The Spider (British comics)

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The Spider
TheSpiderRegBunn.jpg
The Spider, art by Reg Bunn.
Publication information
Publisher IPC Magazines
First appearance Lion (June 26, 1965)
Created by Ted Cowan (writer)
Reg Bunn (artist)
In-story information
Alter egoUnknown
Team affiliations"Professor" Pelham
Roy Ordini
The Army of Crime
Society of Heroes

The Spider is a British comic book character who began as a supervillain before becoming a superhero. He appeared in Lion between 26 June 1965 and 26 April 1969 and was reprinted in Vulcan . He was created by writer Ted Cowan and artist Reg Bunn. Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel took over the writing of the character with his third adventure, and would write the bulk of his adventures. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Publication history

The Spider first appeared in Lion from 26 June 1965, and his adventures were divided into serials of varying lengths. Soon after losing his second lawsuit contesting the ownership of Superman and subsequent sacking by DC Comics, Jerry Siegel made advances to Fleetway looking for work and was sent samples of various stories before choosing to work on the Spider. His first work on the character was published in the 8 January 1966 issue, the start of the serial "The Spider v Doctor Mysterioso". [5]

At the end of the serial NYD detectives Bob Gilmore and Pete Trask, who had been attempting to capture the Spider throughout the strip, made their last appearance, with the Spider instead battling a wide variety of fantastic villains instead. At the end of Siegel's third serial, "The Spider v the Executioner", the character renounced villainy and became more of an anti-hero. After the end of the serial "Ordini the Terrible" in the 1 February 1969 edition Siegel would leave Fleetway to work for Western Publishing. Staff writer Ken Mennell took over for two short serials before the feature ended following the 26 April 1969 issue of Lion. Bunn remained as artist throughout the strip's entire run in Lion. [5]

Parallel to his weekly adventures the Spider was also featured in the hardback Lion Annual books from 1967 to 1971, with a one-off reappearance in 1975. The character also featured in the picture library format Super Library Fantastic Series (renamed Stupendous Series from #3), with the Steel Claw featuring in the odd-numbered editions and the Spider in the even-numbered editions. These consisted of 128-page self-contained adventures and ran from 1967 to 1968. Due to the demands of the weekly strips and a lower page rate both the annuals and the Super Libraries featured different writers (including a returning Kearton, Mennell and staff writer Donne Avenell) and artists (including Aldo Marculetta and Francisco Cueto). [5]

A one-off new strip featuring the character appeared in the 1980 Lion Holiday Special, pitting the Spider against Lion stalwart Robot Archie. This strip was drawn by M. David Harwood. [5]

Overseas

The Spider's adventures were also reprinted in other countries, such as Germany (in Kobra), Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, India and others. [6]

Reprint runs

From 22 April 1972 to 8 December 1973 selected serials were reprinted in Lion. "The Spider v Spider-Boy" was truncated, with sections redrawn by John M. Burns. [5] Later, the format of Kobra was copied by Fleetway for the US-format reprint title Vulcan . Initially the title was trialled in Scotland only, where the first four serials reprinted from the first edition on 1 March 1975 to 20 September 1975. The fourth, "The Spider v the Android Emperor", was edited to allow the newly national volume to begin with "The Spider v the Exterminator". The title ended after the 3 April 1976 edition, leaving a reprint of "The Spider v the Crook from Outer Space" incomplete - while selected strips continued in an insert after Vulcan was merged with Valiant the Spider was not among them. A further reprint was also included in the sole Vulcan Annual. [5]

Fictional character biography

The Spider appeared in the 1960s in the United States with the aim to become the 'King of Crooks'. His base of operations was a Scottish castle he brought over to America He broke out several other criminals to become members of his army of crime and would clash with both the police and with other criminal masterminds. Among these were Mirror Man (who specialised in illusions), Doctor Mysterioso (a multi-talented scientist) and The Android Emperor (who could create a wide variety of robots). He also clashed with a number of criminal gangs, and one organisation, Crime Incorporated, hired the assassin The Exterminator to kill him. The Spider seemed defeated but struck an alliance with his would-be killer, and the pair took down Crime Incorporated. This achieved, the Spider drained the Exterminator, aging him decades with a booby-trapped handshake when the latter tried to double-cross him.

The Spider found fighting criminals to be exhilarating and decided to pit his wits against threats to mankind from now on. For a brief time, he was associated with the Society of Heroes (consisting Captain Whiz; Mr. Gizmo; Rex Robot; Tigro the Wild Man; Rockman; Snowman); all except The Spider died fighting the Sinister Seven. Other foes he faced included The Crime Genie, Spider-Boy, The Snake, The Death-Master, the Ant, the Red Baron, The Fly, The Molecule Man, The Chessman, and Mr. Stonehart.

Powers and abilities

It is unclear what powers, if any, The Spider has. He is physically fit, but probably not any more than most humans. He is supremely arrogant and self-confident. He is also cunning and intelligent, and a superb hypnotist. He has trained himself to be immune to his own knockout/poison gas.

The Spider wears a black form-fitting outfit along with a strange backpack/harness. The harness serves as a jetpack and webshooters, as well as the sources for his web gun and gas gun. He has a large number of gadgets of his own invention at his disposal. His reluctant allies are a pair of freed criminals, the genius 'Prof' Pelham and the safecracker Roy Ordini. They were the only members of his 'army of crime' to stay on after The Spider renounced his criminal ways. Despite this, he treated them very badly and in return they often tried to harm or even kill him. Their failures often brought humiliating punishments from their master.

