Spider-Man Have Fun With Activities (China) CJ-990Q

Background

Oh how wonderful! Here's yet another Chinese Spider-Man Coloring/Activity Book!

The full name of this particular example is "Spider-Man Have Fun With Activities Game Stickers The Amazing Spider-Man Colouring Game Achvhy Sticker".

Yep, that is indeed "Achvhy" in the title. I presume it's supposed to be "Activity", but the Chinese guys who wrote the book couldn't work out the correct spelling, and presumably they hoped we probably couldn't either.

Story Details

The book is 8.3" x 11.2" with a glossy staple-bound cover. The word "Activities" on the cover is actually embossed and stamped with sparkling foil. Clearly no expense has been spared! Apart from expense in creating original artwork, paying licence fees to Marvel, or employing an English-Speaking grammar checker.

The content is a lightweight 16 pages. To be fair, the printing and manufacturing process is better than the standard for Chinese-designed products, with gray-scale printing (not just black and white). The paper stock is also a reasonable grade. There is an additional centerfold with two pages of full-color stickers.

The artwork is stolen from a number of sources, including some non-Spidey clip art. The major amusement in this product comes from the Chinglish language used in the captions. The very first page offers a blank frame with three books and roll of toilet paper, and implores the reader to:

"Let the children draw their own imagining things with developing their right-brain creativity."

A maze (with Spider-Man at the start and a rubbish bin as the goal) says:

"The interest of maze game attributes to its certainty of exploration, which is very much in line with children's nature."

Turn the page, and the next maze (there are lots of mazes in this book) says:

"Hi kids, SPIDER-MAN is getting lost, pls help she find the bus  go to school."

In the last few pages, Spider-Man almost disappears entirely as alphabet practice takes over from Super Heroes. Pictures of snails, butterflies and goats replace the web-slinger.

General Comments

Mangled Language isn't the only shortcoming of the book. Bizarre graphic design has one Spider-Man squatting right on top of another Spider-Man in a coloring page, as if he is taking a dump on his clone.

Also, Spidey's number one slogan (according to this book) is "SPIDER POWER!"

To be fair, the stickers are reasonable quality – purely because the artwork has been stolen from a high resolution source and reproduced without the usual garish backgrounds which Chinese sticker books usually apply in order to remove any shred of dignity from their subject.

Overall Rating

At least the logos are printed the right way around, the ink isn't missing anywhere, and the pages are made of something thicker than single-ply toilet paper.

But the superficial polish on this dried excrement can't change the fundamental fact that this product is created with stolen material, and assembled by people with no sense of taste and no understanding of the language they are attempting to publish in.

One measly web.