The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 - Marvel

July 1968 - "Lo, This Monster!"

The House of Ideas' first foray into the black and white comic magazine market was with, appropriately enough, Spider-Man! Behind a nifty cover painting by Harry Rosenbaum comes an extra-long Spidery story by the classic team of Stan Lee and John Romita:

Romita is in fine form here, but of course this was pretty much when he was at his prime. The inks are by Jim Mooney, and the wash effects are nice (if maybe a tad overdone). And am I crazy, or did Jazzy John make Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy just a tad extra sexy for this occasion:

Clocking in at about fifty pages, its a much longer Spider-Man story than usual, but its still a well-paced, exciting, classic Spidey adventure.

There's also a back-up feature, a re-telling of Spidey's origin by Lee and his brother Larry Lieber:

Rounding out this inaugural issue is an ad for the next installment, which looks a tad thrown together:

The Spectacular Spider-Man was a rarity: a financially unsuccessful Spider-Man project. The second issue wouldn't come out for four more months, and when it did, it was in full-color, making it even more like a traditional Spider-Man comic.

Basically, The Spectacular Spider-Man didn't offer readers anything substantially new or different than what they could get in the regular book for 12 cents--but of course it was almost an impossibility that Stan Lee was going to produce some sort of "adult" version of his greatest creation, for a variety of reasons. Marvel would re-think this approach in just a few years when it came to a certain barbarian, leaving The Spectacular Spider-Man to be a footnote in the history of Marvel Comics.

Spectacular Spider-Man #2 - Marvel

This was one of Marvel's odder magazine-format forays--the second (and last) issue of The Spectacular Spider-Man, published in 1968.

TSS was Marvel's first attempt a magazine-size publication; it made only sense it would headline their flagship character Spider-Man. The first issue (which I don't own as of yet) was in black-and-white, and featured art by Spidey's main artist, John Romita. Apparently, it was not a huge success sales-wise, so Marvel decided to add color to the mix with this issue.

Under a beautiful cover painting by John Romita, this issue features a 58(!)-page story featuring, you guessed it, Spidey facing his #1 foe, The Green Goblin (yes, I said #1 foe; siddown, Octavius). While the story is a classic, late-60s Spidey tale, it really isn't any different than the monthly comic, except for its length and bigger page size. So I'm not exactly sure what audience Marvel was trying to court here that they didn't already have with the regular Amazing Spider-Man book.

Apparently, it didn't court any other audience, since this was the final issue of the series, surely the first time a Spider-Man publication was a sales disappointment (though the book does feature an ad for a next issue--"The Mystery of the TV Terror!").

Too bad, since this is a nice package--a solid, long-form Spidey story by his (IMHO) best creative team--Lee and Romita--with no ads, to boot. Marvel would abandon the magazine format for several years, but when they brought it back, it would be in a far different manner.

But that's for future posts!