Horror and The Spider

The Spider. The Master of Men. Driven by the burning duty to wipe crime off the face of the Earth, often teetering on the edge of psychosis, riddled with paranoia and a Messianic complex. A man split between a life of luxury and his quest to obliterate evil. And one of the most violent and unique characters ever created for the pulp fiction world of the 1930s and 40s.

The Spider, aka millionaire man-about-town Richard Wentworth, blasted his way through over a hundred novels in the decade of the Great Depression, delivering sudden brutal justice to the guilty, sometimes nearly whacking a friend or two in the process. When he was in guise, he donned a fright wig, fangs, domino mask, slouch hat and flowing cape, creating for himself an image designed to strike terror into the hearts of the Underworld. While criminals generally knew other contemporary heroes such as Doc Savage and The Avenger were not going to kill them, they had no such reservations with The Spider. They knew their ticket was punched if they stumbled across his path (yet, month after month some crime lord did, indeed, issue challenge to the Master of Men, as he was dubbed. Criminals were not an entirely bright bunch back then, apparently.)

The Spider was aided by a faithful (Sikh or Hindu, depending on the story) manservant named Ram Singh, Jackson, a former war buddy, and the lovely violet-eyed Nita van Sloan, who forever resigned herself to the fact the man she loved was already married to his frightening persona and would never be wed to her. It was a tough life, being the fiancé of a semi-psychotic crime-fighter.

The series appeared under the house name Grant Stockbridge, but was written by a number of writers, primarily author Norvell Page, whose prose often blistered with white-hot pace and intensity, though it eschewed plot detail and, often, lucidity. In the bloody pages of The Spider thousands met with grisly death and The Spider himself suffered being riddled with bullets, countless stab wounds, and was driven through with swords or various other implements. And he wasn’t alone. Nita got it too, right down to one very unpleasant episode with a randy ape. Another aide died. But it’s ok, because he mysteriously came back to life the next issue!

The Spider, though an action pulp hero character, was no stranger to horror. Stories included grotesque shambling figures and human flesh eaters, monstrous apes and various twisted masterminds. The precedent was set, cast in pulpwood.

So recently when I got the chance to write original Spider stories, focusing on classic horror aspects felt like a perfect fit. The first appeared in the short story anthology The Spider Chronicles and concerned a voodoo queen. But just this past week my original Spider story, The Strange Case of The Spider and Mr. Hyde, appeared in widescreen comic book format.

For those unfamiliar with widescreen comics, they are short story prose weaved around double-paged paintings or drawn artwork. For this particular book, number 3 in The Spider: Judgment Knight series, it was noir black and white paintings by artist extraordinaire Cortney Skinner, topped off by an incredible full-color cover painting by the incomparable Gary Carbon (who did the fine painting work for my Spider graphic novel adaptation, The Spider: Judgment Knight based on the novel The Devil’s Paymaster and will be illustrating a special 2011 September 11 Anniversary Spider tale I’ve adapted). There is also a variation cover based on the same painting.

I was attracted to pitting the Spider against Mr. Hyde for a number of reasons. Both are split men, driven by base compulsions, though in different directions. Both are insane in their own way. Both are…monsters. That dichotomy, the duality of personality, was fascinating to explore in an action-oriented venue. There is a Mr. Hyde in all of us. We all have that darkness we struggle to keep under control, the monster clawing to get out. We all fall short at times, give in to the lure of darkness. We all let the spider crawl free. But it is how we handle those lapses, how we direct it or choose to overcome. Mr. Hyde makes the choice—or perhaps it is made for him by his own weakness—to turn it towards ill. The Spider directs it towards saving innocent lives.

The Spider is a fun character to write. Fun to let loose with. He gives you a license for gratuitousness and all-out escape. And walking the mist-shrouded streets and skulking through abandoned theaters with Mr. Hyde only makes it more enjoyable.

So what happens when these two men/monsters clash? I guess you’ll have to pick up a copy of the comic book to find out!

The Spider Judgment Knight #3 is a Moonstone Books production (www.moonstonebooks.com) and is available through comic specialty shops everywhere.