We all love the pulp-feel and original illustrations of modern pulp reprints, but let's face it: for gaining new Spider fans nothing beats a mass-market paperback. It's just so ... so ... mass. I mean chances are most of the people reading this page today discoverd The Spider through one of the following series, either in the rack at their local drug store in the Seventies, or at the mall bookstore in the Eighties and Nineties.

Berkley Medallion (1969-70)
At the tail end of 1969, Berkley Medallion reprinted both G-8 and His Battle Aces (for eight books) and The Spider (four) to try and recreate the success of Bantam's Doc Savage series.

Pocket Books (1975)
For two months in the mid-Seventies, The Spider was reimagined as a modern mens adventurer in the vein of The Destroyer or The Executioner, except he didn't believe in definite articles and was called, simply, SPIDER.

"Legend in Blue Steel" (1979)
This is kind of a Spider paperback, but it is not a reprint. Blue Steel by "Spider Page" is actually the first printing of the last, unpublished Spider story, Slaughter, Inc. by Donald Cormack, BUT all the names have been changed to prote-- I mean, for legal reasons. Strangely, the cover is an unused painting of Operator #5 by George Gross done for Freeway Press' aborted run, and there are drawings of The Shadow filling out the extra pages in the back.

DiMedia Inc. (1984-85)
The first Spider I ever read was #3 in this series, Prince of Evil (Kind of the Red Looters). Great covers using the old pulp logo with vibrant new painted art by Ken W. Kelly and Kelly Freas.

Carroll & Graf (1991-93)
This eight-volume series of well-chosen stories (sixteen in all) coincided with Tim Truman's Spider graphic novels, and together they captured a new generation of fans.

Baen Books (2007-present)
Science-Fiction publisher Baen Books has brought The Spider back to mainstream bookshelves with a 316-page mass-market trade paperback featuring two stories of The Master of Men.