Ryan Ottley has announced his departure as the regular artist of Marvel Comics' ongoing Amazing Spider-Man series, a title he helped relaunch alongside current writer Nick Spencer in 2018.
Ottley drew the first chapter of the oversized Amazing Spider-Man #49 (which also bore legacy numbering of #850), in which Norman Osborne returns as the Green Goblin, leading to a fateful moment for Peter Parker at the story's end.
Ottley now confirms that Amazing Spider-Man #850 marked his last work on the series.
"I decided to jump off of Amazing Spider-Man," begins Ottley's statement, from his public Facebook fan page.
"It just comes down to me simply wanting to work on other projects. Amazing Spider-Man was my first comic I ever bought as a kid, it was what I thought was the best superhero ever made," he continues. "So I always wanted to fulfill that fantasy to be the ASM artist one day."
"And now with around two years on Amazing Spider-Man and 20 issues under my belt, I feel like I've gotten my fill and want to have other projects to work on, other characters I'd like to play with. My last Spider-Man issue is ASM 850. I hope you like it!," Ottley concludes. "Thank you to the ASM team, super happy to work with Nick Spencer, Cliff Rathburn, Nathan Fairbairn, Laura Martin, and editors Nick Lowe and Kathleen Wisneski."
However, Ottley states that he's not done with Marvel Comics – in fact, he confirms he's already at work on his next unannounced project.
"I will be back at Marvel soon on a new project I'm very excited about! Currently doing pre-production designs."
Amazing Spider-Man #49/850 is out now. No replacement for Ottley as regular series artist has been announced - though other changes are occurring in the title's artist line-up, with Mark Bagley subbing in for Patrick Gleason on Amazing Spider-Man #53.
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