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Can someone tell me where this McFarlane Spidey art first appeared?
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34 posts in this topic

2 hours ago, Artboy99 said:

which trade ??

Symbiote spider-man #1 Mcfarlane variant cover from last year. I think it's one of those lower print incentive editions 

1819178_xl.thumb.jpg.c18a6ffb5b99bd4ea46f347935d3e8f3.jpg

I believe the art is from 1988 originally. It was both a 100 piece jigsaw puzzle and a promotional poster. Don't know which came first?

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5 minutes ago, MGsimba77 said:

Symbiote spider-man #1 Mcfarlane variant cover from last year. I think it's one of those lower print incentive editions 

1819178_xl.thumb.jpg.c18a6ffb5b99bd4ea46f347935d3e8f3.jpg

I believe the art is from 1988 originally. It was both a 100 piece jigsaw puzzle and a promotional poster. Don't know which came first?

-the chicken or the egg.

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Interesting that that pinup was used in an issue after Spidey 300. But it was drawn before Spidey 298 was released. Note the ‘87 under the McFarlane signature.

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53 minutes ago, lighthouse said:

Interesting that that pinup was used in an issue after Spidey 300. But it was drawn before Spidey 298 was released. Note the ‘87 under the McFarlane signature.

Makes sense...the spidey doesn't look very "McFarlane-esque". The webs are all McFarlane though....

May well be his first spidey art although published after 298

Edited by Boric Gold
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1 hour ago, lighthouse said:

Interesting that that pinup was used in an issue after Spidey 300. But it was drawn before Spidey 298 was released. Note the ‘87 under the McFarlane signature.

Web of annual #4 was released around late 88 about a year after 298. Ofcourse Mcfarlane had nothing to do with annual 4. I suspect maybe since the pinup is from 87 that Mcfarlane hadn't developed his definitive spidey style when he drew it then later altered the eyes for the poster (shrug) hm 

I don't see the '87 in the poster

Edited by MGsimba77
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6 hours ago, comicginger1789 said:

Interesting...def doesn't scream Mcfarlane, other than the webbing. Maybe this was early on when he was trying to keep the "house" style and when he was for sure given a run on the series, he did what he wanted. 

Well, his first 5-6 issues (298-305) really exhibited this style.  More cartoonish proportions, cleaner and fewer costume lines, less detail, etc. partially due to the fact that an inker covered some of his earlier work.  Around 306 is where you see a definitive shift in his style.  
 

But I’m still unclear on the origin.  The pinup says 87.  The poster says 88.  But the pinup doesn’t appear in print until after the poster? 

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McFarlane has been inconsistent about dating his stuff. Some of his covers he puts a date under the signature, some he just puts a line or a squiggle. But the only cover with an "87" under the signature is 298 which would make sense that he was drawing it in late 1987 for a March cover-dated book that would have been physically released around he first of the year. The '87 under the signature in that pinup page makes it certain that he initially drew it before 298 was released, whether before or contemporaneous with the production of issue 298.

He obviously "touched up" the artwork for the poster release months later. But the original version of the pinup got pulled off the shelf and published in Web Annual 4.

Reusing old artwork is somewhat common. The GI Joe Special released in 1995 is an example of this. Released after the entire 155-issue run was done, and using interior pages originally drawn by McFarlane for issue 61 but rejected (along with a McFarlane homage cover by Gosier). If you can make money selling something that's already been drawn, why pay for something new?

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On 5/9/2020 at 6:56 PM, XxSpideyxX said:

I had a poster of this as a kid but am not sure where this image first appeared.

497913C4-E3A5-4F60-9D7A-8E1D4248BDE4.jpeg

It also appeared in Spider-Man #1 Platinum Edition from 1990.

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Using whatever in house style there was back then probably would have killed his chances at the title. The covers were good but not so much the art. 

38 minutes ago, Timely said:

It also appeared in Spider-Man #1 Platinum Edition from 1990.

Thats Interesting... you sure about that? I never opened the platinum edition but don't remember it being in the silver. That was a lifetime ago however

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