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Tim Sale to Spiderman’s Life Story
This week’s article starts with a pickup. I got quite a few books but these were some of my best.
Tim Sale’s First Spiderman Cover
I was sad to hear Tim Sale passed back in June. He was one of those artists I could just recognize quickly because of his style. I came across this cover and just had to have it. Spiderman Blue was one of my first comic series to chase down when I started collecting comics seriously. His Daredevil Yellow was another classic and I bonded with an off-on comic fan over Hulk Grey. Tim Sale’s work was essential to engaging me in comic mini-stories. Batman Dark Victory, Long Halloween, and Superman for all Seasons. The pairing of Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale created some of the greatest mini-series to come out in the last 20 years.
An Added bonus for this book, are some great spiderman sketches by multiple artists in this issue. Could this be considered a negative space covers?
Spiderman Life Story
Thinking about Tim Sale and Spiderman Blue, I remembered another little mini-series. It got a lot of spec love early, but I haven’t heard too much about it lately. I decided to give it a read. It helps that it is written by my favorite modern writer, Chip Zdarsky. I had read the first issue when it came out but never finished the series. Issue 2 had some fun spec because there was a Black Goblin right around the time the Red Goblin was popular and I even think Moon Girl had a Pink Goblin in this same time period.
The Story
The more I think about this story the more I love it. This is the story you give to people who hates the fact heroes never age. Zdarksy starts from the early years of Spiderman and then approaches everything in “real-time”. Bad guys go to jail and age, Bad guys die and Peter ages, has a family, and aches.
To celebrate Marvel’s 80th anniversary, Chip Zdarsky and Spider-Man legend Mark Bagley unite to spin a unique Spidey tale – telling an entire history of Spider-Man from beginning to end, set against the key events of the decades through which he lived! From the Vietnam War to Secret Wars and Civil War, all the way through to what just might be a 72-year-old Spider-Man’s final mission, prepare to watch Peter Parker age through 57 years of groundbreaking history – and find out what happens to him and those he loves the most!
Spec?
Is there any spec? I don’t think Black Goblin is Spec-worthy, but I am very surprised no one cares about Peter’s two kids. We are getting another Spiderverse why can’t they drop into Earth 19529 and pick up Claire (issue 3). This Earth has a Miles too. Venom ends up possessing Kraven and he has a great ending in Issue 6. Add in Spiderverse’s ability to dimension hop with varying timelines, and we got an opportunity.
Each issue had a 1:25 variant and 1:50 for issue 1. I loved all the variants when they came out. I have tracked down most of these too. The decade’s theme is great. I love the Paul Pope #6 variant. Kaare Andrews’s 90s theme is great too. These issues sit between $15 to $35 with some patience you can get them for cheap.
Print Runs
The best bet might be in some of those later printings. Issue 1 had 54,000 ordered and the rest of the issues had around 37,000. The incentives would have around 1,500 copies, but the second printings are even less for issues 5 and 6. the 2nd prints are under 1,000.
Wrap up
This is a spec article full of wishful thinking. every spider character is fair game for the Spider-verse. Great stories need to be read. If you like spiderman and know your stories it’s a great What If story that follows a strand of what if one thing changed early in Spiderman’s career and what happened after throughout his life.