A Spanish-language article on the subject...
codigoespagueti.com/noticias/comics-hombre-arana-hechos-mexico/A little help from Google Translate...
Such were the surprising (and sensual) Mexican comics of Spider-ManSpider-Man is a gringo but Spiderman, surprisingly, is a Mexican character.No character created in the United States is as loved in Mexico as Spider-Man is. They can challenge this assertion, but the character created by the duo Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, is loved because we identify with him; because he had a worried aunt; because it did not matter what problems he got into, he always had a good joke to say; because it brought out bad guys; because it encouraged reading in a whole generation and because at some point in its official history, Spider Man was a product made in Mexico.
In June 1963, just three months after the number 1 of The Amazing Spider-Man was published in the United States, the Newspaper Publisher La Prensa S.C.L. He began to publish the adventures of the arachnid in our country under the title The Surprising Spiderman. It could be said that the Mexican publisher was the first one that led the characters of Marvel Comics to visit Latin America, since it distributed its comic strips in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Peru. He even distributed his comics in the United States, thinking about the Spanish-speaking communities of California and Miami.
The surprising Spider-Man turned out to be an editorial success, so much so that after a few months the publication went from being monthly (as in the United States) to biweekly; which was a problem, given that Marvel was not generating enough material to satisfy the demand of the Latin American public. To cover the lack of arachnid stories, La Prensa included in the title adventures of The Avengers and Tales to Atonish (which recounted the adventures of Ant-Man).
After the number 44, The Amazing Spider-Man was once again monthly for a while, since the comic strips that compensated for the monthly gringa frequency obtained their own titles in La Prensa. But the fury for the character grew when Steve Ditko left the comic and came to his relief that god of drawing known as John Romita. The quality of Romita's drawing made Mexican fans just want more and more Spider-Man adventures.
The hero became the banner of Marvel in Latin America. He was the most recognized character by children and adults, and his stories, located between adventure and drama, made the world feel identified with him. Such was the success that the publication returned to be biweekly, then weekly and the press and Sunday strips were added in the newspaper of the same name of La Prensa.
The need to have more material to publish from the superhero caused the director of La Prensa to travel to the United States, to the Marvel offices in New York, and request a special permission to the license they had acquired from the arachnid in order to publish material own, created with a 100% Mexican team.
The director of La Prensa did not arrive empty-handed. He had asked some artists of the publisher to do tests that he could teach in Marvel, and demonstrate that they could generate their own licensed content. Marvel not only gave him permission to make his own comics, but also selected the artist in charge of performing the feat. Your name: José Luis Durán.
In an interview, the teacher Durán narrates those events in the following way:
"The director of the newspaper went straight to propose the test material to see if they gave him permission to make the material of Spider-Man, to fill the holes that were left in the monthly publication of the gringos, compared to Mexico that was biweekly. Then I began to draw with permission, not direct in Marvel but to the Press, which was the owner at that time of the 'service'.
In this case, Duran called "service" to draw what the publisher requested and in it, although young, was not inexperienced. In his curriculum he could already boast of having created more than 40 covers for the comic of El Santo published by José G. Cruz. In addition, the Mexican had already worked drawing the "friendly neighbor" of New York "in the newspaper of La Prensa.
"I started drawing daily for the newspaper, followed by Sunday and then we launched into the magazine. We made all three options, "he said in another interview.
Thus it was that from number 123 of The Surprising Spiderman (March 15, 1972) was published the first comic of Spider Man made entirely in Mexico. Decades before Humberto Ramos fulfilled his dream of being a Spider-Man artist, Durán became the first Mexican artist to take the reigns of Spider-Man and with adventures created expressly for the Mexican public.
In total, there are 45 Mexican episodes, written mostly by Raúl Martinez and with drawings by the aforementioned José Luis González Durán. In addition, Duran drew more than a thousand strips of the character created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko; replaced on some occasions by Roberto Ávila. In that same era, there were also published adventures by Nick Fury made in Mexico, drawn by Ramiro Zittle.
