The 70’s were filled with nature run amuck Horror Films, and many of them had to do with animals and one of these films was the 1975 cult classic Giant Spider Invasion, a film that was so cheesy and goofy that movie goers for decades have enjoyed! And you guessed it, this From Horror Movie To Horror Comic update will be all about Giant Spider Invasion as I feel this is a great time to chat about this movie as well as the promo comic adaptation of it. So arm yourself with spider repellent and watch out for webs as we don’t want to fall victim for these giant spiders who want us all dead!
So let’s first take a look at the Giant Spiders, their killing ways, and why they are so massive! The Spiders’ origin is that they have fallen from space while inside rocks that also contain diamonds. Once freed from their stone homes, they wreak havoc on people and animals as they eat the flesh of both and grow very rapidly to massive size. The Giant Spiders use their speed and size in order to take down their victims as well as their many legs and sharp fangs that they rip and tear human flesh with. They also use their webs in order to trap humans so they can go in for the kill. The larger ones can use their size also to bring down homes and hiding spots while the smaller ones can get into tighter spaces and cause damage and harm. They also can use fear to their advantage as most people freak out when they are seen and cause people to panic and make mistakes when trying to flee. They also can kill in packs, making them deadly not only on their own but more so when they are together and can swarm and overwhelm. They also can shrug off gunfire, as it has no effect on them. While the Giant Spiders are dangerous, they do have some weakness and it all comes from a hole that was created by them falling to Earth that acts as a black hole and is the source of them living; if the hole can be closed the Giant Spiders die off! So as you can see these, Giant Spiders from Space really are very deadly and they have a taste of human flesh!
So now that we have taken a look at the Giant Spiders, we are at the point where we should take a look at the film they are from. As always, the film’s write up will be taken from our good friends at IMDB with everything that follows coming from my own words. So if you’re ready, I am ready to talk about some very large and angry space spiders who want to ruin days and make us all their human prey.
Giant Spider Invasion (1975)
“A black hole hits North Wisconsin and opens a door to other dimensions. Giant 15 meter spiders emerge from it, who have an appetite for human flesh! Dr. Jenny Langer and Dr. Vance from the NASA try to save the world.”
Transcentury Pictures teamed with director Bill Rebane to make a Horror Science Fiction film that would feature giant spiders running wild in a small town. And with a budget of only $300 thousand the film Giant Spider Invasion went into production in order to cash in on the killer animal trend of Hollywood with Bill Rebane as the director and the script by Robert Easton. Richard L. Huff handled the casting that included aging actors like Alan Hale Jr., Steve Brodie, Barbara Hale and Leslie Parrish as well as fresh faces like Diane Lee Hart who would do the film’s nude scene. The film’s special effects for the giant spiders was mostly done with puppets as well as a car made up to look like a spider, adding to the film’s over all cheap and silly feel. The film’s score was handed by Bill Rebane as well, and once done the film was released by Group 1 and was a Box Office hit here in the US as it did $2,347,000.00 making it very profitable. After the film was done with its theatrical run, it would gain more fans when shown on ABC a total of three times. It would also gain more fans again when it was featured on the Horror Host shows Mystery Science Theater 3000 plus Dr. Creep’s New Shock Theater and even was praised by Razzie Movie Award creator John Wilson as being a bad movie worth seeing. The film would also be released on VHS, DVD and even Blu-Ray and became a massive cult classic film! Director Bill Rebane is known for his other very cheesy films Monster a Go-Go, Rana: Legend Of Shadow Lake and Blood Harvest to name a few. This film in 1975 was released alongside such other Horror Movies as Jaws, The Devils Rain, Legend Of The Werewolf, Night Of The Seagulls, Bug, Deep Red and many more! So while this film was lost in the shuffle of better films, it still made its mark on the world of Horror.
