, worth upwards of $40,000 each, are kept in a vault. About 50 of them are on display at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco through the summer.
"I got started with the Spider-Man cartoon show in the mid-1960s," he said. "He was a hero everyone could relate to, he was the superhero who could be you. A friend got me into comics in seventh grade when I was growing up in Maple Heights. There were no comic shops near me then, I used to go to a deli that carried comics and buy them all."
He said schoolteachers would rip up comics they found, not realizing their educational value.
"Now schools and libraries encourage kids to read comics, read anything," he said. "But back then teachers would tear them up if they caught us with them."
Burkey easily filled an entire bedroom with a display of toys and trinkets and said it represented about 10 percent of his collection. The room is awash in red and blue. Spider-Man airplanes, toothbrushes, cereal, record albums, record players, radios, punching bags, board games, dolls, statues and "action figures" of all shapes and sizes, most in their original packaging.
"This stuff looks impressive," Burkey said, fingering a giant, talking Mego Spider-Man doll he bought in Europe, "but one piece of expensive original art is worth more than this whole room."
Burkey buys his toys and art from all over the world, which has become easier thanks to the Internet and eBay. He's known as "the Romita guy" for his particular collecting fetish. His Web site is www.romitaman.com, where he gets to show off what he has and tell people what he wants - more Romita.
"I have more of John's original art than anyone in the world," he said. "The next closest collector has only 30. I have 1,900 pages of art from Amazing Spider-Man issues #39 through 297; my goal is to try to get one page from each issue. My focus starts with issue No. 39, (1966) when Romita took over drawing from Ditko and continues to no. 125, when John stepped down."
Burkey funds his Spider-craving by buying and selling comic book art by many artists. When he first started collecting original art in 1989, Ditko's work was the rage and Romita was considered a secondary artist. While the collecting zeal for the work of the reclusive Ditko has not abated, recognition of Romita as a classic Spider-Man artist has increased.
"I was able to buy John's art cheaply in the beginning," he said. "I bought pages from key issues for $40 each in 1990 that I was offered $10,000 for the other day."
Comic fans turn as green as Norman Osborn when they learn that Burkey has all the original art of the 1973 issue where Osborn, better known as the Green Goblin, kills Spidey's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy.
And Burkey didn't stop with collecting everything Spider-Man, he collected Romita himself.
"We've become good friends," he said. "John will be in my wedding party in August."
Call Michael Burkey the Amazing Spider-Fan.
He can't climb walls or shoot webs from his wrists, but the 37-year-old radiation therapist in Akron, Ohio, claims to have the world's largest collection of original Spider-Man comic art drawn by John Romita Sr. - millions of dollars worth.
He has more than 4,000 drawings of the web slinger, including about 1,900 pages of original art from the Amazing Spider-Man comic books.
He even took time from drooling over his collection to check out the Spider-Man movie, which he loved and plans to see several more times. He liked it so much he bought Tobey Maguire's director's chair on E-Bay for more than $2,000.
It's just another tidbit for his massive collection.
Burkey, who lives in a tiny house in a quiet neighborhood of Ravenna, Ohio, also has alternate versions of unpublished comic covers, and a long run of original art from the Spider-Man newspaper strip. Each page is unique, which means Burkey doesn't worry much about theft.
"Even if someone were to steal them they would be unable to sell them," he said. "These are singular, only one page of original art exists for each comic page and collectors know who owns what."
But his Spider-Mania does not stop with paper and cardboard.
Burkey has more than 2,500 Spider-Man toys, games, statues and other pieces of merchandise dating back to 1965, just a few years after the character was created by Marvel Comics godfather Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko.
Ironically, he is not an avid collector of what started it all, Spider-Man comics.
"I pick up some for reference, but I have not read any in quite a while," he said. "I used to collect but I got tired of it during the whole Spider-clone thing. I stopped reading."
The clone saga was a year-long story line in the mid-'90s regarded by many as a low point of Spider-Man history.
Many of Burkey's most valuable drawings, worth upwards of $40,000 each, are kept in a vault. About 50 of them are on display at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco through the summer.
"I got started with the Spider-Man cartoon show in the mid-1960s," he said. "He was a hero everyone could relate to, he was the superhero who could be you. A friend got me into comics in seventh grade when I was growing up in Maple Heights. There were no comic shops near me then, I used to go to a deli that carried comics and buy them all."
He said schoolteachers would rip up comics they found, not realizing their educational value.
"Now schools and libraries encourage kids to read comics, read anything," he said. "But back then teachers would tear them up if they caught us with them."
Burkey easily filled an entire bedroom with a display of toys and trinkets and said it represented about 10 percent of his collection. The room is awash in red and blue. Spider-Man airplanes, toothbrushes, cereal, record albums, record players, radios, punching bags, board games, dolls, statues and "action figures" of all shapes and sizes, most in their original packaging.
"This stuff looks impressive," Burkey said, fingering a giant, talking Mego Spider-Man doll he bought in Europe, "but one piece of expensive original art is worth more than this whole room."
Burkey buys his toys and art from all over the world, which has become easier thanks to the Internet and eBay. He's known as "the Romita guy" for his particular collecting fetish. His Web site is www.romitaman.com, where he gets to show off what he has and tell people what he wants - more Romita.
"I have more of John's original art than anyone in the world," he said. "The next closest collector has only 30. I have 1,900 pages of art from Amazing Spider-Man issues #39 through 297; my goal is to try to get one page from each issue. My focus starts with issue No. 39, (1966) when Romita took over drawing from Ditko and continues to no. 125, when John stepped down."
Burkey funds his Spider-craving by buying and selling comic book art by many artists. When he first started collecting original art in 1989, Ditko's work was the rage and Romita was considered a secondary artist. While the collecting zeal for the work of the reclusive Ditko has not abated, recognition of Romita as a classic Spider-Man artist has increased.
"I was able to buy John's art cheaply in the beginning," he said. "I bought pages from key issues for $40 each in 1990 that I was offered $10,000 for the other day."
Comic fans turn as green as Norman Osborn when they learn that Burkey has all the original art of the 1973 issue where Osborn, better known as the Green Goblin, kills Spidey's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy.
And Burkey didn't stop with collecting everything Spider-Man, he collected Romita himself.
"We've become good friends," he said. "John will be in my wedding party in August."