Fielding 1 Zachary Fielding Ms. Bell English IV 3 September 2013 zach.g.fielding@gmail.

com Spiderman and the History of Comic Books Comic books have been a part of society for many years now. Children all over the world would look forward for the newest issue to come out. Up to this day, many comic books are extremely collectible. Most collectible comic books are the original issue and if unopened and undamaged, they can be worth a lot of money. A comic book consist of a chain of words and pictures that go in sequence to form a story that can be funny, serious, or entertaining. Comic books started in the United States in the late 1800s. Most comic books use everyday language, but some use shortened words such as slang and many comic books use idioms (randomhistory.com). These books are made up of a whole bunch of pictures which go along with the stories words. In most cases, there will be a picture on each page of a comic book. When the 1960s hit, comic books took off like never before. Two major companies started to dominate comic books with there super hero trend. The two companies to do so were Marvel Comics and Detective Comics. Detective Comics original name was National Periodical Publication. They had this name for fifty years and decided to change it for a catchier name. Marvel Comics was originally named Timely Comics from 1939 to 1950 and then was again changed to Atlas Comics for most of the 1950s. It wasnt until the end of the

Fielding 2 1950s when the company made its last name change to Marvel. Marvel is still around today, making movies and books of there original heroes. The first comic book that was considered to be a real comic book was called The Yellow Kid (randomhistory.com). This was written by Richard Felton Outcault which came out in 1895. This comic was used in newspapers as a marketing tool to boost sales as well. The Golden Age of comics hit between 1930 and 1950. Jerome Siegal and Joseph Shuster created Superman in 1938. Superman started the super hero genre and would remain the cornerstone of the comic book Industry for years (randomfacts.com). Detective Comics fought back launching the one and only Batman in 1939. Batman pushed out the criminal stories for Detective Comics. These two comics were so popular; it led to the release of many other super heroes. These heroes included Wonder Woman, Captain America, The Flash, and The Green Lantern. World War II had a large impact on the comic book industry. It promoted social reform and World War II patriotism. Detective Comics had an interest in public welfare and federal government. Marvel Comics launched Captain America, seen punching Hitler as the first picture, to show patriotism to World War II. After World War II, comic books started loosing readers and publishers because there was no purpose to them and television was starting. The silver age began in 1956 and lasted until about 1970. In this age, comics that were more like misunderstood people were created. They related to society and they related to the comics. These comics included Spiderman and The Hulk. In response to Spiderman and The Hulk, Marvel Comic created The Fantastic four (randomfacts.com). The silver age was ended when Steve Rogers abandoned the Captain America Comic in 1971. There later came a bronze age and an iron age, but nothing spectacular happened in these ages. No new comics that were introduced stuck around for more than a year or two.

Fielding 3 Spiderman was introduced over fifty years ago by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in an eleven page comic (comicbookresources.com). It was featured in the last issue of Marvel Comics Amazing Fantasy. Marvel gave The Amazing Spiderman its own series in 1963. Spiderman is based off of a normal boy named Peter Parker who lives in Forest Hills, Queens with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Parker attends the local high school and he has no fear to ask women on dates, but is rejected because he is seen as a nerd. While Peter attended an assembly on radiation, he was bitten by a glowing spider, which dies right after. Peter felt sick and was wandering off into the street. A car was coming and he jumped to avoid it but it was a jump like no other. He didnt know what was going on. He realized he had gained the speed, strength, and agility of a spider (comicbookresorces.com). Peter decided to test his new found powers in an amateur wrestling competition. He wore a mask and quickly beat pro wrestler Crusher Hogan, a pro wrestler. A TV producer came up to Peter after the show, not knowing it was Peter because of the mask. He gave him a television series which was all about spider man. One night, a burglar ran past Peter and a security guard asked why he didnt try and stop him. Peter decided it wasnt his job and only cared about him self. Later that night, Peter got home to find police at his house. His uncle Ben had surprised the same burglar who then shot him to death (comicbookresources.com). Peter felt horrible and guilt ridden knowing he could have prevented this from happening. Peter then realizes that with power, also comes responsibility. Peter decides to leave his TV show and become a true hero. He then gets the sense to be able to detect nearby danger. He then creates these special spider tracer homing devices to help him. Spiderman first became animated in 1967 and was played by Paul Soles. The show now had its own famous them song named Webster.

