This sketch is one that I did for the cover to FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #9. I was told that it was Peter David’s idea to have an homage cover to the famous cover from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #39 drawn by the legendary John Romita, Sr. Homage covers seem to be very much the rage these days at Marvel– as evidenced by the covers done for the MARVEL ZOMBIES miniseries painted by Arthur Suydam. I think they are wonderfully done and very bizarre in their reinterpretations of classic Marvel covers…. but with all the characters being zombies. On a personal level, there’s nothing more….. uncreative, I suppose is the word, than to draw a cover based on something that’s already been done. It feels like having to shut down my imagination and sense of creativity intentionally in order to redraw something that someone else has already drawn. But– I try to be a good soldier, and so I did my duty and worked up this sketch. As it turns out, once the sketch was finished and submitted, the editorial folks decided that a different angle that might be a bit more exciting and modern was called for, and that’s what became the final cover to FRIENDLY #9. But I though, since so many folks enjoyed seeing the last unused sketch, I’d show folks another.

I will probably do the same thing for issue #10– once the actual art/solicitation sees print. I don’t want to jump the gun and get in trouble.

This is Entry 215.

Mike