Matthew Wayne Selznick's Blog, page 18

Worldbuilding For Writers Number Seven: M-O-O-N, That Spells Moon

So far in Worldbuilding For Writers, Gamers and other Creatives, we've covered nearly all the astrophysical aspects of creating a realistic Earth-like planet for your storyworld setting. In this installment, let's put a little bling in your world's sky with the addition of a moon.

Why A Moon?

Recall that the purpose of this series is to create a world capable of supporting life as we know it. Getting from a world with no life to one teeming with a global biosphere that actually changes the chemical composition of the planet's geographic and atmospheric properties is a long, complicated process that science still doesn't completely understand. That said, one thing we can confidently state is that life began in the sea… and if not for the moon, that life would not have been pressured — by way of natural selection — to populate the land. It's all to do with the transitory nature of tidepools… and the gravitational force of the planetary satellite that drives those tides.

Back in Worldbuilding For Writers, Gamers and Other Creatives number four, we talked a bit about the connection between a planet's speed of rotation and the long-term viability for the development and survival of life. In short, a planet that rotates too quickly will have powerful storms that wouldn't be conducive to early, burgeoning life.

Fortunately, the gravitational interaction between a large moon and its planet actually acts to gradually slow the rotation of both bodies. With the Earth and the Moon, the Earth's "drag" on the Moon has long since slowed the Moon's rotation until the time it takes to rotate on its axis is exactly the same as the time it takes to orbit the planet. The result? The Moon always shows the same face to the surface of the Earth. The Moon is slowing the Earth's rotation, too. Even though it's a much slower process, the Moon had billions of years to mellow the Earth's rotation before life emerged. It's possible life would not have developed on Earth at all without the Moon there to slow the Earth's rotation and create an environment "gentle" enough to allow those early molecules to hang together.

Bottom line? Your Earth-like planet should have a moon… or moons! Besides, a moon bequeaths fun cultural elements to your world, as well… time keeping based on the moon's phases, for example.

Orbital Considerations

There are two things that have to be worked out when creating your moon: the Roche limit, and tidal scaling.

The Roche Limit

The Roche limit is the minimum distance (measured between the centers of the planet and the moon) the moon can orbit without breaking up under gravitational / tidal forces. This will give you the absolute inner limit for your moon's orbit around the planet.

To figure the Roche limit, we need the radius and density of the primary planet and the density of the moon. We know these things for the Earth and Moon, and so know the Roche limit for the Moon in orbit around the Earth is 18,235.5949 kilometers from the center of the Earth, or 11,857.5949 kilometers from the surface of the Earth. Since the Moon currently orbits at a distance of 384,399 kilometers, it's in no danger of breaking up as a result of proximity to the Earth.

Let's work out the Roche limit for the Shaper's World's moon, Tala.

Tala is a very small satellite — it has a radius of 243.125 kilometers (about the size of the state of Texas) and a density of 2.8 grams per cubic centimeter. Given Gundi-Fai's (the Shaper's World) radius of 6,243.2 kilometers and density of 5.4102 grams per cubic centimeter, the Roche's limit for Tala orbiting Gundi-Fai is 18,841.1355 kilometers from the center of Gundi-Fai, or 12,597.9355 kilometers from the surface of Gundi-Fai.

Here's how to figure out the Roche limit for your planet and moon:

The Roche limit in kilometers = planet's radius in kilometers x the cube root of (the density of the planet / the density of the moon). The densities should be in grams per cubic centimeter.

Tidal Force and Tidal Lock

Tidal force — the effect of the difference in gravitational power across an object like your world — is the bulge on a planet's surface (especially its oceans) caused by the proximity of the planet's moon. Basically, the parts of the planet closest to the moon feel a stronger gravitational tug than the part of the planet farthest away from the moon. Given the mass of the moon and its distance from the planet, we can calculate the strength of the tidal force relative to the tidal force of the Moon on Earth.

Let's look at Tala's tidal effect on Gundi-Fai. First, we need to find Tala's mass. We know it's radius is 243.125 kilometers and its density is 2.8 grams per cubic centimeter. To find the mass of any spherical object, do the following:

Determine the volume, assuming the object is a sphere:

Volume = (4/4 * 3.141592653) * (radius^3)

For Tala: 60,166,845.267 cubic kilometers. In terms of Moon volume, that's 0.0027 of the Moon. We'll need that later.

Mass is determined by multiplying volume by density. We have to be working with the same scales, so let's convert the density from grams per cubic centimeter to kilograms per cubic meter. That gives us 2,800 kilograms per cubic meter. Now it's just simple multiplication:

Mass of Tala = 60,166,845.267 cubic kilometers * 2,800 kilograms per cubic meter = 168,467,167,000,000,000,000 kilograms. Put another way, Tala's mass is equal to 0.0022 that of the Moon.

Tala orbits at a distance of just 51,200 kilometers from Gundi-Fai. That's 0.1331 the distance of the Moon from the Earth. We now have enough information to measure Tala's tide-raising force on Gundi Fai. Here's how:

Tide raising force compared to Moon-Earth = Tala's mass in Moon masses (.0022) / (Tala's distance from Gundi-Fai as a percentage of the Moon's distance from Earth (0.1331)^3 = 0.9701.

All other things being equal, Tala creates tides on Gundi-Fai 97% as strong as the tidal force the Moon exerts on Earth.

Swap Gundi-Fai's mass (in Earth masses) for Tala's, and we see that Gundi-Fai's tidal force on Tala is 389.3737 times that of the Earth on the Moon.

The tidal force of the Earth on the Moon has resulted in the Moon's rotation slowing to exactly the same time it takes for the Moon to orbit the Earth. The result of this "tidal lock" is that the Moon always shows the same face to the Earth. If your world's tidal scaling force is anything more than 1, you can assume your moon is likewise locked to your planet.

Orbital Period

How long does it take your moon to orbit your planet? Assuming the moon and planet are not similarly sized, we can use the same formula we used to determine the orbital period of your planet around its star. We'll need to do some converting, since the orbital formula for a planet around a star uses astronomical units for distance and solar masses for mass:

First, find the distance from the moon to the planet in AU by taking the kilometers and dividing by 149,598,000. For Tala, 51,200 / 149,598,000 = 0.0003422.

Next, take the mass of the planet in kilograms and divide it into 1,988,920,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 1.98892 × 10^30. For Gundi-Fai, this is 0.000002763.

To find the orbital period of your moon, find the square root of (orbital distance of the moon in AU^3) / mass of the planet in solar masses. For Tala, it looks like this:

(0.0003422^3 = 0.00000000004007) / 0.000002763 = 0.0000145023525

Square root of 0.0000145023525 = 0.003808 Earth years, or 1.3908 Earth days, or 33.2903 Earth hours.

Note that you'll want this figure to be in local years (or days.) One Earth sidereal year is equal to 365.2563 days or 8742.2158 hours. A local sidereal year on Gundi-Fai is 358.6867 Earth days, or 8,584.9759 Earth hours. A local sidereal day on Gundi-Fai is 25.6382 Earth hours, so there are (8,584.9759 * 25.6382) 334.8509 local days in a local sidereal year.

If it takes 33.2903 Earth hours for Tala to orbit Gundi-Fai, that's the same as (33.2903 / 25.6382) 1.2984 days. Tala orbits Gundi-Fai 257.895 times in a sidereal year. It's a fast little bugger!

Your Moon From The Surface of Your World

The complicated orbital dance of your moon, as well as its size and distance, make for an interesting night sky for your planet and give your inhabitants lots of cultural fodder. Some of the things we can determine are the synodic period (the time between moonrises), the apparent size of the moon in the sky, and the phases of the moon.

Synodic Period

The time from moonrise to moonrise depends on how the planet's rotation and the orbital period of the moon interact. The synodic period is to the moon and planet as the solar period is to the planet and the star.

The formula is straightforward:

Synodic Period = 1 / ((1 / Sidereal rotation period of the planet) – (1 / Sidereal orbital period of the moon))

For Tala, the synodic period is = (1 / 25.6382 Earth hours) – (1 / 33.2903 Earth hours) = 0.008965. 1 / 0.008965 = 111.5384 Earth hours, or every 4.3504 days. A Tala-rise every four and a third days is going to make for an interesting "lunar" calendar on Gundi-Fai, and will undoubtedly have implications for the culture and science of the natives.

