The artist behind the viral, hand-drawn poster advertising Spider-Man: Brand New Day for has identified himself after his workplace forced him to take the drawing down.
Drake Landon is the genius behind the hilarious illustration, who created it after the Cineplex theater where he worked didn’t receive an official poster to place on the outside of their business.
The adorable ‘Spooderman,’ as fans have taken to calling it, came with a humble apology explaining the situation. And while it proved to be a big hit online, his employer didn’t take too kindly to his proactive solution.
On August 12, a Reddit user claiming to be Landon made his first public post about the situation, saying he chose to reveal himself because “I honestly don’t care at this point.”
He explained that his boss got called by Cineplex’s head office, which asked for the poster to be removed. Luckily, he was able to retrieve his artwork, which he plans on selling in limited amounts as prints or re-drawn duplicates.
“I have the poster back, sadly due to my boss telling me that head office called and asked for it to be taken down, for reasons that make sense now I realize. I don’t wanna upset the studio, so yeah,” he wrote.
While it’s definitely a bummer (come on, corporate, don’t be sticks in the mud), Landon says his sudden popularity earned him a free booth at his local comic convention, where he plans on selling his other work — though he said it “probably won’t be as popular as Spooderman.”
Landon also shed some light on why he needed to make the poster in the first place, saying the distributor responsible for delivering the official materials accidentally sent them to the wrong location.
Despite this turn of events, Landon’s artwork proved that a creative solution to a sudden problem can open up all kinds of possibilities. Now if only Marvel would use this as an alternate cover for special Brand New Day Blu-ray editions of the movie…
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is still in theaters, and it’s been a hit at the box office. It managed to topple Avengers: Endgame to have the biggest domestic opening weekend in history is on track to cross $2 billion globally.
IGN’s Tom Jorgensen scored the flick a 7 out of 10, saying it “effectively refocuses on the most reliable pillars of the webslinger: battling inner turmoil, swinging around NYC saving the day, and looking cool while doing so.”
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.
