THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN'S VICTOR COOK

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Continuum continues its series of interviews with the talent behind The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series today with producer/supervising director Victor Cook.

The Continuum sat down with Cook backstage at WonderCon for a short interview. Following is an edited transcription.

The Continuum: You're working on the second set of episodes now. How does the second set feel compared to the first? Do you feel more like you have your footing now?

Cook: We had our footing really from the beginning of the first season, knowing how we wanted to approach the show. The Comic-Con trailer that we did was really the great testing ground for some of the action things we wanted to do, giving it a little bit more of a Hong Kong flair and a little bit more fun choreographed action as opposed to straight-forward punches and stuff.

What the challenge for the second set is that we are simultaneously doing post-production on the first set. So that's the huge challenge -- it's like we have two full-time jobs going on at the same time. It literally started at the same time. Episode 1 came back basically the same week started storyboards on Episode 14.

The Continuum: Often with these the shows, the second seasons are better because people are more familiar with the property and the routine. Do you feel you hit the ground running?

Cook: I think we hit the ground running with this. That's not to say these aren't going to get better. They're going to get better because we're going to be better at what we're doing. But in terms of the things we wanted to do with character development, designs and how we're staging and storyboarding the action, this stuff was very thought out for months before we attempted our first episode.

But it's going to get better. Each one is better. Even in the first season.

The Continuum: Spider-Man has a lot attention brought to it. It would appear a hard thing to get started. Was it arduous?

Cook: It was, to get everybody on the same page. We're dealing with Sony, who's producing, and Kids' WB! and also Marvel. While there are a lot of similar concerns and goals, there are sometimes different expectations. Kids' WB! wants this to be appealing for kids, Marvel wants this to stay true to the classics and we're trying to do a show for everyone.

From a writing standpoint, Greg Weisman and Sony made the right decision in terms of, we're going to start where (Stan) Lee and (Steve) Ditko started. We're just going to contemporize it. We're just going right to the beginning. And that was the appeal for me coming out. He's a teenager, he's in high school, just like the original comic.

In terms of the visual development, because this had to appeal to kids and to fans, we wanted a design style that was going to give us that ability for animation. If you remember the old, original animated Spider-Man, there was no webs on his costumes. Then you go to the 90s one, where there were webs and muscles everywhere. We knew, because of the movies, that the bar had been raised on how Spider-Man was expected to be seen moving. And, for me, knowing that and having been an animator in the past, the challenge was how do we take the detail down to its most simplest, while still retaining the classic look of the character.

The (Ralph) Bakshi cartoon was a classic, but it still bothered me that he didn't have webs on his body. I think we achieved that. We simplified. He's got webs, but it's distilled to its very essentials. And, as seen on the Comic-Con trailer, it moves great. He's jumping and flipping.

The Continuum: And you have to deal with the cityscapes, too.

Cook: We knew were not going to do a "CG" Spider-Man this time around. But part of Spider-Man's movements isn't just about Spider-Man. It's also the backgrounds, moving dimensionally. We just took the same approach to the backgrounds we did to the characters, just distill it down to the essential details to have architectural detail and real perspective, and have it feel like New York. You'll have buildings in the backgrounds, but there won't even be windows on it, because you don't need them in the far backgrounds.

The Continuum: Can you talk about the look of the villains?

Cook: With the villains, on top of that animation design idea of simplification and having strong silhouettes, we wanted to contemporize the look of each villain, while keeping the iconic look.

The Continuum: Would it be safe to say you changed them a little more?

Cook: If anyone has seen the commercials or the clips of Electro, he is obviously very much changed from the comic book. He doesn't have the stafish mask or anything like that. But, at the same time, you take another look, that electrical head of his is reminscent of that mask. His costume is still green.

I'm not sure if it was by design or by accident, but in the 1960s the majority of Spider-Man's villains had green them it. I don't know if that was because of the comic-book printing process or the limited colors that they had. But Electro, Lizard, Sandman, the Vulture...

And for me, being the filmmaker guy in the series, I said, "You know what? I'm going to make that a choice for the show -- green is the color of evil or oppression." When you go to the high school, for instance, in his biology class, the color is kind of yellow. It's friendly. It's where Peter Parker is most comfortable. When you get out in the hallways, the corridors, it's kind of green. And that's where the social interaction is happening, and there's Flash Thompson and King Kong. The jocks wear green lettermen jackets. It's a little thing, but maybe the average person won't pick up on it, but for me that's a film choice.

The Continuum: With the Green Goblin, were you most influenced by the classic, Ultimate or movie?

Cook: I'd say he's a contemporized version of the classic.

The Continuum: And Sandman?

Cook: A contemporized version of the ciassic. You know, you meet almost every villain in the first episode. You're going to see them. You see Doctor Octavius, Flint Marko, Alex O'Hirn. Marko and Alex O'Hirn are two-bit hoods. And you see the motivations for what their goals are once they have their powers.

The Continuum: Are you having fun?

Cook: It's been a blast. The Romita-era Spider-Man is what I grew up on, and the old Bakshi Spider-Man. When I was brought on, the opportunity to create a new classic animated Spider-Man for a new generation was the big appeal for me. The whole new theme song, the whole vibe of our show is not dark and brooding. The weight of the world is not on his shoulder. I think it's true to Lee-Ditko era, we just contemporized it, not just in the look and the stories, but in the music. We have a great theme song that has a nice retro touch to the 60's Spider-Man. It's a different song, but we wanted it for that reason. The score within the show is very contemporary, and orchestral in the dramatic and action beats. And in the high school beats, it's almost like a high school movie.

Visually, we wanted to bring in some iconic touches from the comic books, some retro touches. Tune in for the little last shot of the episodes. They've very reminiscent of some of the very last panels of the comic books.

The Continuum: You really had a lot to draw upon.

Cook: We really did have a lot to draw upon. For me, with on the visual style, it was like what if 1962 was today and but also but if in 1962 we were making a TV show today. The wipes and transitions to each scene kind of have a retro touch, the last scene you see dissolves the sky into Spider-Man's eyes and mask over the city, just like in the comic books.

In the first episode, you see Harry talking to Peter and he says, "What did you do over the summer?" And you see the half-mask dissolve really quickly and off -- just like in the comic book.

Those were retro, 1960s touches that we're bringing in to today. It just gives a fun feeling, and it really fits into the style of the show. With action shows, there's a range from like Samurai Jack to X-Men: Evolution or Ultimate Avengers, where they're more real. I'd say that Teen Titans, it wasn't all the way over to the real and they could get away with those anime, graphic things. We're not doing that, but, because our design style is all the way to the far right, the half-Spidey mask and the sky turning, it doesn't feel like, "Where does that come from?"