Episode 1215 Talkback: Spotlight on Spider-Man in the Silver Age
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Wild Pig Comics' own Chris Eberle joins us to talk about Spider-Man in the Silver Age. The stories, the artists, the villains, the supporting cast and even the cartoon series are discussed. We cover from Amazing Fantasy #15 through Amazing Spider-Man #100. (1:36:43)
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Listen here.
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Matthew
Will we get any Hulk love for his 50th?
My first encounter was the old cartoon reruns on Channel 43 out of Cleveland. Then I had a Power record where he fought Man-Wolf, and a Mego doll. The first actual ASM comic I bought at the newsstand was issue #141, which I loved and is still a favorite issue to this day:
The best thing was ordering the "web shooter" out of the comic book ad. It was basically just a sort of dart gun that strapped to your wrist, with about a 3' string attached to the dart. The first order of business, of course, was removing the string so you just had a dart gun attached to your wrist. I had ordered something else but it was out of stock, so they also included a typed letter "from Stan Lee" explaining that they'd instead sent three extra "Spider-Darts" for my shooter. My mom wasn't too thrilled with the value of the substitution, but since it was from Stan Lee himself I was quite pleased.
I began drawing in first grade by copying Spider-Man from the upper left of what I believe was Spidey Super Stories #1, while being kept in from recess for some offense. An older girl (seemed like high school, probably 6th grade) who was watching me commented that I was really good at it and said I could be an artist someday. That settled it for me, and I never stopped drawing after that. Now I'm a freelance designer and illustrator.
Reading Spider-Man was a pretty big deal personally. I had a cousin that was every bit the bully that Flash was if not more and it was through Spider-Man that I started standing up to him. This would also lead to me getting into a bit of trouble standing up for other kids that I saw getting bullied.
The first issue I remember having was #143 Spidey vs Cyclone.
I had the Mego Spider-Man. i also remember having a toy Spider-Man speedboat and a car, it wasn't the Spider-Mobile but it was cool nontheless. Ohhhh and Spider-Man shrinky dinks.
I've been reading the silver age stuff through the Marvel Masterworks and never get tired of it. Regarding art from that time, I will say that I like Ditko's Spider-Man over Kirby's Fantastic Four.
I knew there were some tensions between Stan Lee and Steve Ditko but I did not know that it had gotten so bad that they actually stopped talking to each other. I think that's somewhat of a testament to just how creative and talented these two guys were at the time, to put out this caliber of work with minimal to no communication between them.
From there, I only ever read Spidey sporadically. Then, as now, I always liked him alright, but never enough to commit to reading his adventures for the long haul. Even when there's a Spidey book I like, I only seem to follow it for a short time, then eventually have enough and stop getting it. Unless it's cancelled out from under me like Untold Tales was.
I remember buying a whole bunch of Marvel Tales in the mid-80s, though, not long after they started over in reprinting the Ditko material. The first one of those I picked up was the first appearance of the Scorpion, IIRC. Ditko's artwork looked so weird to me then, and I would go so far as to say I thought it was ugly at the time (look, whattya want, I was like 8 or 9), but there was still something compelling about it to me that I kept getting Marvel Tales for a while thereafter. It was all so very stylized, and yet it had a realism to it because he drew people who were thin or fat or old or young, and so few other comics artists I was seeing at the time did that. They all had basically the same body types. Ditko's people were as unique as actual people. And let's face it, no one draws flop sweat like Shy Steve Ditko!
Looking forward to future episodes, and please please PLEASE be sure to bring up the Spider-Mobile in the Bronze Age installment. It's one of the great goofy comic concepts of all time, and it led to a rare comic book shout-out to my home town of Bangor, Maine, albeit derogatorily for reasons I've never understood.
http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-Complete-Comic-Collection/dp/B000HKIM7Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1334335796&sr=8-2
I had an entire run of Spidey Super Stories based on the Electric Company stuff!
And that damned Mego figure was my best friend for years!
Really worth a watch.
For US viewers Jonathan Ross is sort of our version of Letterman. He is a huge comic book fan, and creator.
He is married to Jane Goldman who wrote the screenplay for Kick Ass and X-Men: First Class
The book I got signed at LoSCoCo
A bravura, master class performance by Mr Eberle.
^:)^
Old letter columns are gold, my friends. Pure gold.
I can't wait for all of the other episodes.
Love all the love for Ditko, even though I prefer Romita Sr. I give it to Steve for his designs of Spidey's rogue gallery. Fifty years later and for the most part they are still being used as he first drew them.
As much as Spidey owes his costume design and villains to Ditko, Romita brought a fluidity to Spider-Man. Not to take anything away from Steve but John's Spidey's fight scene he moved more like an acrobate with one move blending in with the next.
Can't wait for the next episode, the bronze age is in my wheelhouse.
My Volume 2 Spider-Man omnibus will be in this months DCBS shipment, and I cant wait to read it. Romitas covers to #39 & 40 are two of my favorite in all of comics history, and to think they were his first two Spidy covers (not counting the Daredevil one!)