During the 1980’s Fred Kida drew Spider-Man five days a week in newspapers across the country. He replaced John Romita senior on the Spider-Man strip and he did a hell of a job. He was the first artist I saw when I first started reading the strip. Fred passed away Wednesday April 3rd and was 93 years old. Kida was already well known in the golden age of comics penciling Airboy in the 1940s. He worked on comics and strips until 1987. Thanks to Mark Evanier’s blog for the heads up. Also here is his obit. Check out one of the images of Peter getting rejected by Mary Jane when he proposes to her. I’d forgotten that happened. I hope Marvel continues to release the newspaper strips in trade form.
Brad Douglas
View articlesBrad created the Crawlspace back in 1998 while attending college at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He’s the webmaster and writes front page news items, and also produces, hosts and edits the podcast. He’s been collecting Spider-Man comics since the age of three and is a life-long fan of the webhead. His website has been featured in USA Today, Entertainment Weekly and on Marvel.com and inside the comics themselves. The Crawlspace is one of the first Spider-Man fan sites to ever hit the internet. Millions of people visit the site every year.
Brad has interviewed several “Spider-Celebrities” over the years including co-creator Stan Lee. He’s also interviewed actors who have portrayed Spider-Man like Paul Soles (Voice Actor from the 67 Spider-Man Cartoon), Dan Gilvezan (Spidey Voice Actor from Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends) ,Yuri Lownthal (Voice Actor from the Spider-Man PlayStation game) and Nicholas Hammond (Spider-Man 1977 Actor).
You might be interested in …
The Ultimate Couple Return in Ultimate Spider-Man #1
Source: Marvel.com Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson Are the Ultimate Couple in ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ #1 On sale in January, Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto’s new run of ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ will feature Peter Parker and […]
Reaction to the Ben Reilly New Suit & Comparing David and Slott
Reaction online has been mixed to say the least about the new Ben Reilly suit. Some people are digging it, others are saying it looks very similar to Spidercide. Former Web of Spider-Man artist Steven […]
6 Comments
Leave a Reply
Social
Recent Comments
- Hornacek on Spider-Tracer: 10 Reasons to Read The Spectacular Spider-Man, Vol. 1: “Although the Hobgoblin’s first appearances were in ASM, his fifth appearance was in Spectacular (#85?) where he first used the…” Sep 18, 10:14
- Hornacek on Alford Notes: Amazing Spider-Man #57 – The Penultimate: “@Dark Mark: I think we were supposed to like Michele, from her introduction as the “odd one out” at the…” Sep 17, 08:18
- Evan Berry on Alford Notes: Amazing Spider-Man #57 – The Penultimate: “@Dark Lord Mark — I’ve said this before, but I wish we could react to comments here like on Discord…” Sep 17, 07:48
- Hornacek on Panel(s) of the Day #1589 (Mary Jane Monday!): “Never trust a Jonathan who spells it “jonathOn”.” Sep 17, 06:27
- Dark Mark on The Chi✶Town Breakdown: USM #3 (2024): “I read my Marvel Unlimited week by week, but I’ve gotten seriously behind and just now came to the week…” Sep 16, 22:02
- Dark Mark on Alford Notes: Amazing Spider-Man #57 – The Penultimate: “@Hornacek and @Evan Hornacek – I don’t think we were ever supposed to like Michelle and I figure she of…” Sep 16, 20:09
- Evan Berry on Alford Notes: Amazing Spider-Man #57 – The Penultimate: “Who is this Ethan guy? He sounds pretty dumb.” Sep 16, 06:52
- Hornacek on Alford Notes: Amazing Spider-Man #57 – The Penultimate: “I can accept Tombstone getting out on bail … if they told us the reason. Maybe I’ve watched too much…” Sep 15, 11:08
- Hornacek on Panel of the Day #1588 (Splash Page Sunday!): “Ah, the month when Marvel’s colorists went on strike. I remember it well …” Sep 15, 09:10
- Mark Alford on Alford Notes: Amazing Spider-Man #57 – The Penultimate: “@Ethan, @Geiseric, and @Michael Ethan – Keep waiting. As for relatability, while I do agree it is important, it is…” Sep 14, 06:37
He’s my great grandfather
I loved Fred Kida’s art, but I hated Larry Lieber’s. Once Lieber took over, I stopped reading the comic strip, his art always threw me off.
I had totally forgotten about Fred Kida’s work. Some of the items above look like they were inked by Frank Giacoia, who was on ASM for years covering Ross Andru.
RIP in Mr. Kida.
He will be missed
According to Wikipedia: “In 1980 and 1981, concurrent with the Hulk strip, Lieber contributed some degree of penciling on the daily and Sunday comic strip The Amazing Spider Man until Fred Kida took over as regular penciler. Lieber then succeeded Kida on the daily strip in 1986. Lieber also penciled the Sunday page again from 1990 through at least 1995.”
RIP. He was one of the workmen that made the Golden Age run.
_________
“He replaced John Romita senior on the Spider-Man strip …”
Technically, no. Larry Lieber replaced John Romita. I believe that Kida replaced Lieber, though I’m not 100% sure if there was someone in-between.