For years I’ve paraphrased a gag from Wayne’s World 2 about Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive album. In the movie Wayne says everyone had a copy of the album and that it came in the mail with sample of Tide.

My gag is that everyone of my comic book generation had a copy of Spider-Man #1. You were issued a copy when you went to the comic shop.

(I have since been told by numerous people around my age that they never had a copy and to that I say you are missing the point of a gag. To which they would say, “Well, be funny then.” To which I respond by simply sighing and walking away.

Anyway, Spider-Man #1 was popular. Like really popular. It came in a bag before that was a thing in comics. It had multiple printings. It had a premium version issued to comic shops as a thank you for ordering so many freaking copies of the book.

Basically, Spider-Man #1 did everything Superman #75 did first with the exception of making international news and being a story that was actually…you know…good.

(stares at camera)

Apparently, Spider-Man #1 was so popular that Marvel put out a black and white “keepsake” set. This was similar to the portfolios that DC put out in the late eighties and early nineties about everything from History of the DC Universe to A Lonely Place of Dying, except the Spider-Man keepsake was much smaller. Small enough to be scanned on a standard printer. Which is what I did.

Is this anything special? Kind of. I mean it’s cool as an artifact, and the art is McFarlane at peak Spider-Man McFarlane. The smaller size makes it less impressive but it’s still a neat piece of nineties nostalgia.

Enjoy basking in the black and white glory of Todd McFarlane Spider-Man.

More to follow…