Spider-Man Puzzle ~ Todd McFarlane Trading Card Set (1989)

This is a very fun and interesting piece. Peak era Todd McFarlane, full pencils, oddball inker, used as a puzzle and a cover and a card and a t-shirt!

McFarlane inked his own art almost exclusively after Amazing Spider-Man 305 and this is one of the few pieces created after that point that someone else touched. It was done in 1989, somewhere during his already insane year of ASM 311-328, the real hey-dey of McFarlaneMania.

It was first used as the secret puzzle you assembled out of the backs of cards in the 1989 Todd McFarlane Trading Card Set, a huge 10" x 17.5" image that's larger than the original! It popped up again as the cover of the 'Spider-Man Keepsake Collection II' and as an over-sized trading card inside, where it was finally colored. Somewhere in there it became a t-shirt too.

Mark Pennington did a stellar job inking this piece with a brush, bringing a nice line to Todd's art, quite different from the nib McFarlane used. Todd had a few inkers try to work over his pencils and most couldn't handle it. Pennington is one of the better fits (he also inked a Hulk puzzle for the card set).

The most amazing thing about this bad boy is the sheer size - you simply don't see McSpideys this big. They don't escape, let alone with as perfect a Spidey pose as you can dream of and framed in spaghetti webbing!

During McFarlane's Spidey peak in 1988-90 there weren't many huge standalone poses like this. Covers like 300 and 301 or full page splashes like in 317. Maybe 25 total? This is likely the only one he didn't ink.

How this insane multi-hyphenate oddity fell to me for a single-kidney price I'll never know, but I'm happy for it!

And here's my favorite part - it's got the cover signature! The McFarlane in the scroll! To 'Kid Me' that little McFarlane was the end all, be all, coolest freakin' signature on Earth!! You can only get them on covers, pinups, and oddities, so that was an exciting bonus:) It's also centered, another uniqueness to the piece.


UPDATE: At the 2015 NYCC I got to meet Todd and ask him to sign this. As you can see, he went for the incredibly badass giant signature:) Reallyreally stoked about his choice.

I also got to ask him what he thought of Pennington's inks, and he pointed out a few things he'd have done differently with line weight and thinner lines on the feet. Cool to hear him identify the differences he noticed.

He was stoked enough to see the piece that he took a photo with it, and then had one of his peeps take extra photos of the art. Cool reaction by Todd!