Phases of the Moon

The appearance of your moon in your planet's sky changes as the moon revolves around the planet. The "new moon," when the moon is practically invisible in the sky, occurs when it is between your world and its star and the side of the moon illuminated by the star is facing away from the planet. The "full moon" happens when the moon is on the opposite side of the planet from the star and is fully illuminated. The "cresent moon," when the moon appears to be half illuminated, occurs… you guessed it… at the halfway point between being fully illuminated and fully obscured.

You can calculate the time between full moons — the "month" — and by extension the times of all the other phases — with a formula very similar to that used to discover the synodic period:

((1 / sidereal orbital period of the moon) – (1 / sidereal orbital period of the planet)) = 1 / answer = month

The "month" for Tala is (1 / 1.3908 Earth days) – (1 / 358.6867 Earth days) = 0.7162 = 1 / 0.7162 = 1.3962 Earth days, or every 1.3034 local days. How this timetable mixes with a moonrise every 4.3504 days will make for an interesting calendar indeed!

The Size In The Sky

How big does the moon appear in the sky of your world? Measured in degrees (with 180 degrees across the bowl of the sky) the Moon on Earth is about .52 degrees in size. How big does your moon appear in your world's sky? Here's how to figure it out:

57.3 x (diameter / distance) = apparent size in degrees

For Tala, that would be (57.3 x (486.25 kilometers / 51,200 kilometers) = 0.54 degrees. Tala, though much smaller than Earth's moon, orbits Gundi-Fai very closely… and so appears slightly larger in the sky than the Moon does on Earth.

Next

The astronomical section of Worldbuilding for Writers, Gamers and Other Creatives wraps up with a few odds and ends. After that, we'll move down to the surface of your world and start exploring geology, climate and other fun stuff!

Matthew Wayne Selznick - Telling stories with words, music, pictures and people.

Spider Face Lives!

[image error]Some weeks ago one evening, my girlfriend and I noticed a huge — I mean, like, thumb-sized — spider building a web just beyond the frame of the front porch. The little (okay, not so little) guy or girl was working very hard on that web, no doubt in anticipation of the moths and other flying critters soon to be attracted to our porch light. It was pretty nifty, and we watched for a little while.

Eventually, though, it became clear that the completed web would probably stretch right across the entryway of the porch — pretty much perfectly at face height. Since my girlfriend would be leaving for work very early the next morning, there was a risk she might walk right through it in her gotta-get-to-work-on-time haste. She knows herself very well, so she wrote a little sticky note to herself: a smiley face and the warning, "Spider face!" Because, y'know, she didn't want to get a spider in the face.

I saw her note and figured that smiley face needed some legs. Eight, to be exact. Spider Face was born.

The note hung around long after our industrious spider-pal completed, used, and abandoned its web. We don't know where that spider is now, but we wish it well. Yes, we've both seen "Charlotte's Web," but we'd rather not think about that, thanks very much. In fact, if you ask me, that spider has been immortalized, memorialized and celebratized… as Spider Face!

My girlfriend and I had been trying to think of ways to harness our mutual creativity, and this seemed like a fun way to do just that. A quick scan, some clean-up, and an hour or so of tinkering later, I had a range of products available — all bearing the cheery visage of Spider Face.

Spider Face For You!

Presenting the first products featuring Spider Face, brought to you from CMWS Designs (a division of MWS Media, don'tcha know) and Cafe Press! We earn no more than $2.00 on each item you buy so your price isn't ridiculously high. See anything you like? Your purchases will help me and the girlfriend (the CMW in CMWS Designs) keep the bills paid and our pets fed — especially useful considering my newly underemployed state. Thanks in advance!

Is there something in the Cafe Press inventory you want emblazoned with the Spider Face design? Let me know in the comments!

Matthew Wayne Selznick - Telling stories with words, music, pictures and people.

Status Update: Autumn 2011

Hello and welcome to mattselznick.com! If you've come here after meeting me at the DIY Days conference in Los Angeles, it's great to see you!

Here's what's up with me right now:

For Hire

That's the big news these days! For the last two years, I've been gainfully employed as an interactive marketing producer and writer for a small, award-winning Los Angeles agency. The regularity of incoming work when your clients are some of the biggest entertainment conglomerates in the world is surprisingly inconsistent, so I find myself laid off and available for freelance and contract work on a project to project or short- or long-term contract basis. What can I do for you? Check out my resume, learn more about my guiding ethics and standards, read some selected endorsements, explore my web hosting and WordPress services… and let's talk!

The Sovereign Era: A Shared Storyworld

I bet you didn't know how lucky you are for visiting today! This hasn't been officially announced anywhere — in fact, you might say the whole project is in kind of a public alpha test at this stage — but let's blow the roof off it anyway: I've opened my popular Sovereign Era universe (setting of the Parsec Award nominated, Amazon Top 100 book "Brave Men Run – A Novel of the Sovereign Era") as a shared storyworld. As of yesterday, I'm accepting submissions for prose narratives (short stories, novelettes and novellas) that, if they are approved as canon, will be commercially released in a variety of media. Naturally, profits will be generously shared with creators. Learn more about The Sovereign Era storyworld, and come play in my sandbox!

Blog Series

I'm writing two blog series these days, both in line with my interest and passion in the development of storyworlds and modern mythology in the form of popular, and especially genre, fiction. Down the line, each series will be available in expanded form through a series of e-books, but for now, you can check them out right here:

Worldbuilding for Writers, Gamers and Other Creatives

In this blog series, I explore how to design a realistic, science-based fictional Earth-like planet from the top down. I won't sugar-coat it for you: there's some math! Still, it's all pretty easily tackled if you have a decent spreadsheet application. Together, we're working our way from the appropriate star for your planet to orbit, to the duration and distance of that orbit, to the length of day, gravity, atmosphere… and eventually we'll suss out continents and climate, ecology and biomes, culture, technology, language, fantasy subjects like magic, gods and monsters, and the like.

By the time Worldbuilding for Writers, Gamers and Other Creatives is complete, I'll have a comprehensive "subcreation" resource available for anyone interested in making sure their storyworld settings are internally consistent and carry the ring of truth. Check out Worldbuilding for Writers, Gamers and Other Creatives and please let me know what you think!

Reading The Amazing Spider-Man

Since 1963, issue after issue, Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man has built a modern mythology with deeply rich, complex characters and story arcs. I wondered — what could we learn, what example could we study, if I attacked a critical review of every issue from number one through number five hundred?

That's Reading The Amazing Spider-Man… a look at one of the most enduring American story franchises from the perspective of a storyteller. Every issue has lessons for us… and I have to admit, it's just a heck of a lot of fun to re-visit these wonderful stories. Try Reading The Amazing Spider-Man with me!

Enough About Me – How About You?

That's what's up in my world — now, I want to know what you're up to and what you're about. Whether we just met at DIY Days or you're a regular reader with something to hype, I want you to spill the beans, toot the horns and lay it all out for me (and my readers and followers) in the comments. Don't be bashful! Let's get to know each other… maybe before long we'll be making something together.

Matthew Wayne Selznick - Telling stories with words, music, pictures and people.

You Have A Lot Going On

"You have a lot going on."

I hear that from people, not infrequently. Recently, I've been hearing it from potential clients and employers when they encounter my site, see my resume, or even do a pre-interview Google search.

At first, I took it as a compliment. Lately, though, I'm hearing a little hint of misgiving in their tone. It's got me wondering.

Define 'A Lot'

I'm an author, a writer, an editor and a publisher. I'm a WordPress developer. I'm a social media expert and I'm a brand / platform consultant. I'm a musician, a vocalist, a bassist, a guitarist, a songwriter. I'm a voice actor, narrator, audio editor and podcaster. I'm a video creator and editor. I'm an online marketing producer. I've done each of those things, some more than others, in the past year. While I'm not doing all of those things at once, sure, I can see how folks might think, "You have a lot going on."

Talent Overload?

Easy, reader. I'm not saying I'm all awesome and loaded up on mega talent. I'm thinking, though, that when folks come to my site, or my Google+ profile, Facebook or LinkedIn page, they might be… confused. "This guy's some kind of dabbler… he must not be dedicated or serious about anything!"

