''The Amazing Spider-Man'' is a daily
comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
featuring the character
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...
which was syndicated for more than 40 years. It was a dramatic,
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
-style strip with story arcs which typically ran for 8 to 12 weeks. While the strip used many of the same characters as the Spider-Man comic book, the storylines were nearly all originals and did not share the same
continuity. A consistently popular strip, it was published from 1977 to 2019.
History
A Spider-Man comic strip was first proposed in 1970. Two weeks' worth of strips were written by Spider-Man co-creator
Stan Lee
Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Publications which ...
and illustrated by
John Romita Sr.
John V. Romita (; born January 24, 1930) is an American comic book artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' and for co-creating characters including the Punisher and Wolverine. He was inducted into the Will Eis ...
, but the series was never picked up.
These strips later saw publication of a sort in the program for the 1975 ''Mighty Marvel Comic Convention''.
Years later Spider-Man publisher
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
tried again, and the daily newspaper comic strip ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' debuted on January 3, 1977. Produced by Marvel and syndicated by the
Register and Tribune Syndicate
The Register and Tribune Syndicate was a Print syndication, syndication service based in Des Moines, Iowa, that operated from 1922 to 1986, when it was acquired by King Features to become the Cowles Syndicate affiliate. At its peak, the Register a ...
through 1985,
Cowles Media Company
Cowles Media Company ( ) (1935–1998) was a newspaper, magazine and information publishing company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. The company operated Cowles Business Media, Cowles Creative Publishing, and Cowles Enth ...
in 1986, and
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...
after 1987, the comic strip was successful in an era with few serialized adventure strips. The strip slowly grew in circulation. Initially the creative team was again Lee and Romita. After four years Romita left the strip, but Stan Lee remained the credited writer of the strip's entire run. Though renowned for his use of the
Marvel method, Lee wrote full scripts for the comic strip.
Stan Lee's brother,
Larry Lieber
Lawrence D. Lieber (; born October 26, 1931) (Scroll down) is an American comic book artist and writer best known as co-creator of the Marvel Comics superheroes Iron Man, Thor (Marvel Comics), Thor, and Ant-Man; for his long stint both writing an ...
, briefly illustrated the strip but found he could not keep up with the schedule, and in August 1981
Fred Kida
Fred Kida (December 12, 1920 – April 3, 2014) was a Japanese-American comic book and comic strip artist best known for the 1940s aviator hero Airboy and his antagonist and sometime ally Valkyrie during the period fans and historians call the G ...
took on the assignment. Unlike most artists who worked on ''The Amazing Spider-Man'', Kida found that drawing Spider-Man in daily strip form did not present any challenges, but he finally left in July 1986, later commenting that he found the strip's violence to be excessive. After a brief stint by
Dan Barry, Lee asked his brother if he wanted to give it another try. This time Larry Lieber was able to keep up with the schedule, and he drew the daily strip for the following 32 years. ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' also employed
inker
The inker (sometimes credited as the finisher or embellisher) is one of the two line artists in traditional comic book production.
The penciller creates a drawing, the inker outlines, interprets, finalizes, retraces this drawing by using a pencil ...
s and separate artists for the
Sunday version of the strip. From 1997 until the strip's 2019 demise,
Alex Saviuk
Alex Saviuk (; born August 17, 1952) is an American comics artist primarily known for his work on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man.
Early life
Alex Saviuk grew up on Long Island, New York, graduating from Floral Park Memorial High Schoo ...
inked the daily strips and penciled the Sunday strips. After Lieber retired in 2018, Saviuk took over pencilling the daily strip as well. In addition, numerous
ghost artists contributed to the strip over the years.
Story arcs in the newspaper strip varied in length (one storyline ran for seven months), but most ran for eight to 12 weeks. While the strip mostly featured the same characters as the comic book, the storylines were nearly all originals and did not share the same
continuity. As of 2010, there had only been three story arcs featured in both the strip and the comic book: "
The Wedding!" (1987), "The Mutant Agenda" (1993–1994), and "
Spider-Man: Brand New Day" (2008). In the case of "Brand New Day", reader reaction to the continuity change ("Brand New Day" establishes that the marriage between lead characters Peter Parker and
Mary Jane Watson
Mary Jane "MJ" Watson is a Character (arts), fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr., and made her first appearance in ''The Amazing Spider-Man' ...
never happened) was so negative that Lee opted to reveal the entire story had been a bad dream. Many characters of the strip have never appeared in other media, including the Rattler, the Protector, and Carole Jennings.
