It’s a good time to be a web-head. Weeks ago, Nicolas Cage’s two-fisted Spider-Noir swung onto Prime Video, and we’re a month out from Tom Holland’s latest caper, Brand New Day, taking over megaplexes worldwide. This week, a different spin on Spidey arrives in bookstores with The Art of Marvel Animation’s Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man by Ramin Zahed, an eye-popping deep dive into the creation of Marvel‘s latest Emmy-winning animated series.
The wall-crawler has had a storied cartoon history, from the 1967 original with its seminal theme song to the 1980s Saturday morning TV staple to multiple incarnations in the 1990s and 2000s, culminating in the Oscar-winning Spider-Verse movie franchise. The Disney+ series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is the latest toon in town. Originally conceived to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, creator Jeff Trammell decided to se the series elsewhere in the Marvel multiverse, while still honoring the films.
“Early on, we wanted the new show to be very reminiscent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Tom Holland’s version,” Tramell says in the book’s prologue. “The goal was to fill in the gaps and answer some of the questions that one might have in this universe while offering something that felt new and fresh.”
The hard work paid off: Premiering in 2025, the first season scored a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score and two nominations at the Children’s and Family Emmys in March, winning for Outstanding Voice Directing for an Animated Series.
A key part of the show’s aesthetic is its reverence for classic Marvel Comics, particularly the work of original illustrator Steve Ditko as well as noted Spidey artist John Romita Sr. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man‘s lead character designer Leonardo Romero says it took a lot to get the look of Peter Parker right — he went through more than 300 designs — along with the evolution of the spider-suit through the season.
In these exclusive excerpts provided to Gold Derby, you can see several of the concepts for the various guises by Romero and fellow artists Julen Urrutia Perez and Paolo Rivera.
Click on image for high-resolution versions
“First it’s more of a hoodie, then a shirt, then you have the Oscorp suit that becomes the foundation for the final payoff,” Romero says in the book. “We were aiming to take that classic Spider-Man and put our own stamp on it.”
Interior spreads from the upcoming book The Art of Marvel Animation’s Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (Abrams) by Ramin Zahed, on sale June 23, available for pre-order now. © 2026 Marvel
