Marvel artist shares first concept art for WandaVision dog Sparky
Gabriel Hernandez Walta (and his family) designed WandaVision's Sparky on their dining room table
A dog was added to the Maximoff/Vision family in WandaVision's fifth episode. And while TV's Sparky came out of nowhere, he actually has a home - back in comic books.
Earlier this month, Newsarama sized up the dark, strange comic book history of Sparky the dog, and since then we've been able to reconnect with someone who actually co-created and designed the original Sparky: The Vision artist Gabriel Hernández Walta - to find out about the dog's origin, and his thoughts on appearing in WandaVision.
"It is really exciting (and weird) to watch on the screen something that you have helped to create," Walta tells Newsarama.
The halcyonic '60s family setting (and several other elements) of Disney Plus's WandaVision were based on Walta and writer Tom King's 2015-2016 comic book limited series The Vision. While that comic book series focused on the Vision and an android family (wife, kids, and a dog), it's become a building block of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's view of Scarlet Witch and Vision going forward.
As for Sparky's MCU future? That remains to be seen, but his appearance in WandaVision episode 5 was memorable for Walta and his family.
"I still remember being at our dining room, doing sketches of the dog after receiving Tom King's script for Vision #6, and my wife telling me that Fox Terriers already looked like synthetic pets and my daughters saying that he should have a red nose!"
That's right, while Sparky in the show looks to be a terrier mix, comics' Sparky is a Fox Terrier - an android Fox Terrier specifically.
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Newsarama asked about those dining room sketches of Sparky, and Walta graciously shared them with us as a sort of 'baby pictures' look back at the all-digital dog.
Read more about Scarlet Witch and the Vision's unique comic book romance as it's translated to live-action with Disney Plus's WandaVision.
Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)