"When I got to do that job, I felt very special because I was just doing as a 'cartoonist' professionally. I felt that it was impossible that I had been given the job because I was still very new, "says Durán about the first times he drew Spider-Man. Memorize the character, practice it and try to do it as best as possible. I did not have the opportunity to practice it, but I was guided. Trying to do the best possible. "
Mexican Spider-Man was an unprecedented event in the comic book publishing industry, as it did not adhere to Marvel's narrative standards, creating even its own villains and timeline. For example, although Gwen Stacy had died in the official continuity, in Mexico the wedding between Gwen and Peter Parker was published. In addition, in the editions made in Mexico, it was common to see the blonde (or another female character) posing suggestively, often without having anything to do with the story itself. This is due, perhaps, to the fact that Durán himself has declared that Gwen was his favorite character in the series. If you want to identify one of these copies, it is enough to check whether there is fan service on the cover or not.
The freedom of argument that the Mexicans had was surprising, even in these days. "I did an adaptation of King Kong in two numbers. I only adapted the essence of the story, which was published in two numbers. Nothing had to see a gorilla, simply the idea adapted to collaborate with the scriptwriter, "explained Durán about the creative process of the magazine in which villains appeared as the Iron Man (who was not Tony Stark), the Giant Man (which was not Henry Pim) or El Puercoespín, a villain who made his own in the newspaper strips.
In the early 1970s, La Prensa began canceling all its comic titles, ending in 1973 with El Sorprendente Spider-Man, but not with Mexican Spider-Man. In 1974 the editorial OEPISA (Editorial Organization of Publications and Impressions SA) through Macc Division of Comics, acquired the license left by La Prensa of the Marvel characters and began publishing his adventures, with José Luis Durán as art director of the publisher .
Taking as an example what was created in La Prensa with The Amazing Spider-Man and Nick Fury, MACC dared to do the same with Iron Fist, but without Marvel's permission - which apparently never found out. He even published La Chica de Kung Fu, a self-made comic strip that they placed within continuity as a Shang-Chi spin-off.
The Spiderman also had a new Mexican version through Arañita Supers Historias, made entirely by Durán and his team that was aimed at a children's audience. The main characteristics of the character remained, but Duran tried to make it more cartoonish, to imply that they were adventures of Peter Parker boy (very similar to the little Archie) with his girlfriend Gwendy. Arañita was announced as the "First Great Easy Magazine to Read with Spiderman Adventures".
In one of his adventures, Spider-Man knows Santa Claus; in others he faces Niebla, a villain created by the Mexicans, who turned into smoke and got into a bottle.
"For me it was a real opportunity and a challenge to draw Spider-Man - says the teacher Durán- I feel, personally, glad to draw everything I could, but Spiderman, really, without considering me a genius much less, it has given me the opportunity to meet people. They are the same people, the reader, who have put me in the place of something I never thought of. Whether analyzing or reflecting, it is one of my satisfactions as a graphic storyteller, to make Spider-Man. I think that over time I would have improved, but I did not have any more "
The adventures of Spider-Man in Macc ended in 1979. Of all this adventure of Spider-Man in Mexico, few (very few) originals are conserved, because once the artist delivered the pages, the editor no longer returned them.
"I learned to read on the Sunday page, there my passion for comics was born. Maybe that was my destiny. I think we're all born to do something in life, right? They told me that I was a cartoonist and I believed it and I dedicated myself to the comic strip and here we continue insisting on the same, although not on the same opportunity as before, "declared the teacher Durán on occasion.
In this 2017, the history of Spiderman made in Mexico had a new chapter, this time at the hands of editorial Televisa. During an official event of the publishing house in Ecatepec, State of Mexico, called Ecatecomic, copies of a "commemorative comic of collection" were distributed in which the adventures of Peter Parker in the municipality of Mexico are narrated.
Everything arose from a contest in which the organizers of Ecatecomic asked the "authors" to present a story in which Spider-Man had to visit Ecatepec and face a pre-Hispanic deity. The prize was to print the stories.
Can Editorial Televisa print stories of Spider-Man as La Prensa did in the seventies? We will never know, because this comic book they did not. At least not legally. It does not have any business logos, only the names of the contestants (Huitzi Trujano, Hannah Art and Alejandra Yañez) and Raúl Valdez, who serves as coordinator.
As an anecdote I must say that the free comic (which does not come on the heels of the worst drawing done by Duran) was a success. So much so, that a person dressed as Spider-Man sat at one of the tables at the entrance to sign comics for the children who visited the event, as well as many of the authors invited to Ecatecomic.