To the Editor (01-Jun-1998)

 In: Letters > Editor > 1998
 Posted: 1998
 Staff: The Editor (E-Mail)
From Clarance

I'm in search of a very special piece of art work done in, I think, in one of the Spider Man Comics. In this issue he became 'The Spider Pheonix' but the problem is I can not seem to find the Issue or Picture of it anywhere. Are you able to help me?

Thanks

Ummm... was that an Excalibur appearance? Oh, here it is, Spider-Man #25! Score another for the Unofficial Spider-Man Consulting Service!

From Paul

My name is Paul, I live in Dublin Ireland and I am looking to produce a comic book related web page, which is where i need your help/advice.

Copyright ... I know your site has been going for a good time now and I was wondering if you could advise me on how to avoid legal problems.

Well...

Marvel hasn't been too pro-active in persueing such matters. The informal story that I have heard is that as long as you state clearly that all material is property of Marvel, and is used without permission, then the lawyers will leave you alone. My major points would be...

1. Say it's used without permission.

2. Don't have ANY commercialism on your site - no paid advertising, or any such.

3. Personally, I keep away from just reproducing graphics. I concentrate on reviews, fan fiction, comments, etc, rather than just scanning lots of copyright images and posting them for people. There is, in most countries, a 'fair use' clause, which allows you to review work, and reproduce portions of a work while reviewing it.

As the Star Trek fan site found out, this still is quite limiting. For example, their list of favourite Star Trek quotes was determined by the Trek lawyers to be unlawful usage. Of course, the Trek case occured because the copyright owners were planning to open a pay-per-view Official Star Trek site. Personally, I think that showed poor business analysis on their part. The bad publicity must have outweighed any possible gain.

Most commercial web sites are used as 'active advertising' to help sell their real product. I hope that my site (and other fan sites) are seen as working towards the same goal. I always try and reflect on the comics, rather than try to replace them - and because of that, I wishfully imagine that Marvel will consider this site to be doing more good than harm, and will leave it be.

From Martha

Hey There

By any chance do you know of the spiderman that climbs actual skyscrapers? I am producing a documentary on skyscrapers for Discovery Channel, heard that he had climbed the new tallest bldgs in the world, the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, and I would love to interview him?

Hmmm... Never heard of the guy - but if he does it in a red and blue costume, I'd love a picture of him in the act!

From Pramant

Hi Jonathan, I've been visiting your site since you were at the minuteman site and looks like you did a very nice job with the new design. I myself am a big fan of comics (especially old Spidey) and because of that I am now currently in the process of designing a comic database that will hold information from all comic books (mainly Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse and Acclaim) that will include synopsis, character info, creative teams, etc... (you get the idea). People can post their reviews, read synposis', rate their favorite comic books, have comic forums search for comics, authors using a powerful search engine and do plenty of amazing interactive stuff.

This will be a free database accessible via the web that will rely on the web community to keep its pages updated and fresh for all. Since you have been reading and reviewing Spidey for a while I was wondering if you would like to contribute your synposis to the cause (of course, the proper credits and links will be given).

I am in the process of contacting others like you that share a passion for comics for what they represent as well as having everyone else know how cool comics are.

The site will be up shortly (looks like I'll be up late at night) - I am a computer consulting specializing in database and web development so I can pull this off - I have the database designed, equipment ready, but it will take some time, but more importantly the site needs contributions from avid comic fans like yourself.

If you are interested please contact me at (E-Mail Address).

I look forward to hearing from you.

[Ed - Email address removed in 2004]

Well, thanks to Noc Turner for the fresh graphics. I'm a tad overly occupied to get too involved with your site, but since your e-mail is here, I'm sure that anyone reading this who wants to lend a hand will drop you a line!

From Will

Could you mail me the html to make these quizes so I can put some on my page?

For sure! I should build a little ZIP file with the scripts and instructions, I get asked this quite a bit. Yep, I'm happy to share the tricks and scripts with anyone who wants it. Here ya go.

From John

What you really have to do, is get together with all the other Spider man website webmasters, and unite for one purpose:

We all got to say something about bringing the Spider Man movie to the big screen.

Currently everything is covered in litigation and all other BS that there is only a few million fans missing out on the fact that we want a movie and we want it NOW. I have been hearing rumors since 1993 that the movie was about to start production, and there is so much stuff that we, the fans, have to get out into the open that we REALLY need to be united on the front of getting the movie made.

***Left-wing radical accent, like Rick from 'The Young Ones'*** Yeah, right, Brothers! Power to the Proletariat. We _will_ not be moved. Give us a Movie, or give us Death! All for one, and one for all! Yeah, Yeah! We _will_ not... (etc, etc)

From Cco9313180

I want a spiderman screensaver but i havnt been able to find one. If you know who has one or know where to get one could you please e-mail me at Cco9313180@aol.com. Also if you know where to get short mpeg clips or Avi clips of spiderman i could turn them into spiderman screensavers. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Sorry, no can help. I've been looking for a good application for making Slide-show screen-savers, with the same aim in mind. There are some AVIs at the Fox website, if that helps...

From B.R.I

Do you know of any Spider-Man mailing lists? If you had any on your page I couldn't find it. Please mail me!

Sorry, I don't know of any currently active mailing list. You could always start one!

Check the FAQ for more information.

From Retezatu

HOW DO YOU MAKE WEB

OK, first struggle into a short, Lycra skirt. Grab some Pom-Poms, and... Give me a "W"! Give me a "E"...!

 In: Letters > Editor > 1998
 Posted: 1998
 Staff: The Editor (E-Mail)