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The Spider by Dan Brereton.

This features the Master of Men in his earliest crime fighting disguise. Later in his career he would wear vampire fangs, a shock wig, and finally a hunchback, all in an effort to terrorize his enemies.

#The Spider #Master of Men #Richard Wentworth #Popular Publications #pulp heroes #Dan Brereton

philsp.com

November 1941 issue

Seattle Mystery Bookshop

#the spider magazine #pulp art #pulp cover #pulp magazine #crime fiction #mystery short stories #master of men #grant stockbridge #emile c. tepperman

The Spider 1/6th-scale action figure from Executive Replicas, Go Hero, and Phicen (now known as TBLeague).

This figure is based on the pulp hero from Popular Publications, created in 1933. The Spider was Popular's answer to Street & Smith's mega-popular pulp magazine star, The Shadow.

As seen above, The Spider originally just wore a simple domino mask and a cape as his costume. His appearance would change over the course of his 118 pulp magazine stories to make him appear more frightening. He incorporated vampire fangs and a shock wig, and later on a hunchback.

The Spider was also the star of two successful movie serials: The Spider's Web (1938) and The Spider Returns (1941). The action figure is supplied with the web-patterned cowl and cape from the serials, so you could pose the figure as either the pulp or serial version. (This also the costume The Spider dons in his current comic book appearances from Dynamite.)

This is a good, solid figure. I would have liked a second head sculpt, with the fright face complete with shock wig and fangs, but I suppose that would've placed the price point higher than the company wanted to go. Other than that, the only real complaint is that the fedora is the wrong size. It needs a bigger brim like they had in the 1930s; the smaller brim is the style from the 1960s.