Arceo 1 Jami Arceo Ms.

Bell English 4 3 September 2013 When Trouble calls, Spidey Crawls No matter what city you may live in, you are bound to have heard about one of the greatest superheroes in the world, Spiderman. It had been one of the top comics, and was so famous it had even gone to theatres as an actual film. You didnt have to be a young little boy to have grown love for this super hero; people of all ages appreciated the Spidermans story. Many people could relate to him. The challenges that Peter had to overcome were very similar to what every person had to face at one point, and not including saving the world. Wherever there was a problem, Spiderman was there. The citizens of the world were in great hands.

History of the Comic Book Long before gadgets and gizmos were invented, the great comic book was around. What exactly is a comic book? Short and simple, a comic book is a sequence of scenes that contain words and pictures that create a story. Comic books were first introduced in the United States during the 1800s. Two of the top comic publishers were Marvel and Detective Comics. Richard Outcault, William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer, James Swinnerton and Rudolph Dirks were major contributors in comics in the United States. Many people may think that the comic book isn't important, but it had helped been used in American society for decades. The first uses of the comics, as a marketing tool started in 1895, by Richard Felton Outcault's comic called The Yellow Kid. The purpose of the comic book is well known for entertainment and to get a good

Arceo 2 laugh. The nineteenth century had placed comics everywhere, putting them in newspapers to get residents to purchase and read the paper. Comics were put in, not only newspapers but also in magazines. But later the comic book had become a useful tool of propaganda. During World War 2, Comic books had flourished. Demonstrating patriotism, it was known for Comic Art Propaganda. But today's society comic books have disappeared due to the competition with movies and televisions.

Superhero Character Spiderman or, aka Peter Parker, was bitten by a radioactive spider and turned into one of the greatest super heroes ever. He had grown up living with his grandparents ever since his parents had passed away from a plane crash when he was just a little boy. He was very bright kid. He took honors classes and many adults thought highly of him. Going to high school, Peter was extremely shy; having no friends since he wasn't able to fit in. Besides his inhuman capabilities, Peter Parker had experience regular problems that teenagers had such dealing with his love life, school, family, work, and etc. The creators of Spiderman, the writer and as well as the artist, Stan Lee and Steve Kitko envisioned Spiderman to be superhero who was like an ordinary person. Peter seemed the least likely to be the super hero type, it seemed like he was the one to be watching the super hero do all the saving or better yet be the one being saved. Many other super heroes had their own sidekicks, although Spiderman was the exception, he was his own sidekick. He was a man who helped citizens out because he thought it was the morally correct; out of his own kindness. Although, at first he had struggled with himself, thinking whether he should make the residents of the city's problem his own responsibility. But after ignoring a thief that had killed his uncle later that night, that he had a chance to stop, Peter had

Arceo 3 been changed forever. That tragic event had soon lead to using his own abilities for bad, even debating on robbing a bank to help his aunt pay for his uncle's funeral. But in the end, his perspective had changed tremendously, and knew that he had a duty to the city. He seemed like a coward, once he put his Spiderman outfit on he was invincible, and never backed out of a fight.

Bibliographical information on Artist or Writer Not everyday you know someone who has had the creativity to be an artist as well as a writer of a popular comic. Todd McFarlane was a very talented and blessed with great skills of being an artist and writer of the Spiderman series. He was born in March 16, 1961, in Calgary, Canada. Besides being a cartoonist, artist, and writer he was also a toy designer as well as an entrepreneur. His love for comic books had started at a fairly young age, about the age 14. If he could afford them he would buy comics by his favorites John Byrne, George Perez, Marshall Rogers, Michael Golden, Art Adams and Walter Simonson, which had been stated on spawn.com. Baseball had been McFarlanes other passion other than writing and drawing for comics books. Trying to become a popular comic book artist/writer, McFarlane had put in so much work sending out submissions, but most had been rejected. His work had started in the year 1984, as he worked on Epic Comics Coyote. Then later on, McFarlane had teamed up with David Michelin to work on the Amazing Spiderman. Here McFarlane had changed Spidermans entire look, giving him more of a spidey look. Once he had worked on the Amazing Spiderman, it had made him a well known in the comic book industry. During the late 1900s he had released the Spiderman series through Marvel, which had sold over 2 million copies. Spiderman had become a big successful hit and had been release at the start of the years of when comics had thrived. After McFarlane had left Marvel, he had created a studio of film and

Arceo 4 animation, called Todd McFarlane Entertainment. This company he had created was strictly for entertainment, which had been discovered in 1997. Teaming up with New Line Cinema had produced Spawn, his own fantasy series. Then another thing he had created was Venom. Venom was a legendary villain who had received the venom after Spiderman or aka Peter Parker. McFarlane had won the Inkpot Award and National Cartoonists Society Award in 1992.

