Drawing Gwen Stacy

As you can see, I draw Gwen and her spinoffs my own way. Most artist do, adding something here, modifying something there.

Gwen was originally drawn by Steve Ditko, and as drawn was not really all that good looking. Oddball blond hair, pulled back and secured at the corners of the brow by brets or pins didn't make her looked like the "Beauty Queen of Standard High" she was supposed to be. But her age at the time was about 18 or 19. Ditko did, however, set the way Gwen was supposed to be. She was his and Stan Lee's creation.

John Romita took over and begin to refine the way the character looked. She looked more mature, around 20 to 25 here.

The hair pins first disappeared, and as "Jazzy John" had experience in Marvel's Love Story and True Love type comics, she became more glamorous. More "hip" cloths began to be drawn on her, and Stan Lee wanted her in Mini-skirts. John Romita didn't like that, referring to Gwen as a "Lady". Stan also wanted her smiling more, but by that time Gwen had a lot less to smile about.

The characteristic hairband, which is now a Gwen Stacy trade mark, appeared and she was given the feather bangs instead of the V forehead trim she had from day one. She is practically never drawn these days with out her hairband. For a while there she had the odd habit of putting glasses atop her head. For at least one issue she even had her hairband worn horizontal, sweat-band style. Her hair seems to change length from shoulder to hip length, even in the flashbacks. When she was drawn dead, the hair was about belt length.

The Deodado Gwen is quite advanced and realistic looking. Too bad they did to her what they did.

Other people draw Gwen from time to time, and a search on the web can produce these drawings. Some are quite remarkable, some are trivial and foolish. There does seem to be an effort, for the most part, to portray her happy and alive. It seems that most Gwen Fans, like myself, want her that way.

My Gwen is an older Gwen. She's at least in her mid to late twenties and in some drawings may be well into her thirties. Shes had her original life ripped from her and is in the process of rebuilding it. This leads her to be a more cautious soul when dealing with people, and men in general. Shes very hard to build a bridge of trust with. It is difficult to draw a character like this happy, but if the situation is right she can be having a great time.

As she is older, she is less prone to be flashy. Part of that is because she is no longer a rival of Mary Jane Watson. The other part is that the days of mini-skirts and high heel calve length boots is pretty much gone. In my story, the last time she wore the boots was when she was a Dallas Cheerleader. She also uses a lot less makeup, and tends to dress more down to earth.

As she is a school teacher and cheerleader coach, she is on her feet a lot more. She wears more comfortable flat shoes, and occasionally cotton socks. In cooler weather I usually put her in pants, but she is one of the few female characters I draw these days that wears a dress more often than not. Almost all of the girls at the girls home wear pants.

Gwen has high cheekbones, and this is stressed by the lines on each side of her face under the eyes. Badly done, this can look like a scar. Gwen apparently had pierced ears, judging from the ear rings she wore from time to time, but having long hair usually hides them. Often I don't go to the trouble to draw them. I always draw her with rich full light blond hair down below her belt line. The hairband is always there, unless she is asleep or at the pool.

Gwen sometimes wore one or more bracelets on each wrist. This is not common, as most pictures of her are without any jewelry on at all. She sometimes wore a necklace or two. She never wore any rings that I can see. If you are in college and messing with bio-chemistry projects, stuff like that can be in the way, and often cause accidents. Usually I give her a watch on her left wrist, because as a teacher her time is valuable between classes. She has a lot more places to be to, and the responsibility to be there on time.

I try to follow Romita's methods of her body style and movement. He is, after all, the master. She would often be drawn with her head up and chin out, an odd pose I think, but thats classic Gwen Stacy. As you can see, I don't have one tenth the ability Romita has, but I'm a self taught cartoonist and not a trained illustrator. If I was anywhere near as good as any of these guys, I'd have tried to be a comic book artist myself. But I find Gwen a lot of fun to draw anyway.

What makes her fun? Why do I and some others draw her? Well, one reason is that this is one of the most abused characters in comic book history. From Conway's execution of her and her father's gratuitous death, to Straczynki's necrophilia, the character has had it rough. By drawing her alive and happy, we fight back against this injustice. Shes only a comic book character, I know, but comic book characters have been with us since before we could read. Comics inspired us to read more. Some of us were inspired to draw because of them. Shes someone a lot of us grew up with. And like an old childhood friend, we don't want to see her ill-used.

In private illustrations I drew for friends, my version of Gwen appeared in the Star Frontiers Role Playing game as a supporting character. She was the Astro-navigator on one of our ships. She rarely appeared in our D&D stuff, but she did manage to make an appearance or two. Medieval Fantasy is not her place to be. After we stopped messing around in Sci Fi role play, my Gwen was sort of retired, appearing only from time to time in other places.

By drawing this officially 'dead' character, fans keep her alive. Fan fiction does the same. That is why, for us, Gwen lives.