The Spider was millionaire playboy Richard Wentworth, who had served as a major in World War I, and was living in New York City unaffected by the financial deprivations of the Great Depression. The Spider was created in 1933 by Harry Steeger at Popular Publications as direct competition to Street and Smith Publications’ vigilante hero the Shadow. The ninth pulp represents him as the last surviving member of a rich family. Wentworth was easily identified as the Spider by his enemies in a number of earlier novels and was arrested by the police but quickly escaped. He adopted a disguise, Tito Caliepi, and associated aliases. The Spider’s earliest costume consisted of a simple black domino mask, black hat, and cape. Later in the series, vampire-like makeup appeared, which was replaced with a face mask featuring grizzled hair and finally a hunchback. These were added to terrorize the criminal underworld, while the Spider dispensed his brand of violent vigilante justice. Utilizing his talent with a violin, Wentworth, posing as Caliepi, sometimes used begging as part of his disguise. At other times, Wentworth also ventured into the underworld disguised as small-time hood Blinky McQuade in order to gain needed information. To Scotland Yard, Wentworth was known as Rupert Barton, who held a badge of Inspector for services rendered; by the fifth novel, he also held the rank of lieutenant in the FBI. Wentworth, according to the fifth story, was 5’11” tall, and had grey eyes and an old battle scar on his head that would flare up at times of great stress. He was an accomplished pianist and violinist, and he drove a Lancia. He could speak fluent Hindustani and so talk with Ram Singh in his own language, with little fear anyone else would understand what was being said. Wentworth was also psychologically vulnerable and suffered “frequent bouts of fear, self-doubt, despair and paranoia”. The Spider stories often involved a bizarre menace to the country and a criminal conspiracy, and were often extremely violent, with the villains engaging in wanton slaughter of thousands as part of sometimes nationwide crime sprees: pulp magazine historian Ed Hulse notes that “Spider novel death tolls routinely ran into the thousands”. The master criminal of the stories was usually unmasked only in the last few pages. The stories often ended with Wentworth killing the villains and stamping their corpses’ foreheads with his “Spider mark”. The first two novels were written by Reginald Thomas Maitland Scott (aka R.T.M. Scott), but they were deemed too slow-paced, so another author was brought in. Later stories were published under the house pen name of “Grant Stockbridge”. Most of the Spider novels were actually written by Norvell Page. Other authors of the series included Donald C. Cormack, Wayne Rogers, Emile C. Tepperman, and Prentice Winchell. The cover artists for The Spider magazine were Walter M. Baumhofer for the debut issue, followed by John Newton Howitt and Rafael De Soto. The Spider was published monthly and ran for 118 issues from 1933 to 1943. A 119th Spider novel manuscript (“Slaughter Incorporated”) had been completed but was not published until decades later (as “Blue Steel”), a heavily rewritten mass-market paperback with renamed characters. Supporting characters included Nita Van Sloan, is Wentworth’s longtime fiancée, Ram Singh, a Sikh (originally Hindu) and Wenthworth’s fanatically loyal manservant, Sergeant Ronald Jackson, Wentworth’s chauffeur, Harold Jenkyns, Wentworth’s butler, Police Commissioner Stanley Kirkpatrick, and Professor Ezra Brownlee. His enemies included The Fly, MUNRO, Tang-Akhmut, The Master and his Black Police, Judge Torture, Red Feather, The Bloody Serpent, The Brain, The Emperor of Vermin, The Red Mandarin, The Silencer, and The Wreck. One of The Spider’s distinguishing features is his “calling card.” Wentworth often leaves a red-ink “spider” image (like a drop of blood) on the foreheads of the criminals he kills, so others will not be blamed. In the sixth novel (1934), the Spider imprints his red sign on a gold ring so that any who need his help can use it by taking it to Kirkpatrick (where Wentworth will find out about it). The Spider’s seal was concealed in the base of his platinum cigarette lighter and was invented by Professor Brownlee. The Spider also carried a thin silken line (his “web”) which had a tensile strength of several hundred pounds. Brownlee also invented the lethal and almost silent air pistol the Spider used for “quiet” kills. He acted as a sort of on-call weaponsmith for Wentworth, whom he looked upon as being close to a son. Wentworth also had a gun in one of his shoes, which he used twice in the 5th novel. Wentworth was also a master of disguise. In the small steel case of burglar tools he carried under his arm, he also had his make-up kit and (in the early novels) his Spider’s eye mask. Like The Shadow, The Spider’s usual weapons of choice were a pair of Browning .45 caliber M1911 automatic pistols; he was a crack shot and normally shot to kill. However, he would not shoot anyone in law enforcement, although they frequently were under orders to shoot to kill him on sight. The Spider’s by-name was “Master of Men”, indicating that he had a voice commanding enough to get many people to do his bidding. Wentworth could also imitate other people’s voices. When he imitated Kirkpatrick’s voice, he could give orders to lesser policemen during a stakeout, even during one intended to capture The Spider, so he could himself escape. Wentworth was not above disguising himself as a cop to escape when surrounded by policemen.
