Astonishing Spider-Man
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Astonishing Spider-Man is part of Marvel UK's 'Collector Edition' line. It is being published by Panini Comics but reprints Marvel Comics from the United States. This title reprints Spider-Man or Spider-Man related comics. It began in November 1995 after Panini Comics obtained Marvel UK's licence to reprint Marvel US's comics internationally. It has featured some competitions during its history and some articles on the Spider-Man movies just before they were released, but not as a common occurrence. The original cost of the comic was £1.99, although it now retails at £2.50. A subscription offer is available, for a cheaper price.
[edit] Format
The current format is 76 pages, usually 2 modern stories and one classic story reprinted. The cover is made out of thick card, unlike US that have a far thinner paper based cover. The comic contains a letter page entitled “The Web.” Astonishing Spider-Man was originally published every 28 days, but from April 2007, it is published fortnightly. It features very few adverts compared to the American comics it reprints, and all of these are either advertisements for other UK based Collector's Edition comic books, or other Marvel media. Recently the letters page contained a Mini-Marvel, though it no longer does. These were a 3 or 4 panel humorous comic strip based on the format of the Bullpen Bits of the 1960s. They were initially reprints of Chris Giarrusso's strips, and later original ones were commissioned from Lew Stringer.
[edit] Specials
Occasionally, the issue will be expanded to 100 pages at the same price. For example, issue 100 was a 100 page special and included an 8 page section that detailed the events that occurred in the first 99 issues. In 2005, to mark the title's 10th Anniversary another 100-page special was released, reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #506 and #300. To accompany the first appearance of Venom in the Collectors Editions, a feature was included that detailed the creation of the character. The 150th issue was also a hundred page special released in March 2007, with a 2 page fact file article on Carnage. Issue 50 was also a hundred page special edition.
[edit] Relaunch
On April the 19th 2007, Astonishing Spider-Man was re-launched as a second volume from issue #1, and is now published fortnightly, as opposed to four-weekly, though it retains the same publisher and editor. Despite refreshing the graphics, the format of the comic-book remains the same. The cover of the first issue was a shiny and metallic purple, as volume 1, #1 was a shiny metallic gold. Volume 2 has printed stories such as Spider-Man: Breakout, New Avengers and Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do.
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