12ish Days of Blogging: 40 Years of the Amazing Spider-Man Newspaper Comic Strip!

On the ninth day of my 12ish Days of Blogging I give to thee: forty years of the Amazing Spider-Man comic strip! What two posts within one day? Technically, I missed a couple days so you could say I'm making up for lost time. Plus, the previous entry was intended to go live on the 2nd. Besides, celebrating 40 years of the Amazing Spider-Man Newspaper Comic Strip holds special significance today.


Why?


On January 3rd, 1977, the very first strip of Amazing Spider-Man, written by Stan Lee and drawn by John Romita (Sr), was published in several newspapers. Which means today, January 3rd 2017, marks 40 years that the Amazing Spider-Man Newspaper Strip has been running in newspapers and online.


As a Spider-man fan, that is simply awesome!


As a kid, I eagerly awaited the occasion when I could read the comic strip within the pages of Sunday paper. The Spidey strip may even have appeared within my local paper but if it did it was very brief run. Heck, the Sunday paper, which I had access to didn't run if for long. So reading the adventures of the webslinger within the funnies was a rarity for me. Honestly, there's only two brief periods aside from being a kid that I recall reading it in a newspaper. Absolutely relished reading those strips. Sure the strips were a bit corny but I savored every occasion.


Then I discovered that King Features had an online presence, which published X number of strips online. That presence became DailyINK and is now called Comics Kingdom. Honestly, Comics Kingdom is a rare better name for King Features online distribution of its comic strips in my mind. If you want to take a gander at the latest installment of the Amazing Spider-Man Newspaper Strip, here it IS.


The January 3rd 2017 is... corny. However, I suppose for the general newspaper audience there's probably limits to what the creators of the strip want to push. After all, parents could be reading it to their four year old. Written by Stan Lee (well, credited to him anyway) and drawn by Larry Lieber and inked by Alex Saviuk (loved his work in Web of Spider-Man) Spider-man is busy fighting Rocket Raccoon. Oops - excuse me, Rocket. That's how all the movie fans know RR as.


Here's a brief summary for those who may check out the provided strip once future strips are posted as only paid members of Comics Kingdom have access to older strips. The January 3rd 2017 strip opens with a gloating Rocket standing over the beleaguered Spider-man continuing the long-established tradition by Stan Lee of two Marvel heroes fighting each other when they first meet. The strip ends when Spider-Man webs Rocket and is pleasantly surprised when Rocket doesn't immediately break the webbing. I admit I haven't read the strip since the last time I blogged about it here. So clearly Spider-Man isn't a world-class hero within his own strip and his webbing isn't the be-all-end-all that it is within the pages of his comic book. Suppose they got to create tension for the next day, huh?


Once every year, for having the chance to regularly read Spidey's newspaper strip along other King stalwarts such as the Phantom and Mandrake the Magician, I contemplate becoming a member of DailyINK now Comics Kingdom. Much like a failed New Year's Resolution, I just never do. Perhaps, this year, I will finally become a premium member. If I do, I may write monthly reviews of the Amazing Spider-Man Newspaper Strip much like website Spider Fan does. Here are REVIEWS they've done. I will probably view the strips in a more favorable light as the strip is intended for small children who may not even be reading age yet.


As for the older material, Marvel reprinted the first four years of strips into two separate volumes years ago. I do own a copy of each of them. Most recently, IDW via its Library of American Comics imprint has released three volumes of the first six years and plans on continuing releasing its archival books. As such may have to "upgrade" to the IDW editions!


To commemorate the occasion I may read some the strips from Marvel's second volume. Heck, I'll probably do a review of the out-of-print book.


So happy 40 year anniversary Amazing Spider-Man Newspaper Strip! May it continue on like other venerable strips such as the Phantom, Flash Gordon, and Mandrake the Magician!


Haven't decided if I'll do a double post or post on the 6th yet such that I have "12 days" of blogging.


Till my 10th installment of 12ish Days of Blogging and happy reading!