MattBrady
11-30-2007, 01:29 PM
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/TitanBooks/Spiderman_Icon_t.jpg" border="0" align="right">We conclude 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 <b>Amazing Fantasy #15</b> 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's rough and rocky ride as corporate property.
As Saffel sets the scene for this week's pages:
Spider-Fans:
We have a bonus today—not one excerpt, but two! Think of it as an early present, from Newsarama to you.
First, a peek at what might have been. In the 1980s, Marvel began to take its characters more seriously as licensed properties, and as you see here, they began to offer licensees greater guidance in producing toys, apparel, and other such items. In the process, they guaranteed better quality for everything from T-shirts to Spider-mobiles.
And back in 1985, the newspapers made the eagerly-awaited announcement that the web-slinger was scheduled to make his movie debut…for Christmas 1986. Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) was to direct, and in subsequent years he was replaced by Roger Corman (Little Shop of Horrors) and even James Cameron (Terminator 2). Much was made of the possibility that the Terminator 2 CGI effects would be adapted to Spider-Man.
Corman went on to direct the first Fantastic Four film…’nuff said!
But Spidey’s movie rights were a tangled web, and several studios laid claim to the property. In the late 1990s, it came down to Sony and MGM—each could claim the web-spinner, and each had film rights to Ian Fleming’s super-spy James Bond. As Mark Cotta Vaz revealed in Behind the Mask of Spider-Man (2002), a trade was negotiated, giving MGM clear rights to Bond, and Sony the film rights for Spider-Man.
Also in the ‘90s, some of the most action-packed scenes took place—not in the comics, but in the board room. Marvel went public, selling stock for the first time in 1991. John Romita’s web-spinner, who had guest-starred at a rock concert for Creem magazine in 1973, went swinging through the New York Stock Exchange less than 20 years later.
It makes sense when you think about it. The ‘70s were the time of the Woodstock generation, while the ‘90s were the dot-com decade. And the stage was set for one of the most entertaining bankruptcies in Wall Street history.
These excerpts feature some amazing art by John Romita, Michael Golden, Bill Sienkiewicz, Matt Wagner, and more. And a special guest-shot by Stan Lee. I’ll be eager to hear what you think about them. And for more on Spider-Man: The Icon, visit http://www.spidermantheicon.com/.
Enjoy!
Best,
Steve
Click here (http://www.newsarama.com/TitanBooks/05/Excerpt5.html) for the excerpt.
The 320 page coffee table book tracks Spider-Man through the ages, from his start in <b>Amazing Fantasy #15</b> 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's rough and rocky ride as corporate property.
As Saffel sets the scene for this week's pages:
Spider-Fans:
We have a bonus today—not one excerpt, but two! Think of it as an early present, from Newsarama to you.
First, a peek at what might have been. In the 1980s, Marvel began to take its characters more seriously as licensed properties, and as you see here, they began to offer licensees greater guidance in producing toys, apparel, and other such items. In the process, they guaranteed better quality for everything from T-shirts to Spider-mobiles.
And back in 1985, the newspapers made the eagerly-awaited announcement that the web-slinger was scheduled to make his movie debut…for Christmas 1986. Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) was to direct, and in subsequent years he was replaced by Roger Corman (Little Shop of Horrors) and even James Cameron (Terminator 2). Much was made of the possibility that the Terminator 2 CGI effects would be adapted to Spider-Man.
Corman went on to direct the first Fantastic Four film…’nuff said!
But Spidey’s movie rights were a tangled web, and several studios laid claim to the property. In the late 1990s, it came down to Sony and MGM—each could claim the web-spinner, and each had film rights to Ian Fleming’s super-spy James Bond. As Mark Cotta Vaz revealed in Behind the Mask of Spider-Man (2002), a trade was negotiated, giving MGM clear rights to Bond, and Sony the film rights for Spider-Man.
Also in the ‘90s, some of the most action-packed scenes took place—not in the comics, but in the board room. Marvel went public, selling stock for the first time in 1991. John Romita’s web-spinner, who had guest-starred at a rock concert for Creem magazine in 1973, went swinging through the New York Stock Exchange less than 20 years later.
It makes sense when you think about it. The ‘70s were the time of the Woodstock generation, while the ‘90s were the dot-com decade. And the stage was set for one of the most entertaining bankruptcies in Wall Street history.
These excerpts feature some amazing art by John Romita, Michael Golden, Bill Sienkiewicz, Matt Wagner, and more. And a special guest-shot by Stan Lee. I’ll be eager to hear what you think about them. And for more on Spider-Man: The Icon, visit http://www.spidermantheicon.com/.
Enjoy!
Best,
Steve
Click here (http://www.newsarama.com/TitanBooks/05/Excerpt5.html) for the excerpt.