I submit that misconception is a matter of perspective.

Renaissance Plan

I've given up defining myself with a string of hyphenated talents. When people ask what I do, I say "I'm a creator."

I am very serious and very dedicated about one thing: making Stuff where once there was only Ideas. Everything I do serves that… sometimes for myself, and sometimes for others. Right now, I'm keenly interested in helping other folks turn their own Ideas into Stuff, since the compensation delivered for that service keeps me out of the poorhouse and gives me the freedom to turn my own Ideas into Stuff.

The ultimate plan, of course, is for my Stuff to support me. Eventually, I'll no longer need clients, but they shouldn't be offended or scared by that fact. After all, it's what they want for themselves, too — to reach the point where their Ideas make Stuff that's valuable enough to make them a nice fluffy, comfortable pile of money.

Right now, I'm perfectly poised to help. So clients, when you learn about me and all my various projects and see the assorted pies in the oven and balls in the air, don't be scared. Creativity is fire, and I've got enough to light your torch and still keep my bonfire burning strong.

As for you, fellow "creative" reading this: do prospective clients view the many manifestations of your creativity to be a liability, or an asset? Let's talk about it in the comments.

Matthew Wayne Selznick - Telling stories with words, music, pictures and people.

Reading The Amazing Spider-Man: Issue Number Eight Part One

Reading The Amazing Spider-Man this time around, we're treated to a special "Tribute to Teen-Agers" issue with a primary story set entirely at Midtown High and a backup tale (which we'll tackle in the next installment) featuring the Human Torch. As always, we'll look at this issue with an eye toward discovering what one of the most enduring story franchises of the modern era can teach us about developing our own storyworlds.

Part one of issue eight of The Amazing Spider-Man deals with "The Terrible Threat of the Living Brain!" The splash page shows a green boxy robot with stumpy ball-bearing legs and whirling arms menacing a quartet of cowering school kids while Spider-Man leaps at the thing from behind. The caption promises the long-foreshadowed fight between Peter Parker and Flash Thompson, a fight between Spider-Man and a non-human menace (I guess the Lizard didn't count?) and, of course, "a tale of sheer fantasy, so real you'll feel it's happening to you!"

Let's see about that!

Synopsis

All the antagonists of the issue are introduced in the very first panel — the "living brain" robot, wheeled into the science class at Midtown High School by two brutish laborers, and Flash Thompson, Peter Parker's long-time rival. We also get the first real indicator of Peter Parker's age: the caption reads "In the senior science class at Midtown High School…" If he's a senior in high school, and not a sophomore as I previously assumed, Peter must be about seventeen years old.

Flash Thompson mocks Peter's appreciation of the robot to the point of giving him a shove that knocks Peter's glasses off. The glasses shatter on the floor, which is the last straw for Peter. When Flash threatens to beat him up after class, Peter retorts that Flash has "a little surprise coming." Peter's fed up. He thinks:

I've had it! I'm through pretending to be a pantywaist to conceal my real identity! I don't need those specs anyway!

The teacher, Mister Warren (not the same Professor Warren who will cause lots of problems for the amazing Spider-Man in a few years), calls the class to order and introduces Mr. Petty from the I.C.M. corporation, who is there to demonstrate the robot. Petty gives the class a run-down of the machine — it's the most sophisticated electronic brain yet devised, and is housed in "the form of a human body" (sort of) in order to dramatize its power.

The teacher selects Peter to assist Perry in demonstrating the Living Brain. Flash, naturally, teases Peter for a teacher's pet, but the secretly brainy Liz Allen shushes him — she wants to see what's going to happen.

While Peter gets up to speed on operating the Living Brain, the two thugs figure out that if they were to steal the thing, they could use it to predict horse races, lotteries and the like. They agree to grab the refrigerator-sized robot as soon as possible.

The class decided Peter should ask the Living Brain to determine the true identity of their favorite super-hero, the amazing Spider-Man. They feed in everything they know about him:

He's about five feet ten inches tall!

Weight about one-hundred sixty pounds!

He's been sighted in the Forest Hills area a lot!

He's the most wonderful, heroic, glamorous man in the whole world!

If you ask me, he's a neurotic nut!

If you ask me, they don't need a big green robot to suss this one out. After all, apart from Liz Allen's gushing, they've just described Peter Parker. Apparently the class of '63 wasn't known for its deductive reasoning abilities.

Peter, sweating visibly, feeds the clues into the machine. The Living Brain doesn't take any time at all spitting out the answer on a strip of paper. Fortunately, it's presented in the form of "mathematical code symbols" that Peter is to decode overnight.

Let's pause for a moment here for a ridiculosity check. In the Living Brain, we have a device that is apparently one of the most sophisticated computers in the world. In order to demonstrate its utility, I.C.M. designed a very advanced robot body for the thing. Despite all this… they didn't bother to include human-readable output. Huh?

Also… in the young Marvel Universe in New York City in late 1963, J. Jonah Jameson's rants in The Daily Bugle and Now Magazine have everyone talking about the amazing Spider-Man. He's kind of a big deal. Discovering his true identity would be the story of the year. Either Mr. Perry honestly doesn't care about the publicity to be had in his company's product unmasking Spider-Man, or he doesn't sincerely believe the thing can figure it out given the information provided. Otherwise, why on earth would he leave that data with a high school student?

Ridiculous.

At least Flash Thompson recognizes the importance of that slip of paper — he tries to get it off Peter so he can decode it himself.

Peter can't have that. Furious and a little desperate, he physically holds Flash back from taking the paper.

The teacher finally intervenes. He's seen these two verbally sparring for months, and now they're close to getting physically violent with each other. The most responsible thing this science teacher can come up with is to have the two kids duke it out in a controlled environment: he insists they settle their differences in the boxing ring in the school gym.

By the way, did your high school have a boxing ring? 'Cause mine sure didn't. We had "under the bleachers, after school!"

"And so, after class," Peter and Flash suit up for their match. Despite Peter Parker's well-defined biceps and six pack abs, kids call him "stringbean." Folks see what they want to see, I guess.

Flash and Peter get into the ring. Flash goes on the offensive immediately, but Peter's spider-sense is so effective he dodges every blow. Unfortunately, the kids watching take this to be cowardice on Peter's part. Even Flash urges him to "c'mon and fight."

Partially for show and, let's face it, mostly because he wants to, Peter swings at Flash. To protect Flash from his spider-strength and to protect his own identity, Peter pulls his punch, putting "only the smallest fraction" of his strength into play. It's still enough to blast poor Flash all the way through the ropes and out of the ring.

Flash, groggy and confused, convinces himself that it was a lucky punch and that he tripped over the ropes. He goes in for more… but before we find out what happens, it's time to switch scenes.

On the floor above the gym, the two "technicians" decide the time is right to abscond with the Living Brain. Petty interrupts them; they knock him out… but in the scuffle, one of the bad guys bumps into the Brain's control panel.

That's all it takes for the most sophisticated computer in the world to "short circuit." It starts swinging its ball bearing sockets at blinding speed and making its way through the school, running wild and out of control.

"While in the gym below, the fight goes on…"

Peter's figured out how he can hit Flash without killing him — he'll slap him with a flip of his wrist, rather than punching with the force of his whole arm. Just when Peter's about to deliver what he hopes will be the blow that will settle their rivalry and release him from his pariah status once and for all, Flash is distracted by someone crying out about the Living Brain's rampage.

Flash turns his head in the direction of the scream… and Peter can't stop his slappy-punch. Pow. Down goes Flash… and the schoolkids cry foul, since Flash wasn't looking.

The kids don't have much time to put Peter through the ringer, what with that nasty green robot on the loose. They scatter, which gives Peter time to drop off the unconscious Flash in the locker room, change into Spider-Man, and hunt down the Living Brain.

Seven and a half pages of fight scenes follow. The challenge for Spider-Man is that the Living Brain remembers everything — you can't use the same strategy twice because it will learn and adapt accordingly. It also adjusts its strength based on necessity, which means it doesn't take long for it to figure out exactly how much force to use to break Spider-Man's webbing.

Finally, risking a pummeling, the amazing Spider-Man manages to leap atop the Living Brain, where, leaning forward, he can reach the robot's control panel and flip the "main cut-off switch," making the Living Brain "incapable of further independent action."

