Interview with Spider-Man Character Designer

Sean Galloway Creates Look of Spectacular Spider-Man Show

Feb 4, 2009

Artist Sean Galloway talks about his work as character designer for The Spectacular Spider-Man, his creative choices, and Peter Parker's mole.

From freelancing for Disney to creating art for animated Hellboy movies, Sean “Cheeks” Galloway has lent his distinctive style to many high-profile projects. Currently, he’s the character designer on The Spectacular Spider-Man animated cartoon series and is responsible for the show’s fresh new look.

Suite 101 got a chance to ask Galloway some questions about his work at a Phoenix Comicon panel on January 23, 2009. The following is an edited version of his responses.

S101: What do character designers do?

The role of a character designer is to establish the look of a show. I set the style. With The Spectacular Spider-Man, I drew pretty close to 500 characters – thirty characters a week – including main characters, background characters, and incidental characters.

I’ll get back animation cells from Korea and if things are a bit off model, it’s my job to make sure they stay on model and consistent. And my other role is to be able to [create character sheets that] turn the characters – you want to see the character not just in a three quarter shot but also in profile, back, and then three quarter back and front. It’s very technical – you have to make sure everything lines up.

A lot of cast members in Spectacular Spider-Man have had their ethnic backgrounds changed – Liz Allen is Puerto Rican, Ned Leeds/Lee is Asian, and Debra Whitman is African-American. Whose idea was this?

Those decisions were the best decisions anyone could make. And they came from Greg Weisman and Vic Cook. The thing is, if you look back at the old Marvel Comics, there wasn’t much of an ethnic difference [among the characters] at all. So we knew that for our show to be a different type of Spider-Man, we needed to do that.

So it was their decision. And after they got Marvel and Sony’s approval, it was my job to draw and design the characters.

There’s this guy, Jeff Johnson, who knows how to draw in any pose, any action. And he choreographed that fight scene [in the Season 2 episode Destructive Testing] where Spider-Man is fighting Kraven on the streets. They let them have that segment and he just storyboarded that beautiful fight scene.

How did you come up with Peter Parker’s character design?

They originally wanted Peter Parker as this geeky guy. But then I thought, Peter Parker could get big, maybe grow a little husky. After the summer, he could come back and it’s, “Dang, Peter! You got big!”

Because that’s what happened to me. I was a terribly scrawny kind of guy, kind of short. And then in my junior or senior year, everyone was like, “Dang, Sean! What happened? You got big!” And I was like, “I guess I grew!”

Peter Parker could say that! I wanted him to not be the typical nerdy kind of guy, to give him a little more confidence.

What’s the deal with the mole on Peter Parker’s face?

That’s my mole! I’ve always incorporated moles on main characters when I draw them – I did that for Robin when I drew covers for Teen Titans. And my editor was like, “Is that a dirt speck?” And I said, “That’s my beauty mark!” And he’s like, “That’s not a beauty mark! That’s ugly!”

But when I did it for Spider-Man, I said to my boss, “For all those times you guys made me revise Peter Parker – which was about thirty times – could you give me that?” And he goes, “All right. It works, so if it gets approved, you got it. And nobody questioned it!”

But here’s the thing – I also tried hard to incorporate a mole on the mask, to make it inverted where it’s white!