Newspaper Strip
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 through 1985, Cowles Media Company in 1986, and King Features Syndicate since, the comic strip was successful in an era with few serialized adventure strips. The strip slowly grew in circulation and as of 2012 is still being published. It was first written by Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee and illustrated by John Romita. Stan Lee's brother, Larry Lieber, illustrated and later wrote the strip for much of its run. In 1992, Paul Ryan took over the penciling (with Joe Sinnott inking) on the Sunday version of the strip and drew that feature for three years. Since 1997, the daily strips are pencilled by Larry Lieber and inked by Alex Saviuk, while the Sunday strips are pencilled by Saviuk and inked by Joe Sinnott. In recent years, Roy Thomas has provided a non-credited script assist to Stan on the strip, with Roy writing of his role in the strip recently in his editorials within his ALTER-EGO magazine/fanzine published by TwoMorrows .
Early story arcs in the newspaper strip were paced much like a comic book, and a complete story unfolded in about 2 months of Sunday and daily strips. While the strip and the comic book feature the same characters, they do not share the same continuity. The strip differs from the established story lines of the comic books, most notably in the villains who Spider-Man fights and the women who Peter Parker dates. Many villains were introduced that have never appeared in other media, including the Rattler, a man who acquired snakelike characteristics. A rare exception was the 1987 wedding of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson which occurred in both the comic book and the comic strip.
On December 31, 2008, the strip announced major changes. The following day, the strip underwent a reboot restoring Peter Parker as an unmarried young man living alone in a renovated apartment, attending college, and dating longtime best friend Mary Jane whenever she is available. On January 3, it was revealed in a caption that the timeline of the rebooted strip is set "in the days before Peter and Mary Jane were married". On May 24, 2009, the marriage was restored to the dailies, with the previous storyline involving Electro having been revealed to be a dream. The revelation dawns on Peter as Mary Jane walks out of the shower, paying homage to the infamous cliffhanger of Dallas involving the return of Patrick Duffy as Bobby Ewing, while at the same time taking a jab at the mainstream comics' storyline One More Day. Currently, the strip is the only place where fans can still read of a happily married Peter and Mary Jane.
Guest stars in the newspaper strip include Wolverine, Daredevil and Doctor Strange. Villains include Dr. Doom, Kraven the Hunter, the Rhino and Mysterio.
Read more about this topic: Spider-Man In Other Media
Famous quotes containing the words newspaper and/or strip:
“The newspaper has debauched the American until he is a slavish, simpering, and angerless citizen; it has taught him to be a lump mass-man toward fraud, simony, murder, and lunacies more vile than those of Commodus or Caracalla.”
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)
“Perfect present has no existence in our consciousness. As I said years ago in Erewhon, it lives but upon the sufferance of past and future. We are like men standing on a narrow footbridge over a railway. We can watch the future hurrying like an express train towards us, and then hurrying into the past, but in the narrow strip of present we cannot see it. Strange that that which is the most essential to our consciousness should be exactly that of which we are least definitely conscious.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)