Unfortunately, Spider-Man succeeds in this just as the Living Brain's momentum takes it — and Spider-Man, pinned by its arms — down a staircase. Fortunately, Spider-Man manages to snag a web-line on the stairwell that supports them both. They swing back and forth for a bit before finally coming to a stop. The Living Brain has been immobilized.

Even though they've had more than seven pages to do it, the two thugs that caused all this trouble still haven't found their way out of the labyrinthine halls of Midtown High. They burst through the locker room door just as the recently revived Flash Thompson is bending over to tie his shoe.

Wham! The bad guys tumble right over him and manage to knock themselves out. Flash, eager to save face after getting his clock cleaned by "puny" Peter Parker, takes credit for incapacitating the thugsd when his classmates show up moments later.

Peter sees an opportunity for some mischief. He points out to everyone that Flash was the only one (more or less) not around while Spider-Man and the Living Brain were fighting… and he knocked out two ruffians with no trouble at all… and hey, why was he so eager to get the slip of paper possibly revealing Spider-Man's real identity away from Peter?

The other kids pick up on it, for it also explains why Flash lost the fight with Peter — so no one would suspect the truth. While Flash sputters and frantically denies it, Peter makes his exit. He decides he'll say he lost the Living Brain's data printout in the chaos, and that, as they say, will be that.

Never mind that he's not even curious to find out if the damn thing got the answer right, since, conceivably, the same data could be entered into the robot again, at any time. The I.C.M. corporation controls a machine that could expose him at any moment… and Peter Parker walks home from school literally whistling a jaunty tune. The end.

Thoughts On Issue Eight Part One of The Amazing Spider-Man

Two important things happen in this issue: Peter Parker's glasses break (he'll never wear glasses again) and the long-promised plot thread of his fight with Flash Thompson is resolved. Other than that, this issue felt very much like filler. Maybe the creators' attentions were on one of the other comics Marvel put out that month?

Strictly from quality side of things, much ground was lost with this tale… and as we'll see in the the next installment of this blog series, the second story in this issue didn't do anything to get it back.

The lesson for storyworld and story franchise creation? Sometimes you have to have filler… in fact, you should have some "stand-in" story content in your catalog to cover in case of rare and unavoidable delays and problems.

That said, best be sure you don't equate "filler" with "sub-par." Every installment of your story, whether it's an issue of a comic book, an episode of a television show, or a sequence in a video game, should build momentum and, ideally, audience and loyalty. Don't sacrifice that momentum with a stop-gap.

Next time, we'll tackle the second story in issue number eight of The Amazing Spider-Man, a little tale featuring Spider-Man's pal the Human Torch. And still yet more teen-agers. Cripes.

The Amazing Spider-Man number eight part one

"The Terrible Threat of the Living Brain"

Cover Date: December, 1963

Script: Stan Lee

Art: Steve Ditko

Letters: Artie Simek

Join Me In Reading The Amazing Spider-Man

Click the cover to buy the first twenty issues of The Amazing Spider-Man in an inexpensive trade paperback from Barnes & Noble Booksellers:





Your purchase helps support this series and all my creative endeavors — thanks!

Matthew Wayne Selznick - Telling stories with words, music, pictures and people.

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Matthew Wayne Selznick - Telling stories with words, music, pictures and people.

Worldbuilding For Writers Number Six: Planetary Atmosphere

In the blog series Worldbuilding for Writers, Gamers and Other Creatives, we're building a realistic Earth-like planet, step by step, for your storyworld and story franchise. We're working from the top down, starting with large scale considerations like the star, the orbit and rotation details, and so on. Last time around, we covered the relationship between gravity, mass, density and size. This time, we'll look at the world's atmosphere. Throughout, we use my own storyworld setting, the Shaper's World, as an example.

Atmospheric Conditions

Since we're building an Earth-like world — a planetary setting where the environment is at least marginally hospitable to "life as we know it" — we can assume the atmospheric composition will be similar to that of the Earth. That means a composition of around 75% to 80% molecular nitrogen, about 20% molecular oxygen, about 1% argon, 1% to 5% water vapor, and a balance of trace gases like carbon dioxide, neon, methane and others in quantities far less than one percent. There's room for variation, especially if your storyworld doesn't have any off-world visitors to contend with air that tastes funny or doesn't adequately replenish their respiratory systems.

We can calculate some interesting qualities of your world's atmosphere — such as the height at which it thins out to nothing, the atmospheric pressure at sea level (and other elevations) and so on. First, we need to decide on the atmospheric composition and the corresponding average atomic weight and scale height.

Average Atomic Weight

The average atomic weight is a kind of standard measurement for each molecular gas in your atmosphere. One unit of atomic weight is equal to 1/2 the mass of a carbon-12 atom.

Here are the atomic weights for some common elements you would find in the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet:

Nitrogen
28.0134


Oxygen
31.9988


Argon
39.948


Carbon Dioxide
44.01


Neon
20.179


Helium
4.02


Methane
16.044


Krypton
83.8


Hydrogen
2.016


Nitrous Oxide
44.012


Carbon Monoxide
28.011


Xenon
131.3


Ozone
47.998


Nitric Oxide
30.006

To find the average atomic weight of your atmosphere, multiply the percentage of the atmosphere for each element times the atomic weight of that element, and add each one together. For example, the primary ingredients of the Shaper's World's atmosphere are nitrogen (72.7%), oxygen (21.2%) and carbon dioxide (1%) so the average atomic weight is:

Nitrogen (.727 * 28.0134 = 20.3657) + oxygen (.212 * 31.9988 = 6.7837) + carbon dioxide (.01 * 44.01 = 0.4401) = 27.5895

For comparison, the average atomic weight of Earth's atmosphere is 29.

Scale Height

The scale height measures the rate at which your atmosphere thins with altitude. This is helpful for knowing just how high your planet's atmosphere extends above the surface. Once we know the scale height, we can compute the atmospheric pressure at various altitudes above and below sea level.

Earth's scale height is approximately 7,400 meters. To determine our own planet's scale height, the formula is:

Earth's scale height * (Earth's atomic weight / your planet's atomic weight)

The scale height of the Shaper's World is:

7,400 * (29 / 27.5895) = 7778.3214 meters

Atmospheric Pressure

The atmospheric pressure at sea level is not directly tied to a planet's mass, density or gravity. Rather, it's a result of a complicated combination of processes over long (geologically long) periods. Atmospheric pressure is a reflection of how much atmosphere has been retained by the planet and is, essentially, up to you. Depending on your intentions, though, you might want to play with this. For example, a planet with a lower gravity and higher surface atmospheric pressure (relative to Earth) would be more conducive to natural flight. Also, note that the range of acceptable breathable atmospheric pressure for humans is suggested to be between .5 and as much as 5 times Earth atmospheric pressure at sea level. For the purposes of our Earth-like planet, let's assume the atmospheric pressure at sea level is equivalent to 1.

Given our planet's scale height and surface gravity, we can determine the atmospheric pressure at any height. This lets us know how high an average human being could climb without the assistance of a breathing apparatus. Of course, if you decide your sea level pressure is different than 1, you'll want to adjust for your natives. The formula is:

sea level pressure exp(-(surface gravity*height)/scale height)

So, the atmospheric pressure 1000 meters above sea level on the Shaper's World would be:

1 exp(-(.96*1000) / 7778.3214) = 0.8838 atmospheres.

Normal humans wouldn't be able to breath without assistance at about 5,500 meters above sea level.

Another useful calculation is the height at which atmospheric pressure diminishes by half:

Your planet's scale height * (the natural logarithm of 2, or .693147)

On Earth, this is about 5129.2891 meters above sea level. On the Shaper's World, the atmospheric pressure is halved at:

7778.3214 * .693147 = 5391.5215 meters above sea level.

The elevation on the Shaper's World where the atmosphere thins to next to nothing — essentially the edge of space — is approximately 70,000 meters (70 kilometers or 43.5 miles) above sea level.

Atmosphere and Planetary Temperature

The basic mean surface temperature of a planet is dependent on a great many factors. Principally, the figure depends on the amount of energy received from its parent body (usually its star) and the planet's albedo (reflectivity) and greenhouse effect. A planet with an Earth-like atmosphere will almost certainly have some degree of greenhouse effect.

