The Astonishing Spider-Man
MARVEL TREASURY EDITION — Issue no. 18, August 1978
Book: Marvel Treasury Edition
Issue No.: 18
Published: August 1, 1978
Title: “The Astonishing Spider-Man” (reprints four Marvel Team-Up stories)
Cover Price: $2.00
Format: Digital scan
I’ve written about how Marvel had several regular reprint books in the late 1970s. Aside from the oversized Marvel Treasury series, Marvel was publishing monthly and bi-monthly books reprinting older stories focusing on specific characters, like Marvel Super-Heroes (Hulk stories) and Marvel’s Greatest Comics (Fantastic Four stories). I’ve also written about how these books were a key way for newer readers to read old Marvel stories, because trade paperbacks weren’t a thing back then.
Which isn’t exactly true. This CBR article explains that there were a handful of Marvel trade paperbacks available by 1978. (It also explains the origin of the term “trade paperback” as applied to comic book reprints.) Those early trades came out via Fireside Books (a division of Simon & Schuster). According to Wikipedia, six Fireside trades had been released as of mid-1978: Origins of Marvel Comics, Son of Origins of Marvel Comics, Bring on the Bad Guys, The Superhero Women, The Best of Spidey Super Stories, and The Incredible Hulk.
Except for the Spidey and Hulk books, all of the early trades focused on multiple characters — lots of origin stories in there, as you might guess from the titles.
Modern comic book trade paperbacks generally focus on a specific story arc (or two) from a specific title. Based on that, I’d argue the first modern Marvel trade was the X-Men trade the company published in 1984. That book reprints X-Men nos. 129 – 137, the iconic Dark Phoenix story arc. Coincidentally, I used to have a copy of that trade because when I got into the X-Men in the mid-1980s, I immediately wanted to read more X-Men stories, and that trade hit the spot.
Back to 1978, aside from Marvel’s regular reprint comics, they published the quarterly Marvel Treasury book, and each Treasury generally focused on a key character and reprinted a few of that character’s stories. But not necessarily any long arcs. This Spider-Man Treasury, for example, reprints four issues of Spidey’s Marvel Team-Up book — nos. 4, 12, 15, and 31. I’m not really seeing a unifying theme here, except maybe the guests (the X-Men, Werewolf by Night, Ghost Rider, and Iron Fist, respectively) would all have been categorized as offbeat or unusual at the time. At least compared to other guest stars in the early issues of Marvel Team-Up, like the Fantastic Four’s Human Torch, Thor, and Hulk.
One area where Marvel Treasury outdoes regular reprint books and even trade paperbacks is size — the oversized format (10" by 14" instead of the regular comic book size of 7" by 10") makes reading these books a special experience. At least if you are lucky enough to read them in their original format. As digital scans go, they look basically like any other digital comic book scan.
And that’s how I read this Marvel Treasury, as a digital scan. I do have a few Spider-Man Treasury books in my collection — like my Star Wars treasury book, my Spidey treasuries are some of the few comics I still have from when I was a kid, but neither is from 1978. I have Treasury nos. 22 and 27. And the extra-special Marvel Treasury no. 28 starring Spider-Man and Superman, published in cooperation with DC Comics.
This Marvel Treasury closes with a few photos from the late-1970s live-action Amazing Spider-Man TV show, in a bit of mighty Marvel cross-promotion. The Spider-Man show wasn’t as popular as the Incredible Hulk show of the era, but I am slightly obsessed with it. Partly because it still hasn’t gotten a proper DVD or Blu-ray release. I know the show isn’t great, but it’s an important piece of Marvel TV history, and that’s reason enough for it to be commercially available.
Next time — Daredevil versus the Black Widow and the Avengers!
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