Before he was one of the founders of Image Comics and the creator of the demonic warrior Spawn, Todd McFarlane had a long and storied career as an artist with Marvel Comics, illustrating âThe Amazing Spider-Man.â Today, McFarlane revealed how a priceless piece of his past -- his original Spidey corner box art -- showed up in the mail a few years ago.McFarlane recounted the story on a Facebook live-stream. McFarlaneâs tale began with his hiring on âThe Amazing Spider-Man.â Fresh to the series, McFarlane said he wanted to add his own artistic flair to the coverâs corner box; the little illustrated panel that adorned the top-left portion of comic book covers back in the day. Most corner boxes included the price of a given issue and the Comics Code Authority logo, as well as a small illustration of the respective seriesâ hero.RELATED:Â Todd McFarlane Promises Spawn Movie will be Dark & NastyThe miniature illustration of Spider-Man had depicted the hero running for many years. It was this illustration McFarlane wanted to change, reasoning that the bread and butter of Spider-Manâs appeal (and his primary mode of transportation) is his web-slinging. McFarlane got the okay, and the artist came up with an image of Spider-Man hanging upside down, suspended by his webbing. The illustration was used as the seriesâ corner box art for quite some time, but eventually the entire tradition of the corner box went the way of the dodo. McFarlane thought the image lost, until six years ago.
After twenty years, McFarlane got a letter in 2011 from former Marvel Comics Operations Assistant Michael Christatos. The letter included a surprise: the original artwork for McFarlaneâs corner box art illustration of the web-slinger himself. The illustration even included some of McFarlaneâs notes from when he first drew the character, and then had to pass it on down the line to the editorial department. Right above the illustration, scrawled in blue pencil, are the words âNew corner symbol for Amazing Spidey. This side up.â On the right side of the image is the addendum âArt by: Todd McFarlane,â likely added long after the artist was finished with the piece.
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McFarlane is certainly happy to have that piece of original artwork back after 20 years, but it wasnât his last go at drawing the corner box for âThe Amazing Spider-Man.â The artist went on to explain that he iterated on the drawing over time, and pointed out how the art he received in the mail differed from later illustrations in which Spider-Manâs costume has more decorative webbing lines than the original piece.