Heat Energy Received

We use the star's total luminosity and distance to determine how much heat energy reaches the planet. Recall that Tah, the star of the Shaper's World, has a luminosity of .9086 and orbits at a distance of 0.979 AU. The heat energy received at the distance of the Shaper's World, or insolation, relative to Earth/Sun numbers, is determined like so:

Stellar luminosity / distance^2 = insolation

For the Shaper's World, this works out to:

.9086 / (0.979^2 = 0.958441) = 0.9479

Albedo

A planet's albedo determines how much of that heat energy is absorbed and how much is reflected back into space. For a baseline, consider that the albedo of the Earth is about 0.3 — it reflects back 30% of the energy it receives.

In very general terms, a planet's albedo will be higher if the proportion of lighter areas is greater than darker areas. A planet covered in snow will have an albedo approaching .9, for example.

Greenhouse Effect

Any world with an atmosphere will have some degree of greenhouse effect. Atmospheres — especially atmospheres with some percentage of carbon dioxide and water vapor — act to hold in heat received from the star. Since we're dealing with Earth-like planets in Worldbuilding for Writers, Gamers and Other Creatives, it's safe to say your planet will have both carbon dioxide and water vapor in its atmosphere, and a greenhouse effect will be a factor in the planet's mean temperature.

The greenhouse effect factor of an Earth-like planet is thought to be around 1.1.

Your World's Average Temperature

The formula to determine a planet's average surface temperature is:

374 * (Greenhouse Effect * (1 – Albedo)) * Insolation^.25

Let's plug in the numbers for the Earth:

374 * (1.1 * (1 – .3)) * 1^.25 = 287.98 Kelvin or 14.83 Celsius or 58.694 Fahrenheit

If we assume the same greenhouse effect and albedo for the Shaper's World, we get:

374 * 1.1 – (1 – .3)) * 0.9479^.25 = 11.0034 Kelvin or 51.80612 Fahrenheit

That's colder than the Earth, and could have a drastic impact on the planet's extremes of climate. Consider that the range of temperatures on the Earth is as cold as -89 Celsius (-128.2 Fahrenheit) and as hot as 58 Celsius (136.4 Fahrenheit), we might find that it's unsuitably cold across too great a range of the Shaper's World's latitudes and altitudes. When we address climate and weather later in this blog series, we'll tinker with the albedo and greenhouse effect to get a range that matches our intention.

Next

In the next Worldbuilding for Writers, Gamers and Other Creatives, we'll begin rounding out the astronomy-based elements in our worldbuilding… starting with a satellite for your world!

Matthew Wayne Selznick - Telling stories with words, music, pictures and people.

Reading The Amazing Spider-Man: Issue Number Seven

Reading The Amazing Spider-Man, we learn lessons on how to create an enduring story franchise by critiquing one of the most popular serial works of the modern age from the very beginning. This time around, it's issue number seven, "The Return of the Vulture."

The splash page depicts the green, winged vulture swooping upside down toward a big metal… thing… while Spider-Man, hanging with his legs wrapped around the Vulture's waist, is about to slam right into it. A few blue collar types cower in shock in the corner. A caption claims that readers have been clamoring for the Vulture to re-appear since his debut in issue number two of The Amazing Spider-Man, while another serves the by-now standard purpose of telling the reader how awesome this issue is going to be. On with the story!

Synopsis

The first three panels tell you everything you need to know about the Vulture's first appearance: no one could figure out how the Vulture did his flying trick until Spider-Man sussed out that it was through magnetic power. For boy genius Peter Parker, it was a simple matter to create an "anti-magnetic inverter" (a what, now??) that clipped the Vulture's wings and sending him "into the waiting arms of the police!"

For "months," the Vulture is a model prisoner. He's so well behaved, the warden lets him use the prison machine shop. Now, I'm no correctional facility management expert, but I'm betting that giving a formerly flying jewel thief who is obviously pretty damn good with machines the run of the prison machine shop isn't going to get the warden any points with the governor, because what do you think happens next?

The Vulture puts a new, improved flying device together "right under their noses" and, next time he's out in the yard for exercise, uses it to fly over the wall and to freedom.

"Meanwhile," in another prison yard (okay, it's the school yard of Midtown High), Flash Thompson taunts Peter Parker into a game of volleyball. Just as Peter is about to participate and — just maybe — show he's not the milktoast Flash thinks he is, he overhears on a convenient transistor radio that the Vulture has escaped and has to fake a headache and cut out to get the bad guy. Flash observes:

Strange how you always get those "headaches" whenever something exciting is going on!

It's not clear if Flash is referring to the pending volleyball game or the Vulture's escape, or if he's bright enough to put it all together and come up with "Peter Parker is Spider-Man." Wait and see?

At home, Peter changes to Spider-Man while grousing about having to look weak in the eyes of his schoolmates. He "can't take much more ribbing," and vows that eventually somebody's "gonna lose a mouthful of teeth!"

Peter double checks that he has plenty of web fluid, his camera, and the anti-magnetic inverter, and swings into the city to hunt for the Vulture, who is testing his new, improved wings by playing chicken with a police helicopter for fun. He deftly flies into an open window several stories above the street… which turns out to be a jewelry showroom.

Since he's there and all, he robs the place at gunpoint and flies off, low over the street to avoid police radar. The cops are helpless to fire on him, since a missed shot might hit a bystander. The Vulture, full of confidence and power, seems to be having a great time.

Spider-Man finally shows up, but he's got to get close enough to the Vulture for his anti-magnetic inverter / faux-science doohickey to work. The Vulture, who knows full well that thing won't work with his new, improved wings, flies straight for the amazing Spider-Man.

Spider-Man thinks this is great. He's going to get a picture he can sell to J. Jonah Jameson, snapped at the very moment the Vulture's wings give out. Indeed, Spider-Man clicks on the anti-magnetic inverter (how many times will I have to type that phrase, I wonder..?) and takes the picture just as the Vulture spirals toward the street.

As Spider-Man descends from the rooftops to round up the Vulture, he's almost disappointed that the whole thing was so easy. But wait! Unseen by Spider-Man, the Vulture has swooped back around and clobbers our hero with a double upper-cut.

Spider-Man starts to fall. The Vulture bops him a few more times while he's stunned then hovers above, gloating. Spider-Man tries to break his fall by catching his web line on a building, but he misses — twice! With little time left, he tries to spin in the air to break his fall. He lands hard on a rooftop, knocked out cold.

The Vulture — and the crowd watching below — assume that Spider-Man has been killed. A cop "despite what Jameson's editorials said about him," mourns the hero's passing.

Of course, Spider-Man still lives, but he's hurt his right arm pretty badly. He slinks home and sneaks in through his bedroom window, but he has to hide, clinging to the ceiling, when his Aunt May comes into his room, thinking she's heard him. Bewildered, she leaves (conveniently shutting the door behind her), worried about her "fragile" nephew being late coming home.

Spider-Man gingerly changes into Peter Parker, slips back out the window, and comes in through the front door. He tells his Aunt — and the doctor she insists on him seeing — that he hurt his arm playing volleyball. The doctor informs him he's got a nasty sprain, but it should be okay in a few weeks. That's a drag — the Vulture's on the loose and won't wait!

The next day, Peter's got to show up at school with a sling on his arm. This naturally prompts some ribbing from Flash Thompson:

Did you try to turn too many heavy pages at one time, bookworm? Or did you drop a nasty little test-tube on it in the lab?

Liz Allen — who has apparently forgotten all about her crush on Spider-Man and is back on Flash's arm — laughs at what she thinks is a blush of embarrassment on Peter's face. Peter's thought-balloon tells us differently:

They don't recognize I'm livid with anger! If I ever let go, I'll splatter that clown all over the landscape!

Something's happening here, dear reader. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko are laying down some forshadowing. In just a few years, The Amazing Spider-Man will be filled with interweaving, waxing and waning storylines that start off with small bits and hints, just like this. The trend starts in this issue.

Meanwhile, in his quaint abandoned farmhouse hideout on Staten Island, the Vulture is kicking back planning his next heist… the payroll of J. Jonah Jameson! It's Friday and probably payday, so the Vulture suits up and flaps for the city.

