“The Amazing Spiderman – The Mark of the Man-Wolf” Book & Record

MovieBrainRot brought this up the other day on Twitter, and it brought back some fond childhood memories of Books and Records.

I know some of the kids out there are saying, “Records?” But yes, I’m old enough to have had child hood that involved small spinning discs that were of the non-digital variety. Back in our day, this was about as interactive as entertainment got. This was long before Leap Frog and the kinds of interactive toys that are around today.

If you are wondering about the interactive part, here it is. With these kinds of records there would be a tone or sound effect that would signal when to turn the page or flip the record over. Mrs. Nerd applied this principal to small business in a blog post last year in her own funny and insightful manner.

I had a number of these as a kid, I remember this one most vividly, though. I don’t know if it was it because it was Spidey or what, but I do remember it well. I also recall having a Planet of the Apes set, as well as one for the “The Empire Strikes Back.”

Sadly, I don’t have the record for “The Mark of the Man-Wolf” anymore. It was your standard 45 rpm record. Even if I did have it, I don’t have anything I could have played it on to record it.

I do still, obviously, have the book portion. The cover and inside paper are heavier than a regular comic book, so it’s held up okay. A quick glance at the cover shows a price of $1.49 next to a tag line of, “It’s fun to read as you hear!” And people wonder why I talk the way I do.

The inside art is pretty nice comic book art for the time. You would think as a kids thing this would have been more cartoony, but it’s not. I’m guessing this is taken directly from a Marvel comic book. While the art might be the same as the original, I’d be surprised if the text wasn’t redone a bit for the record. Ironically, there are no credits in it.

The story revolves around J. Johan Jameson and his son. His son being the a famous astronaut that brought back a moon rock that turns him into the aforementioned Man-Wolf. While not one of Spidey’s greatest foes, a pretty nifty self contained story. I really thought this story line was going to show up in the Spiderman movies, since they made mention of the whole astronaut thing.

I have to say compared to comics I have from the same time frame, the color is really vibrant in this book. This is how I remember comic books. Don’t get me wrong, most modern comics are works of art. But there’s something about that 70’s style of ink and color that just takes me back to the joy of comic books from my youth.

Also, the inside cover art work is one of those nifty amalgams you used to see back in the day. There’s the normal heroes, Dr. Strange and The Hulk juxtaposed with Man-Thing and Planet of the Apes. Cool stuff.

Anyway, I loved these things as a kid. I used to sit and listen to them over and over. They were the perfect spark to a young nerdlings imagination to bring comic books to life.

Tags: Man-Wolf, Marvel, Record, Spiderman

Category: Book & Graphic Novels, Featured, Media Reviews, Musings