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Monday, December 15, 2025

The Groovy 1970's Christmas Countdown: Spider-Man the Newspaper strip -Stan Lee & John Romita Snr

I don't recall ever reading the Spider-Man newspaper strip in my local/national papers but I did read them when I picked up vol 1 of the collected strips in 2005. Most newspaper adventure strip rarely had much of a Christmas storyline to them as they were probably in the middle of an ongoing adventure as the festive season arrived. However, the Spider-Man newspaper strip went all out and featured a specially written Christmas themed tale.
This story follows on from an earlier segment involving J Jonah Jamieson who hires Kraven the Hunter to capture Spider-Man. As can be seen from the above colour Sunday strip, in the story Peter heads to a department store to buy Christmas presents but it is so busy that he decides to shop as Spider-Man. The strip then meanders a bit and over the next few instalments Peter basically goes through the presents he bought and calls Mary Jane and Aunt May. The action improves (very slightly) when Spider-Man see a crook and captures him. This is not the best Christmas tale but it has a. certain charm to it and of course it is nicely illustrated by the late great John Romita.
Next up: Hot toys, comics, and Santa all in a Christmas comic!
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3 comments:

  1. KidDecember 15, 2025 at 10:30 PM

    There's a rumour I read somewhere (I say 'rumour', though it might well be true) that Stan's brother Larry ghost-wrote a lot of the newspaper strip, but as to whether he wrote it from the beginning or took over later, I couldn't say. Romita was a great artist and brilliant visual storyteller.

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  2. McSCOTTYDecember 15, 2025 at 11:05 PM

    I wasn't aware of that Kid . I only bought this a few years ago in a Forbidden Planet sale for Romita's lovely art.

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    1. KidDecember 16, 2025 at 12:38 AM

      Actually, as the mists of memory's maze dissipate, I think it might've been Roy Thomas who ghost-wrote the strip for Stan. Larry started drawing it at some point (under his own name), but I can't remember whether he wrote it as well. Somebody's bound to know for sure.

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The Groovy 1970's Christmas Countdown: Spider-Man the Newspaper strip -Stan Lee & John Romita Snr

I don't recall ever reading the Spider-Man newspaper strip in my local/national papers but I did read them when I picked up vol 1 of t...