And, at the offices of The Daily Bugle, we find young Peter Parker, talking to J. Jonah Jameson's secretary…

We also find one comma too many, if you ask me.

Jonah's secretary is Betty Brant, who must not be too many years out of high school, because she doesn't have a problem flirting with sixteen year old Peter. She can't believe Peter sprained his arm playing volleyball, so Peter tells her it happened while he was fighting the Vulture. They laugh about this ridiculous fib and the volleyball story sticks.

Peter wants to sell Jonah his up-close snapshot of the Vulture, but Jonah's reluctant — with the Vulture showing off all over town, everyone has pictures of the old coot. Since it's such a good shot, Peter convinces him to give up "twelve fifty." It's not clear if that's $12.50 or $1,250.00. What do you think? Remember that this story takes place in 1963.

The Vulture, grinning like a loon, swoops in through Jameson's open window and wonders out loud,

If you'll pay for a mere photo of me, what will you give for the vulture in the flesh??!

The Vulture pulls a gun — and don't think too hard about where he holsters that thing, dressed as he is in a skin-tight green body suit — and demands that Jameson open the safe and hand over the payroll. Jameson starts blubbering about how it's all the money he has in the world, he's spent years building up his business, this will kill him, blather, blather. Apparently the publisher of The Daily Bugle and Now Magazine pays his staff in cash..? He and the increasingly exasperated Vulture go back and forth on this for four panels, which is all the time Peter Parker needs to slip out and change into the amazing Spider-Man.

Spider-Man, his bum arm in a sling made of nearly invisible webbing, bursts in and engages the Vulture, who is shocked the hero still lives. It's right about here that the issue unrepentantly shifts into screwball action comedy mode, and it stays there for the next eight pages.

With a frantic Jameson in the middle, the Vulture and Spider-Man trade punches and wisecracks until the Vulture breaks away to find more room to use his wings "to their best advantage." Spider-Man literally leap-frogs over Jameson in pursuit while Betty Brant, papers and skirt flying, dodges to stay out of everyone's way.

Given the opportunity to have a re-match with the Vulture and wreck the newsroom of the man who makes his life so miserable has Spider-Man in a great mood despite his injured arm. He's dropping one liners like they'll burn his tongue while Jameson blusters that they're destroying his office and the Vulture tries and fails to escape out a window.

Finally, the Vulture breaks for the stairwell and flies down a few floors, where the giant printing presses are rolling. Spider-Man follows by dropping straight down, hanging from his web. Two newsies — one looking a touch like Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen — add to the comedy:

The place is haunted!

Who's chasing who?

Spider-Man catches up with the Vulture and leaps onto his back. The Vulture flips over in mid-air and tries to slam Spider-Man into the giant, whirring print rollers busy making the next edition of The Daily Bugle, but Spider-Man clings tight to the Vulture's back — until the Vulture slams him into the ceiling "with telling effect…" Spider-Man's injured arm smacks right into the ceiling tiles, and the pain forces him to let go.

Spider-Man nearly falls into the rollers, but this time his webbing saves him — until the Vulture slices the web-line! Again, we find ourselves reluctant to guess where the Vulture hid the knife.

Spider-Man makes a heroic leap out of harm's way. The Vulture escapes out the window, where he waits above for Spider-Man to appear. Fortunately, Spider-Man's spider-sense warns him of the danger… but Spider-man lets the Vulture spring the trap. Our boy has a plan.

The Vulture grabs Spider-Man and flies him "so high that you'll be completely helpless! Even a spider is powerless in the sky!"

Spider-Man cracks wise, but the Vulture pushes him, insisting he's got to be scared to death. The Vulture reveals a grudging respect for his enemy:

Before I drop you, Spider-Man, I want to say I admire your courage! Anyone else would be begging for mercy now! I'm almost sorry to have to do this…

Before the Vulture can make Spider-Man go splat, our hero pins his wings with webbing. The Vulture freaks out, convinced that if he can't fly, they'll both die. As they plummet, the Vulture breaks down in sobbing hysterics, proving that he's among the "anyone else" who would be begging for mercy at a time like this.

Spider-Man's in complete control. He rides the Vulture like a horse as he casually spins a web parachute to break their fall. As they safely descend, the Vulture realizes Spider-Man planned it all. He vows "You haven't heard the last of me," as Spider-Man leaps off to let the Vulture descend into the arms of the police, much like the first time he was defeated.

As Spider-Man is making his exit, J. Jonah Jameson calls to to him from his window. Spider-Man, thinking Jameson wants to apologize and give him a reward, replies politely and swings over to hang in front of the publisher.

Jameson, of course, reads him the riot act and holds him responsible for all the damages done in the fight. Spider-Man, fed up, webs Jonah's mouth shut, deciding…

Why not? What have I got to lose? You couldn't hate me any more than you do now! But anyhow, I won't have to listen to you for a while! That won't wear off for at least an hour!

Spider-Man leaves Jonah to fume and curse behind his gag. Changing back to Peter Parker, he re-enters the press room and discovers Betty Brant still hiding behind her desk. He asks if he can join her, and they look adorable and cozy sitting there on the floor.

Betty asks him where he was during the fight, and when Peter tells her he was hiding in a closet because he's not the heroic type, she confesses she isn't either and that that's why she likes him(!!!) so much — he doesn't pretend to be what he's not. That's a nice bit of light dramatic tension!

Jameson runs by behind them, still grumbling and swearing, his hand covering the webbing over his mouth. Betty wonders what's wrong with him and when Peter confesses he thinks it's an improvement, Betty scolds him for laughing at "a secret little joke that's all your own!"

Peter, feeling damn good and bursting with confidence, tells Betty if she keeps using that perfume, he might tell her all about it some day.

She's impressed and amused — that's the closest thing to a romantic remark she's ever heard him say.

The last exchange of the issue is right in keeping with the screwball comedy tone Lee and Ditko established.

Peter: Gosh, I can be more romantic than that! Here, rest your head on my shoulder, blue eyes, and let's enjoy the silence!

Betty: But what will Mr. Jameson say?

Peter: Nothing, baby… for at least an hour!

And… curtain! You can almost hear the orchestra strike up the closing theme.

Thoughts On Issue Seven of The Amazing Spider-Man

The big teaching point with this issue? Build story, lay groundwork for what's to come, develop and advance your characters, drop hints and red herrings to keep your audience interested… but don't be afraid to have fun!

Build Story: the fight between the amazing Spider-Man and the Vulture has to be similar to, but a step up from, their last tangle. For such a smart guy, Spider-Man is far too confident in their first encounter this issue, and he pays the price with a sprained arm and the ridicule of his peers. When he and the Vulture have their big fight at the offices of The Daily Bugle and Now Magazine, Spider-Man has learned his lesson.
Lay Groundwork for What's To Come: Seeds are planted in this story. Some will bear fruit as soon as the very next issue, some in a few months, while others will play out across years. This is critically important when building a story franchise… keep adding kindling so the story fire continues to burn!
Develop and advance your characters: All I can say is: dig the new, smooth Peter Parker! As we've seen gradually over the last few issues, Peter's confidence (while not always his best feature) is developing both in and out of the Spider-Man suit. Far as we know, he's never had a girlfriend, but he seems to pull lines out of every cheesy movie he's ever seen and that serves him well with Betty Brant, who is already willing to see whatever game the kid might have. I'm still a little weirded out by Betty — who must be at least eighteen — being so keen to go out with a kid who's still in high school.
Drop hints and red herrings: Flash Thompson, Betty Brant and J. Jonah Jameson all alluded to either a suspicion about Peter Parker or a desire to expose Spider-Man. Some of these will play out. Some won't. The important thing? The audience wants to stick around to see which is foreshadowing and which is a red herring. Keep 'em guessing… so long as you reveal your intention, one way or another, eventually.
Have fun! There's plenty of that in this issue, and how! Even the Vulture seems gleeful in his crime spree — he's smiling with delight nearly every time we see him, an old man with maybe one last chance to show it to the world. Spider-Man draws on every joke book he's ever read while he fights the Vulture and, in a different way, J. Jonah Jameson. The fight itself is full of crazy acrobatics, and the banter between the Vulture and Spider-Man borders on good-natured, despite the Vulture's desire to kill him. Best of all is the playful flirtation between Peter and Betty at the end — you can practically feel Lee and Ditko winking and taking a bow.

