Behind the Scenes of the "Women of Marvel" Exhibition at Disney's Hotel New York

In celebration of Women’s History Month, a new “Women of Marvel” exhibit has moved into the Jack Kirby Legacy Gallery at Disney’s Hotel New York — The Art of Marvel in Disneyland Paris.

What’s Happening:

This heroic offering features a collection of Marvel comic book covers depicting strong women characters designed by six talented women artists. While visiting, guests can learn about the origins and powers of some of their favorite Super Heroes.
Below, we’ll take a tour of the gallery, meet the women behind the artwork and learn about their inspiration.

Elena Casagrande

As a comic book artist for more than 15 years, Elena was lucky enough to land her dream job early on. This Italian artist started working on comic book covers while enrolled in the International School of Comics in Rome and hasn’t looked back since!
For this exhibition, she crafted a connecting piece which features some of Marvel’s greatest heroes such as She-Hulk, Scarlet Witch, Captain Marvel and more. When all covers are laid side-by-side, they create one complete piece of artwork.
“I wanted to do something particular, and I really enjoyed finding the right way to replicate every character with their personal futures, that could be connected…and represented in a single cover,” said Elena.

Peach Momoko

First introduced to Marvel by comic book artist Adi Granov, Peach has since created a number of cover illustrations. In this exhibition, two of the Japanese artist’s earlier covers of Spider Gwen and Invisible Woman are featured.
As Spider Gwen was one of Peach’s earlier covers for Marvel, Peach wanted to make an impact by showcasing who Spider Gwen and Peach both are by combining her unique style and composition with Spider Gwen’s personality.
As her style has evolved over the years, Peach notes that with it came a growing confidence in her abilities and understanding of the Marvel Super Heroes she drew. The more she learned of their characteristics, powers and who these characters are, the better grasp she had on how to depict them.

Natacha Bustos

A Spanish artist best known for her work on Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Natacha has worked on a range of covers with Marvel. She’s a big admirer of her peers featured in this exhibit as well.
When asked about how Natacha approaches her work, she notes that “I always try to think of these characters doing everyday things despite them being Super Heroes and exceptional. You want to see them in their everyday life despite having superpowers!”
Natacha has five pieces displayed in this exhibit — covers of Shuri Black Panther, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Ms. Marvel, America Chavez and She-Hulk. When creating the America Chavez piece, she wanted to design an urban scene that felt unique and not your average action Super Hero scene. As someone who always strives to do something new with her work, Natacha saw a perfect opportunity to do just that!

Jen Bartel

Jen Bartel credits doing what she loves as how she originally came to work for Marvel. Coming from an illustration background, Jen created her first Marvel cover in 2017 and was excited to get creative with comic book art and its flexibility to add in fun and unique elements, such as text balloons.
Currently on display at the “Women of Marvel” exhibition is cover art of She-Hulk, which she created in 2021, as well as variant comic book covers featuring Captain Marvel, Shuri Black Panther, Storm and Silk from Spider-Man published between 2018 and 2021.
In addition to consuming artwork from others, this American artist has some good advice on where to turn for inspiration. She encourages aspiring creators to take time to participate fully in life and very intentionally watch new shows, read new books and even revisit old favorites as it all feeds back into the creative process.

Stephanie Hans

Stephanie is a French illustrator who works primarily with Marvel, which she describes as her home. She has provided over 100 covers for Marvel and has five pieces featured in the exhibition, showcasing Shuri Black Panther, Ms. Marvel, The Mighty Thor, Rogue from X-Men and Clea Doctor Strange. She describes her work picked for the exhibition as traditional art pieces, meaning they were fully painted by hand.
When asked about her Shuri cover, Stephanie shared that, after learning of Shuri’s power to transform into a flock of black birds, she tried to mix a variety of elements like Shuri’s hair with the wings of these birds. For this piece, Stephanie notes she tried to put everything on a diagonal perspective which makes for more dynamic compositions.
While she isn’t one to use a lot of color in her work, she tries to use a limited palette with the hopes of having “an image that is able to shout at the reader even in the middle of a row of other comic books!”

Sara Pichelli

Creating her first cover for Marvel back in 2008, Sarah credits C.B. Cebulski, the Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics, with discovering her and driving her transition into the world of comic-books. This Italian artist certainly has made a lasting impression as the co-creator and original illustrator of Miles Morales.
Featured in the exhibition is her cover for the first issue of Ms. Marvel and her cover art of Captain Carter.

Don’t miss the opportunity to see all of your favorite Super Heroes on display at Disney’s Hotel New York — The Art of Marvel at Disneyland Paris, now through April 20th, 2023.

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