Description

Arachnophobia & Eight-Legged Freaks                   Trade Paperback Lot
Featuring a Scary Spider Movie Adaptation Double Feature!! 

Arachnophobia is a 1990 American natural horror comedy film directed by Frank Marshall in his directorial debut from a screenplay by Don Jakoby and Wesley Strick. Starring Jeff Daniels and John Goodman, the film follows a small California town that becomes invaded by an aggressive and dangerous spider species. Its title refers to the fear of spiders.

Eight Legged Freaks (originally titled Arach Attack, under which it was released in some parts of Europe and other countries around the world) is a 2002 monster comedy action film directed by Ellory Elkayem and starring David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scott Terra, and Scarlett Johansson. The plot follows a colony of spiders that is exposed to toxic waste, causing them to mutate into gigantic, monstrous creatures and attack a small American mining town.

Arachnophobia & Eight-Legged Freaks Trade Paperback Lot contains: Arachnophobia
Writer: William Rotsler
Artist: Dan Spiegle
Colorist: Sam Parsons
Letterer: Carrie Spiegle
Editors: Bob Foster, David Seidman & Len Wein
Cover by: Movie Poster Cover

A species of South American killer spider goes to the United States in a coffin; they begin breeding and killing. 

Story/Spoilers
In a Venezuelan tepui, entomologist James Atherton captures two members of an aggressive, newly discovered species of spider of prehistoric origin. The spiders lack sex organs, indicating that they are laborers or soldiers, thereby existing as a hive (atypical of spiders). A fertile male of the same species bites bedridden American nature photographer Jerry Manley, who has a severe seizure from the venom and dies. The scientist sends Manley’s body back to his hometown of Canaima, California, unaware that the spider has crawled into the coffin.

Manley’s desiccated body arrives at the mortuary of mortician Irv Kendall. The spider escapes from the coffin, is picked up by a crow and bites the bird. The crow falls dead outside the barn of Ross Jennings, a family physician who has moved from San Francisco to take over the practice of the retiring town doctor. Ross and his son both suffer from arachnophobia.

He is short of patients after Sam Metcalf, the elderly town doctor, hesitates about retiring. The Venezuelan spider mates with a house spider in the Jennings’s barn. The domestic spider produces hundreds of infertile, drone offspring with their father’s lethal bite, and they leave the nest after consuming her.

Ross’s first patient, Margaret Hollins, dies after being bitten by one of the new spiders, and he doubts Metcalf’s diagnosis of a heart attack. Another arachnid kills high school football player Todd Miller just after Ross conducted a routine team checkup, earning him the nickname of “Dr. Death”. The next victim is Metcalf himself, who is bitten and dies in front of his wife.

With Metcalf dead, Ross becomes Canaima’s town doctor. Knowing that Metcalf was bitten by a spider and an iota of an unknown toxin was detected in his body, he suspects that the town may be infested by deadly arachnids.

Ross calls Atherton and asks him to help his investigation. The skeptical entomologist sends Chris Collins, his assistant. Ross and county coroner Milt Briggs order that Hollins and Miller be exhumed. They perform autopsies, and Chris confirms Ross’s suspicion after he identifies bite marks. Ross and Chris catch one of the spiders in Metcalf’s house the following day. When Chris mentions the new species discovered by Atherton, Ross realizes that the town’s killer spiders and Atherton’s discovery are related.

Atherton joins Ross, Chris, Milt, Sheriff Lloyd Parsons, and exterminator Delbert McClintock in Canaima, and they discover the spiders have a short lifespan due to their crossbreeding. Atherton tells them that the spiders are soldiers sent to eliminate potential threats for the male spider leading the colony, which he calls “the general”. He learns that the general produced a queen and inbred with her to produce a second nest (guarded by the queen) which could produce fertile offspring, culminating in the species’ next stage of evolution and worldwide dispersal.

Ross, Chris, and Delbert discover that one nest is in Ross’s barn. When he destroys the nest, Delbert finds Atherton dead – attempting to catch the general, he touches a strand of its web and is bitten by the male spider which then escaped. Chris gets the Jennings family out of their infested house, but Ross falls through the floor into his wine cellar: the spiders’ second nest, guarded by both the queen and the general.

After he electrocutes the queen, Ross battles the general while he tries to burn the second egg sac (overcoming his fear of spiders by focusing on his need to stop them). Trapped by fallen debris as the general prepares to bite him, Ross stays perfectly still until the general is in position, then flings the spider into the fire. Despite being badly burnt, the general leaps out from the fire just as the egg sac hatches. Ross shoots it with a nail gun, sending the flaming spider into the egg sac and destroying the nest. Delbert rescues Ross: with the general, the queen and the nests destroyed and the soldiers dying, the spiders’ threat is over. Deciding that they missed their old life, the Jennings family returns to San Francisco.