This is perhaps the most purely entertaining issue of The Amazing Spider-Man so far, and a great object lesson that no matter what the theme or tone of your story, every now and then it's okay to play it for laughs and cut loose. If you tickle now and then, when you bring the drama it will have a much larger impact on your audience. What do you think?

The Amazing Spider-Man number seven

"The Return of the Vulture"

Cover Date: December, 1963

Script: Stan Lee

Art: Steve Ditko

Letters: Artie Simek

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Matthew Wayne Selznick - Telling stories with words, music, pictures and people.

Reading The Amazing Spider-Man: Issue Number Six

Here we are back again Reading "The Amazing Spider-Man," where we take a critical look at the first five hundred issues of the classic comicbook series. There are lessons here on building a storyworld and an enduring story franchise, and we're going to flush them out! This time, we're reading issue number six, a return to animal-inspired villains with… "Face To Face With… The Lizard!"

The splash page, other than three different blurbs of meta-promotional copy, is straight-up creepy action: the amazing Spider-Man is visibly cringing as the lab-coat sporting anthropomorphic Lizard urges his small army of vicious alligators to attack. The color composition is noticeable: four different shades of green dominate the borders of the scene and create a sense that things are closing in on the red and blue figure of Spider-Man. It's much more evocative than most of the "movie poster" style splash pages we've seen so far.

Synopsis

The action begins immediately! In the Florida Everglades, four men encounter a giant talking lizard that "walks like a man!" It also wears a spotless white lab coat, stylish black tee shirt and purple slacks… but I guess those are the kinds of things you'd notice after you got over that whole business of it walking and talking like a man. This creature refers to itself repeatedly in the third person, so we know that it calls itself (conveniently) the Lizard and that "this swamp is mine!"

Word of this frightful creature spreads up the eastern seaboard, until the publisher of The Daily Bugle sees an opportunity to both sell newspapers and humiliate the amazing Spider-Man with a headline:

The Bugle Challenges Spider-Man To Defeat The Lizard!

Spider-Man finds it a little laughable, but he changes to Peter Parker and hits up J. Jonah Jameson to send him to Florida to try and take some pictures of the Lizard for the paper. Jonah scoffs — he doesn't even think the Lizard exists; it was pure and simple a publicity grab. Never mind the fact that Peter Parker is a minor and there are probably laws against sending him out of state and deliberately into harm's way… aren't there?

J. Jonah Jameson's secretary, Betty Brant, who has a little thing for the younger, bookish Peter, thinks it was a great idea. Peter, who is learning to be something of flirt, tells Betty "I sure wish you were the publisher, instead of just being his secretary!" as he makes his rakish exit. These two kids are dancing closer and closer!

Next day, Peter heads down to the Natural History Museum to learn a little about lizards, starting with the dinosaur exhibit. Oddly, Flash Thompson is there with Liz Allen. Flash is irritated to see Peter, but Liz, who has in previous issues shown herself to be interested in learning, hushes him so she can hear the lecture.

While the lecturer gives us a little exposition about dinosaurs (hides so thick "no gun smaller than a cannon could stop them" and strong enough to "crush a present-day tank") Peter's spider-sense alerts him to a couple of thieves making their way through the dinosaur exhibit on their way out of the museum. He ducks away to change into Spider-Man, but before he can intervene, a security guard scares the thieves into pulling a gun… and taking Liz Allen hostage!

This is no big deal for Spider-Man. He drops down from the ceiling, separates the bad guys from Liz, and knocks them both out cold with one punch. Done and done. In the mood to show off a little, he helps Liz to her feet and when she thanks him, he tells her it was his pleasure and calls her "blue eyes" before swinging out of site.

When he reappears as Peter Parker, Liz is in a lovesick daze and, much to Peter's delight, Flash Thompson is at a loss.

Nuts! Competition like you I can handle, Parker! But what can I do about Spider-Man?

Peter grins knowingly and advises Flash to worry. His amusement is short-lived, though, when he overhears on a nearby radio that the "nation wonders why Spider-Man has avoided going after the Lizard…" This is apparently too much for Peter's pride. A short time later, he pays a visit — as Spider-Man — to J. Jonah Jameson.

Spider-Man webs Jonah to the ceiling — evidently to keep him in the room but also just to irritate him — and informs him that he's accepting the challenge. He'll go to Florida to fight the Lizard… so Jameson better send a photographer down there to cover it!

Spider-Man swings away and Jameson, still suspended from the ceiling by a rapidly dissolving web, calls Betty Brant in to call Peter Parker and to gather some soft cushions for his inevitable landing. Betty doesn't get the cushions to Jonah in time and he lands with a "whump!"

Peter shows up on cue — it's not a school day, apparently, since for once he's not in his blue suit and red tie. He's sporting a casual tan suitjacket over a black tee shirt (just like the Lizard's!) and brown slacks. It's practically jeans and a sweatshirt for someone like Peter.

He and Betty engage in some casual banter and Peter's just about to ask her out when Jonah bursts in. He's sending Peter to Florida after all… but this is such a big story Jonah's coming too!

After his aunt is convinced that it will be all right for a sixteen year old boy to travel to Florida to deliberately put himself in close contact with a monstrous reptile-man because "that nice man" J. Jonah Jameson will be with him, Peter hops on a plane. On the flight down, he studies a mess of clippings and other research he's gathered on the case, and decides that Dr. Curtis Connors, a reptile expert who lives near the Everglades area, would be the perfect contact to help find the Lizard.

In Florida, Peter makes an excuse to ditch Jonah and takes off as Spider-Man. He swings past the police cordon of "the Lizard area" and starts slinking around in the swamp. It's not long before the Lizard ambushes him, dragging him down into the water. Spider-Man shoves a glob of mud in the Lizard's face and they both climb ashore.

The Lizard is fixated on controlling the swamp. He tells Spider-Man "…you dared to invade my domain! And so… you are doomed!" He swipes at Spider-Man with his thick tail, shocking our hero with the realization that the Lizard isn't a dude in a costume but an actual, human / reptile hybrid. Spider-Man tries to grab his tail, and the Lizard take advantage of that by flinging Spider-Man a full half-mile away.

Spider-Man lands in a tree and notices a nearby house that he presumes must belong to Dr. Curtis Connors, the reptile expert he wanted to see. Coming closer to the house, he notices a woman crying inside. Concerned that the Lizard is too close for comfort, Spider-Man gently introduces himself and tells her that she and her husband must get away. The woman won't leave, though. In fact, she blows Spider-Man's mind when she tells him (are you ready for this???) …

My husband, Dr. Curtis Connors — is the Lizard!

We get a page and a half of origin story from Mrs. Connors: Curtis was a surgeon who lost his right arm in the war. Since then, his fascination with some lizards' ability to regrow severed limbs led him to become one of the world's leading experts on reptiles. Imagine how this issue might have gone if he'd become obsessed with how starfish can do the same thing…?

He develops a serum "extracted from experimental lizards" (whatever those might be) that works — he uses it to successfully regrow a rabbit's missing limb. Flush with that success and apparently unfamiliar with the scientific method or standard precautionary measures, he immediately gulps down the rest of the serum himself. His wife protests, but in minutes, he's re-grown his missing arm! It's "the greatest medical feat of all time!"

Guess what happens next? His new arm is suddenly covered with thick, heavy lizard scales… and the rest of him quickly transforms as well. Trapped in his lizard form, he tries to reverse the effects of the serum, but "his brain had been too dulled — too changed!" Tragically, he leaves his wife a note, urging her to leave with their young son, Billy, and never come back.

Speaking of Billy… apparently it's cool for him to play in their back yard even though is Lizard-dad is running around loose, for he comes running back, pursued by an oddly subdued Lizard. Spider-Man swoops down and drops Billy in the high, safe branches of a tree before he attempts to confront his foe. Fighting's not going to be easy, though. The Lizard's skin is as thick and hard as the dinosaur we conveniently learned about earlier, and his tail is strong enough to snap Spider-Man's web. He's a handful!

Fortunately, something of Curtis Connors' shame remains in the Lizard's brain. When Mrs. Connors cries out, he slinks away and disappears into the swamp.

