We were stoked to find out some weeks ago that our good friend and local artist, Jason Levesque–better known as stuntkid–was chosen to be the cover artist for the The Many Loves of the Amazing Spider-Man Issue #1. We spoke to him about the process of being selected, working with Marvel, and drawing in the shadow of a great.

You’ve had something of a working relationship with Marvel. Can you describe how that has developed and led to this point?

April of last year i got an email from Jody LeHeup over at Marvel. He claimed to be a longtime fan of my work, so I guess he must have made a case for me being considered. I did a cover for X-Force of a character X-23. The turnaround was pretty quick, and I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the results. It was a good experience and got my foot in the door.

What was your reaction when you got “the call”?

When they called me about Spider-Man I was actually asleep. I don’t remember the call too well, but I was thrilled and agreed immediately then went back to sleep. When I woke it all sank in. SPIDER-MAN. I honestly couldn’t wait to get started.

Just looking at your illustrations, it’s clear that you’re influenced by comic books. How has the art found in comic books, particularly Spider-Man, shaped you as an artist?

I actually wasn’t really into comic books as a kid. I had a few that I used for reference when I drew, but I didn’t like they way the characters muscles were over-rendered. For that reason I always had an appreciation for Spider-Man. It’s often drawn rather svelte in a way I can appreciate. Like I said though, I wasn’t really into comics as a kid; in fact, I bought my first issue of Spider-Man when I got this project.

What does this opportunity mean to you? Have you gotten a spiderweb tattoo on your lower back yet?

Haha, no, nothing like that. At most this means a continued relationship with Marvel. It’s hard to tell. Like a lot of clients that work under tight deadlines, they drop off the face of the earth after you’ve turned in final artwork. It’s rare you’ll get any kind of wrap-up, like “Great working with you, amazing job, let’s do this again.” They were enthusiastic to have me back after the first time, so I’ll assume they’ll call again. I feel that with two covers under my belt I can at least approach DC in hopes of winning some commissions with them. We’ll see how that pans out.

How do you categorize your art? Graphic art and illustration? Whatever you call it, it has the feel of being as much a culture as it is an art. Yes?

I have a hard time categorizing my work. I usually call myself an illustrator. I market myself as both an illustrator and a fine artist. It’s not easy to pull off and usually means I’m allowing myself to be pulled in several directions.

What was the reaction from the comic fans?

The reaction has been pretty mixed, most of the complaints had to do with the styling of the characters. Stuff like “Oh Carlie in a skirt, not likely!” or “those aren’t Mary Jane’s boobs!”. The subject matter took just as much abuse with fans ripping apart what they believe the storyline will be. When you work with comics you are mucking around with people’s childhood heroes. People take it very personally. As far as I’m concerned Marvel liked it, and that’s good enough for me.

What was your process for conceptualizing this cover? What did Marvel give you, and where did you take it from there?

Marvel asked that I feature the four characters Gwen, Blackcat, Carlie and Mary Jane. They attached drawings of each character, and that’s about it. They also gave me access to Marvel’s ftp where they keep character profiles on everyone in the Marvel universe and 3D Google markup files on all the Marvel locations. It’s an amazing resource but didn’t much serve my needs.

I actually had to do a bit of Google image searches to pull the wardrobe together. I would have thought these things would all be clearly defined, but no. From my experience a lot of interpretation is left up to the artist.

I ended up providing them with a half dozen concepts laying the characters out in different ways and trying to incorporate Spider-Man into them. After a couple rounds of revisions we landed on the final layout, and I went to work coloring, refining and coloring some more. In the end there were other options I’d have liked them to pursue, but I was happy with the results.

Your work tends to feature women that are, shall we say, Pretty Gross (as your last collection was titled). What deviant part of your worldview or childhood or psychosis is seemingly drawn equally to beautiful women and super gross stuff?

I don’t know, I’m sure people could project all kinds of psychoanalysis on me, but in my case I think it would be just that–projecting. The thing I’m doing is creating something I think is beautiful and applying a small gross twist to it. It’s nothing new and a little gimmicky, but I like it. I like to draw pretty girls covered in gross things. I like to apply pretty colors to unpretty subjects. I’m very open about the lack of deeper meaning in my work and unashamed. I like to say “Stuff doesn’t always gotta mean stuff.” And I stand by that.

How do you pull off all this great art while keeping down your day job at Grow?

Barely, and much to the detriment of social interaction. I often don’t get home until 7, so the precious time I have to draw is not given up easily. Luckily my wife, Elizabeth Levesque, is also an artist, and we often work side by side on the couch.

When does the comic come out?

According to Marvel.com The Many Loves of the Amazing Spider-Man should hit stores May 5th of this year.

Jason and Elizabeth Levesque will be featured in their first group show together on May 8 at the J Ferguson Gallery in Farmville, VA. Jason will also be at the Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC from June 4 through 6. For more info and art by Jason Levesque, check out stuntkid.com.

Click here to view a gallery of Levesque’s drafts for Spider-Man. >>