Lost Hero of the Golden Age: The Spider 

The fear of spiders has been around forever. The further back you go, the more primal hero names seem to get.

Marvel's Spider-Man Noir appears to be an homage to this character.

Steeger Books is actively reprinting the original Spider novels, now up to #45 as of now.

Glad to see FizzFop kicking ass and bringing the spotlight to Forgotten Heroes!! Happy Halloween Boss Bub!!!

Easily my favorite pulp hero. Reading Norvell Page is like Michael Bay in prose after a binge session of cocaine and Red Bull. :)

Idk why but this is my favorite video of yours. I just really like the idea of The Spider, but the editing is also really cool. Next is probably the Black Bat video because he's also a really cool idea, and you put time into a live-action segment. Another reason I like the 2 videos is they gave me ideas for my own characters. So thank you :)

Finally!, a new episode

Great video! The character illustrations are a nice touch; I don’t have any pulp originals or reprints-most of the _Spider_ stories I’ve read are essentially the kindle equivalent of paperback reprints-but I’d imagine illustrations like those might have appeared in the original pulps! I’ve known of the _Spider_ when I read about Tim Truman’s comic book series. I’ve never read that series, but I finally made a point of reading the volume that features the Bat-man and the Iron Man villains-somebody at that publisher wanted to tweak some noses, I suspect! I’ve revisited these recently, and they’re still strange twisted fun! I’d like to recommend a modern _Spider_ story-well, modern in the sense that it was written and published recently: _The Doom Legion,_ written by Will Murray. I don’t want to give too much away, but to set it up, I’ll say that Murray sets this story in the midst of the original pulp run at a time where it is a bit less dangerous for Richard Wentworth to be associated with the _Spider,_ and Wentworth has reason to consider retiring the alter-ego. Naturally, with Wentworth counting how many days he has until retirement, bad stuff goes down-on Halloween night, no less!-when a radioactive meteor plows into Central Park (_calling Doctor Romero! Calling Doctor George Romero!_), a _Spider_ imposter appears and skulks with loaded gun (the imposter’s evidently a movie fan: he’s wearing what sounds like the _Spider’s_ serial costume!), and a German giant wearing a steel mask and wielding a double-bladed executioner’s axe runs amok for his own purposes! That last guy, Stahlmaske, might be my favorite pulp villain of all; he’s a guy who is _really_ dedicated to his villainy! With Stahlmaske’s revelation, I may have already given this away: other pulp heroes show up to join in the fun, but this is definitely an apocalyptic _Spider_ story! 🎃Happy Halloween, everyone!🎃

The webbing print on the Spider's cape and mask in the serials was clearly the inspiration for Ditko's Spider-Man costume. Not quite as original as I had always thought...

This character deserves it's own movie. A good one.

You did The Spider! I bought a collection of his adventures a few years back... it had the stories "Robot Titans of Gotham", "Death Reign of the Vampire King" and a back up story featuring The Skull Killer fighting an army of mutants created by a mysterious villain called The Octopus (no relation to the guy in the movie, I'm guessing).

* sees thumbnail * 'Oh *fuck YEAH* buddy, let's bring out the best one!' XD In all seriousness 'tho' The Spider contributes to a good portion why I'm headed into the arts today. When I was eleven I used to stare at the swirling action across the painted covers for hours, and bought a few Girasol replicas to read once I was old enough. The Shadow always brought that chiaroscuro, hazy depth and mystery to the covers and stories inside, but it was The Spider who brought high adrenaline dashing action to the cover page. Big stuff to just a kid subconsciously picking up on the basics of composition. Also really dug the serials, or what remnants of the serials were uploaded to youtube. Lol, the scene of Spider speed climbing across a telephone wire threatening to give any moment is forever burned into my memory. But yeah, big fan, another great upload as always, and big thanks for covering him. 👍

Who remembers the Eclipse Comics revival?

The Spider is also available as audiobooks on Audible. I have a few, pretty good stuff. I remember the paperback reprints from when I was a kid.

Good to see you back the spider is an awesome superhero I have a couple of is book from Dynamite comics.

I'm disappointed you didn't have a mention of how Stan Lee considered this character a major inspiration for Spider-Man.

So Scott started The Spider. But Page truly Began The Spider

Correction: The Spider is not public domain. I license the character from Argosy Communications, inc. and am writing new novels. See www.adventuresinbronze.com

Love the Spider! The serials are great, though the second gets a little too jokey. The pulps are insane! The bodycounts are ridiculously high and Wentworth must have Wolverine's healing factor to survive all the punishment he takes. Mixed in with the crazy action, the romance between the Spider and Nita is one of the best in pulps. The comics have been hit or miss. Loved the Tim Truman minis, the rest are okay.

I LOVE The Spider stories!!! I bought the compilation The Spider vs the Empire State and I could not put it down. The plot fell apart if you looked at it too closely, but you didn't care! It was so well written I was willing to apply antigravity material to my disbelief. Thank you so much for covering him!

