From Fifteen Cents
to a Thousand Issues

The first Amazing Spider-Man I bought off the rack was issue #95. Fifteen cents. Today I walked into Blue Moon Comics in San Rafael with my daughter and picked up Amazing Spider-Man #1000. Ten dollars.

Yes. Ten U.S. dollars. It’s been a long ride.

I’ve collected earlier issues, but those came later in life. Number 95 is where my off-the-rack story starts. So this wasn’t just another Wednesday or another new comic book day. This was Spider-Man hitting a thousand, and I wanted to be there.

Parker Jane got out of school early and came with me. Her name is a little Peter Parker–Mary Jane mashup, and she embraces the fictional heritage her name bestows upon her. She’s also a Jeff the Land Shark collector. The guys at Blue Moon know her, love her, and we always have a good time.

A thousand issues. Two copies left?

In the shop, we were talking with Sam and the other folks, and I noticed there were only a couple of copies left on the shelf. With 30-plus covers floating around this milestone, I expected stacks. I asked about it. The explanation: allocation.

Are you kidding me?

How long have we been counting down to this book? Marvel’s legacy numbering takes us through restarts, different volumes, and detours. Whatever I think of that numbering—and I have thoughts—they knew a thousand was coming.

I’m an informed comic buyer of a certain age. That doesn’t mean I read every press release, every news story, or every message to retailers. I learned about the delay at the shop. My social feeds weren’t exactly waving a flag saying, “Hey, Sean, your milestone comic’s going to be late.”

So, yes, I think the rollout was mishandled. That’s my opinion. The production trouble was known before release day, yet here we were after a two-week delay, hearing about allocated orders. For a celebration this big, I was hoping for more.

There’s a second printing scheduled for October 28. Marvel had already announced it before release day, so I’m not going to pretend that proves it was their solution to the shorted orders. Source: Marvel’s September 11 announcement, published by ICv2.

I remember a different midnight

When Action Comics #1000 came out, I happened to be in New York City. I went to Midtown Comics in Times Square for the midnight release. There was a pretty good-sized group, I met up with friends, and it became a little social gathering. A celebration. That’s a cool memory I’ll always have.

I don’t regularly collect Action Comics, but I wanted to be part of the fun. Spider-Man is my guy. Maybe that’s why I wanted his thousandth issue to feel like more of an event.

Maybe I’m overthinking it. I was born in December 1964: the last baby boomer, if you will. Last one out the door, turn the lights out.

And then I bought three covers

Of course I did.

The first was Skan’s special Local Comic Shop Day cover, released the preceding Saturday, September 26. That edition got to readers before the regular Wednesday release. Because we all know how important it is to be first. Event date and early-sale authorization: retailer updates reproduced by Pepcomics.

Because we’re collectors. This is what we do.

We have to have the first, the last, the variant, the different, the gold foil, the embossed cover. Get it signed. Get it slabbed. Get it graded. It’s mayhem out here in Amazing Spider-Man land.

My other two were the Steve Ditko covers: the 1:50 black-and-white variant and the color version of the same artwork. Steve’s no longer with us, but the artwork is. That clean black-and-white treatment felt respectful. Out of all those choices, I went back to Ditko.

Parker picked the Patrick Gleason Web-Head variant. Spider-Man’s face in the middle, hands crossed in front of it, and those fluorescent, almost highlighter-colored spiders against black. Good choice.

Thankfully, the book delivered

Ten bucks is steep. But once I opened the book, I was happy to find that the milestone wasn’t just a collection of pinups and tiny anniversary stories.

The lead story kept going with what we’ve been following through #997, #998, #999, and into a thousand. That was exciting for me. I wanted to keep reading the story that had been building, and I got to.

A small storyline spoiler

The storyline I’m talking about involves Aunt May’s biological son returning to their lives, and the mayhem that follows. That’s about as much as I’ll spoil. Story-premise cross-check: Spider-Man Crawlspace’s #34 review.

Then came the celebratory extras, and there were some thoughtful choices. Frank Miller and Peach Momoko paired up for Tears of the Spider-Queen. The Big Night brought wrestler Triple H together with Ed McGuinness. Considering that wrestling is part of Spider-Man’s origin, that struck me as an interesting tip of the hat. Maybe an odd choice on paper, but one I could appreciate.

Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen were there, too. And then Larry Lieber and Giuseppe Camuncoli took things in a different direction with a Western. Story titles and pairings: the issue lineup reproduced by Bleeding Cool.

Larry is Stan Lee’s brother, a creator in his own right, and part of Spider-Man’s newspaper-strip history. That’s a meaningful connection to have in this celebration. Family relationship: Marvel. Newspaper-strip credits: Marvel.

And since we’re taking a detour: Stan was born Stanley Martin Lieber. He explained that he used a pen name while saving his real name for the great American novel he hoped to write. Funny how the comic-book name became the name everybody knew. Source: Stan Lee’s own account in his Fresh Air interview.

With Stuart Immonen, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Klaus Janson, and Pepe Larraz just crushing it, I felt there was plenty here to enjoy. The rollout left me grumbling. The actual book gave me a reason to keep turning pages. Additional creator-credit cross-check: Nerd Initiative.

A good day in Spider-Man land

And underneath all the covers and allocation talk, I had a really good day with my daughter. A trip to Blue Moon. Parker’s Jeff the Land Shark world meeting my Spider-Man world. Daddy-daughter coffee.

From a fifteen-cent comic to issue #1000, I’m still here, still reading, still getting sucked into variants, and now sharing it with Parker Jane.

It’s what we do.