Review by C.J. Bunce

In the first minutes of the Disney+ animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, you’re probably going to ask: What the heck is going on?  Where does this fit into the rest of the Marvel universe?  You may recognize the 1960s style animation (it looks a lot like the art in the MTV Daria series), the Alex Toth influence in character design, and the mix of characters from the Marvel universe in relationship to everything else you’ve seen before related to Spider-Man.  More than even Batman, readers and audiences have seen more versions of Spider-Man than any other superhero.  Just think about newspaper strip Peter Parker, ten previous animated series versions, the three actors that played Peter in live-action in the Sony and Marvel movies, and the two animated movies featuring Miles Morales as young Spidey.

If you’re a fan of Spidey of the comics or animated series, you’ll want to check out the short, 10-episode series, and if you’re a fan of the classic Steve Ditko and Alex Toth look of Spidey, then you’ll want to read The Art of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, now available here at Amazon and all bookstores and comic shops.  You’ve probably never seen more concept art variations of Spider-Man than you’ll find in this book.

Let’s take a look inside.

The book offers explores the production of the first season of the series along with a look at each of the ten episodes.  The show is a new take on Peter Parker, which may seem difficult considering all the iterations that appeared before.  This Peter is stylized as a retro hero, yet still a hero for the modern world.  He has a cell phone and he is still that teen who gets a science internship.  The first episode provides a twist on his origin story, which leads into the internship for Norman Osborn’s company instead of the more recent MCU take which saw him working for Stark Industries.

Readers will find hundreds of development designs for Spider-Man.  If you ever just wanted to draw Spidey like you see him in the comic books, you might just want to start with this book.  You’ll also find concept designs and discussions of characters old and new found in the series, including Doctor Strange, Harry Osborn, May Parker, Tombstone, Pearl Pangan, Norman Osborn, Otto Octavius, Daredevil and Scorpion–and dozens of new characters, especially Peter’s young high school and Oscorp pals.

For anyone wanting to track the technology and programs combined to create an animated story with a retro vibe, look no further.  The series mixed both 3D and 2.5D modeling, texturing, and painting to find its hybrid result.  You’ll also learn how the classic Spider-Man theme was updated for the credits.

This book provides far more artwork than text discussions, but writer Ramin Zahed incorporates enough detail from production staff interviews to provide a whole picture of how the series was developed and designed.  The book includes a foreword by Jeff Trammell, an introduction by Brad Winderbaum, and an afterword by Mel Zwyer.  It also includes a brief description of the ten previous Spider-Man animated series.

For fans of animated Spider-Man, check out The Art of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, from Abrams Books, now available here at Amazon and all bookstores and comic shops.  The first season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is now streaming on Disney+.