Wednesday, October 4, 2017

2017 Holiday Geekbook: Marvel: Spider-Man 1000 Dot-To-Dot Book


Marvel: Spider-Man 1000 Dot-To-Dot Book reviewed by Evelynn Faith Moon

I was pretty pumped to be given this book to play with, like all good comic book geeks I would LOVE to be as gifted as the artists I read on the page, so a dot to dot book seems like one avenue to fulfil my fantasy of creating a Marvel masterpiece. I am a big fan of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and Thomas Pavitte is known for creating a dot to dot version of the Mona Lisa, which is no small feat. I was excited to dive in and see what he did with some familiar faces.

I feel like an idiot now that I’m looking at the cover again it literally says “Spider Man 1000”, so that should have been my first clue as to how many dots I was in store for.





My excitement quickly turned to confusion when I cracked open the first page.



My initial reaction was “what am I looking at here?” The dots are SO tiny, I felt like this the entire time:




That being said, I don’t recommend this activity for anyone with poor eyesight; but being the good sport that I am (meaning: I’m incredibly stubborn and I finish what I start), I dove in and got dotting.
Each page is perforated so that it can be removed from the book itself and placed on a flat surface. Every 100 dots is different color to help you keep track of where you are at and what section you should be focusing on. It is suggested that each image takes on hour to complete (challenge accepted!) I appreciated that the introduction tells us that mistakes are okay and only add to the picture and reminds the reader that these things really look better from a distance. If mine comes out especially bad, I will be sure to look at it from as far away as possible.

I was feeling pretty good when I finished the first section in a matter of minutes and saw an eye begin to emerge out of the sea of tiny colored dots.



I got as far as seeing a face when my eyes needed a break



It was at this point, I texted Paul to complain and to eat lunch.




Also, behold! My very adult lunch of Count Chocula




Isn’t it glorious?

Feeling refreshed, I got back into the game, but somewhere around dot 7 hundred and 40 something, I completely lost where the next dot could be. I finally had to go to 799 and work my way backward to try and find it.




Eyestrain had become very real, but I was so close to finishing this work of art.



I discovered that I had created Mary Jane Watson, MJ! And it’s true, it really does look better from a distance. After all of this effort I may frame this thing.

My 3-year old did not understand this at all, my husband did not have the patience to really give this an honest shot. I think this book is really marketed toward adults, but we old folk have bad eyes, so kids might have an easier time. However this is NOT your typical dot to dot book that children are accustomed to, this is much more complex and could be potentially frustrating.

For those with superhero vision or a magnifying glass, this could be the comic book geek’s answer to adult coloring books. (I think my need for a magnifying glass is real, I finished my image over an hour ago and I can still feel the strain on my eyes).

My favorite part of this experience: after getting deep into this process, I had a weird sense of total calm from focusing on thing without distracting myself with anything else. Mainly because if I had I had stopped to check my phone or computer I would have not only lost my place, but the flow of my lines. There is something relaxing about allowing yourself to just think about one thing. I am by no means an amazing artist, but even I managed to pull off something relatively passable and, if you are so inclined, you can even try your hand at filling it in with some color to really make it your own. So yeah, Marvel, call me if you ever need someone to connect some dots, I’m your gal!

If you want to dot to dot art that is actually worth of framing and hanging check out the artists’ website: http://thomasmakesstuff.com

Thanks to Thunderbay Press for sending over Marvel: Spider-Man Dot-To-Dot Book!

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