07/12/23: LET'S DO THIS ONE LAST TIME

Into ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

Hey y’all,

Sorry for the long break. It’s been … A SUMMER…

The wackiest and wildest part of which has been tidal wave that is SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE crashing into theaters.

Last film— the public and behind-the-scenes experience was such a surreal, psychedelic rollercoaster that this time through I’ve tried to turn the volume down…

The knowledge that anything I have to say that might have any shred of significance was said onscreen has helped.

If you’re one of those conscientious movie goers that actually scans the credits— you may have noticed that I am officially listed as a “Production Consultant” on the film. A title in keeping with the Byzantine politics and language of screen credits that somehow sums up everything and nothing at all.

For now, I’d prefer not to go too in-depth explaining that, but more or less I was a catcher assigned to Phil Lord and company’s all-star pitching staff.

Your mileage may vary as to how much impact you feel this had on the end product— But I gave lots of notes. Wrote some passes on scenes. Did some drawings. Gave silly speeches. Texted a LOT. And basically chewed up and spit back as much as they dared to feed me. Especially when it came to Spider-Gwen.

And though I am very, very biased when it comes to the Spider-Woman of Earth 65, I don’t think anyone who’s read the original comics we made would argue against the Stacys portrayed in this movie being one of, if not THE, most faithful adaptation of any superhero premise.

Honestly, despite knowing what was coming for years I remain totally in awe of this film, and this moment, and all those filmmakers.

I am a very, very grateful, lucky, and silly man.

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Now with that out of the way— I wanted to share something kind of fun that I dug out of my personal Spider-verse production archive.

At one point in an early cut (around 2021)— one of the little problems I was asked to pitch in on was a way to set up both how The Spot’s portal holes worked, and to inject a few more glimpses of other dimensions into the film. So being a masochist from the world of comics— I took it upon myself to storyboard one of my pitches:

Fun fact: at the time I pitched this silly thing I had no clue that Garfield and Maguire were actually showing up in SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME. Not saying that was some brilliant foresight or idea on my part. Just a neat koinkydink.

Anyway— here’s drawings of Garfield and Maguire that also came about as a result:

Aight, that’s all for now. Hope y’all are all having a great summer. I’ll try to be less of a stranger.

More soon…

-j