For readers who were picking up Spider-Man comics in the 1970s but never saw the more ephemeral newspaper strips Clover Press’s The Amazing Spider-Man: Classic Newspaper Comics will be like discovering a part of your childhood you never knew existed. The first two volumes of these collections – each covering a calendar year of material – are presented in landscape edition softcovers contained in hardcover slipcases. The orientation of the presentation, of course, suiting the format the comics were originally printed in.
Written by Stan Lee and illustrated with ever gorgeous clarity of John Romita this is work that both the nostalgist and the comics historian will particularly find of note. The 1977 compilation brings out the big guns from the beginning with Doctor Doom taking centre stage in the first story. Spidey rogues Doctor Octopus (in a tale that ties into his relationship with Aunt May in the main continuity), the Kingpin, Kraven the Hunter and the rather Lizard-esque Rattler (pictured above) all ensure that year one is very much “super-villain of the moment” fare.
With the second volume, collecting the 1978 editions, the strips skew away on occasion from the more overt super-heroics and super-villain battles. Herein Spider-Man finds himself involved in a number of tales that adopt a human interest angle over the obvious fantastic elements of the character’s world. Peter Parker falls in love with a terrorist’s daughter; his secret identity is discovered by a manipulative woman hellbent on revenge on her former boss; and Robbie Robertson’s nephew becomes involved in a street gang with devastating consequences.
When there are divergences from the comics continuity they sometimes feel understandable but on other occasions can be rather arbitrary. A streamlined Spidey origin for the ‘70s makes sense. Mysterio’s secret identity being an entirely new character when he looks like a ringer for comics alter ego Quentin Beck perhaps less so.
There is, of course, a peculiar rhythm to reading these strips in a form in which they were never intended to be experienced. The daily Monday to Saturday black and white strips are largely three panels working on a narrative cadence of picking up the cliffhanger from the previous day, moving the story incrementally on and then setting up the next cliffhanger in the final panel. The Sunday colour strips are three times the size of the weekday ones with an origin recap at the top of each and then 6-8 panels beneath. They’re cleverly constructed to expand on events between the weekday/Saturday material but also to be non-essential at the same time for those only reading the black and white parts.
Reproduction is mostly excellent though the scarcity of the original material means that the occasional strips being a little more muddied in appearance can easily be forgiven. The real missed opportunity in these Clover Press editions though – and it’s a big one – is the lack of extras. There’s nothing here beyond the strips themselves. No back matter, no look at the history of the feature, no context-adding discussions, not even an intro or foreword. While that may seem a churlish observation long-term enthusiasts may indeed feel slightly disappointed in the circumstances.
That said, these volumes are such a welcome addition to the archives of forgotten Marvel material, especially at a point where the publisher itself is showing increasingly less interest in republishing projects of this sort. If you’re a wall-crawler fan then The Amazing Spider-Man: Classic Newspaper Comics is an essential gateway into a part of Spidey lore that you may never have had the chance to experience before.
Stan Lee (W), John Romita (A) • Clover Press, $29.99
Review by Andy Oliver
