Spider-Man Editors Panel at MoCCA in NYC

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 11 February 2010 01:08

Written by Frank Lovece

Editor-man, editor-man, does whatever an editor can ... which in the case of Axel Alonso, Tom Brevoort, Danny Fingeroth, Jim Salicrup and Steve Wacker means shepherding the adventures of the amazing Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man and other Marvel Comics titles. At one time or another in the past three decades, each of these stalwarts has borne responsibility for Marvel's iconic, flagship character. And to paraphrase what the original Spider-Man editor, Stan Lee, wrote lo those many years ago, with great responsibility there must also come ... great power!

Or maybe not. But the interested and the intrepid can find out for themselves at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art's Spider-Man editors' roundtable, "Spider-Man: 25 Years of Amazing," on Thursday, February 11, at 7 p.m. MoCCA is at 594 Broadway, in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood. Admission is $5, or free for MoCCA members.

The panel, moderated by Fred Van Lente — himself a comics writer whose work includes two Marvel Zombies miniseries — coincides with an exhibition of original art from the entire issue of The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2, #50 (April 2003), the 491st issue of the series that began in 1963 (and which a few issues later went back to its volume-one numbering). It was written by J. Michael Straczynski, creator of the TV series Babylon 5, and drawn by penciler John Romita Jr., (son of the character's second signature artist, John Romita Sr., who'd succeeded co-creator Steve Ditko in the mid-1960s "Silver Age of Comic Books") and Scott Hanna, an inker on countless Marvel and DC comics since 1990.

Fingeroth, who additionally is the senior vice president of education at MoCCA, edited the Spider-Man line in 1983 and 1984, and was group editor for those titles from 1990 to 1995. He wrote the spin-off series Web of Spider-Man as well as several Spider-Man miniseries. A consultant on the FoxKids Spider-Man animated series and on James Cameron's early version of what would become the 2002 movie Spider-Man , he is the author of Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and our Society; Disguised As Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero; and The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels. 

Salicrup, a MoCCA trustee, edited the Spider-Man titles in the late 1980s and early 1990s, overseeing such milestones as the wedding of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. Currently editor-in-chief of the comics company Papercutz, he had also written the young-readers' title Spidey Super-Stories for many years, as well as a child-abuse prevention comic starring Spider-Man.

Brevoort rose through the ranks from intern in 1989 to become Marvel's executive editor in 2007, and in that capacity helps oversee the Spider-Man line. Alonso, a former Amazing Spider-Man editor,is vice president/executive editor of Marvel.  Wacker is a Marvel senior editor, and the current editor of Amazing Spider-Man.

The panel chat will be followed by an audience Q&A. MoCCA Thursdays are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

 Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
594 Broadway, Suite 401
New York, NY 10012
212-254-3511
www.moccany.org