I gave up on my deformed-foot excuses and re-bent a wire foot for Spiderman. This time I got the right tool for measuring the foot, a Brannock device.

Spiderman's body was an ugly mélange of air bags, styrofoam blocks, crumpled newspaper and masking tape, but it didn't matter. The important thing was that he was lightweight and the shape was right.

 I added a spring under his right arm to pull his flailing arms back to their starting position.

The lifeless body of spiderman was very light. I was sure I could make a harness to carry his lifeless form around. I just had to get him into costume.

Using an illustration on a box of Rice Krispies as a guide, I began to cut cloth for spiderman's costume. I don't have a sewing machine, or much experience creating skin-tight outfits, so I settled for hot-gluing cloth directly onto his body.

So much of my efforts had been concentrated on making Spiderman that my friends actually began to worry that the rest of the costume would not be finished. Their worries became my worries.

To support the spiderman body overhead, I built two strong, open-clawed octopus arms. These two did not have hinges and springs, so they were much simpler to build.

Finally I got started on the heart of any big costume: the backpack harness.

The first step was to cut the top rung off of an aluminum backpack frame so it would fit beneath my trench coat.

These were attached to the backpack frame with nylon zip-ties.

I wanted the upright arms to be very long, holding spiderman far above my head, so I started long. Ridiculously long.

Please continue reading page 5.