Did Marvel Nab the Idea for Its Most Famous Superhero from a Popular

31 UNTANGLING New York Post, SPIDER WEB Wednesday, July 15, 2015 Did Marvel nab the idea for its most famous superhero from a nypost.com popular Brooklyn costume seller? ByREED TUCKER the company, he came across catalogs from the 1950s, and one particular image ONE of this might have left him scratching his head. happened were it not for one There, in one 1954 circular, was an unfortunate Spider-Man fan offering for a “Spider Man” costume that whose boiler broke down. looked slightly different from the one he Back in 2006, comic book had just purchased. The get-up had a and toy dealer John Cimino spider logo on the chest and a distinc- bought a collection from a tive web pattern across the bodysuit N seller who needed money and face mask. for a new hot-water heater. Within the In other words, it immediately 62 assortment of pop-culture oddities for called to mind Marvel’s Spider- 19 Man, who wouldn’t be introduced -Man which Cimino paid $500 was a cheap, Spider vel rayon-and-cotton Halloween costume for another eight years. in Mar from the 1960s featuring Spider-Man. “I thought, hmm, that’s weird,” debuts “I didn’t think twice about it,” Cimino says Cimino, who runs Mas- comic. tells The Post. He tossed it in his base- sachusetts’ Saturday Morning ment. Collectibles, selling online and But Cimino would later give that at shows. costume a closer look, and what he dis- The dealer, however, thought the covered has led to one of the more puz- costume was simply a prototype and zling mysteries in the superhero world, and might muddy the origin story of one See COSTUME on Page 32 of the world’s most well-known — and lucrative — characters. Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man first appeared in 1962’s “A mazing Fantasy” No. 15. He was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. Lee has said that the hero was inspired by a 1930s pulp crime fighter called the Spider. Ditko designed the costume to “fit in with the powers he had,” the artist wrote in a 1990 issue of Robin Snyder’s “History of the Comics.” But could the illustrator have actually found inspiration in a child’s costume? That Spidey suit Cimino bought was produced by Ben Cooper, Inc., a now- defunct Brooklyn company founded in ttle 1937. The costumer originally created Tu theatrical wardrobes but soon moved m into kids’ Halloween outfits — many To of them licensed, including a 1937 line based on Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” After reading a book about midcentu- ry collectibles, Cimino, 41, re-examined his Ben Cooper costume and quickly 54 y became obsessed with the company. 19yn compan “I started digging deeper,” he says. Brookl “Spider “I dug and dug and dug.” s this This recently unearthed mask (left) from a As he continued researching sell costume. Brooklyn costume maker predates Marvel’s first Man” Spider-Man comic (above) by eight years. 32 pulsecontroversy SPINNING A SUPERHERO nypost.com From COSTUME on Page 31 THE AMAZING was never produced. Until, ORIGINS OF that is, he got a call from a seller who once owned a SPIDER-MAN five-and-dime store and had some leftover inventory in an old barn. Stashed among the piles were a few old Ben Cooper Halloween costumes, Wednesday, July 15, 2015 including that mysterious Spider Man from 1954. “I saw it, and I thought, Holy s-- t! It does exist!” Cimino says. “I didn’t jump around, but I was s - - - ting my pants.” New York Post, Ben Cooper costumes were once ubiquitous. The company reportedly owned 1954: between 70 and 80 percent NewYork of the Halloween market costume in the ’60s. In 1963, Cooper com- moved some 2.5 million pany Ben units. Cooper, “Ben Cooper was 10 miles Inc., sells from Marvel’s offices,” outfit called Cimino says. “Ben Cooper “Spider Man.” ruled Halloween in New Marvel Comics Yo rk City, so Ditko had to artist Jack Kirby is have seen this costume. John Cimino and his daughter rumored to have worked briefly for When he got the assignment Bryn hold the second 1950s Nicolaus for Spider-Man, maybe Spider Man costume (left) and the company, perhaps