Spider-Man: The first 21 stories

Actually, he shouldn't have existed at all, because who wants to read about a rather uncool teenager and a story with a spider? When Stan Lee first presented the idea of Spider-Man in 1962, everyone was skeptical, but he was given a chance and invented one of the most popular superheroes ever. Now a 698-page volume has been published by Taschen Verlag, which is also a great movie in terms of book design.

Grafikmagazin The Marvel Comics Library. Spider-Man. Vol. 1. 1962-1964

Peter Parker lived in uncool Queens, had money worries and family problems and things didn't work out in love either. Who wants to read stories like that? Stan Lee's boss Martin Goodman rightly asked the same question, and besides, comic book heroes in the early 1960s were grown men and not scrawny teenagers. Nevertheless, Lee was given a chance and was allowed to try out his unlikely hero in Amazing Fantasy . The series was due to be discontinued anyway.

But then the series with Spider-Man on the cover shot to the top of the Marvel bestseller list that year. Stan Lee had created a new type of superhero and, in co-creator and illustrator Steve Ditko, had found exactly the right partner to make Spider-Man look incredibly cool. Ditko's great scenery and perspectives convey agility, height and speed so directly that you almost feel like you're swinging through the canyons of Manhattan on a silken thread. Steve Ditko was also able to recreate the world of teenagers very authentically, because even as Spider-Man, Peter Parker doesn't succeed at everything.

The heavyweight volume "The Marvel Comics Library. Spider-Man. Vol. 1. 1962-1964" brings Spider-Man back to life as he appeared in the first 21 stories. And this is to be taken literally, because the comics have not been recolored as is usually the case. In collaboration with Marvel and the Certified Guaranty Company, the most immaculate comics were opened and photographed for reproduction. Each page was photographed as it was printed more than half a century ago and then digitally enhanced using modern retouching techniques to correct the imperfections of the cheap, imperfect printing of the time - as if it had just come off a first-class printing press from the 1960s.

So this volume is a feast for collectors, also because it is almost as big as the original issues. But you don't have to be a Spider-Man nerd to enjoy this book. Blue double pages, rattles and, of course, great drawings, plus you learn a lot about the creators, background information and a lot about the history of this legendary comic. And it's actually a lot of fun to immerse yourself in the original stories and travel back in time.