My first memories of seeing this film was when Dr. Creep showed it on his public access rebirth show New Shock Theater back in the early 2000’s, and I also remember it showing on MST3K proving the Horror Host are a great way to be introduced to movies. The thing about seeing Giant Spider Invasion is that it was a cheesy film that, while entertaining, I would always just wish I was watching the films that inspired it like the Universal Monster films “Deadly Mantis” and “Tarantula” or even the films that followed it like “Grizzly” and “Day of the Animals.” Now I am not saying that Giant Spider Invasion is bad, it’s just an okay animal runs amok film that features lots of aging actors and poorly put together giant spiders. When watching the film, I can remember always laughing out loud about just how bad the spiders looked in many of the scenes, but always enjoyed the quick nudity scene of Diane Lee Hart who I knew from the comedy film The Pom Pom Girls. It’s also really funny to see Alan Hale Jr. as the police chief when all you can really see him as is The Skipper from Giligan’s Island, even at one point he calls someone little buddy…so cheesy! The thing about this film is while I have seen it multiple times I just never really had a connection to it and for the longest time only owned the Horror Hosted versions of the film before finally breaking down and getting the Retro-Media release in order to get the comic reprint to cover for this blog update. So if you like Horror Sci-Fi films based on giant spiders that attack humans in a small town that is directed by a master of b-movies and is packed with old TV actors…this film is for you! And keep in mind I do not hate this movie. I really do enjoy it just don’t have much to say about it nor any cool stories about watching it besides the fact Dr. Creep hosted it.
So with that it’s time we take a look at the promo comic for Giant Spider Invasion that was originally given away at the theater and was later reprinted for the DVD release. I want to thank an Ebay seller for having this DVD & Comic combo in stock and making this update possible. I want to also remind you all that I am grading this comic on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. So if you’re ready to put your arachnophobia aside and come take a look at Giant Spiders from Outer Space with me, we should get to it!
Giant Spider Invasion # 1 **1/2
Released in 1975 Cover Price FREE Group 1 #1 of 1
Ev and Dan Kester discover a meteor that fell from space and crash landed on their farm and inside this space rock is diamonds like they have never seen before! But they fail to notice there’s also a spider…while this is going on Dr. Jenny Langer is calling NASA to warn them of the radiation that also has came with the meteor. Little do Dan and Ev know that their house is being over run by the space spiders who are also growing in size, and with this the couple meet their end by the fangs of the spiders who are also now making their way toward town! Dr. Jenny along with some soldiers arrive and think that a black hole in space is what’s feeding the spider and causing them to grow massive! While the townspeople arm themselves and try to kill the spiders and save others, a massive 30-foot spider has entered the town and all looks doomed as our mini promo comic comes to an end and informs us to go to the theater and see this movie!
This is a very cool little theater promo comic from the 70’s that I am sure did its job and got movie goers to flock to their local cinema and see the film! This is one thing movie makers are lacking right now is making free promo comics to give away to movie goers I mean imagine if movies like Hell Fest, The Conjuring and Sinister had cool comics made and given out…these From Horror Movie To Horror Comic updates could go on forever! Now I need to also stress this promo comic is super short and is only 4 pages long as both front and back cover is used for story as well. Our plot is also very simple and has a meteor falling from space that is also caring space spiders that grow massive here on Earth and start killing in a small Wisconsin town. Our hero of this short comic is Dr. Jenny Langer who is the one who warns of the fallout of radiation from the meteor and is the one who tries to enlist the help of NASA as well as find the source of the spawning point. Dan and Ev Kester are a couple who seem more into harvesting the diamonds and not paying attention to their farm being infested by spiders who are growing large at an alarming rate, but they of course meet their end by fangs. The Giant Spiders are the baddies of the comic and man once they grow they become aggressive, are unstoppable and very mean spirited. In fact even smaller the spiders are very much blood thirsty and want to kill any human who comes close to them. The comic does not have any blood and has two confirmed deaths that happen off panel, but while it does not show the red stuff, it does have a great classic horror atmosphere that will surely please fans of old school 50’s horror movies. I am not sure on who did the art, but I will say one thing it’s pretty dang great and I wish that Dell Comics or Gold Key Comics would have made this into a full comic with the same artist brought on board. The cover is pretty great as it’s the movie poster mostly with the bottom half being the first four panels of our adaptation. Over all this is a pretty great promo comic that adapts a cheesy B-Horror Movie that also leaves us as a reader on a cliffhanger making us want to see the movie to figure out how we can rid ourselves of these pesky Giant Spiders! Check out the art below to see how great the art is in this promo comic.
So as you can see Giant Spider Invasion is a fun movie that had a fun promo comic book that shows even the cheesiest of the B-Movies can make a great comic book for fans of Horror Comics. Plus for many people spiders let alone giant ones will always strike fear into their hearts and this short comic delivers scares for those with the heebie jeebies of these eight-legged creatures. For our next update we will be leaving the world of Horror Movies behind and will be taking a look at another Atlas Comic superhero with Demon Hunter, should be a real fun time. So until next time, read a Horror Comic or three, watch a Horror Movie or two and as always support your local Horror Host! See you next time as we go on a demon hunt!
Rotten Ink 