Todd McFarlane Reveals How Spider-Man’s Spaghetti Webbing Got Its Name

In the more than 50 years since he debuted, Spider-Man has become one of the most famous fictional characters of all time, with the hero earning a national day of celebration on August 1st. To celebrate this month’s annual day, iconic Spider-Man artist Todd McFarlane revealed the origins of his unique and recognizable illustrating style for the Wall-Crawler’s webs, which were nicknamed “spaghetti webbing.”

The artist began illustrating the character in the late ’80s, with McFarlane’s texturized style becoming one of his signature traits that also defined the style of the ’90s.

“I began that look right from the start of my run as the artist on the book and over time the webs got longer and longer,” McFarlane recalled on Facebook. “During one of my visits to Marvel I was called into the Editor-In Chief’s office. This wasn’t the first time I had been in his office to discuss Spider-Man’s new art direction, but because I was messing with their icon character some thought my style wasn’t appropriate. On this day, the conversation was going well, but I could sense some frustration in the chief’s voice. Finally, he couldn’t contain himself and he said, ‘Todd…I need you to stop doing those…those…those damn spaghetti webbings!!’”

Once the artist had a name for the style, he felt even more empowered to embellish the look of the webs in future issues.

McFarlane continued, “Up until then, I hadn’t ever given the webs a NAME. But NOW there I sat in the Editor’s office and he blurted out the perfect name for them: SPAGHETTI WEBBINGS. It was perfect! I ended the conversation by telling him that I would stop doing them that way – – – then immediately went out and began drawing the NEXT issue with the ‘spaghetti webbings’ TWICE as long as before!”

While the editor-in-chief might not have appreciated the new style at the time, McFarlane claims that his legacy has had a lasting impact on the future of the character.

“And the rest, as they say is history,” the artist proclaimed. “In fact, after all these years the webbings are STILL patterned after the look I brought to those pages. Go figure.”

With this fall seeing the release of Venom, a film based on another character that McFarlane played a major part in defining, we’re sure to see plenty more spaghetti webbings in the future.

How do you feel about the artist’s signature Spider-Man style? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T Facebook, Todd McFarlane]