The Spider #1: Martin Powell & Pablo Marcos

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Reviews, Independent,

Before The Punisher, before Batman, even before Superman, there was The Spider, Master of Men. The classic pulp hero was created in 1933 by Harry Steeger (co-founder of Popular Publications) to compete with the other pulp crime-fighter, Street & Smith’s The Shadow.

Now, here it is 70 + years later and The Spider is back, now as a comic book character in his first ongoing series, courtesy of award-winning writer Martin Powell and artist Pablo Marcos. The cover is by Dan Brereton (The Nocturnals), and the interior coloring is by Jay Piscopo.

The Spider #1 debuts this week from Moonstone Books as part of their ““Return of the Originals” publishing program.

Here’s the Moonstone pitch: “There was no escape for Nita Van Sloan, abducted by a horde of inhuman monstrosities, doomed to become the victim of a diabolical experiment. The Spider, Master of Men, strikes back with a vengeance, fighting alone against the brutally brilliant creator of the Frankenstein Legion, in a desperate race against time to save the only woman who shares his darkest secrets!”

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Don McGregor: Locked Up In Paris

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Independent, Marvel Comics,

"They jeered and shook on the bars, and they reached through the bars, trying to grab Marsha, like Zombies in George Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead."

That's Don McGregor, who wrote acclaimed comics for Marvel and spearheaded the creator-owned comics movement, writing about a European trip of his in the late 1970s.

I haven't seen or talked to Don in quite a while, and I doubt he would remember me. He was a friend of several different friends of mine and when I lived on the East Coast, we bumped into each other a lot over a two or three-year period.

He was a ball of energy – and one of the first guys to explain to me how the business of comics actually worked and why owning and controlling the rights to your own creations was essential.

Go ahead and write the Batman fill-in if you want, it is what it is. But if you're going to create Sabre or Detectives, Inc., you're going to want - and deserve - a better deal. I'm paraphrasing, but that's the gist of several conversations.

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Weekend Reading: Joe Sinnott, Sinister House and Jonah Hex

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Reviews,

My favorite Jack Kirby inker was Joltin’ Joe Sinnott. The work they did together is still stunning 40+ years later. Joe’s heading into hip replacement surgery today, and if you’d like to send him a get well note, Mark Evanier has all the details.

Sinister House: Bookgasm‘s Rod Lott sat down with the 500-page Showcase Presents: Secrets of the Sinister House. His verdict: “You’ll be hard-pressed to find a story that isn’t a blast to read.”

Twelve-Way With Cheese: Rod Lott (him again) cracks open a copy of Twelve-Way With Cheese #1, an independent 112-page anthology trade paperback out of Cincinnati. Says Rod, “The end result is something akin to MAD or National Lampoon in their respective heyday.” I would love to see more cartoonists from various regions get-together and self-publish.

Comic Books: John Anderson interviews Top Shelf’s Brett Warnock at John Scalzi’s Whatever.

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