Events & Resources
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Event Recordings
National Book Festival Online: With Great Responsibility: The Spider Man Origin Story in Art and Comic Books
Thursday, September 23, 3:00-4:00 pm ET
Before Spider-Man leaped off the pages of comic books into the movies, Steve Ditko, a cartoonist, and Stan Lee, a scriptwriter, sat down at their desks and invented him. The Library of Congress possesses the original drawings for their collaboration, which appeared in the August 1962 issue of “Amazing Fantasy.” Together we look at the moment the radioactive spider bit Peter Parker, turning him from a lonely teenager into a superhero. We discuss how Steve Ditko changed his art in reaction to Stan Lee’s editorial notations in the margins of the drawing. Specialists present the art in an interactive format, highlighting the artistic creative process, including how Ditko drew the costume for the first time and how it differs from what Spider-Man wears today. We also discuss how Peter comes to learn “with great power there must also come — great responsibility!” Conceived as an interactive event aimed at children and young adults who may be aware only of the Marvel movies, Library staff will highlight and discuss that the story came from a book — a comic book — and the imaginative possibilities of a talented writer and artist working as a team.
Learn more about the Library of Congress experts participating in the National Book Festival, including Sara W. Duke from the Prints and Photographs Division and Megan Halsband from the Serial and Government Publications Division.
Educational Resources
Pictures Worth Reading: A Teacher's Guide to Comics External was created by The University of the Arts with a Library of Congress grant awarded under the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program. The University of the Arts is a member of the TPS Consortium, a group that offers educational programming, materials, and tools based on the Library's online resources to diverse learners across the country.