My grandfather, a Movie Theater Manager who worked in Vaudeville Theatres as a young man was a big fan of The Spider. He was never a reader of comic books, nor a follower of other pulp or serial characters but for some reason he really liked The Spider, going so far as obtaining the entire collection of movie serials on VHS in his later years. I've always wanted to take this character and do something with him. This was awesome. Really enjoying your content.

another great episode, I remember the spider was one of the pulp hero Stan Lee cited as one of his core inspirations along with Doc Savage, have you considered doing a video on Sexton Blake and Nick Carter or are they a bit too obscure as their sort of transitionary dime novel to pulp heroes?

Why is Harry STEEGER's name being pronounces Key-gar?

I would give anything for a tv adaption of the Spider, even if it was only one season. I think tv is the best way to adapt the character instead of a film as they could take the time to flesh out the characters and the antagonist while a film would have to cut out characters or elements that made the character so good.

Fascinating. The Spider/Supes/Hornet connection was especially interesting, I now have a new "Well, actually..." line to use on my fellow nerds. Cheers, sir.

Goldem age, the best era of humanity

Why is he called the Master of Men? What does that mean?

Still lovin the channel, keep rocking it man

Been looking forward to this video for a long time! Very enjoyable

excellent Darrin i love the old pulps this was very interesting thanks a lot

Yay! A new episode! And more great episodes on the way, I bet!

Great video! I am actually going to see if I can read some of his stories tonight (since I canceled giving out candy tonight). Your videos are top notch..tnx!

The Spider is hands down my favorite Pulp Hero. He was just so intense as were his stories. There wasn't a dull moment in his adventures and the stakes increased with every page. He also had a personable supporting cast that has emotional resonance. His love interest was the best written female character of the time, in my opinion. Nina Van Sloan was loyal, brave and competent. She loved the Spider passionately and was loved just as intensely. He trusted her to the point that he let her impersonate the Spider, even tho everyone wants to kill the Spider, even the Police. The Spider and Ninas relationship was a passionate one, that was totally believable. I never believed that The Shadow ever loved anyone, And Doc Savage avoided women like the plague. The Spiders relationshiop was almost certainly physical in nature and both knew that it would end with both of their violent deaths. Emotional resonance is what made him stand out from all the other Pulp heroes.

I wonder where they get the inspiration for Spider-man. Hmmmm. *looks at The Spider*

With the screen adaptions of these pulp heroes, my 1st thought is that History Rhymes

Its a true Halloween treat!

9:05 -- Usher Girl... away!!! But seriously though, no commentary on the Spider's masked persona? As I understand it, while the magazine covers just showed a second-hand Shadow look-alike in a domino mask, the actual stories described Wentworth as disguising himself with a fake hunchback, vampiric teeth, and a wild mop of hair to make the Spider look all demented. Also, a good chunk of his bad guys' schemes were nigh-apocalyptic in their executions, with descriptions of thousands killed in New York City in just about every story.

@FizzFop I recently learned of the existence of a Penny Dreadful hero who first appeared in The Funny Wonder in (March, of 1899) called "The Human Bat". Unfortunately, I could only find a small amount of info on the character. I was wondering if you had better info on him? Because he seems like he would make a interesting topic for one of your videos.

Really cool vídeo.

Love watching this video, Now I really want read more about the Spider.

2:07 Not gonna lie, I was kind of hoping reveal that he'd come up with an incredibly stupid name and it was changed to the spider later

Can you do a video on phantom Detective or The Avenger

An interesting character

I love The Spider so much. This was a great video. I hope you enjoyed making it as much as I enjoyed watching it.

Oh man, awesome! The Spider is an all time favorite. I went crazy a couple years ago and bought some Spider compilations and some of the redone novels from the '70's. As always, great work! Thanks!

Fantastic! Thanks for doing this

Cool video. I'll have to check out The Spider's Web.

Awesome video!

A perfect Halloween treat.

Wasn't the name NITA van Sloan?

Love the Spider.

Finally, a video about the Spider, man! 🕷️

The spider has been the inspiration for a spiderman like character i have in the works. Seriously this was huge inspiration for me! Thank you for doing the video

Thanks for this. I read several of the novel releases in the 1990s of the character, and enjoyed them, but had no idea of the character's history.

And just in time for the spooks

The Spider started off a bit like the Shadow, but grew to become something all his own. You can definitely see his influence on Batman. As for adaptations, I was not a fan of Dynamite's version by David Liss. His appearance in Masks was good, though. The best was Tim Truman's run in the 90s. I feel like that was taking the original idea, and going all the way. One of the coolest, craziest comics i ever read.

The early concept art of Spider man

"The Spider vs the Empire State" is epic. I'm working on my own pulp hero, inspired in no small part by The Spider.

I love the Spider. The Dynamite Entertainment series is what made me a fan for life. I also saw the Spider's Web serial and it was so good.

