Ultimate Spider-Man (2009) #14, p.7 (top)

A double post today! (Do two half-pages make a full page?)

Adding some electrifying Lafuente Ultimate Spidey goodness to my gallery is an ENORMOUS dream come true.

I love the techniques that David uses here to underscore the speed at which everything is happening. An explosive first panel to stun us (just as it does poor Bobby), and then Spidey (in actuality, a Chameleon) leaps through the second panel, so fast you almost miss him. By panel 3, with our eyes still moving from left to right, the long shadow thrown by the imposter here not only compositionally counters the light areas of Johnny and Bobby in the foreground, but allows our eyes to loop upwards and “catch up” to Spidey (now running towards the top of the page). Lots of movement all over the place. Very yummy stuff.

And technically, there's lots of fine-touch details that I just really love; white paint "energy line" squiggles and spatters in panel one, the web-like cross-hatching in panel two, the "pip" of paint spattered by Johnny's head (and Bobby’s Panda Bear bandana) in panel three, the fine lines on the figures, the harsh edges of the black shadows throughout... Jeez, I could go on and on. What's interesting is the healthy dose of white paint that borders all the panels here (and how far out it looks like the black ink originally extended) to make a RAZOR-fine edge on the panels. SO excited to share this.

At this time, David drew his art pages on two separate 8.25 x 11.75 inch pieces of Bristol, which were then stitched together in production. This is the top of page 14 if you count the recap page as page 1 (which David must have done, judging by his numbering here…), but it is actually the thirteenth page of artwork in the book.

Thank you once again, David (and Lafuente Cats :) )!