Comics Creators on Spider-Man [Paperback]

Tom DeFalco (Author)

Book Description

Series: Spiderman | Publication Date: July 1, 2004

The greatest creators in comics discuss the impact and importance of Spider-Man, and talk about how they have brought the web-slinger to life on the page over four decades. Illustrated with original script pages and all stages of artwork from sketchbook to finished page, this is pure heaven for every Spidey fan! This groundbreaking book features revealing interviews with Spider-Man's writers and artists throughout the strip's history, from original creator Stan Lee to current writer Brian Michael Bendis, from key artist John Romita to fan-favourite Todd McFarlane, and many other lively personalities behind the wall-crawling wonder. Instructional, fascinating and humorous, this book has something for comics fans, wannabe artists and hardened professionals alike.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Essex Chronicles, Thursday 29 July, 2004: " Fans of the comic book Spidey will definitely want to pick up Comics Creators, a fascinating study of the creative process involved in telling the web-slinger's adventures over the last 40 years." The List 8-22 July 2004, review by Dave Martin: " Full of insights which will delight..."

About the Author

Tom DeFalco is a comics industry giant. Formerly editor-in-chief at Marvel Comics, he is responsible for an astonishing body of comics work, including long runs both writing and editing across the entire Spider-Man universe. (Defalco comics). His most recent non-comics work is Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide, published in 2001 by Dorling Kindersley.

Product Details

• Paperback: 243 pages
• Publisher: Titan Books; 1st edition (July 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1840234229
• ISBN-13: 978-1840234220
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,601,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic survey of classic comics, August 17, 2004

By 

J. Nicholas Dirga "Nik" (Roseburg, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Comics Creators on Spider-Man (Paperback)

I'm a big web-spinning Spider-Man fanboy, no doubt about it. And to that geek, this book rocks hard. It's a 200-page series of interviews with some of the biggest creators of Spider-Man comic books over the past 40 years, from Stan Lee to Todd McFarlane to Brian Bendis. And it's just packed full of trivia, insight and critiques. I really get into these "behind the scenes" comic tomes, and this one's a winner. There's great comments by Lee on the creation of Spidey, as well as really thorough interviews with the writers I grew up on -- Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, and the underrated Roger Stern, who for my money wrote the best Spider-Man stories of all in the mid-1980s. We learn what went on behind the scenes with some classic stories and get each writer and artist's thoughts on what makes Spidey tick.

I particularly enjoyed how "Comic Creators" isn't some glossy tribute that overlooked the bad. It's compiled and the interviews are conducted by longtime "Spidey" writer Tom DeFalco, who comes at the subject with an insider's eye. Creators are pretty free with thoughts here on stories that didn't work, and the late 1990s nadir for Spider-Man comics, the bloated, bleak "Clone saga" and "Maximum Carnage" eras, come in for a well-deserved beating. Everyone involved seems to blame the disaster on Marvel editorial dictates. For instance, David Micheline, writer of "Amazing Spider-Man" at the time when there was a rather lousy storyline involving the possible return of Peter Parker's long-dead parents, reveals that he was forced to bring them back by an editor who apparently didn't even know how to end the storyline himself. The book does a good job showing how Spidey's appeal has kept up through the years, and gives you an insight into the creative process.