Great video. I love The Spider.

didnt spider have fake fangs?

Fantastic job 👏 👍 👌 🙌

Stan Lee was a fan of this Character. Obviously he was one of the Inspirations for Spiderman.

you should do a video on the moon man

Great video as always, trying to find these old pulp stories in my neck of the woods is a bit of pain. I keep trying.

Dude once again thank you for the history lesson you and your team do fantastic work 👍🏿⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️👍🏿

Another great video, this one especially as I sadly don't know as much about The Spider as I wish I did despite owning a recent Dynamite Entertainment trade of the character (Been a while since I read it though). Really cool character!!!

Fantastic

Two things: 1: How does an air gun kill anyone? 2: The Octopus? The Spirit Meets The Spider, anyone???

Excellent video, as usual. More, please.

I like the spider, the dynamite comic series is great.

Interesting video. I can see how influential the Spider is to one of my favorite comic book characters in Mike Mignola's The Lobster aka Lobster Johnson

I thought the spider wore a shaggy wig and fake fangs? Not seeing any of that here.

Long time no see!

The Fly by Archie Comics later fought Spider villain in 1959, Spiderman fought Dr. Octopus in 1962 and The Human Fly years later yet. Blue Beetle battled villains called The Squids.

Again, another brilliant golden age pulp video! 👍! I think The Spider would work nowadays?! But it has to be in 30s era, with the aesthetics of that golden time. Coz nowadays we've got Superhumans, who breaks asteroids in half with one punch, so it wouldn't quite work by making it "modern"!! I love that golden age era of pulps & comics, it's I think, better than what we're getting these days! And it's always gonna have a special place in true fan's heart🙏

He brands people? So I guess Zack Snyder's Batman took that gimmick from The Spider too.

seeing the webbing on the spider's live action costume, makes me wonder if that is where the inspiration for Spider-man's webbed outfit started.

This is where Stan Lee got the idea for Spiderman? 🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️🤣🤣🤣 Ironman, The Octopus & Batman, woow!

Man those sweet Golden Age covers .... could happily wallpaper my life with them.

I discovered Pulps by way of the Spider back when I was a kid. I never recovered.

As always excellent!

eu , particularmente , não conhecia a história do THE SPIDER , achei espetacular ,e bastante promissora . Aqui no Brasil ,alguns amigos e eu , somos apaixonados pelo heroi da marvel , SPIDER MAN , quando vi este vídeo (confesso que assisti o video umas 5 vezes por conta do projeto pois quero repassar para meus amigos da forma mais pura com que você passou , porém na minha lingua ) só consegui pensar em como SPIDER MAN , BATMAN e outros herois que temos como referência foram retirados de um outro e eu e muitos outros que conheço mal sabiam disto . Fui pesquisar mais sobre , o propio STAN LEE afirmou ter se inspirado .Vi que em 2014 (depois de anos e anos ) resolveram lançar um encadernado , com a história THE SPIDER porém dos dias atuais , ainda não li , mas farei o possivel pra encontrar pois me interessei bastante no enredo e toda história que ela passou pra chegar até aqui nos dias de hoje . Obrigado por trazer conteúdos como estes , estou aprendendo bastante com seu canal.

THESE MAGAZINES ARE WHAT FIRST DREW ME TOO PULPS IN THE FIRST PLACE, THOSE AND THE SHADOW, DOC SAVAGE, OF COURSE THE SPIDER, ANY SCI-FI PULPS AND MORE!!!GARY BAILEY KING OF DARKNESS WOW THANKS ANOTHER MOVIE SERIAL I WILL HAVE TO TRY TO FIND FOR MY SERIAL COLLECTION!!!GARY BAILEY

Was the chauffer, Ronald Jackson suppose to be black? It is hard to tell from the drawing.

the spider faced off against villains that would have given doc savage and the Shadow a run for their money. the kill count in each issue would have made the executioner and the punisher green with envy. The way he left the spider sigil on his kills was the same way Christian Bale left the bat emblem on his, by branding them.

10:29 with that duel pistols and red ring + big hat his looks like guy from The Shadow movie

Can't say enough about those bulletproof wooden tables and chairs in the serials! 🤣

Someone knows about the 1940 fascist cue attempt? Wow

This video fits well for Halloween Day. By the way, Happy Halloween, Fizzfop!😀🎃

Pulps might have burnt out then but there coming back now and it looks like the shadows leading the charge.

Did you notice George Plympton was) isted as one of the writers on The Spider serial?

Rumor has it that Noir Spider-Man is kind of based on this guy.

he could've been a decent of peter parker aka spiderman.

Please make: Lost hero of golden age: Tarantula (DC).

Well the Spider did have an impact - Stan Lee cited him as the inspiration for the name Spider-Man

This was a cool video

Will you do The Shadow

We need The Spider to fight inside government crime & regain our freedoms.

would i spider radio show been amazing