Fielding 4 Steve Ditko is the original artist of The Amazing Spiderman. He studied at a cartoonist and illustrator school in New York City learning from Jerry Robinson (comicbookdb.com). Ditko started to draw professionally in 1953 and much of his work was for Charlton Comics. He started to work for Atlas Comics in the late 1950s, which later became Marvel Comics. The character of Spiderman and his social life related well to Ditkos personal style and interest. Ditko left Marvel Comics after four years and him and Lee had not been talking for some time. In 1968, Ditko started producing his own work for DC Comics (comicbookdb.com). He was the creator of The Creeper for Detective Comics. His was created in March of 1978 with scriptor Don Segall and writer Steve Skeates. Ditko stayed with Detective Comics for a short period of time only. He worked on only six issues of Beware of the Creeper. Ditko left Detective comics half way through the sixth issue and nobody knows why. Ditko then returned back to Detective Comics in the mid 1970s to create a short lived comic (comicbookdb.com). This comic was called Shade, The Changing Man. This comic was later released and went pretty far along with The Creeper. Steve Ditko finally retired from being in the mainstream in 1998. He now resides in New York City and still produces some work which is produced by one of his long time friends. Ditko is also an extremely private person. He refused interviews since the 1960s but there is one rare interview that can be found from 1968. September 11th, 2001 was a tragic day in America. The issue of The Amazing Spiderman volume two, issue thirty-six is about this day. This issue is about how Spiderman and many other heroes would react to this day. This issue starts with two pages of pictures of the explosions and Spiderman standing there. He is holding his head in pain and disbelief. All he can say is one word, god. Spider man then jumps down from where he was and meets with other heroes, including Captain America. He starts helping people who were in the terrible

Fielding 5 accident. He starts to go through the wreckage in disbelief. He feels for the broken hearts of many and his thoughts are going crazy. He goes from horror and pain to ending on strength. The heroes all say they could not have stopped what happened but that they were there now. The heroes, including Spiderman acknowledged the fireman and other public safety personnel as true heroes. The heroes say they will get justice and be courageous through out this whole situation. People kept asking them what to do, how to explain this to there children. Ordinary men and ordinary women were hurt and the heroes could not stand that. At first, I wasnt sure how I felt about this comic. I liked the idea of it, but wasnt sure how society would have take it. It turned out to be a big hit and the society loved it. I think the writers of this comic really got into it and captured the idea of nine-eleven well. The art work done in this comic was great. The way they did the towers was dead on. The drawings of the fireman and all of the innocent people were great. The way the heroes looked in each and every picture seemed to be captured perfectly. I think the reaction of all the heroes was very real. It seemed like they could have actually been there. All the heroes worked together with each other and with all of the other rescue workers. It all seemed to be so real. I dont think there was a single bad or wrong word in this comic. In my opinion, the writers and the artist captured the comic perfectly. It captured September 11th spot on. Comic books have been around for quite a long time. They have had a huge impact in America with children and even adults. Most people of our time have only heard of the well know super heroes. These heroes would include Batman, Captain America, Superman, and of course, Spiderman. What they dont know is there are many other comic books dating back to the 1800s which actually started it all. Although I never was very interested in comic books, I

Fielding 6 think our society may have been much different and not quite as entertaining with out having them.

Fielding 7 Works Cited Archetypes, Commercialism, and Hollywood." A History of the Comic Book. N.p., 18 Mar. 2008. Web. 02 Sept. 2013. "Comic Book DB - Steve Ditko." Comic Book DB - Steve Ditko. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Sept. 2013. "The Many Origins of Spider-Man: A History." Comic Book Resources.com. N.p., 27 June 2012. Web. 02 Sept. 2013 Straczynski, J. Micheal. "The Amaing Spiderman Vol 2 Issue #36." Comic strip. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.