Interview with Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz, Co-Creators of Spider-Girl
May "Mayday" Parker always thought she was an average basketball-loving teenager. She never suspected her dad Peter Parker used to be the legendary Spider-Man, until an injury made him give up his superhero career. But upon turning fifteen, May discovers something amazing–she's inherited her dad's spider-powers! Now May's ready to swing into action as Spider-Girl, and Peter Parker has a new reason to crawl on walls as he tries to keep his daughter from entering the dangerous world of crime fighting.
Created by Spider-Man writer Tom DeFalco and artist Ron Frenz,
Spider-Girl tells stories about a possible future where Peter Parker and his girlfriend Mary Jane married and had a daughter. Since her introduction in 1998, Spider-Girl's adventures have been collected into many library-friendly digests and graphic novels the American Library Association calls "an excellent choice for girls". I spoke with Tom and Ron and learned how Spider-Girl was created, the challenges in crafting her monthly comic book
The Amazing Spider-Girl, and the finer points of superhero fashion.
Michael Jung: How would you describe Spider-Girl/May Parker?
Ron Frenz: I see May as 50 percent Peter Parker and 50 percent Mary Jane. She's popular to the point where she's friends with both nerds and jocks. But when she becomes Spider-Girl, she can really be true to herself. Because when she's with her geek friends she has to deny her inner-jock and when she's with her jock friends she has to deny her "geekitude"–but as Spider-Girl she's using her brains and her physicality in a way she doesn't have to apologize for. And it gives her this wonderful freedom–so there's this great joy for her in discovering this aspect of her heritage.
MJ: Was May based on a real person?
Tom DeFalco: She was originally based on my niece. My brother, her father, fought in Vietnam and when my sixteen-year-old niece thought about becoming a cop, it threw him into a tizzy. He'd say, "She's only a kid, how can she think about risking her life?" And I said, "But John, when you were eighteen you were in Vietnam!" And he said, "That's different, I knew what I was doing. She doesn't know what she's doing." And I always liked that conflict between a parent who lived an adventuresome life getting nervous that his kid would follow in his footsteps. So when I thought about Spider-Girl, I thought, Man, I can finally use that great dialogue I heard of the two of them arguing all the time!
A lot of readers thought, "Peter Parker was a superhero! He should be thrilled his daughter is a superhero!" Except–Peter knows the dangers of being a crime fighter. In his eyes his little girl will always be his baby. And you don't want your baby to be at risk. I think those are important and natural feelings.
MJ: One thing that struck me as very original in the early Spider-Girl stories is they're narrated in the second person. Why did you decide to do this?
TD: When I was writing the first Spider-Girl story, I went through a dozen false starts. I'd write in a certain voice and it didn't work. And then I was listening to an athlete who was referring to himself in the second person. And I thought–Hmm! So I went upstairs to my office and started writing, and the second person just flowed naturally. And I realized–that's how the athletes like May are always talking to themselves! I get it!
MJ: What is the collaborative process of creating a comic book story like?
TD: Ron and I have worked together for over twenty years and we got into the habit while we were working on Spider-Man to talk about Peter Parker and figure out what he's feeling–what is his mental state, what is he trying to achieve, what's getting in his way? There are times when we spend hours and hours discussing the characters and then we get off the phone and realize, "Man! We never even talked about what the story is!" But the stories flow out of those talks. And we carried over that process to Spider-Girl.
RF: I would assume we collaborate more than most writer-artist teams. Most of the ideas I pitch to Tom during the course of any given day will be about character interactions.
TD: Ron, our inker Sal Buscema, and I get along and we love the craft of making comics. And when the team was made of our original artist Pat Oliffe, inker Al Williamson, and me, the three of us got along great too. I've always maintained that if the creative team is having a great time it shows on the page and the readers have a great time too.
MJ: A lot of readers admire the fact that Spider-Girl is realistically proportioned and not portrayed as a sex object like other female superheroes. Was this a conscious decision?
RF: Yes. May does look like her mom–she's cute as the day is long. But nobody would find her all that ravishing because she doesn't play that up. She doesn't dress that way. In the first story I draw her in baggy jeans and a halter top and at one point she's wearing overalls. And that stuck in Tom and Pat's consciousness, so if you look at the early part of their run, she became very tomboyish.
I love that Mary Jane is into fashion and her daughter is a fashion black hole who doesn't care about it at all. It made sense. It was one of those things where if you could only influence your kids more… But as May's gotten older, we've shown her say to her mom, "Let's go shopping!" And Mary Jane's saying, "Really? You never let me shop for you!"
MJ: As an artist, where do you get ideas for how May and her friends dress?
RF: I watch what kids are wearing. I buy some teen fashion magazines once in a while. My studio is just a couple blocks away from a high school and I see what the kids are wearing. The jean skirts are everywhere.
Our former editor Molly Lazer was invaluable to me. She was constantly giving me feedback on what May was wearing–I would get phone calls from her where she'd be saying, "My sister would so wear that outfit! I love that! You have her wearing Ugg boots! That's so cool!"
Now that we have a male editor, I'll probably have to be the estrogen for the team...
MJ: Both of you have stated that at one point, May Parker made the jump from being just a character to being a real person. How did this happen?
TD: I don't know how or when it happened. But I realized at a certain point that the characters were moving in their own directions. I would sit down, discuss a plot with the artist, and come up with a story. But then when I sat down to write the plot, the stories would move in different directions than I intended. And I thought, "Wow! I don't have to think about writing May's dialogue anymore–it just appears on the page magically!"
RF: To a certain degree the characters write themselves. As I get to a point where I can draw May without looking at my reference sheets, I find the character becomes very real.
MJ: What kind of readers does Spider-Girl appeal to?
TD: I think they appeal to people who are interested in reading stories that are chock full of drama, humor, and action. A problem with today's comics is sometimes you're in the third issue before the story starts. But with Spider-Girl, we always have a lot of stuff going on. We don't want to waste people's money!
RF: Spider-Girl is very much designed for a broad market. I love it when we get letters from young kids and second generation comic book readers. I love hearing stories about families that go on long car trips and bring Spider-Girl digests for their kids to read.
MJ: Comics are getting a lot more respect from librarians and teachers. How do you feel comic books are most valuable?
TD: I've always felt that comic books have one of two values–the story touches something inside you and then the comic book is priceless to you forever. Or it has no effect on you and then it's worthless. I know that's hard to define in terms of price guides, but on a personal level that's what it's all about.
As of March 2009, Spider-Girl will be appearing in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man Family, an anthology Spider-Man comic book, as well as several digest-sized graphic novel collections. Those interested in subscribing should visit Marvel Comics' website.
Arizona-based freelance writer Michael Jung is the Children's Books Feature Writer for Suite 101, an online magazine. Read his articles on comic book culture and children's literature by visiting him at
http://www.suite101.com/writer_articles.cfm/spidercat
Ask Tom and Ron your questions at the Spider-Girl Message Board:
http://www.comicboards.com/spidergirl/
Contributor: Michael Jung
