Winter Holiday Gift Giving Recommendation: Part II
Look out, here comes The Folio Society with another incredible collection, this one populated with the greatest, most famous, and weirdest adventures of the original web slinger, Peter Parker.
Like the Captain America 80th Anniversary Collection, this Spider-Man Omnibus is compiled and introduced by former Marvel editor Ray Thomas, who takes fans and true-believers on a journey from the hero’s first appearance in The Fantastic Four, with whom he would continue to team up on a regular basis (heh heh heh. Flame on. Still funny) to a 2018 crossover with Captain Marvel. Included is a separately bound facsimile of The Amazing Spider-Man #1, originally published in March of 1963. If I were going to break up the set, which I’m not, I’d consider giving that to my dad even though it isn’t even close to the original he bought when he was 10 years old and his mother threw away when he left for college because it was crowding their two bedroom Queen’s (no, I’m not kidding) apartment. Thus, as a survey of Spidey history, this collection is perfect for long-time fans of the OG character, those who want to learn more, and the youngs who want to get a handle on which aspects of Peter’s story belong to which ‘verse before No Way Home premieres in December.
But if you’re trolling around on The Folio Society website, you’re not doing it just for the stories. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re making an investment for yourself or for someone you really, really like a lot, the volume you choose should be high on the list of favorite tales or a compilation of issues starring a beloved character. This is one time, however, in which you should do some of your judging not only by the cover but by the graphics, the colors, the layout, the paper quality, the way the cover cloth feels under your fingers… Aesthetics are equally as important as content to a project like Spider-Man and as always, The Folio Society design team has done an impeccable job.
Is it possible to fall in love with a color? It must be because I am in love with the red fabric on the slipcover. It’s vivid and marks the book as something special, something you want to pull off the shelf, the texture on it providing a little extra grip. It also makes the smooth blue of the spider pop in a really extraordinary way and lets you know whose story this is without any other symbols or words. Boom! Spider-Man! Yes.
The actual book cover repeats that same red while also giving us a sleek, modern Peter Parked backed by an older school New York in a sort of transitional 70s palette. The colors and angle give a nod not only to the many decades through which the Spider-Man has swung but also to Steve Ditko, who is famous for, among many other things, his work on Spider-Man and so many Stephen Strange’s magical shenanigans. It’s a fantastic homage to the artists and a reminder that the upcoming movie isn’t the first time the two heroes have been brought together - for better or for worse - and it probably won’t be the last.
My favorite visual in the book might be the endpapers; splashes of blue after the explosion of red, decorated with imperfect webs. One of the reasons we all love Spider-Man so much (in every universe and every incarnation) is that he/she/they are one of us; Peter, Miles, Gwen, Jessica, Cindy… no matter where they came from or who they are, they’re out there doing their best as humans and much as they are as heroes. It’s not an easy life, especially if you have to keep a day job to get by or go to school or… you know, escape a bunker. But the webs don’t have to be perfect, they just have to be strong. They just have to hold you up. They just have to keep you going.
The paper inside the book is also perfect; super smooth and matte-ivory rather than white and glossy which works way better with reproductions of comics from the 60s and 70s when the color palette was limited and there’s been some fade over time. Spider-Man exists mostly in primary and secondary shades and they brighten naturally with the darker paper in a way that’s much more pleasant to the eye. It also makes the occasional appearance of a skin tone that isn’t white or… green… less ashy and vaguely more probable (I mean… Marvel did slightly better than DC. I guess).
Spider-Man is another absolute comics beauty from The Folio Society and would make a fantastic gift for Spidey fans, comics lovers and collectors, comics historians, and even art fans and artists in your life. And hey, if that groups happens to include you, well. So much the better.