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...?