Spider-Man’s Christmas (1984)

Spider-Man’s Christmas, a Super-Size Coloring Book, was released in 1984 presumably as companion book to the Marvel Super-Heroes’ Christmas. Aspiring artists were invited to color a story featuring Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Aunt May and the Green Goblin.

An oddity with the book is the fact there are two editions. One is 32-pages in length and another 24 pages.

Hanging 10 on the ‘Net it looks as if the 32-page book has a gold binding and the abbreviated 24-page version has a red binding. Don’t hold me to this, but the descriptions on eBay seem to prove that theory out.

Note the shameless Secret Wars plug

Marvel was on the marketing move in 1984. In addition to its Secret Wars line the company licensed the rights to color its creations with a couple activity books including this one. The only thing rarer than seeing the Rhino peeking through the holly is finding an edition untouched.