"Amazing Fontasy # 15" ("Spiderman 2")
Ah, another Marvel comics property; another challenge to do a picture without using the actual character. This one was especially difficult because Tony had already used the idea of Erik versus a spider man back in the 2002 gallery and I paid homage to the first movie's poster with a pin-up that same year. And I wasn't so desperate that I'd go the sleazy route and do a picture of Erik kissing Kari upside down in the rain (I was saving that for “Spider-Man 3“). So the only thing left was to do another cheap rip-off of a well-known comic cover, which truth be told, wasn't something I was very keen about doing in the first place. But then, I really didn't have much else to go on. So given Spidey's first appearance was in "Amazing Fantasy # 15 (done by the legendary Steve Ditko), I knew that if there was going to be a cover, that would be the one to base it on. But even then I didn't get excited... until I really began fooling around with the title.
As soon as I spoke out loud "Amazing Fontasy", the image of late Ricardo Montalban raising his glass to those looking for their dreams and fantasies to be fulfilled shot in my mind and, I'm ashamed to admit, I started to geek out. Right there driving on my way to work I went into a mad tizzy. It was the most stupidest idea yet... but it was also so perfect. And God help me if I didn't need the money, I'd have drove right back home and worked on this picture because those two words set up the entire layout for me. - Jake