When Marvel and DC
give creators carte blanche on their properties, good things tend to
happen. DC's Solo gave
12 artist an entire issue
to publish stories that included original characters and played with
house toys. Strange Tales,
the mini series filled with members of comic's independent scene,
showed that the
sense of humor Stan Lee used to build classic titles never went away.
Thanks to parody laws and loop holes, sometimes people decide to use
characters they don't own regardless of permission. One example is
Air Pirates Funnies,
an underground comic Dan O'Neill
organized to see how far his group of cartoonists could get using
Disney properties to tell stories with drugs, sex and everything else
the 1970's could drum-up to irritate the house of mouse. With
the Internet being used as a means for creators to offer original and
fan art to the public, it's important that these loop-holes and
parody laws can protect artists out there, because some of it is
extremely good.
Hannah
Blumenreich starts
off her digital comic, Spidey Zine,
with a disclaimer that reads: This is fan art and not official Marvel
or Disney or what-ever and I’m going to shout this at every single
person who handles this little comic collection because DEAR GOD if
there is one thing I fear, it’s Disney Lawyers™.
If her message doesn't save
her from the threat of legal troubles, it serves up a good laugh and
sets the tone for a collection of short stories that pays tribute to
the comic relief Spider-Man bring to comics when fighting
villains or battling personal problems.
Blumenreich's short stories
remind readers that Spider-Man was a teenager, trying to
fit in, understand girls, figure out how to fight crime, and deal
with Aunt May and a troubled past before he started to age, deal with
clones and get rebooted.
The
collection brings together seven stories that use one to four pages
to show slice of life scenes that play with Spider-Man characters and
their history. Most are built around jokes or uncomfortable moments
that make you laugh, like a splash page with an in-costume Peter
sitting on the couch with Aunt May while he holds her yarn and yells
at The
Gilmore Girls as she knits and tells him to sit on the
cushions. Though the show
he's watching might date the target audience, the scene reminds
readers that Spider-Man started off as a teenager, the Marvel super
hero the audience could see themselves in, the relatable kid with
nerdy interests and super powers. These nerdy interests kick off the
zine with Spidey swinging through the city while singing Leonard
Nemoy's “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.” Watching
a science nerd sing Spock's ode to a character from the hobbit
shire, drawn with
classic action shots, easy lines and fluid pacing make
“Ballad of Bilbo Baggins” a quick ride with the perfect trifecta
of nerdom comedy.
What
makes the lives of Peter Parker and Spider-Man different from others
is that he's always
facing
girl troubles no matter if
it's with the
mask (Black Cat) or
without it
(Mary Jane). In Spidey Zine,
the main character gets his share of girl troubles. There's a comical
re-imagining of Peter's introduction to Mary Jane in “Face It,
Tiger,” and a story where he
creates a missed connection by
spending
too much time talking about television to a girl that
wants Spider-Man to get her
home safely on Halloween
in “Walk
Home.”
Family
is another
important theme to Spider-Man stories, and Spidey Zine
doesn't neglect that element. “Uncle Ben” shows how words aren't
needed in comics. One of the bigger stories, “Uncle Ben” uses its panels to
go through the losses in family Peter experiences to emphasis the
importance of Aunt May. The lack of words paired with images that
are filed with detail and information slow the tempo down and turn
“Uncle Ben” into an honest story that starts off breaking your
heart before leaving it
mended and warm.
Because
it uses a hot property, Hannah Blumenreich may not be able to charge
you for it. But if you enjoyed her Not Quite Journal Comics
you may want to see her apply her sense of humor and stylish work
with a pen in Spidey Zine. If so, you can download it for free or donate
what you want by visiting her web store and hoping it doesn't see the same conclusion Air Pirates Funnies did when it used Disney characters.
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