The Spider's Web

 

Remember back in the day when upcoming writer / artist Todd McFarlane co-owned a comic shop in Puyallup, Washington? No?

That's no surprise. Many people don't.

Though the store has since moved locations, and unfortunately closed down, The Spider's Web was a comic shop located in a small strip mall at  729 River Road. While these days it's an all you can eat sushi location, back in the 80's and early 90's, this location was the place to go not only for comics, but autographs from the soon to be megastar of the comic book industry.

Todd frequently made appearances at the shop, signing books for fans directly or for the store to put on shelves and sell later. Though he signed several books, the ones most notable for being sold by the the shop were the green and silver covers of 1990's Spider-Man number one.

This would lead to the mysterious red stamped issue. The book with its funny looking signature being passed off as Todd McFarlanes. Looking at the old signatures of the artist, many fans immediately write them off as forgeries, and poor ones at that. Little do they know, they are very much legitimate.

Being an age with no internet, this relatively unknown store, and its affiliation to McFarlane was left to the advertisements that were slapped on store windows, printed advertisements across paper fan magazines, and / or word of mouth of his pending appearance. So basically, word didn't spread far. As time went by, these books fell off the radar for many collectors, if they were ever on them to begin with, and have become an urban legend unto themself.

Such is the case of the promotion run by The Spider's Web, where they posted an ad in Comic Buyer's Guide issue 851, which offered one copy of Spider-Man number one, signed by Todd McFarlane. When this all began, co-store owner Kim Kolomyjec thought at best they would receive 8,000 or 9,000 orders. Little did her and McFarlane know, they would soon be diligently at work fulfilling 24,000 requests.

McFarlane spent months signing copies of the book, while Kolomyjec took on the one-man job of stamping each issue, boxing them up, and mailing them. As evidence of the signature, she provided a printed certificate of authenticity with each order, noting the stamp backing up the signature being legit.

Flipping the book over would reveal the stamp in question.

McFarlane signed two different versions of the green cover variants in silver pen and one of the silver cover variants with gold. More on this below.

Comic Buyers Guide would print a follow up story to the promotion in issue number 878.

Comic Buyers Guide Issue 878 Article

The store only web stamped the back of comics they sold through the promotion. Customers who came in with their own book to be signed when McFarlane was present didn't receive this or a COA. Coupled with the relatively unknown signature style, and you can see how many fans would call ones without this fake - even to this day. Meaning if you're going to try and sell this book as an authentic Todd McFarlane signature, you're going to have more luck with the stamp, COA and history of how it came to be in existence.

CGC acknowledges their existence, and there are a few graded copies here and there. Neither the green or silver covers seems more common or rare than the other, and they all sell within the range of fifty to ninety dollars. However, many of these don't have the COA, and this price range is only reflective of raw books, not graded. It's also worth noting that the second print gold cover was not signed / sold during this time, so you won't find ones with the stamp on them - Not legit ones anyway.

Green Cover / Purple Webs

Green Cover / Silver Webs

There are three different versions known to be in existence. Regarding the green covers, McFarlane signed both the purple webs, which he removed the polybag from, as well as the silver webs version. The silver cover he signed was the price printed direct edition, which did not come polybagged. It would, however, be interesting to see if any of the blue, or even rarer, copper lizard error printings were among any of the silver cover versions signed, as this is the print which these errors are known to exist in.


I don't know what it is about Spider-Man number one. I know the book sold over a million copies, yet I always want to pick them all up when I see them. I don't, because they aren't cheap, but I certainly have enough copies of it in various different versions. I would honestly buy a long box of this issue if the price was right.

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26 comments:

  1. That is crazy AWESOME! I wanna track down a signed copy now!!

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    1. Better hurry. I'm eyeballing a second copy of the $70.00 one on ebay. LOL!

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  2. Wow - interesting story. Everyone comes from humble beginnings.

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    1. Well, most of us. Some have the luxury of a silver spoon.

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  3. Apparently I have a signed Spawned number one with a COA from the spiders web, didn't realize McFarlane was connected to that place.

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    1. I didn't either. That is interesting. May have to track one down.

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  4. I bought a copy of each, Green & Silver, in 2009 for $25 each. I also got an ASM #316 signed in the same, hurried, autograph for $20 from Yancy Street Comics in Port Richey, FL. It's my LCS and they had a pile of them, probably 5 or each. I was going to buy more but by the time I went back to check they were all sold. Someday, the original artwork for that cover is going to sell for over a million. Great cover, terrible story.

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    1. Yeah, for as great an artist Todd is, he's not the strongest writer by any sense of the word.

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  5. I have a silver with gold sig w/coa... if it really is legit this book will be epic one day

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  6. My dad used to take me there as a boy especially on days when Todd would come in to sign comics. I have several signed spawn comics from way back then. If it wasn’t for that place I don’t think I would have become the comic book lover or the same person I am today.

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    1. That's awesome! Hopefully you still have those signed books. If not, you at least still have the memories, which sound like great ones.

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  7. was lucky to see an ad back in the day for signed copies of the regular cover and the silver cover of Spider-Man 1from a shop out of Puyallup WA, I was working at a shop in Eugene, Oregon and I guess the only person working in shops around here to see it, so I talked my boss into buying 25 of the regular and 15 of the silver and he was glad I did as we were the only shop in town selling em.
    the only bad thing was that they sent one certificate of authenticity letter per style of issue 1 so we got 2 for 40 books... we photocopied them and added em to the books when we sold em

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    1. That's so awesome. I lived in Bend Oregon at the time, and it would have been really cool to have gone to your store. But I was just a kid, and with no internet, I would have had no way of knowing you guys even existed.

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  8. My lcs in Winnipeg ordered a bunch in 1990. I paid $20 Canadian for a signed silver copy. I kept it safe in a plastic bin for 32 years. I’m getting it back from CBCS this week it came back verified and 9.8 white pages. The Coa was just a photocopy that was distributed with these comics. Good memories. for sure.

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    1. Thanks for commenting. I never knew if it was a photocopy of the certificate or if it was printed in stamped each time.

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  9. What a blast from the past! I would go there as a kid/young teenager myself. I met Todd once and had him autograph my copy of Spawn #1. My friend got him to draw a bust of Spawn on a piece of printer paper with a sharpie. That man is incredibly talented!

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    1. I met him at a convention, and got an auto from him in person. It's amazing how he's one of the most popular and known comic artists, and charges nothing for his autograph.

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  10. I have a couple of these. Even have the og letter (I think just one copy). Not sure what they are worth these days but these stories were epic.

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  11. I just want to say thank you for posting this! Never realized what I have for all these years!!! I questioned both the signature and cheesy COA. Now I know really enjoyed reading the history. I even have the comic shop paper bag it came in with the greats on it Punisher, Ghost Rider etc!!! Thanks again

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    1. You are welcome. Thanks for reading. Would love to see the bag.

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  12. When I bought my #1 copies from the Spider's Web I also bought issues #2 - #6 also signed. Issues 2 - 5 his signature is like issue 1 in silver but no stamp on the back. Issue 6 his signature is larger, about 2 inches in length in black sharpie, and no stamp also.

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    1. He signed a lot of books at the store throughout his career at Marvel. I'm sure there are some folks out there that have entire runs of The Amazing Spider-Man, and more.

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  13. I have a silver signed copy

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