Spidey spins his web in The Gazette

So did you see the full-page ad in today’s Gazette promoting the free “Amazing Spider-Man” comic book that will appear in the paper on Sundays?

Here’s what I know about it. It begins Aug. 20 and includes Spider-Man’s earliest adventures, starting with Spidey’s debut in “Amazing Fantasy” No. 15. The insert, which will be carried by more than 1,100 newspapers, is the result of a collaboration between Marvel Comics and News America Marketing, “a leading provider of newspaper-delivered and in-store advertising and promotions.”

The idea is to reach young readers while also “drawing on the nostalgia associated with the classic comics.”

“Consumers want to know how their favorite superheroes became ‘super,’” Robert Sabouni, Marvel Comics’ vice president of custom publishing, said in a press release back in November announcing the project. “What better way to tell the story than through the original comic books themselves?”