EXCERPT FOUR

[MattBrady]

<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/TitanBooks/Spiderman_Icon_t.jpg" border="0" align="right">We continue this week (with thanks to Titan Books) with our series of excerpts from <i>Spider-Man: The Icon - The Life and Times of a Pop Culture Phenomenon</i> by Steve Saffel.

The 320 page coffee table book tracks Spider-Man through the ages, from his start in Amazing Fantasy #15 up to the beginning of One More Day, focusing not only on the adventures and times of Spider-Man, but also upon how Spider-Man has made an impact upon culture, and how the character created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko has been embraced by popular culture.

This week's excerpt - Spider-Man ultimately takes the world by storm!

As Saffel sets the scene for this week's pages:

Marvel entered the new millennium on the heels of a Wall Street battle of epic proportions, and facing an audience that continued to slip away, heading for other media. Rather than surrendering to the inevitable, though, the company became more aggressive than ever, launching the web-spinner's best decade yet.

Thanks to Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, Ultimate Spider-Man spearheaded a new line of titles, and quickly shot to the top of the charts. By going back to the beginning--Peter Parker's high school days--and adhering to the essence of the character, the creative team captured the magic once again. And Marvel's president announced his intention to "give away as many as three million issues" in the first year, thus raising the character's profile astronomically.

Marvel embarked on an initiative to sign-up Ultimate Spider-Man licenses, as well, but there the character found himself going head to head with his greatest opponent...Spider-Man. This was the beginning of the movie madness, and while the success of the Ultimate title was astonishing, many licensees were frantic to hop on the movie bandwagon, and that's where they chose to invest their money.

Ultimately...so to speak...it was all good news for the amazing Spider-Man. The decade would see him join the ranks of Superman and Batman as one of the most iconic characters in the history of American popular culture, and take him in directions no one could ever have expected, with new animation, new opportunities across the globe, and even the Great White Way.

Thank you for taking a look at Spider-Man: The Icon, and many thanks to Newsarama for giving me the opportunity to talk directly with the fans. I hope you've enjoyed what you've seen, and please join me in the discussion forum. I'm eager to hear what you think of the book, and if any of you eagle-eyed readers spot a mistake or two, I want you to help us set the record straight. For more on the book, check out the official site at http://www.spidermantheicon.com/.

Click here (http://www.newsarama.com/TitanBooks/4/ExcerptFour.html) for the excerpt.

[Usernoob]

Spiderman is the greatest charactor in comics. He is not a god nor does he act like one. He is the ultimate everyman.

This is what real comicbook charactors are about.

[Bullwinkle]

I've been following these excerpts as they've popped up over the past few weeks and the book looks interesting, sooo .... I went to the website, registered with Titan and clicked on the UK link to buy the book. 50% off at Amazon UK?! Bargain! I'll send through a comment when I get the book in a couple of weeks (it's combined with something else I ordered). More soon .... :)

- Chris

[hoymurphy]

Hi, Steve!

--your pal, Hoy Murphy

[Steve Saffel]

Hi, Steve!

--your pal, Hoy Murphy

It's Hoy!

When I was in high school, I met Hoy--an equally avid comic book collecto--in West Virginia, where comic book collectors were relatively rare. Hoy's wife, Beth, called comics "funnybooks," much to Hoy's eternal chagrin (which, I think, added to Beth's mischievous delight).

Years later, however, when I was at Marvel, there were times when the rigors of the job were difficult, and I made myself think of comics as "funnybooks," simply to remind me of the pure enjoyment I found in them. And calling them funnybooks never diminished the respect I have for the medium, either.

It's great to hear from you!

[spidertour02]

Maybe I missed it, but the excerpt doesn't seem to mention why Bagley eventually accepted the assignment to Ultimate Spider-Man. I know the story -- or at least the hearsay version of it! -- but I'll bet that 90% of people don't. It seems like a glaring omission in the piece.

Otherwise, great work! :)

[BENDIS]

this was my favorite chapter :)

[Steve Saffel]

Maybe I missed it, but the excerpt doesn't seem to mention why Bagley eventually accepted the assignment to Ultimate Spider-Man. I know the story -- or at least the hearsay version of it! -- but I'll bet that 90% of people don't. It seems like a glaring omission in the piece.