Description The Spider was millionaire playboy Richard Wentworth, who had served as a major in World War I, and was living in New York City unaffected by the financial deprivations of the Great Depression. The Spider was created in 1933 by Harry Steeger at Popular Publications as direct competition to Street and Smith Publications’ vigilante hero the Shadow. The ninth pulp represents him as the last surviving member of a rich family. Wentworth was easily identified as the Spider by his enemies in a number of earlier novels and was arrested by the police but quickly escaped. He adopted a disguise, Tito Caliepi, and associated aliases. The Spider’s earliest costume consisted of a simple black domino mask, black hat, and cape. Later in the series, vampire-like makeup appeared, which was replaced with a face mask featuring grizzled hair and finally a hunchback. These were added to terrorize the criminal underworld, while the Spider dispensed his brand of violent vigilante justice. Utilizing his talent with a violin, Wentworth, posing as Caliepi, sometimes used begging as part of his disguise. At other times, Wentworth also ventured into the underworld disguised as small-time hood Blinky McQuade in order to gain needed information. To Scotland Yard, Wentworth was known as Rupert Barton, who held a badge of Inspector for services rendered; by the fifth novel, he also held the rank of lieutenant in the FBI. Wentworth, according to the fifth story, was 5’11” tall, and had grey eyes and an old battle scar on his head that would flare up at times of great stress. He was an accomplished pianist and violinist, and he drove a Lancia. He could speak fluent Hindustani and so talk with Ram Singh in his own language, with little fear anyone else would understand what was being said. Wentworth was also psychologically vulnerable and suffered “frequent bouts of fear, self-doubt, despair and paranoia”. The Spider stories often involved a bizarre menace to the country and a criminal conspiracy, and were often extremely violent, with the villains engaging in wanton slaughter of thousands as part of sometimes nationwide crime sprees: pulp magazine historian Ed Hulse notes that “Spider novel death tolls routinely ran into the thousands”. The master criminal of the stories was usually unmasked only in the last few pages. The stories often ended with Wentworth killing the villains and stamping their corpses’ foreheads with his “Spider mark”. The first two novels were written by Reginald Thomas Maitland Scott (aka R.T.M. Scott), but they were deemed too slow-paced, so another author was brought in. Later stories were published under the house pen name of “Grant Stockbridge”. Most of the Spider novels were actually written by Norvell Page. Other authors of the series included Donald C. Cormack, Wayne Rogers, Emile C. Tepperman, and Prentice Winchell. The cover artists for The Spider magazine were Walter M. Baumhofer for the debut issue, followed by John Newton Howitt and Rafael De Soto. The Spider was published monthly and ran for 118 issues from 1933 to 1943. A 119th Spider novel manuscript (“Slaughter Incorporated”) had been completed but was not published until decades later (as “Blue Steel”), a heavily rewritten mass-market paperback with renamed characters. Supporting characters included Nita Van Sloan, is Wentworth’s longtime fiancée, Ram Singh, a Sikh (originally Hindu) and Wenthworth’s fanatically loyal manservant, Sergeant Ronald Jackson, Wentworth’s chauffeur, Harold Jenkyns, Wentworth’s butler, Police Commissioner Stanley Kirkpatrick, and Professor Ezra Brownlee. His enemies included The Fly, MUNRO, Tang-Akhmut, The Master and his Black Police, Judge Torture, Red Feather, The Bloody Serpent, The Brain, The Emperor of Vermin, The Red Mandarin, The Silencer, and The Wreck. One of The Spider’s distinguishing features is his “calling card.” Wentworth often leaves a red-ink “spider” image (like a drop of blood) on the foreheads of the criminals he kills, so others will not be blamed. In the sixth novel (1934), the Spider imprints his red sign on a gold ring so that any who need his help can use it by taking it to Kirkpatrick (where Wentworth will find out about it). The Spider’s seal was concealed in the base of his platinum cigarette lighter and was invented by Professor Brownlee. The Spider also carried a thin silken line (his “web”) which had a tensile strength of several hundred pounds. Brownlee also invented the lethal and almost silent air pistol the Spider used for “quiet” kills. He acted as a sort of on-call weaponsmith for Wentworth, whom he looked upon as being close to a son. Wentworth also had a gun in one of his shoes, which he used twice in the 5th novel. Wentworth was also a master of disguise. In the small steel case of burglar tools he carried under his arm, he also had his make-up kit and (in the early novels) his Spider’s eye mask. Like The Shadow, The Spider’s usual weapons of choice were a pair of Browning .45 caliber M1911 automatic pistols; he was a crack shot and normally shot to kill. However, he would not shoot anyone in law enforcement, although they frequently were under orders to shoot to kill him on sight. The Spider’s by-name was “Master of Men”, indicating that he had a voice commanding enough to get many people to do his bidding. Wentworth could also imitate other people’s voices. When he imitated Kirkpatrick’s voice, he could give orders to lesser policemen during a stakeout, even during one intended to capture The Spider, so he could himself escape. Wentworth was not above disguising himself as a cop to escape when surrounded by policemen.
