Spider (pulp fiction)

The Spider is an American pulp-magazine hero of the 1930s and 1940s.

Background

The Spider was created in 1933 by Harry Steeger at Popular Publications as direct competition to Street and Smith Publications' vigilante hero, the Shadow. Though similar, The Spider was millionaire playboy Richard Wentworth, who had served as a Major in World War I, and was living in New York City unaffected by the financial deprivations of the Great Depression. The ninth pulp has him as the last surviving member of a rich family.

Wentworth was easily identified as The Spider by his enemies in a number of earlier novels and was arrested by the police but quickly escaped, adopting a disguise and associated alias Tito Caliepi, donning make-up, a wig of lank hair, a black cape, and slouch hat. Later in the pulp series, vampire-like makeup appeared and then a face mask with grizzled hair; a hunchback was then added to terrorize the criminal underworld with The Spider's brand of violent vigilante justice. (Actor and comedian Harold Lloyd previously had used a similar mask, lank hair wig, and hunchback in the comedy film Dr. Jack (1922)). Caliepi sometimes begged, utilizing Wentworth's talent with a violin.

The Spider (1940 film)

The Spider is a 1940 British, black-and-white, crime, drama, thriller, directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Ronald Shiner as (uncredited). It was produced by Admiral Films.

Synopsis

This thriller features a talent agent, whose corrupt actions are uncovered by his business partner. The corrupt sinks deeper by murderng him. Unfortunately for both of them, a young woman witnesses the murder. The talent agent attacks her, she is traumatised and loses her memory. After she is released from hospital, the talent agent resumes his chase, but a detective and his wife intervene with thrilling consequences.

Cast

References

External links

The Spider (British comics)

The Spider is a British comic book character who began as a supervillain before becoming a superhero. He appeared in Lion between 26 June 1965 and 26 April 1969 and was reprinted in Vulcan. He was created by writer Ted Cowan and artist Reg Bunn. Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel took over the writing of the character with his third adventure, and would write the bulk of his adventures.

Publication history

The Spider first appeared in The Lion from 26 June 1965 to 26 April 1969, as well as in Lion Annuals from 1967 to 1971. He would later be reprinted in Vulcan from 1975 to 1976. New material was also included in Fleetway's Super Stupendous Library series from 1967 to 1968.

His adventures were also reprinted in other countries, such as Germany (in Kobra), Spain, Italy, France, and others.

2000AD published an "Action Special" featuring The Spider (as well as other characters from the same era) in 1992, but this version (written by Mark Millar at the start of his career) is ill-thought of by most fans, turning The Spider into a cannibal, and tends to be ignored.

Spider (2007 film)

Spider is a 2007 Australian Black Comedy short film directed by Nash Edgerton and written by David Michôd and Nash Edgerton. The film had its world premiere in competition at the Sydney Film Festival on 17 June 2007. After that the film compete at number of film festivals and later theatrically released with Edgerton's feature-film The Square.

Plot

Consummate joker Jack plays a prank on his girlfriend Jill that goes too far. But like mum said, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye."

Cast

Reception

Critical response

The film earned mainly positive reviews from critics. Jason Sondhi of short of the week gave film the positive review said "It’s for sure a superior film, I just think I loved everything about it except the parts that I assume everyone loves." David Brook of blue print review gave the film four out of five stars and said "A simple one-gag comedy-short that works surprisingly well due to some accomplished naturalistic direction and performances. A nice touch at the end, although unnecessary, went down well with the audience too." Wesley Morris of Boston.com said that "as well-delivered as its shocks are, this film is cleverness in the service of cruelty."

Spider (disambiguation)

A spider is a type of arthropod.

Spider or Spiders may also refer to:

Places

People

Art, entertainment, and media

Comics

Fictional entities

Spider (Bourgeois)

Spider is a sculpture by Louise Bourgeois. Executed in 1996 as an edition of six and cast in 1997; bronze with a silver nitrate patina, with the first of the edition being steel.

An example was acquired by the Denver Art Museum for its new addition in 2006. Other locations in permanent collections include the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, Washington DC, and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri.

Exhibitions

The steel Spider was exhibited at Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal from April to September, 1996. Various editions of this artwork have traveled extensively, including an example shown at the Hermitage Museum in 2001.

Art market

In 2006, Bourgeois became the highest-paid living woman artist after a Spider sold for $4 million at Christie's in London; which was surpassed in 2008, when another Spider sold for $4.5 million. A new record price for the artist was achieved when Spider number two acquired from Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, was auctioned by a private collector with an estimate of $4 million to $6 million. The price realized at Christie's on 8 November 2011 was $10,722,500. This is the highest price paid for an artwork by a woman artist at the time.

Work of art

A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an aesthetic physical item or artistic creation. Apart from "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature and music, these terms apply principally to tangible, portable forms of visual art:

Used more broadly, the term is less commonly applied to: