Today, ESPN announced that this week's edition of ESPN The Magazine will feature a special insert: one dedicated exclusively to how artists draw Marvel superheroes.

The insert, titled "The Body Issue: Super Heroes Edition," will feature details on the drawing of Marvel characters as iconic as Iron Man, She-Hulk, Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, Medusa, Hulk, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage.

ESPN also features an exclusive digital sketch book on its website, which features details on the creation of these characters with quotes from Marvel artists, as well as exclusive anatomical drawings of those characters by Marvel artists. This gallery offers a peek into "The Body Issue" insert in the magazine, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at how these particular works of superhero art came together.

"For a comic book artist, drawing the human anatomy is an everyday job," says Marvel Comics artist Sara Pichelli in a press release. "But here it was matter of celebrating the maximum expression of human muscles and shapes. Creating believable, powerful, and at the same time harmonic bodies is always a challenge, that's why I wanted to be part of this."

Although the partnership of ESPN and Marvel might seem strange, Disney owns both companies, so bringing them together to celebrate the heroism, athleticism and strength of superheroes isn't that far-fetched. When you look at characters such as the brawny Hulk or even the tiny Ant-Man, each seems to represent something that both ESPN and Marvel stands for.

"When comic book artists imagine the physical ideal, they have to start somewhere," says ESPN The Magazine editor in chief Axel Alonso in a press release. "And let's face it, professional athletes, whose bodies are fine-tuned instruments, are the closest thing to real-life superheroes. Marvel's Body Issue insert is a celebration of the most iconic superheroes in the world and the athletes that inspired them."

You can pick up a copy of "The Body Issue: Super Heroes Edition" in this week's ESPN The Magazine, which hits newsstands on Friday, July 10.

Photo credit: ESPN

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