by The Spider was a pulp character invented in the 1930s by Harry Steeger of Popular Publications. The magazine of the same name sold well in its hey-day, competing alongside the likes of fellow American pulp heroes The Shadow and Doc Savage, resulting in over 100 novels from 1933 to 1943, most of which were written by Norvell Page under the name Grant Stockbridge. The character enjoyed a brief time in the Hollywood limelight when Columbia Pictures produced a 15-chapter serial called The Spider’s Web in 1938, followed a couple years later by a sequel, The Spider Returns. Many of the novels have been reprinted by various publishers over the years, in book, comic, and ebook formats.
To view a list of Spider novels and stories available in print and ebook formats, please click here.
These cover scans are from the library of author Christopher Fulbright.
My favorite of the hero pulps. The Spider’s adventures were apocalyptic visions of doom and dread where innocent bystanders die by the thousands. This reflected the anxieties of Depression-era readers. The Shadow stories were essentially mysteries, and The Shadow himself was an enigma even to the people who worked for him. Richard Wentworth, on the other hand, was a point-of-view character who soaked up an incredible amount of punishment in the course of his exploits, and often managed to stay on his feet and keep going only through sheer will power.
Thanks for posting, Charles. I enjoy the character quite a bit, and hoped that Baen would re-issue more of the books in omnibus editions.