Golden Books 3642: Spider-Man - Web of Villains

Background

Golden Books is most famous for its distinctive Little Golden Books small format hardback with gold foil on the spine. Spider-Man was remarkable slow in getting his own entry in that classic format (not until 2012 did we see a Little Golden Spider-Man).

But Golden Books did feature Spidey in various other formats in the 70s's and then again in the 90's. There were five Spider-Man Books (Golden/Merrigold) story books, and nearly a dozen Spider-Man Color/Activity (Golden Books) — including this example right here.

Story Details

This "Web of Villains" coloring/activity book contains "Puzzles & Mazes". Published in 1997 it marked the end of the web-line for such interactive products under the Golden Books name.

It is a slender, basic format book. It is magazine size (8" x 10.8") but just feels lightweight with just 40 pages of black and white printing on cheap newsprint. The cover is glossy card with a glue binding.

General Comments

The line art is just right for coloring, and features Spidey along with many of his classic villains. As promised on the cover, all pages feature a puzzle or a maze.

The page count isn't high, and there's nothing noteworthy about this product. It's just a perfectly competent, slimline coloring and activity book. The design work is entirely adequate, the page layouts are totally fine, and the balance of consistency and variety is pleasing.

Overall Rating

There's no suggested price, so I can't say if this book was good value or not when it was first published.

The "collector" in me values this book highly because it took me ten years of hunting to finally track down a copy! This is a "perfectly good" book and merits a slightly above-average rating.