Rebellion have released Chris Weston’s cover artwork for the exclusive hardback version of their upcoming The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime collection, due for release in April.

This hardcover edition with brand new cover by Chris Weston is available exclusively from the 2000AD and Treasury of British Comics webshop.

Enter The Spider – comics’ lost Golden Age supervillain from the co-creator of Superman, Jerrie Siegel!

Equipped with a razor-sharp mind, superb athletic ability and a vast array of cutting edge gadgets, The Spider has his sights set on taking over the New York underworld and establishing a ‘Syndicate of Crime’.

Join the menacing Spider on his earliest adventures, recruiting other fiends into his fledging empire and seeing off competition from other villainous foes, including the master of illusion, Mirror Man.

Fully remastered and collected for the first time, this volume presents many of the super-crook’s exciting 1960’s adventures which featured the most popular British comic book villain and sprang from the imagination of Superman co-creator, Jerry Siegel.

Written by Ted Cowan and Jerry Siegel, with meticulous art by Reg Bunn, these strips were originally serialised in Lion from 26th June 1965 – 18th June 1966 and the Lion Annual 1967.

Chris Weston, a well known fan of The Spider, has been a professional comic strip artist since 1988. After studying for a year with Don Lawrence (artist of Storm and The Trigan Empire), Chris secured his first paid job for 2000AD drawing “Judge Dredd”, a character he regularly returned to right up to the present day.

His many credits on both sides of the Atlantic include his favourite 2000AD strip the gruesome “Killing Time”, co-created with John Smith. and “Canon Fodder”, written by Mark Millar. In the US, his first work was on DC Comics Swamp Thing and since then has included The Invisibles, The Filth, Ministry of Space, and The Twelve.

Chris now juggles his time between drawing Judge Dredd, film work (assignments that include working as a costume designer on Star Wars: The Last Jedi) and a growing line of silkscreen print commissions.

• You can pre-order The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime Hardback (Web Exclusive) – due for release on 14th April 2021 – here from the Treasury of British Comics

• Chris Weston is online at chriswestonart.com

• The softback edition of The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime is also available from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Collections, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News

Tags: Adventure Comics, Chris Weston, downthetubes News, Jerry Siegel, Rebellion, Rebellion, Ted Cowan, The Spider, Treasury of British Comics