{"id":35183,"date":"2026-04-03T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T08:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=35183"},"modified":"2026-04-02T17:37:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:37:58","slug":"the-spiders-syndicate-of-crime-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/04\/03\/the-spiders-syndicate-of-crime-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spider\u2019s Syndicate of Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Ted Cowan<\/strong>, Jerry Siegel<\/strong> & Reg Bunn<\/strong> (Rebellion)
\nISBN 978-1-78108-905-7 (Album TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times. <\/em><\/p>\n

As religions, faiths and nations all over the world celebrate their apparently God-given right to kill each other in monumental numbers and vile ways, I\u2019m again retreating into childhood days and safely fictional conflicts this Easter.<\/p>\n

At least the adventures of the macabre and malevolent Spider<\/strong> and his personal redemption arc are as engrossing and enjoyable as I always recalled and will provide the newest, most contemporary reader with a huge hit of superb artwork, compelling, caper-style cops \u2018n\u2019 robbers fantasy, and thrill-a-minute adventure with no threat to soul or sanity.<\/p>\n

Part of Rebellion\u2019s Treasury of British Comics strand, The Spider\u2019s Syndicate of Crime<\/strong> was the opening salvo of (hopefully) a full and complete reprinting of arachnid amazements. It gathers material from peerless weekly anthology Lion<\/strong>, spanning June 26th<\/sup> 1965 – June 18th<\/sup> 1966 and that year\u2019s Lion Annual <\/strong>which for laborious reasons is designated 1967<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s it all about? The Spider<\/em> is a mysterious super-scientist whose goal is to be the greatest criminal of all time. As conceived by writer\/editor Ted Cowan – who among many venerable triumphs created the much-revered Robot Archie<\/strong> feature and also scripted Ginger Nutt<\/em>, Paddy Payne<\/em>, Adam Eterno<\/strong>, and more – the flamboyantly wicked narcissist begins his public career by recruiting crime specialists. With moronic master safecracker Roy Ordini<\/em> and evil inventor Professor Pelham<\/em> he then attempts a massive gem-theft from a thinly veiled New York\u2019s World Fair. This introduces Gilmore<\/em> and Trask<\/em>, the two crack police detectives cursed with the task of capturing the arrogant archvillain.<\/p>\n

A major factor in the eerily eccentric strip\u2019s success and reason for the reverence with which it is held is the captivating – not to say downright creepy – artwork of William Reginald Bunn. His intensely hatched linework was perfect for towering establishing shots, arcane angle views and catastrophic chases… and nobody ever drew moodier webbing or more believable weird weapons and monsters. Bunn was an absolute master of his field and much beloved. His work in comics (such as Robin Hood<\/strong>, Buck Jones<\/strong>, Black Hood<\/em>, Captain<\/em> Kid<\/em> and Clip McCord<\/strong>) spanned 1949 to his death in 1971: once the industry found him, he was never without work. He died on the job and is still much missed. For The Spider <\/strong>there was the ultimate accolade as, after opening on two pages per episode, the feature kept winning a bigger page count. Even so, a lot had to happen in pretty short order and Bunn never stinted or short-changed his audience…
\n\"\"
\nSimilarly scripted by Cowan, second adventure \u2018The Return of the Spider\u2019 <\/em>sets the tone for the rest of the strip\u2019s run, as the unbelievably colossal vanity of the Spider is assaulted by a pretender to his title. The Mirror Man<\/em> is a swaggering arrogant super-criminal who uses lethally credible optical illusions to carry out his crimes, and the Spider must crush him to keep the number one most wanted spot – and to satisfy his own vanity. Moreover, pitifully outmatched Gilmore & Trask return to chase the Spider, but must settle for his defeated rival after weeks of devious plotting, bold banditry and spectacular serialized thrills and chills.<\/p>\n

\u2018Dr. Mysterioso\u2019 <\/em>is the first adventure penned by Jerry Siegel, who was forced to look elsewhere for work after an infamous falling out with DC Comics over the rights to the Man of Steel.<\/p>\n

The aforementioned evil genius\/criminal scientist of the title is another contender for the Spider\u2019s crown. Their extended battle – paused repeatedly by a crafty subplot wherein the arachnid mastermind\u2019s treacherous, newly-expanded gang of thugs (The Syndicate of Crime) seek to abscond with his stockpiled loot whenever he appears to have been killed – is a retro\/camp masterpiece of arcane dialogue, insane devices and rollercoaster antics.
\n\"\"
\nBy the time of the final serialised saga here – \u2018The Spider v. The Android Emperor\u2019<\/em>– the page count was up to 4 a week (and now included occasional cover slots): packed with fabulous fantasy and increasingly surreal exploits as the Arachnid Archvillain battles the super science of a monster-making maniac who might (maybe, perhaps?) have survived the sinking of Atlantis, but somehow gets his fun from baiting and tormenting the self-styled king of crime. Big mistake…<\/p>\n

Thos initial curated commemoration concludes with a short yarn from the 1967<\/strong> Lion Annual<\/strong>. \u2018Cobra Island\u2019 <\/em>gives Bunn a chance to show off his skill with brushes and washes as the piece was originally printed in the double-tone format (in this case black and red on white) that was a hallmark of British annuals. It finds the mighty Spider and Pelham drawn to an exotic island where plantation workers are falling under the spell of a demonic lizard being – but all is not as it seems and the very real danger is more prosaic than paranormal…
\n\"\"
\nWith an introduction from Paul Grist and full creator biographies, this collection confirmed that the Lord of modern misrule was back at last and should find a home in every kid\u2019s heart and mind, no matter how young they might be, or threaten to remain. Bizarre, baroque and often simply bonkers, The Spider<\/strong> proves that although crime does not pay, it always provides a huge amount of white-knuckle fun…
\n\u00a9 1965, 1966, 1967 & 2021 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1885, Mutt and Jeff<\/strong> originator Bud Fisher<\/strong> was born, just like Dylan Dog<\/strong> author Tiziano Sclavi<\/strong> in 1953; auteur Yves Chaland<\/strong> (Spirou<\/strong>, Freddy Lombard<\/strong>) in 1957 and Jamie Hewlett<\/strong> (Tank Girl<\/strong>) in 1968.<\/p>\n

The Little King<\/strong> creator Otto Soglow<\/strong> died on this date in 1975, but the day did give us comics-packed youth supplement ‘t Kapoentje’t <\/em><\/strong>in Flemish newspaper Het Volk<\/em><\/strong> in 1947 whilst later signalling the end of UK weekly Smash!<\/strong> in 1971.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ted Cowan, Jerry Siegel & Reg Bunn (Rebellion) ISBN 978-1-78108-905-7 (Album TPB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. As religions, faiths and nations all over the world celebrate their apparently God-given right to kill each other in monumental numbers and vile ways, I\u2019m again retreating into childhood days and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Spider\u2019s Syndicate of Crime”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,42,75,290,108,396,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-best-of-british","category-crime-comics","category-dinosaurs","category-miscellaneous-superhero","category-monsters","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-99t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35191,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35183\/revisions\/35191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}