Guest stars in the newspaper strip included
Wolverine
The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for "gluttony, glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is ...
,
Daredevil, and
Doctor Strange
Doctor Stephen Strange is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in ''Strange Tales'' #110 (cover-dated July 1963). Doctor Strange serves as Sorce ...
. Villains included
Doctor Doom
Doctor Victor Von Doom is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and first appeared in ''The Fantastic Four'' #5 in July 1962. The monarch of the fi ...
,
Kraven the Hunter
Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Kravinoff; Russian: Сергей Кравинов) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Debuting in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' issue #15 (August 1964) as an adversary to ...
, the
Rhino
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...
and
Mysterio
Mysterio (Quentin Beck) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #13 (June 1964). He is primarily depicted ...
. One storyline featuring the
Sandman
The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes.
Representation in traditional folklore
The Sandman is a traditional charact ...
referenced the events of the 2007 feature film ''
Spider-Man 3
''Spider-Man 3'' is a 2007 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It was directed by Sam Raimi from a screenplay by Raimi, his older brother Ivan and Alvin Sargent. It is the final installment in Raimi's ...
''.
Following the death of Stan Lee in November 2018, the strip continued to be published with his name still credited. (Long-time Marvel comics writer
Roy Thomas
Roy William Thomas Jr."Roy Thomas Checklist" ''Alter Ego'' vol. 3, #50 (July 2005) p. 16 (born November 22, 1940) is an American comic book writer and editor, who was Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibl ...
had been plotting and/or ghost writing the strip under Lee's supervision since 2000.) In March 2019 it was announced the strip would be undergoing creative changes; ostensibly, new content was "temporarily" being put on hold, to be replaced with reprints of previous adventures. Saviuk and Thomas both announced their departures from the strip, and no announcement was made about any new writer and/or artist taking over the production of new material.
On March 23, 2019, the final original newspaper ''Amazing Spider-Man'' strip was published. All subsequently published strips have been reprints, and no plans have been announced for any new artist and/or writer to revive or reboot the strip.
Reprints
Pocket Books released two paperbacks reprinting stories from the strip, with color added, in 1980.
In 1991, the story arc "The Wedding!" was reprinted in a trade paperback which also includes the comic book version of the story.
Panini Publishing UK published ''The Daily Adventures of the Amazing Spider-Man'' in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
in 2007. The black-and-white trade paperback collection reprints the first two years of the newspaper strip.
Marvel has published two hardcover volumes of newspaper strips, reprinting stories from 1977-1980. The first, ''Spider-Man Newspaper Strips Volume 1'', was published in 2009, reprinting stories by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr.
''Spider-Man Newspaper Strips Volume 2'' was published in 2011, reprinting stories by Lee, Romita, and Larry Lieber. In 2014, both volumes were published in softcover editions.
Starting in 2015, Marvel and
IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW), itself formed in 1999, and is regularly recog ...
began co-publishing hardcover reprints from the strip's beginning in a series called ''
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Ultimate Newspaper Comics Collection'', published by the IDW imprint,
The Library of American Comics
Library of American Comics (abbreviated as LoAC) is an American publisher of classic United States, American comic strips collections and comic history books, founded by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell in 2007.
History Background
Dean Mullaney ...
. Each volume (1-5) is subtitled for the years covered in the individual book.
The comic strip world is designated as its own universe within Marvel's
multiverse
The multiverse is a hypothetical group of multiple universes. Together, these universes comprise everything that exists: the entirety of space, time, matter, energy, information, and the physical laws and constants that describe them. The di ...
, Earth-77013, and is featured in the "
Spider-Verse
"Spider-Verse" is a 2014 in comics, 2014–2015 in comics, 15 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics. It features multiple alternative versions of Spider-Man, alternative versions of Spider-Man that had appeared Spider-Man in other medi ...
" comic storyline.
See also
*
1977 in comics
References
External links
AMAZING SPIDER-MANat Comics Kingdom
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amazing Spider-Man, The
Spider-Man in comics
American comic strips
1977 comics debuts
2019 comics endings
Comic strips based on Marvel Comics publications
Comic strips started in the 1970s
Superhero comic strips