First Printing
Publisher: Walt Disney Publications
Publication Date: 1990
Format: FC, 68 pages, TPB, 10.25″ x 6.65″
ISBN-10: 1561150460
ISBN-13: 9781561150465
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Eight-Legged Freaks
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Artist: Joe Phillips
Inkers: Jasen Rodriguez, Lucian Rizzo & Howard Shum
Colorist: Wildstorm FX
Letterer: Wildstorm FX
Editor: Jeff Mariotte
Cover by: Joe Phillips, Jasen Rodriguez & Larry Molinar

In the same vein as the classic low-budget science fiction films of the 1950’s. Venomous spiders get exposed to radioactive chemicals that cause them to grow to gigantic proportions. 

Story/Spoilers
Another week later, Christopher “Chris” McCormick, whose father owned the mines before he died ten years ago, shows up and stands against Wade, the mayor of Prosperity, about his proposition to sell the mine as he believes that his father had discovered a gold vein in the mine. Chris also sparks a romance with Sam. Meanwhile, Wade is holding a town meeting in the mall about whether they should sell the mines and relocate. Wade later on insults Chris’s father for being delusional for thinking that there are golds in the mine only to be punched by Chris. Mike sneaks out on foot and finds Joshua and the spiders missing, the farm covered in webbing, and the dead body of Joshua. Although he sees an enormous spider shadow in the mines and tells Chris that the spiders have grown to enormous sizes, based on a giant spider leg he found at the mine entrance, Chris doesn’t believe him.

Seeing as the entire town is connected in some way to the mines, spiders show up in many different places. Harlan Griffiths, an eccentric extraterrestrial enthusiast, is broadcasting his theory that various missing pets around town have been abducted by extraterrestrials. Ashley, Sam’s daughter, breaks up with her boyfriend Bret, before he and his motorcyclist friends are chased by jumping spiders, with him being the only survivor, accidentally cutting off the telephone line and being stuck in the mine. Chris finds out that his Aunt Gladys and her dog are abducted by a male orb weaver in their basement. Sam is convinced Chris and Mike are delusional. However, they were right all along when Sam witnesses a giant male orb-weaver attempting to abduct Ashley and Chris. Sam kills the spider with a shotgun and saves them both before contacting Pete to tell him to bring all guns in the police station’s possession, later on escaped to Harlan’s trailer, knowing he has a radio station that he operates from within his trailer.

As Sam broadcasts the threat over the radio, a giant tarantula, the “tank” of the horde, assaults his trailer but they manage to escape. As the town is besieged by vicious spider hordes, many people are eaten, Sam tells everybody to evacuate to the mall and barricade themselves, while Wade flees into the mines and locks the gate before the attack, then defend themselves from the spiders. Harlan and Chris climb onto the roof and ascend the radio mast and try to get a signal to call the army as they are being attacked by the spiders, but are believed to be pranksters. Harlan jumps from the roof, after the tarantula breaks open the gates and lets the spiders enter the mall, and lands in some bushes, where he meets up with Pete.

While the townsfolk are in the basement, Bret arrives on a forklift that brings down the locked gate, and they all head to through the mines straight to the front entrance, discovering the methane-filled tunnels. After freeing Wade, Chris goes to look for his Aunt Gladys in the mines and finds her and the gold vein his father had claimed to have discovered. Joyous to realize that his father is not delusional like Wade or many people claim, this moment of joy is cut short and they are confronted by the gigantic Consuela. Using perfume to distract the spider and escaping on Bret’s motorcycle, Chris then blows up the spiders and the mines utilizing Gladys’s smoking addiction and the high concentrations of methane gas, blowing up the mall benathen the ground before the police arrived. Wade is distraught at the destruction of the mall and hopes that the insurance will cover the damages.

As the story ends, Harlan concludes his radio report that the town has decided to cover up the whole incident, but have let Harlan continue broadcasting the incident, and Chris reopened the mine, informing that to be another story by giving a toothy smile, revealing several golden teeth.

First Printing
Publisher: Wildstorm [DC Comics]
Publication Date: 2002
Format: FC, 64 pages, TPB, 10.25″ x 6.65″
UPC: 761941231112
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Trade Paperback lot contains:
Arachnophobia Trade Paperback (1990).  Walt Disney Publications
Eight-Legged Freaks Trade Paperback (2002).  Wildstorm

Trade Paperbacks are bagged and boarded and will be carefully / securely packaged then shipped via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that it arrives to you perfectly and quickly. 

Collectible Entertainment note: Trade Paperbacks are in Very Fine + (Arachnophobia) / Fine (Eight Legged Freaks) condition.  Nice Scary Spider Lot!  Please See Scans!!  A must have for any serious Spider Movie collector / enthusiast.  A fun & entertaining read.  Highly Recommended. 

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