Believe it or not, back in August, SPIDER-MAN was officially 50 years
old. I say 'officially' because, although the comic in which he made his first
appearance (AMAZING FANTASY #15) was dated August, it actually came
out on or around the very merry month of May, 1962. To commemorate this
landmark event, PANINI BOOKS have released a '50th Anniversary Edition
Vintage Annual', containing Spidey's debut from AF #15, THE AMAZING
SPIDER-MAN #s 1 & 6, and the first U.S. ANNUAL from 1964, including
various pin-ups and features.
All in all, it's a nice little package, but a tad expensive at £12.99. Panini
have added 'age' effects to the cover and interior pages which are some-
what overdone in places, but, in the instances where their application is
more subtle, it actually delivers a not-unpleasing result.
One of the main problems, however, especially in the case of the
origin tale, is that Panini have utilised inferior proofs which have been
'revised' in places. Originally, these proofs were used for the early '80s
MARVEL TALES reprint, and contained altered lettering and artwork.
For example, 'Spiderman' was changed to 'Spider-Man', 'costume hero'
to 'costumed hero', etc., and some lettering was re-created in a couple
of instances. Also, on the last page, the final caption was omitted as it
referred to the next issue of Amazing Fantasy and the dots on Spidey's
eye-pieces were deleted as they were considered too 'cartoonish'.
The same proofs were again used for the first printing of the Spidey
MASTERWORKS volume in the late '80s, but were revised at a later
date in an attempt to return them to their original 'unaltered' state - with
rather lacklustre results it has to be said, as a couple of instances were
overlooked. Fortunately, however, with the release of the updated soft-
cover Masterworks and OMNIBUS editions, superior proofs were used,
and a far more faithful presentation of this classic issue became available
to collectors. It's just a shame that Panini apparently didn't have access to
these superior proofs for their own publication, as they used the ones
which had been clumsily 'restored' to their pre-altered state.
Anyway, here's a few images from this (relatively) recently released
126 page, hardbacked tome. I got mine in FORBIDDEN PLANET
in Glasgow. There's bound to be a store near you!
3 comments:
That's interesting. On my copy of the annual, the final Amazing Fantasy caption and Spidey's eye-dots are both included. He's also repeatedly referred to as, "Spiderman." Presumably Panini must have switched to other proofs at some point during production.
Sorry, Steve, I could perhaps have been clearer, but the next paragraph after the one describing the proofs explains further.
To summarize, the proofs used in the Marvel Tales and first editions of Masterworks had the differences I describe (lettering alterations and replacements, no eye dots), but then the 'original' lettering (that is, clumsy 'restoration' to its pre-altered state) and eye dots were restored for printings elsewhere. It was these 'restored' proofs that the recent annual utilised, although more accurate proofs have been available for some time, and were used in recent Masterworks and Omnibus editions.
In other words:
A) Altered proofs for Marvel Tales and Masterworks first printings. ('Spiderman' to 'Spider-Man', no eye dots.)
B) Those same proofs then 'restored' to their pre-altered state, although some changes were missed. ('Spider-Man' back to 'Spiderman', eyed dots drawn back in, etc.)
C) Discovery of ORIGINAL, unaltered, unchanged, un-'restored', as initially published proofs, which have been used in new Masterworks and Omnibus editions.
The annual used the 'type B' proofs.
Or is that just as confusing as before? Anyway, I've added a sentence to the end of the relevant paragraph to try and clarify the situation.
I believe it all now makes sense to me.
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