Tuesday, September 2, 2014

If You Blinked, You Missed: "Curse of the Tarantula" by Fleisher and Boyette

When you just nab a mag off the Spiner-Rack from Yesterday, you have a slight chance of grabbing one of Atlas/Seaboard's wildest and weirdest titles of their short-lived history: Weird Suspense featuring The Tarantula #1 (November 1975). Can you just hear the conference (just makin' this up, but you get the idea) behind the creation of this macabre mag? Publisher Martin Goodman (and probably his son Chip), editor Jeff Rovin, writer Michael Fleisher, and artist Pat Boyette? M. Goodman: "I want a mag to compete with Spider-Man!" C. Goodman: "Marvel's supernatural mags are selling big! Especially Tomb of Dracula, Ghost Rider, and Man-Thing." Fleisher: "Well, I'm more into the supernatural than the super-hero side of comics, myself." Boyette: "Me, too. Oh, and I love those Hammer horror films!" M. Goodman: "I want a Spider-Man mag, and I want it now!" (He leaves.) Fleisher and Boyette give Rovin and the younger Goodman a wink. "No sweat. We've got this!" So we get a hero with spider-like powers (including spinning webs and climbing walls) involved in a cult, changed into a monstrous form in which he drinks the blood of his enemies! Now, the conference I made up, but the mag? She's-a for real! Honest! See for yourself...
Cover art by Dick Giordano





















And, oh, yeah, this madcap and macabre mag lasted two more issues! Mebbe you might wanna see 'em sometime...?
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , ,

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 2, 2014 at 10:14 PM

    Wow Groove where do you find these gems? This tale is like Dracula, Spider-Man and Frankenstein all rolled into one! I for one say 'give us more Groove' !

    - Mike from Trinidad & Tobago.

    ReplyDelete
  2. dusty abellSeptember 19, 2014 at 9:35 PM

    A real favorite from when I was a kid, I had the follow up issue as well............I have since repurchased a number of the old Seaboard Atlas books I had from back then...........Grim Ghost, Man-Monster and Tiger-Man being the standouts.............I get a big kick outta that crazy company and their lightning quick 4 month publishing history!

    ReplyDelete
  3. DarciApril 8, 2019 at 1:32 AM

    Plus, Marvel returned the favor. First, by turning Spidey's old foe Tarantula into a real giant spider. Then by turning Spidey himself into one. The Tarantula one is fairly effective.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMarch 20, 2024 at 2:59 PM

    the weird australian reprint: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cG6gJ9NXM4pDLLSE9wgOMl0t1yYbu-6l/view?usp=sharing

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin
Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.


All other commentary and insanity copyright GroovyAge, Ltd.

As for the rest of ya, the purpose of this blog is to (re)introduce you to the great comics of the 1970s. If you like what you see, do what I do--go to a comics shop, bookstore, e-Bay or whatever and BUY YOUR OWN!