Summary Just another night in New York City, with over thousands of people crowding around each other against big skyscrapers trying to get from place to place. Most of people are minding their own business, they are clueless to all the crimes happening at the moment of their own city. Luckily there is a special hero out there to help those in need of help, by the name of Spiderman. Spiderman has his own wicked powers that he uses to his own advantage to defeat enemies and villains. As Spiderman attaches his sticky webs from each building to find a crime scene, the crowd below is bustling, still very unaware of what could be happening. It is the night time where most of the crimes being to take place. In one part of the city there is this rugged man holding a gun up against a woman threatening her as he forces her to hand over her purse. As Spiderman swoops in to the rescue. Of course the heros capabilities of his super fast speed, and strength was no match for the thief. He wrapped the thief in his own web mess, hanging the thief upside down, as he escorted the lady safely out there. Although it may seem like after a successful night of stopping yet another crime by the magnificent Spiderman the city was safe. But little does Spiderman know is that evil was stirring up another tragic disaster waiting to occur in New York City. As Spiderman gets rest, he retires to his own home. Back to being Peter Parker living with his beautiful wife Mary Jane. As they sit next to each other Peter

Arceo 5 complains about the thieves in New York City and how they come off as very confident yet idiotic people to think that Spiderman would easily take them on. After defeating plenty of villains it was very shocking to him that they normal crooks would try to defeat him. Mary Jane states that Peter is just being very cocky, and jokes around with him. Next morning, starts the daily routine. On the morning paper there is news of three men that were killed by a new villain. The new monster was produced as a killing machine, and thats exactly what it did. Regular citizens had no match for the new villain, and most definitely needed the help from the trustworthy Spiderman. Off in hopes of defeating the new villain, Spiderman swung on the buildings thinking of the great feeling and greatness of his own power of being a hero to the people on New York. As the day suddenly turns to night, the Lizard attacks a man by the name of Ralph Dill. Spiderman comes to rescue yet another citizen and to terminate the lizard, but the next comic will be the continuation of the fight. Then, it will be revealed if Spiderman had won another battle.

Review This comic had been a great read. I very much enjoyed reading it, because it had proved that something doesnt have to have chapters and long pages of writing to be able to tell an actual story. A picture is worth a thousand words, the drawings in the comic book already tell so much of the story, that just a couple of words each page are needed. I had never really given comics a chance. But turns out that comics are actually fun to read because unlike most things that we have to read in school, it isnt formal, or have a certain way of writing using paragraphs and etc. I enjoyed making comparisons to the movie, although it is quite similar, Peter Parker had seemed very shy and had a bit of a low self-esteem, but was able to see a lot of confidence in the comic

Arceo 6 book. After another crime that had been taken care of by Spiderman, he comes home and boasts about how he was pretty much unstoppable. I loved how ironic it was that another villain was stirring up an evil plan as he was at home doing that. It was great leading up to the grand battle that had not been finished. The comic book ends with an ending that will have you wanting to get the other comic books that complete the series to see how the battle will end, which is always good. I love endings that have you wanting more. I also really enjoyed the art in the comic books. In some pages, it had a crosshatch type of shading which was very unique. The drawings of people are very different from how there are drawn in other types of art. Also dialogue or writing are in boxes or put in speech bubbles to show which person in the comic is doing the talking. Another great thing was the drawn detailing of the enemies, Spiderman himself, as well as the background. All in all it was a great comic book, and has encouraged me to read other comics as well. I would recommend to anyone to read this comic, and to give comic books a try.

Arceo 7 Works Cited Page -Bellis, Mary. Richard Outcaults Yellow Kid was the first comic strip to use Balloons. About.com Guide. The History of Comic Books. Web. 02 Sept. 2013. www.inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/comics.htm

-Stromberg, Fredrik. Comic Art Propaganda: A Graphic History. St. Martins Griffin. Graphic Novel Reporter. Web. 02 Sept. 2013 www.graphicnovelreporter.com/content/comic-artpropaganda-graphic- history-review

-Todd McFarlane Complete Biography. Spawn.com. INFO. Web. 02 Sept. 2013 www.spawn/info/todd/bio.long.aspx

-Todd McParlane. ImDb. Biography for Todd McFarlane. Web. 02 Sept. 2013. www.imdb.com/name/nm0568825/bio

-A History of the Comic Book. 18 March 2008. Archetypes, Commercial, and Hollywood. Random History. 02 Sept. 2013 http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/044comic.html.