Uncertain Future of the Amazing Spider-Man Newspaper Strip

[Digifiend]

Apparently the strip's UK home was the Funday Times, a supplement in the Sunday Times newspaper - but that was axed a while ago. The Times' sister paper The Sun used to run another King Features strip, Hagar the Horrible, but they dropped it a couple of years ago.

[Digifiend]

Joe Sinnott has retired. The 92 year old was the inker on the Sunday ASM newspaper strips and had been working for Marvel since the 1950s.
https://www.cbr.com/marvel-comics-jo...tt-retirement/

[Agent Z]

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/longti...c-strip-to-end

Sad to hear but it lasted very long. 42 years is very impressive.

[Digifiend]

It's not ending, it's going on hiatus for a while - they're running reprints - and will apparently later relaunch with a new look. Which we've been talking about for over a week already. Syfy were just late catching the news.
https://community.cbr.com/showthread...ewspaper-Strip

[HypnoHustler]

Even if it comes back, it won’t be the same strip. It’ll be completely revamped and more in line with either the current comics or the current MCU incarnation. That is, if it does come back. They said it would, but with the state of print journalism, I’m dubious.

[Hypestyle]

so who would be good fits for a daily and sunday strip? at this point, it seems to be an unglamorous gig, and "a-list" writers/artists tend to want a full comic role or indie/creator owned work.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

You know Stan Lee worked with Marcos Martin (As A-List an artist as you can get) to create Spidey Super Sundays, this back-up short comics published in the BND era and later released separately. These strips were done in a throwback to newspaper strips only it was in a separate canon from the newspaper strip and the main comic and it was often quite meta about Spider-Man.

And the Spider-man newspaper strip has A-List talent. Alex Saviuk is A-List, and originally it was done by John Romita Sr. and in between by others.

The newspaper funny strip occasionally does attract major figures. Chris Ware did a long strip called "The Last Saturday" for Guardian but he wouldn't be caught doing superhero stuff (and not to put too fine a point at it, he can't draw very well being better at layout and panel experimentation then actual draughtsmanship).

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/roy-th...n-comic-strip/

Roy Thomas talks here about doing the strip, and he talks about how it was useful pay for limited work and a steady source of income for him over the last 20 years when he worked as Lee's ghost-writer (with Stan as editor).

[gregpersons]

so who would be good fits for a daily and sunday strip? at this point, it seems to be an unglamorous gig, and "a-list" writers/artists tend to want a full comic role or indie/creator owned work.

Alright, you've convinced me. I'll do it.

[seismic-2]

Today is the final episode, and it features cameos of the strip's artist and writer, Alex Saviuk and Roy Thomas. See it here.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I think the penultimate strip at the airport check in was better.

The ending kind of reminds me of Jody Houser's RYV (which felt inspired by the newspaper strip in a lot of ways) and the great Issue #19.

[Digifiend]

I've just posted a recommendation for RYV on the comments there, someone said the newspaper strip was the last place with married Peter - which is true - so I suggested the other recent place where MJ Parker had been seen.

Today is the final episode, and it features cameos of the strip's artist and writer, Alex Saviuk and Roy Thomas. See it here.

Are you sure? Looks like Stan Lee.

[seismic-2]

Are you sure? Looks like Stan Lee.

Looks a lot more like Alex Saviuk, I'd say. (If you squint, you can even see the soul patch!)

[Digifiend]

Is Rich a thief now? Roy Thomas supposedly speaking to Bleeding Cool - but isn't this the same article as on Syfy Wire?
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/03...er-roy-thomas/

[Mister Mets]

Is Rich a thief now? Roy Thomas supposedly speaking to Bleeding Cool - but isn't this the same article as on Syfy Wire?
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/03...er-roy-thomas/

It's not the same article. This one is Roy Thomas giving his views. If he's commenting on the same topic in two places, there will be some repetition.

[seismic-2]

The repeats started today (Sunday, 24 March) with the 16 November 2014 strip. It was slightly changed to replace references to Doc Ock (who had been the villain in the previous story arc in 2014) with references to Killgrave (who had been the villain in the most recent arc, prior to the repeats). Otherwise the situation was basically the same in November 2014 as it was now (the theater where MJ's play had been running is closed due to damage from a Spidey fight, and so MJ is now out of work), so this is a reasonable point from which to start the repeats. It remains to be seen how long they will stay in re-runs before they launch the new strip, whatever that may turn out to be.