The Mistery and the Hoax

MY FIRST NOGRADE (NG)... and the strange story of the mysterious UOMO RAGNO (Spider-Man) #59

While I am still waiting for CGC to award me with my first 9.9 (almost 1000 books submitted and no 9.9 to date ), I would like to entertain you with the strange story of the misterious UOMO RAGNO (Second Series) #59 italian edition.

Spider-man and all other Marvel Heroes were published in Italy from April 1970 (almost 8 years after AF15!) by a publisher named EDITORIALE CORNO. Marvel comics flooded italian newsstand with print runs of over 200.000 copies in mid 70s... But the advent of MANGAs and ANIMEs and the low quality of the late 70s' Marvel stories quickly lead EDITORALE CORNO to bankrupt.

UOMO RAGNO (First Series) terminated with issue #283 in March 1981 but the publisher attempted to relaunch the character with SETTIMANALE DELL'UOMO RAGNO (3/1981-1/1982) and finally with UOMO RAGNO Second Series. The Second Series resisted a couple of years (3/1982-2/1984) until issue #58, due to EDITORIALE CORNO bankrupt.

But, for many years a real mistery fascinated italian collectors: somebody claimed that #59 had been printed but never distributed. In fact, the last page of #58 had a preview of the #59 cover (the same of Spectacular Spider-Man's #58 "Ravaged by the Ringer" in the original USA version).

The "Golden Age" of Italian superheroes had ended leaving all italian Marvel Fans orphans...for years! Later somebody found some of the printing plates of issue #59, but other sources later confirmed that it never made it to the printer...

Three years passed and in 1987, STAR COMICS restarted to publish Marvel Comics (after another unsuccesfull attempt by LABOR COMICS in 1985), but guess what... issue #1 of UOMO RAGNO Third Series came out with the same cover (Spectacular Spider-man #58) that should have had to be used for #59 Second Series...

The demand for #59 Second Series remained high, also because a collector (and friend of mine) kept maintaining the mistery alive by claiming he had some copies...

His hoax continued until 2004, when that same guy produced issue #59....in 59 copies (could it be otherwise??). The uniqueness of this production is the total originality of this book: not to be confused with a reprint as it is not the reproduction of something that already existed. The book, instead is a recreation with the same graphic, structure (stories of Spider-Man and Captain America, Fan Club insert, central poster, ads)and paper of a 1984 book that was never published.

The big hype created by this event is still alive today, some people love and other people hate this initiative but perpetrating a joke like this to us collectors for 20 years has been devilishly ingenious!!!

I submitted my #59 (37/59) in 2013 and CGC sent it back to me...slabbed but with a nefarious NG (NO GRADE)... probably the fame of this story had already reached the atlantic too!!!

...More pics on the boards...

CIAO!

FEDERICO - ITALY

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