Otherwise, great work! :)

What's the hearsay version? I tried to limit myself to material that had appeared in print, and could be confirmed via at least one separate (and credible) source. But if I missed something, this is the place to fill in the gaps.

Often, artists take assignments simply because they've been called by an editor or a writer, and like the material they've been offered. The opportunity to earn a living helps, of course, since artists (alas) aren't exempt from rent and mortgage payments. And remember, when Mark took on Ultimate Spider-Man, the industry was struggling. Mark is one of the best storytellers in comics today, so he wasn't likely to find himself out of work. But the times were uncertain.

Maybe Brian could help us out...

One caption notes, "Asked how he got involved with the title, Mark Bagley said, 'I was dragged, kicking and screaming… I didn’t want to do the book.' He further explained, 'I thought Marvel was crazy, and I was still a little burned out from Amazing, so I turned it down.' ”

And another caption adds, "According to Bendis, Mark Bagley originally intended to do only six issues. 'When the first issue finally did come out,' Bagley said in an interview, 'I changed my mind. I thought it looked beautiful, I loved the coloring and the inking, and the fans loved it too.' "

(Watch the captions. I purposely tried not to make them redundant. And I used them to increase the amount of information I could include in the book. To me, it seems like a rip-off to read a caption that just repeats what's in the main text.)

[spidertour02]

One caption notes, "Asked how he got involved with the title, Mark Bagley said, 'I was dragged, kicking and screaming… I didn’t want to do the book.' He further explained, 'I thought Marvel was crazy, and I was still a little burned out from Amazing, so I turned it down.' ”

And another caption adds, "According to Bendis, Mark Bagley originally intended to do only six issues. 'When the first issue finally did come out,' Bagley said in an interview, 'I changed my mind. I thought it looked beautiful, I loved the coloring and the inking, and the fans loved it too.' "

That's the exact jump I was talking about. By your narrative, Bagley didn't want the job, but then he was on for a short run. It doesn't explain why he took the job in the first place. ;)

By the way, the hearsay version is that after Bagley turned the job down, Bob Harras essentially threatened him to take the job -- "draw this or you're fired" -- because Harras' own job security was very shaky at that point. (He was fired soon after, right?) This totally jives with what you were saying earlier about the industry's struggles, and it's understandable that Bagley would "cave" because he had been working for Marvel for his entire comics career.

[Bullwinkle]

Yes, I saw Mark Bagley at a convention in Australia a few years ago and he talked about the whys and wherefores of being on Ultimate Spider-man ....

From what I remember he had said 'no' to Marvel a few times and they finally lined up Leonard Kirk for the gig. Mark then had a change of heart (or some other form of coercing) and the job slipped out of Leonard's hands ....

A few months later Mark saw Leonard in the hotel lobby at a convention and gave him a wide berth. He was worried there'd be trouble over stealing such a sweet gig from him - but there wasn't.

Still, it would've been nice to see what Kirk could do, don't you think?! I don't want to disparage Mark's work at all, but I would've enjoyed a Leonard Kirk Spidey as well .... :)

- Chris

[Steve Saffel]

I've also heard that Mark was a personal favorite of Bill Jemes, who was in charge of Marvel at the time. It makes sense, since Jemes came from the trading card side, and Mark had done some excellent work for the Marvel cards. However, that might mean that it was more Jemes's doing than Harras's.

[Steve Saffel]

I've also heard that Mark was a personal favorite of Bill Jemes, who was in charge of Marvel at the time. It makes sense, since Jemes came from the trading card side, and Mark had done some excellent work for the Marvel cards. However, that might mean that it was more Jemes's doing than Harras's.

After I wrote that, I remembered that in Ultimate Spider-Man #111 Mark Bagley wrote, "I'd first like to thank Bill Jemas for insisting I take this job over my idiotic objections." That issue hadn't been published when I was finishing up Spider-Man: The Icon, but the comment does support what I'd heard about Jemas liking Mark's work.