Spider-Man has a reprieve. He decides to try his brains on this problem, since he's pretty well out-classed in the strength and speed department. He pours over Curtis Connors' notes, and, hours later, Spider-Man successfully creates an antidote to the Lizard serum. Once again, we see that Peter Parker has an almost super-human intellect… one that he only seems to call upon in moments of extreme stress. Either that's due to it being most convenient to the plot or, perhaps, the very nature of his genius is that it only works when it's a life-and-death situation. It's hard to reconcile… I mean, this kid is Dougie Houser smart, y'know? Why is he even still in high school?

Spider-Man has no time to celebrate his brilliance. The Lizard breaks into the house! His humanity is slipping away, as he no longer seems to recognize his wife. He still has his pride, though. He says to the amazing Spider-Man:

You are the only one who does not fear me! Once I destroy you, all mankind will tremble before the Lizard!!

Spider-Man hastily passes the antidote to Mrs. Connors, who beats the retreat. Spider-Man hopes to reason with the Lizard, but it's no good. The faster, stronger man-monster tosses a "huge oak desk" onto Spider-Man, and for good measure bashes it into kindling while Spider-Man is underneath. The battle is over in seconds, and the Lizard heads back to the swamp. He's got a dastardly plan, though — he's going to feed his serum to other reptiles to build a "mighty lizard army."

That's a good name for a band, maybe. Take note, hipsters.

Spider-Man wakes up, learns of the Lizard's plans from Mrs. Connors, and decides it's now or never — he's got to figure out a way to get the Lizard to drink the antidote before he creates a potentially devastating army of lizards. To make matters worse, little Billy Connors begs Spider-Man to not hurt his father. But how can Spider-Man do what must be done without harming the the man that the Lizard once was?

Rather cleverly, Spider-Man uses his web to sport a pair of "web swamp shoes" for himself — kind of pontoons — and poles through the swamp, letting his spider-sense guide him to the Lizard. He catches up with him at an abandoned Spanish fort deep in the Everglades. The Lizard is in the middle of giving a little pre-victory speech to a trio of alligators, but has not yet administered his serum. Spider-Man takes the opportunity to snap a few photographs, but the old stone beneath him crumbles and he's forced to fight.

The alligators, under the Lizard's control, press the attack. Spider-Man climbs up the fort's tower, but the Lizard — who we learn has the powers of every lizard on Earth — climbs, gecko-like, even faster. Spider-Man finds himself pinned between the battering tails of the Lizard above him and the alligators below. He gets away by swinging through a window into the fort, but the Lizard follows. They spar a little, Spider-Man staying just out of the Lizard's way and keeping up a steady flow of confidence-boosting wisecracks and bon mots, but Spider-Man has got to find a way to get that antidote into the Lizard before the stronger and faster villain wears him down.

They climb up the interior walls of the tower, Spider-Man just barely free of the Lizard's clutches all the while, until Spider-Man can take the initiative. He grabs the Lizard's tail and yanks him off the wall to fall back to the floor. Before the Lizard can gather himself, Spider-Man — antidote at the ready — drops on top of him and shoves the liquid down the Lizard's throat.

The Lizard recovers quickly and stuns Spider-Man with a powerful slap of his thick tail. Spider-Man is helpless, determined not to give up but badly battered. Just as the Lizard is about to land a killing blow… the serum does its job. Rapidly, the beast is replaced by the man (minus his right arm) and Dr. Curtis Connors is back.

Spider-Man leads Connors back to his wife and sleeping child, where the good doctor burns all of his research, vows never again to "tamper with forces of nature which must not be tampered with," and three of them vow to keep it a secret between them. How well do you think all of that's going to work out? In any event, Spider-Man has made loyal friends in the Connors family.

The next day, Peter Parker meets up with J. Jonah Jameson and shows him his pictures of the Lizard. Jameson tears them up — he's decided for sure that the Lizard is truly nothing but a fake — and the two of them go back to New York. There's no rest for Peter Parker — Aunt May has lots of chores waiting for him — and no luck, either, as Liz Allen won't give him the time of day now that she thinks Spider-Man is the cat's meow. Peter gets a little fun in, though — he sends J. Jonah Jameson a letter from Spider-Man reading:

Roses are red, violets are blue… I'm still at large, so phooey to you!

Okay, so the boy genius isn't much of a poet. It's enough to raise Jonah's blood pressure, and that's good enough to mark this issue as a win for the amazing Spider-Man.

Thoughts On Issue Five Of The Amazing Spider-Man

This issue sees Peter Parker — and Spider-Man — literally out of their comfort zone, traveling out of New York City and facing a foe that can't be beaten without the unique combination of power and brains that our hero is capable of delivering when he's firing on all cylinders. A little of the old Parker pride is there, too — he can't stand the idea that the world thinks he's not willing to challenge the Lizard — but Peter primarily shows all the great responsibility he's dedicated himself to display.

Peter Parker is getting comfortable with the fact that he's Spider-Man — he's willing to show off a little and sweep a girl off her feet — and he's really stepping up as a hero. He finds a way to defeat the Lizard without harming Dr. Curtis Connors, and, recognizing that the doctor wasn't acting out of malice, opts to respect the family's privacy. Perhaps he understands that they will have to live with the horror Connors has brought upon them, and that's punishment enough? He knows a little something about bringing tragedy into his own home, after all.

Peter Parker is allowing some of his confidence as the amazing Spider-Man seep into his ordinary life, too. He's flirting with the older Betty Brant, and calling on Liz Allen in a way the Peter Parker of three or four issues ago wouldn't have dreamed of doing. Sure, he's not without his problems, but the kid is growing into his own.

This issue reminds us that, despite the fact that it's a good idea to put your lead character through the ringer on a regular basis, it's also important to show him growing and changing as a result of his experiences. Remember the whiny, complaining, tantrum-prone Peter Parker of the first few issues? That guy, for the moment, at least, is no more… and that's a good thing. As your character learns and evolves, so do the nature of the challenges you can throw at him… and that keeps your story franchise interesting.

Let's talk about this issue, and the importance of continuing to allow our characters to grow and change in an ongoing serial fiction environment… in the comments!

The Amazing Spider-Man number five

"Face To Face With… The Lizard!"

Cover Date: November, 1963

Script: Stan Lee

Art: Steve Ditko

Letters: Artie Simek

Join Me In Reading The Amazing Spider-Man

Click the cover to buy the first twenty issues of The Amazing Spider-Man in an inexpensive trade paperback from Barnes & Noble Booksellers:





Your purchase helps support this series and all my creative endeavors — thanks!

Matthew Wayne Selznick - Telling stories with words, music, pictures and people.

New Covers For My Short Stories

In 2008, when I started self-publishing short stories in e-book and limited edition chapbook formats, I had what I thought was a great idea — each one would have a distinctive, if minimalist, black and white cover featuring a simple high-contrast image and some text.

You know what? That was a lousy idea. Once these covers started showing up on Amazon.com and in other online marketplaces, they had to compete with other covers, and they proved to do so… poorly. So this week, I've hopefully put some new life into "Reggie Vs. Kaiju Storm Chimera Wolf," "Cloak," "The World Revolves Around You" and "Brenhurst's Tale – Another View of 'Brave Men Run'" with some new cover art:

I'm grateful to the following photographers' Creative Commons-licensed work for source material used in creating these covers:

The cover of "Reggie Vs. Kaiju Storm Chimera Wolf" is derived from "Daddy's Gone" by Elia Scudiero.
The cover of "Cloak" is derived from "Web Worms" by Luke Wisley and "Shot Glass" by Herman Turnip.
The cover of "The World Revolves Around You" is derived from "Img_6381″ by Hazel Motes
The cover of "Brenhurst's Tale – Another View of 'Brave Men Run'" is derived from "Cedar Creek Cabins" by Pawel Loj.

If you're intrigued by these new covers and you haven't read the stories yet, click any cover to be find out how to get 'em for your Kindle, Nook or any other ebook platform. Each title is also available as a signed and numbered limited edition handmade chapbook, too!

Do covers make the book? Are e-book covers really more "buy now" buttons and less "book covers?" I'd love to talk about it with you in the comments!

Matthew Wayne Selznick - Telling stories with words, music, pictures and people.