Comments on: Spider-Fan

By: Bob Rehak

Bob Rehak — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:49:15 +0000

Timm, thanks so much for writing! Wild that we’ve “reconnected” after all these years, through the intermediary of Spider-Man. I should have noticed in the print ad that the coin company was local to Michigan. Do you know whether other states each had their own Marvel tie-in franchise?

In any case, I appreciate your getting in touch. Hope you’re up to good things these days.

By: Timm Harmon

Timm Harmon — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:10:03 +0000

I see these posts were all from last summer, but I had to post. I was the other “person” in your Photo! The company Hallmark Minting Service was out of Southfield, and we did SPIDEY shows in malls accross the midwest.

As for the photo, they too were part of our income stream. $3.75 to be exact… unless you were one of the fortunate kids that had parents go for our “Special” which was a medallion and photo for $6.75… your Dad would have saved a buck on the deal.

Funny to see this after all those years… Note: Spider-Man is in a semi standing pose… many a little boy or girl got too excited when sitting on Spidey’s lap… and we only had 2 costumes for each show, so if one was wet, you always stood from then on.

By: Bob Rehak

Bob Rehak — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:07:07 +0000

Sol Solaris? Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time … a long time. I probably have a lot of written material buried in file cabinets; haven’t had the guts to go through those old short stories and whatnot for at least a decade. But sooner or later I’ll dredge it up and bring it to PA.

As for Floyd, glad to know he’s still around! I believe I have some of your original artwork in my files.

By: Mike R.

Mike R. — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:09:26 +0000

Did you keep your Sol Solaris work? I’ve still got Floyd the Beatnik Goblin.

By: Bob Rehak

Bob Rehak — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:37:44 +0000

Michael, thanks for the feedback (and fanboy shoutout). These items -- my medallion, your Halloween costume -- are interesting to me as objects that come into existence on the periphery of textual universes like Spider-Man's. From one perspective, the artifacts are mere tie-ins, watered-down products stamped with a logo or design as a way of squeezing a few extra bucks out of fans (or their parents!) during the gaps between new issues. But from another POV, these objects extend and deepen our engagement with a busy field of storytelling and creativity; more important, they materialize the fantasy diegesis, literally implanting its content into our immediate physical environment. I may know Spider-Man primarily through his ephemeral texts, but I experience him through costumes, action figures, toys, and the performative play they organize. (Now when the physical again diffuses into the image -- as with my recovered Polaroid -- that complicates things!) Re: nomenclature, I try to get stuff like that right -- but I don't worry too much when I see it done differently. At least not around Spider-Man ... when I see Mr. Spock referred to as Dr. Spock, I fly into a Vulcan death rage.

By: Michael D.

Michael D. — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:22:11 +0000

Wow, that almost made me tear up a bit… I can’t remember if we had talked about how you were/are as big a fan of Spider-Man as I am! We’ve already talked about how similar our problems with “stuff” in our parents’ house is!! I don’t have the Spider-Man Medallion, but I *do* still have an original Spider-Man Halloween costume and mask that could probably fetch something sweet on Ebay — which I will likely have to do soon… I also have, I think, almost every issue of “Amazing” from the early numbers through around 400 or soon after, where I stopped reading… when I came back to the comic world some fifteen years later and started picking up graphic novels, I actually became more of a DC guy, getting more into recent Supes and Bats stuff (though I did pick up the Ultimates).

By the way, do you get as annoyed as I do with people constantly misspelling “Spider-Man” as “Spiderman”?? That’s how I see it spelled in the U.K., which I can understand, to a point, but I see plenty of uninformed people do it here in the U.S.!! I know you’ve got it right, because you used the correct hyphen in your “Spider-Fan” blog title as well! I’m especially surprised these days when I see it on internet messageboards, particularly ones filled with supposed comic book “fanboys” who spend half their time professing how prickly and know-it-all they are about the subject…and then proceed to call him “Spiderman”…

I would call Spider-Man a “proper name,” and a “proper name” should be worded in its grammatically correct way!

“Picky much?” When it’s about my favorite hero, than…yeah, I am.

By the way, if you haven’t checked out the new “Spectacular Spider-Man” animated series (1st season finished, 13 episodes have been aired), you really must. The best version I’ve seen of the character in any mediated form, including the movies. Great character development and actual surprises. Captures everything about the character, reflecting on the Kirby past while simultaneously adapting more contemporary storylines…

[zips lips shut for the night]