Essential Spiderma #1

I just won this on ebay and it is black and white, was the orginal Spiderman comics b&w then?

Hours of fun await

Does it not take anything away from it now just being in two tone. I really like Batman Black & White, but that was drawn in b&w orignialy so that works, does this or does it look pants?

They were in colour (although I think in those days they didn't credit the colourist, which might explain why you're confused).

If the Essentials were in colour then it would massively increase the production costs; the point of the format is to be cheap, so they're deliberately in B&W. Of course, a strong argument can be made that this is not the way the stories were intended to be seen; but the counter-argument is that it's better than not being able to afford them at all.

No. I don't think there's ever been an original Spidey story in black&white. The Essential reprint is omitting the color to keep the price of the volume fairly low.

- Tue

Wasn't the first of the two SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN MAGAZINEs in black & white?

Actually, it was the color issue, #2, that was reprinted as the 1973 annual, with 18 pages cut out. The black and white #1 was reprinted in Amazing Spider-Man #116-118, albeit substantially redrawn and rewritten.

The black & white #1 was reprinted in late 2001 / early 2002 in a facsimile edition.

The third argument is that black and white lets Ditko's fluid detailed art really shine. Comparing the Essentials with the color reprints of the early issues that I've seen, I think the Spider-man and Dr. Strange Essentials look better. The sloppy colors available at the time drown out a lot of Ditko's subtleties.