Staff : Jonathan Couper

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Name: Jonathan Couper (E-Mail) Status: Married with no criminal record. Two children. Occupation: Computer Super-Wizard Born: 1967 City: Pauatahanui, Wellington, New Zealand. Website: You're Reading It

Introduction: I'm the editor for the page. I have about 90% of Spider-Man's appearances, and have picked up a lot of general info, although you must remember that New Zealand is a long way from the heart of the Marvel Universe. I do travel quite a bit, so I can sometimes seem a little unresponsive - but I always eventually respond to every e-mail I receive!

Collects: All Spider-Man, Daredevil, Elektra, Inhumans. Gave up collecting X-Men back in 1995. I also collect Spidey books, computer games, die-cast vehicles, View-Master, CD/vinyl, and other bits and pieces.

My collection is around 5,000 books. 95% Marvel.

Why Spider-Man: At the age of 11 or 12, I picked up a B/W reprints spidey comic one day instead of buying lunch. It was "24 hours to doomsday", ASM 196/197 or so. I was fascinated, but I have no idea why. My mom was a solo mum, so maybe I saw Spidey as a father figure. I was also a math geek, but I don't recall the geeky side being important. By this stage, Spidey was living by himself, the Black Cat wanted to smooch him, and he had lost much of his geekiness.

I collected casually for a couple of years, then stopped when I changed schools. Then, at the age of 16, I bought a copy of ASM #166 at a market in Australia. The collecting bug bit much harder the second time.

Favourites: I've been a slow learner about comics. I know embarassingly little about the history and the industry. My favourite stories? I remember being woken up by Peter David's work in Spectacular. I thought the Punisher was really cool, and collected his stuff for a while. Mostly nowadays, I spend too much time running the page to worry about the comics! If I had to choose a favourite period, it would probably be the early college years. From ASM 60 through to about 150. My favourite X-Men period would be similar, from Uncanny 25 through to 66. Oh, yeah, Spidey smashing through Hobgoblin's van. That is a real memory. The ASM run around that time was fantastic too. The first real color comic I bought off a real newstand rather than from a second hand shop was Gang War part one, so that period sticks in my mind.

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