Spider-Man Chinese Coloring Book (Sticker)

Background

Hot on the heels of my review of the all-time worst Spider-Man coloring book ever (Spider-Man Chinese Coloring Book (Large)) comes this follow-up review of a complimentary sticker book. This 16 page soft cover is 7 1/4" x 10".

Story Details

The interior artwork here is significantly better than that of the Spider-Man Chinese Coloring Book (Large) disaster. I have a vague feeling that the artwork looks a little familiar, I suspect it's ripped-off from a more legitimate, possibly licensed production.

There's only sixteen pages total. The paper is recycled, and while not flimsy, it's definitely thin enough to see the picture on the other side. There's one Doc Ock image, and one half-Peter/half-Spidey image, the rest is pure Spidey. But the punchline in this joke is the "Stickers". They form the only full-color page in the book but... they're not sticky!

In fact, you need to provide your own scissors and glue to turn this page of colored artwork into something which sticks. As provided, all you get is a page of sixteen full-color Spidey images, with lines showing you where to cut! If you do cut-out the stickers, you lose on of the remaining fifteen Spidey coloring pictures!

The cover artwork looks like art scanned from the covers of Ultimate Spider-Man, and assembled by computer. The background art of the cover looks like it came from a cartoon show, perhaps. There's no manufacturers information, no date, no ISBN. I'm assuming that this is a product of China, and I'm allocating it the year 2007 because that's when I paid a buck for it in a discount store.

General Comments

What a rip-off! Do-it-yourself stickers? The adequate quality of the stolen artwork is all that keeps this book from self-imploding into a black hole of its own essential cruddiness. And sixteen lousy pages? If you're going to steal a coloring book, why not at least steal a large one?!

Overall Rating

Just when you're worried about somebody in China stealing your livelihood, something like this comes along and reminds you just how low China tends to set the bar when it's not being quality-controlled by an international name.

Rest assured, if you work in the Spider-Man coloring book industry, your job is probably safe for a little while longer.

One web.