Stories

Serials

StoryIssuesEpisodesWriterArtist
The SpiderLion 26 June - 4 September 196510 Ted Cowan Reg Bunn
Return of the SpiderLion 11 September 1965 - 1 January 196617 Ted Cowan Reg Bunn
The Spider v. Dr. MysteriosoLion 8 January - 26 March 196612 Jerry Siegel Reg Bunn
The Spider v. the Android EmperorLion 2 April - 18 June 196611 Jerry Siegel Reg Bunn
The Spider v. the ExterminatorLion 25 June - 17 September 196614 Jerry Siegel Reg Bunn
The Spider v. the Crook from Outer SpaceLion 24 September 1966 - 28 January 196718 Jerry Siegel Reg Bunn
The Spider v. the Crime GenieLion 4 February - 20 May 196716 Jerry Siegel Reg Bunn
The Spider v. Spider-BoyLion 27 May - 7 October 196720 Jerry Siegel Reg Bunn
The Spider v. the Sinister SevenLion 14 October 1967 - 11 May 196831 Jerry Siegel Reg Bunn
The Spider v. the SnakeLion 18 May - 14 September 196818 Jerry Siegel Reg Bunn
Ordini the TerribleLion 21 September 1968 - 1 February 196921 Jerry Siegel Reg Bunn
The Death-MasterLion 8 February - 1 March 19694 Ken Mennell Reg Bunn
The Spider v. the AntLion 8 March - 26 April 19698 Ken Mennell Reg Bunn

Annuals

AnnualStoriesWriterArtist
Lion Annual 1967The Spider in Cobra Island Reg Bunn
Lion Annual 1968The Spider & the Stone of Venus Reg Bunn
Lion Annual 1969The Spider versus the Red Baron
Starring... the Spider! (prose)
Reg Bunn
Lion Annual 1970Island of Menace
The Spider Meets the Fly (prose)
Reg Bunn
Lion Annual 1971The Fabulous Spider (prose)
Lion Annual 1975The Spider & the Molecule Man (prose)

Super Libraries

TitleDateStoryWriterArtist
Fantastic Series #2January 1967The Professor of Power Jerry Siegel Aldo Marculeta
Stupendous Series #4February 1967Crime Unlimited Donne Avenell Giorgio Trevisian
Stupendous Series #6March 1967The Bubbles of Doom Ted Cowan Ogreras
Stupendous Series #8April 1967The Man Who Stole New York David Morton Aldo Marculeta
Stupendous Series #10May 1967The Chessman Ken Mennell Aldo Marculeta
Stupendous Series #12June 1967The Animator Donne Avenell Silio Romagnoli
Stupendous Series #14July 1967The Scarecrow's Revenge Donne Avenell Francisco Cueto
Stupendous Series #16August 1967Mr. Stonehart Ken Mennell Ogreras
Stupendous Series #18September 1967Dr. Argo's Challenge Ken Mennell Aldo Marculeta
Stupendous Series #20October 1967The Immortal David Morton Francisco Cueto
Stupendous Series #22November 1967The Shriveller M. Scott Goodall Aldo Marculeta
Stupendous Series #24December 1967The Melody of Crime Ted Cowan Francisco Cueto
Stupendous Series #26January 1968Child's Play David Morton Francisco Cueto

Collected editions

The Spider's first three storylines from Lion (plus a bonus storyline from a Lion annual) have been reprinted in King of Crooks in 2005, with cover art by Garry Leach.

In April 2021, the Treasury of British Comics published a volume of strips that were originally serialised in Lion from 26 June 1965 to 18 June 1966 and the Lion Annual 1967. [7] [8] The collection featured a cover by Chris Weston. [9]

Other versions

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References

  1. Dwyer, Theo. "The Spider Reprint Announced by 2000AD With Work From Jerry Siegel", Bleeding Cool (July 11, 2020).
  2. Bruton, Richard. "More Brit Classics: Jerry Siegel’s 60s Super-Crook, ‘The Spider’, Gets Collected", Comicon.com (June 26, 2020).
  3. 1 2 Viswa, Nathan. "When Batman got Knocked Off – and encountered British comics "The Spider" along the way!" DownTheTubes.net (JANUARY 3, 2018).
  4. Stock, Karl. "Web of Intrigue", Judge Dredd Megazine #431 (May 2021), pp. 42–44.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 King of Crooks. Titan Books. 24 June 2005. ISBN   9781845760007.
  6. Guests, downthetubes (3 January 2018). "When Batman got Knocked Off – and encountered British comics "The Spider" along the way!". downthetubes.net.
  7. "THE SPIDER: SYNDICATE OF CRIME (BOOK 1)". Rebellion Publishing . Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  8. Comments, Theo Dwyer (11 July 2020). "The Spider Reprint Announced by 2000AD With Work From Jerry Siegel". bleedingcool.com.
  9. Bruton, Richard (26 June 2020). "More Brit Classics: Jerry Siegel's 60s Super-Crook, 'The Spider', Gets Collected".
  10. Nolen-Weathington, Eric, ed. (March 2007). The Modern Masters Volume One: Alan Davis. TwoMorrows Publishing. ISBN   9781893905191.