Comics McFarlane's take on Spidey

[Dangerous]

Personally I like mine creepy. heh,

 

[Dangerous]

Ditko.

 

[shinlyle]

Actually, I'd have to whole heartedly disagree with you there. The 'creepiness,' was one of the main staples created Ditko in the 1st place. Many other artists did it, (when suited,) after Ditko, and before and after McFarlane. It's a dramatic effect, used when needed.

True that.

There are times when Spidey NEEDS to look a little creepy. My only problem with McFarlane was that he overused that aspect. Hell, look at "The Child Within" back in SSM. That was one arc where Spidey NEEDED to look a little crappy from time to time, and Buscema nailed it.

On the other hand, there are some artists that make Spider-Man look so warm and fuzzy that it's amazing that any of the bad guys even stress when he shows up. Marc Buckingham comes to mind. He is a great artist, and he drew some killer Spidey stories with Paul Jenkins, but he never drew a very intimidating Spider-Man. It would have been nice to see Spidey lurking in the shadows or looking a little tough in those pages.

Spider-Man is just one of those characters that seems to get reinterpreted by every single artist who takes over. No two artists fraw him the same. Ever since the transition from Ditko to Romita, the changes from artist to artist have been there. Nowadays, people have so many versions of Spidey to emulate that they have to come up with their own...and at least that keeps the pot from going cold (artisticly, anyways).

 

[crivelliman]

Todd McFarlane draws neat posters. That's the basic extent of his talents. Dragon's right regarding his overly detailed images as a distraction. The webbing everywhere is also meant as a distraction, dawing your attention away from everyone's ridiculous frizzy hair and gigantic proportions. Todd probably won't draw anymore because he knows if he came out today in 2006 and tried to sell books, people would blow it out of the water. Look at that crap book from Image that they're selling now, Ant. It sells horribly, and some of the major complaints are that the creator/artist is trying to copy McF, which is just a mistake. Not because the man's a "legend" or anything. It's because he's just not that good.

But I think we can all agree Liefeld sucks hard. The fact that Marvel's hiring him back to do a return to Onslaught is like a Wizard Magazine April Fool's joke. Who the hell wants to see that?

Furthermore, I remember the rumors circulating about the Spidey/Spawn crossover back about... oh, almost a decade ago, back when Spawn was popular. And I remember thinking what a really cool idea that was. After realizing how absolutely lame Spawn was, I also looked back at the possibility of a Spawn/Spidey crossover and said to myself, "Why?" Why would it happen? Who cares? I mean seriously, let's say they do it. Spawn and Spidey meet in a dark alley in New York (ala Spawn/Batman, which was "genius" only comparable to All Stars B&R). Now what? Spawn gets all melodramatic and says how now and forever, he's Spawn, and then Spider-Man.... what? The issue is a three-panel gag where Spidey swings in, Spawn has a monologue about how everything sucks, and halfway through, Spider-Man leaves.

 

[kguillou]

Um everybody's saying that Ditko's spidey was creepy. How was he creepy? I just dont see it. Ditko made the friendliest looking spiderman of all. Someone show me a picture where Ditko made a "creepy" Spiderman.

 

[Dragon]

Ditko went for dramatic, at times scary, but never creepy. His Spidey was fluid and agile, not contorted and and unnatural like McFarlane's.

 

[Chris Wallace]

True that.

There are times when Spidey NEEDS to look a little creepy. My only problem with McFarlane was that he overused that aspect. Hell, look at "The Child Within" back in SSM. That was one arc where Spidey NEEDED to look a little crappy from time to time, and Buscema nailed it.

On the other hand, there are some artists that make Spider-Man look so warm and fuzzy that it's amazing that any of the bad guys even stress when he shows up. Marc Buckingham comes to mind. He is a great artist, and he drew some killer Spidey stories with Paul Jenkins, but he never drew a very intimidating Spider-Man. It would have been nice to see Spidey lurking in the shadows or looking a little tough in those pages.

Spider-Man is just one of those characters that seems to get reinterpreted by every single artist who takes over. No two artists fraw him the same. Ever since the transition from Ditko to Romita, the changes from artist to artist have been there. Nowadays, people have so many versions of Spidey to emulate that they have to come up with their own...and at least that keeps the pot from going cold (artisticly, anyways).

That's what I was really getting at. He went too far with it & took him into this whole "creature of the night" motif that just isn't him. He would never sit in a big web w/spiders crawling all over him. That was just sick.

 

[Chris Wallace]

Ditko went for dramatic, at times scary, but never creepy. His Spidey was fluid and agile, not contorted and and unnatural like McFarlane's.

Remember the days when you & I never agreed on anything? Then came Civil War.

 

[Dangerous]

Ditko went for dramatic, at times scary, but never creepy. His Spidey was fluid and agile, not contorted and and unnatural like McFarlane's.

Well, Ditko's style emphesized mood and anxiety and in some cases it can been to be creepy.

 

[Chris Wallace]

He still looked more like a superhero than a creature.
But yeah, some creepy elements do still show up-to lesser extremes. A good example would be Campbell.

 

[wolvie2020]

He still looked more like a superhero than a creature.
But yeah, some creepy elements do still show up-to lesser extremes. A good example would be Campbell.

He did creepy all the time!!!

Remember, you have to put it in context of how much they were allowed at the time, Stan Lee was breaking enough rules as it was.

Ditko did horror comics before Spidey... I've got a large number of his early work on Spidey, as well as Amazing Fantasy issues before 15, (too expensive.) It's there, he had Spidey lurking in the shadows a lot. But the beauty of Spider-Man is that he didn't HAVE to always be creepy. It depended on the situation...

 

[Chris Wallace]

Like I said, Todd really just went too far with it. Campbell often borderlines, & carried that same approach over to Ant.

 

[Dangerous]

Damn I never even thought of JSC!,
He totally does creepy, can't wait til next years when he does his first Spidey book. Here's his most famous cover-

 

[Chris Wallace]

Again, you computer's screwing up on you. I'm betting the image you were TRYING to post was the one w/the thugs & guns in a big old web ball.

 

[matthooper]

I always liked McFarlane's Spidey. I love the eyes and the fluid nature of the drawings. Plus, you can't beat his webbing.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I don't agree with that either. A lot of the time his webbing looked like barbed wire.

 

[Dangerous]

Again, you computer's screwing up on you. I'm betting the image you were TRYING to post was the one w/the thugs & guns in a big old web ball.

Dude thats the one that's right there, right above your post can you not see it?
ASM Vol2 #30 (#471) JMS' first issue.

 

[Dangerous]

Also Clayton Crain is part of the creepy brigade.

 

[Ash J. Williams]

Never heard of him.

 

[shinlyle]

Never heard of him.

He occasionally does the art and covers for Sensational Spider-Man, and he also did the Venom vs. Carnage and Ghost Rider miniseries.

 

[Cyclops]

I'm not a fan of McFarlane. All of his people have potatoes for heads, and there's a point beyond which Spider-Man's tendons would have snapped he was contorting so far.

 

[Dangerous]

Clayton is basically doing art chores for every other issue of SSM these days.

 

[USMC]

I'd like to see you draw better than him.

couldn't be any worse, either.

 

[Chris Wallace]

Dude thats the one that's right there, right above your post can you not see it?
ASM Vol2 #30 (#471) JMS' first issue.

Nope. And I can see the Ditko covers just fine.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I'm not a fan of McFarlane. All of his people have potatoes for heads, and there's a point beyond which Spider-Man's tendons would have snapped he was contorting so far.

I now say this to you; remember when you & I never agreed on anything?