Found a website about Paul S. Newman:

http://www.solarguard.com/paulintro.htm

Roger A Ott II wrote: I'm not positive, but I think that Larsen did his own version of that same issue, though.  Can't remember the details so many years later, but it was all part of some event where the creators all switched titles for one issue. Possibly Larsen didn't like something that Jim Lee had done?  I can't recall.

The only real problem Larsen had with Jim Lee's issue was that it wasn't by Larsen.  He wanted his own unbroken run on Savage Dragon so he went back awhile later and did "the real #13" (using pages from his WildCATs issue and some new pages).

Greg Waller wrote: and he took several issues to tell a story that Lee + Ditko did in one (although I'm not sure if this method of writing ("decompression") held true for the rest of USM).

Yep.  Sure did.  Man has it held true...

Matthew Hansel wrote: How long was Sheldon Meyer on "Sugar and Spike"?

He did 98 issues of the series (some were all reprint, though).  A decade or so ago, DC did a series of reprints called "Silver Age Classics."  As part of that set, they used some unpublished stories and made an issue #99.

Greg Waller: Perhaps... but isn't Bendis largely cribbing from something that already exists? He's not exactly creating anything wholecloth... and he took several issues to tell a story that Lee + Ditko did in one (although I'm not sure if this method of writing ("decompression") held true for the rest of USM).

Irregardless, it's still an impressive run for both a writer and artist on a title that has held better than a monthly schedule for the last six years.  On Time.  And yes, Bendis may be remaking some of the original ideas of the Spider-Man mythos, but so what?  I happen to like the majority of them.  Doesn't stop me from enjoying the original concepts, too.

On the purely physical level of producing a monthly comic book, this is a respectable run... but on the basis of truly "creating" a comic book (ala Lee + Kirby on FF), not so much. My opinion, anyway.

Does anyone truly create anything new these days?  I mean, hasn't every concept been pretty much done already, probably at least twice?  All we can hope for is that someone will give us a new spin on an old idea once in awhile.

"Seems like Stan and Jack still hold some kind of record for the longest run of comic books... that were actually good."

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That is probably very true:)

Had forgotten all about Dave Sim - yups!

Thanks for the feedback guys!!

So, what's more impressive, Stan and Jack going 100 issues back when you had guys like Swan and Dillin working on the same characters for decades, or the handlers of Ultimate Spider-Man going 100 issues in a time when one year on a title is considered a "full run"?