Obama’s Spidey Comic Sells Out

Earlier this month we reported on the teaming up of President-Elect Barack Obama and (almost) everyone’s favorite superhero, the Amazing Spider-Man. The new Marvel comic went on sale this morning, and sold out within hours. Sewell Chan made the scene for The New York Times’ City Room blog:

Hundreds of people were standing in cold weather on a Midtown Manhattan street on Wednesday morning to get copies of Marvel Comics’s special Spider-Man comic book, in which the superhero meets Barack Obama, who is featured on the cover.

Sewell reports that the issue was published under two cover variations and Midtown Comics had sold out of both versions by mid-afternoon.

The line outside Midtown Comics began forming before the store opened at 10 a.m. Bronko Spaleta, 38, and “frostbitten, but otherwise good,” stood at the front door, ushering those in line into the store, which can only accommodate about 20 customers at a time because of fire and building safety codes.

Each customer was allowed to buy only one copy of the Obama comic book (and one copy of the one without the variant Jimenez cover). “It’s one of each cover,” Mr. Spaleta told those waiting on line. “Please do not jump back in the line.”

Chan’s piece is here. According to Comics Weekly, a second print run will ship next week.