I don’t actually know where this came from. I know I got it as an adult. I suspect my Mom gave it to me, having picked it up at a thrift store or garage sale or something and thought I’d like it. I didn’t even get the record!
This book is really interesting to me, because the art is not credited and seems all over the place. I’ve read online that the actual record credits the writing to one “Arthur Korb,” but no artist is credited anywhere. Almost all the Spider-Men in it seem traced from a real comic. The Dragon Men often look like they’re drawn by Gil Kane, but just as often don’t, which makes me think the ones that do were traced from his Lizard in ASM 102. It’s a weird, weird deal. We open on a group of kids identified as “beginner students in astronomy” watching a meteor shower that looks like it landed nearby. 2 of the kids have snuck off with other things in mind.
The next day, JJJ is furious they don’t have pictures of dragon men and tasks Peter with finding some. He’s just walkin’ down the street thinking he doesn’t believe in dragon men when MJ runs into him.
I don’t know who drew this, but I’d bet a dollar Vince Colletta inked it. I’m not gonna bother pointing out all the swipes or I’d be here all night, but suffice it to say, quite possibly every single Spider-Man in this book is swiped from Ditko, Romita or Kane. Spidey soon finds a big underground chamber full of the dragon men he doesn’t believe in, and is astonished.
Ok, I just had to confirm my suspicions, and yeah, the Draco in panel 3 is straight up The Lizard from ASM 102. Liz was even shaking his fist so his hand would be right there to copy.
Draco plans to make the world declare him its ruler after this. You know, real book’n’record stuff. Spidey tricks him into fighting so he can get away from the controls, then webs them up so the machine can’t fire. But as the rest of the dragon men come after him, he decides to flee.
I mean, look, that’s the Ditko Spidey I caught Ron Frenz copying. The whole book’s like this. Later that night, the newspaper reveals the dragon men were robots. Spider-Man’s surprised by this, and swings up onto the Empire State Building to think about it for awhile. And wouldn’t you know Draco is up there for some reason?
It’s kind of jarring to see this book switch from instantly recognizable Romita, Kane and Ditko Spider-Men from panel to panel. The two of them scrap for a bit, and then poison fumes from Draco’s fire breath almost kill our hero (Even here, gas is his worst enemy), but Draco charges at him, and when Spider-Man dodges, he falls off the building.
Well, that wasn’t the most intellectually stimulating comic I’ve read. But I owned it, so I read it. It’s in my contract. Now, odds & ends will continue with something that’s not actually comics.