something came back when the first licensed Spidey costume designing costumes. he was designing it. It’s so from 1963 — both were made by Czarnecki Late 1950s: Ben much like the Ben Cooper.” Brooklyn company Ben Cooper, Inc. Cooper alters its“Spider Late last year, Cimino Man” costume design, mailed photos of the yellow per, a company that was swapping the bag-like 1950s costume to Ditko, 87, already producing a Spider mask for a yellow, plastic who still works near Times Man costume, be interested spider’s web.The new Square but shuns publicity in licensing Marvel’s Spider- design is sold until 1962. and hasn’t done a formal Man long before the comic 1962: Writer-editor interview or taken a public character achieved main- Stan Lee assigns photo in decades. The artist stream popularity? Kirby to pro- sent back a terse, handwrit- “When Spider-Man duce Mar- ten reply. hit the newsstands vel’s new “The burden of proof is in 1962, I think Ben comic, on the person who makes Cooper saw it and “Spider- the assertion, claim, charge,” thought it looked like Man.” Ditko wrote. “Some clip- his costume,” Cimino The artist pings, etc., are not rational says. “Then he went to draws a few proof of anything but some [Marvel head] Martin Stan Lee pages, but clippings, etc.” Goodman, and I think Lee deems Then again, the similari- they came to a deal where them not ties may be down to another Nicolaus Cooper said, ‘Listen, this right and hires Steve Dit- Marvel artist. Jack Kirby, The earliest costumes from the looks a bit like mine.’ I don’t ko instead. Ditko claims who died in 1994, claimed ’50s (left) are yellow, while the Czarnecki think it was a big deal.” to design costume. a few times that he created licensed ones have the now As for Stan Lee, Cimino August 1962 (cover Spider-Man, and a 1975 familiar red-and-blue motif. once met the Marvel hon- date): Spider-Man issue of FOOM!, a Marvel- cho at an event and asked debuts in“Amazing produced fan magazine, everyone involved has a dif- Where the story gets even a year earlier than anything him about the mysterious states, “It was Jack Kirby ferent recollection. Marvel stranger is when Cimino previously known. Just three licensing deal. Lee had no Fantasy” No. 15. who designed Spider-Man’s declined comment through went back to that original costumes are now known to recollection of the costume. March 1963 (cover costume.” a representative.) licensed Spider-Man exist, and Cimino has been “No one is going to talk date): The hero’s solo After all, Stan Lee did Ben Cooper’s records costume he’d bought from offered $30,000 for his. about this, because there are title,“TheAmazing Spi- originally tap Kirby to were destroyed in a 1989 the man who needed a The licensed costume has billions of dollars at stake,” der-Man,” hits shelves. Cimino says. “You don’t draw Spider-Man, and fire, and the company was new boiler. He realized the a red mask — not yellow, October 1963: Ben know if the Ben Cooper the artist reportedly cre- sold in 1992, but rumor copyright on the packaging as the 1954 Ben Cooper Cooper strikes deal ated five pages before Lee has it that in the 1950s, and costume said it was did — though both have heirs are going to come out with Marvel — terms changed his mind and gave Kirby worked briefly for produced in 1963, a few the big spider eyes with of the woodwork and sue or unknown — and begins the assignment to Ditko. the company. Could he have months after Spider-Man’s black outlines. The licensed something.” selling a licensed Spider- (According to Ditko, Kirby’s designed that 1950s Spider first appearance. Turns out jumpsuit is partially yellow If they do, expect to find Man costume, making it version of Spider-Man Man costume before repur- it was actually Marvel’s on the chest, with blue pants them hanging from a lamp- the comic company’s first looked nothing like the hero posing it for Marvel a few very first piece of licensed and sleeves. post, tangled in webbing. piece of merchandise. we know today — though years later? merchandise, hitting shelves So why would Ben Coo- [email protected].

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