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TheAmazing Spider-Man Omnibus Volume (3/18/07) April 25th, 2007 will see the release of the Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus. This will be similar to the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Eternals and Daredevil volumes in this premium format. It will reprint all of the Stan Lee / Steve Ditko Spider-Man stories, plus many extras. The size of the volume is 1088 pages, with a $99.99 price tag. Marvel says, "We went back to the Mighty Marvel Archive to restore each and every page in this volume for painstaking accuracy to the originals," and they aren't kidding! Scott Rowland, a member of my Steve Ditko / Jack Kirby Discussion Group on Yahoogroups.com asked me if Marvel was going to take great pains to restore Amazing Spider-Man #29 (the issue that has always had lousy reproduction values, thanks to terrible original stats Marvel has) and here's Marvel editor Cory Sedlmeier's answer:
"The short and sweet answer: Yes! We're still working on ASM #29, but for an idea of what we're trying to achieve with this book compare this page against any previous Marvel reprint of AMFAN #15." It looks very sharp, even though (for viewing on the 'Net here) I had to reduce the image in size and quality. Think of how the actual page will look! We'll have more details is the next couple of months, so keep coming back for more! Not only will it reprint all of the Lee/Ditko Spider-Man works, but Marvel has also commissioned me to write an essay on Ditko's contribution to the title! Jon B. Cooke, editor of the magazine Comic Book Artist, is writing an essay on Stan Lee. Author Arlen Schumer is writing an essay on Spider-Man as a cultural figure. The volume will contain the following stories (and full contents of):
AMAZING FANTASY #15 As well as a host of extras, including covers to MARVEL TALES #3-28 and ANNUAL #1, 2. The copies that are distributed to comic book stores will have the cover above (the original Kirby / Ditko version to Amazing Fantasy #15) and the ones that will land in bookstores will feature a variant cover by artist Alex Ross. We also have the back cover to the volume, which nostalgically brings to mind those spreads in the 1970s Mighty Marvel Superheroes Fun Book volumes that, to begin each chapter, had the covers of all the early issues. Most of what we knew of the early Marvel history came from those images when we were too young to find or afford those books.
Front cover and spine (comic book store version)
Check back in regularly as we bring you more updates on this volume-to-end-all-volumes of the Lee / Ditko Spider-Man books. |
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