Sunday, May 16, 2021

The Origin of SPIDERY-MAN!


I was lucky enough to create original content for MAD Magazine until they went to mostly reprints the last year or so. I enjoyed all of it, but one of my favorite pieces was this 3-page parody I wrote and drew of Spider-Man's origin.

Batman is often shown as a bat-shape in the comics, The first panel of my story is supposed to be "Spidery-Man" in a spider-shape. Not sure if it's obvious or not.

I didn't try to create an exact copy of Steve Ditko's art style. Instead, I drew in my own style as if it was heavily influenced by Ditko.



I thought it was a bit ironic that Marvel was known for their monster stories in the early 60's, but the radiated spider in Spider-Man's origin didn't turn into anything horrible.

Originally, I had a different last page written. Uncle "Ken" was at the wrestling ring where Spidery-Man fought. Uncle Ken lost all his money, betting on the wrong guy, and had a heart attack and died. "P. P. Poker" takes the money he won and skipped town to avoid all responsibility. It was fine, but this new one occurred to me and I like it much better.

Oh! The issue (MAD #3, 2018) also had a "cover" to this story.