It may be the one of the most anticipated new projects from a creative grouping since the Police reunited for their new concert tour, or Ben & Jerry created Chocolate Chop Cookie Dough...
The comic book superstar pairing of writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch lives again, this time on Marvel's Fantastic Four..
No, not Ultimate Fantastic Four ... Not a large-scale FF limited series ... The monthly Marvel Universe Fantastic Four.
The duo take over the reins of the series in early 2008 with plans to return the series to the top of the Diamond sales charts, and by the sounds of things, they don't plan on leaving for a while...
And oh yeah, and they plan on it being monthly!
We spoke with Hitch and Millar this week about why's and whats of their latest partnership
Newsarama: Okay fellas, it doesnt take a very skilled interviewer to come up with this question, but considering your profiles, both individually and as a tandem, one can assume that you had a lot of options (perhaps limitless if you wanted to create something brand new), so why the Fantastic Four, and why now?
Mark Millar: What's interesting is how close this came to not happening. It really was a fortunate accident for us.
The plan had always been to follow The Ultimates with an X-Men relaunch where I would write the three main X-books and we were going to have Hitchy plus two other artists on these books for a year. I plotted my stories way back in 2004 so this is something we'd been planning for ages. We were very enthused, spoke about it on the phone almost every day and just kind of took it for granted this is what we were launching in January 2008. But last year someone casually mentioned that JMS was leaving Fantastic Four and they didn't have a new creative team in place. I tried to block it out of my head, but for the rest of the call I was just nodding and pretending to be listening, thinking how great it would be to write the real Fantastic Four book. This is like getting the keys to the family car as far as the Marvel Universe is concerned. Maybe even more than Spider-Man.
I couldn't stop thinking about it and phoned Hitchy, who surprised me by being equally excited. We spoke for about three hours, building each other into a frenzy and then called Marvel. We wanted to shelf the X-Men plans and do Fantastic Four instead. Mike Marts (former X-Men editor) was very good about it, understanding we had to follow our mojo. And so we called Tom Brevoort and everything clicked into place beautifully. I started writing the book before Christmas an Hitchy started drawing shortly after he finished Ultimates 2 in the New Year. He had a few weeks to build up his drawing muscles again, but he's been working very consistently since about February, I think and pretty much bang on schedule.
Bryan Hitch: The timing worked I guess. We'd planned to go over to rehoot (new technical term) the X-franchise and sort of had that in our diaries for a couple of years or so as Mark said but after the heavy lifting we'd both done on Ultimates and Mark had done on Civil War we both wanted to take the comic book equivalent of a beach holiday. I'd loved Mark's run on Ultimate FF, it seemed so full of life and a real counterpoint to the density and claustrophobia of Ultimates and I was really quite jealous that Greg Land got to draw it. The book seemed like it was in the same breathless, big scale, relentless mode of our separate runs at Authority and I really fancied something like that after Ultimates. Sort of a plate cleanser.
I remember us chatting in the summer last year and it came up in conversation that FF was maybe going to be available and we both seemed to hit on doing it and by the end of the call a tentative suggestion had become an enthusiastic urge. It really got me through the last two issues of Ultimates too as I couldn't wait to start it. That double-sized crazy last issue was the fastest I'd worked on the Ultimates in years and was maybe a sign that I'd been a bit down and burned out for a while; slogging rather than enjoying myself as I once had. A spring had returned to my artistic step! Of course once Ultimates was penciled by Christmas I still had six weeks of other non-comics stuff to clear off my desk but I can't wait to start drawing every day now; it's just the most fun stuff I've worked on in a long, long time.
NRAMA: Okay, so youre both excited about the Marvel Universe Fantastic Four. But still, why the monthly series, as opposed to your own limited series of whatever length you chose, which again one has to imagine Marvel would have been amenable to?
MM: Well, there are probably three reasons for this. One is that when you do a special project you can't really roll your sleeves up and operate on the book. You're essentially just borrowing the characters from the current writer and promising not to interfere with his plans. And there were some very fundamental things we wanted to do with the direction of the book which meant the main book or nothing. But as people who grew up with an enormous love for the book, there's something (and this will sound weird) very satisfying about flipping through your run of FF comic-books and seeing your run alongside the Byrne and Kirby issues. It feels nice to be part of the lineage.
Also, the Fantastic Four was billed as The World's Greatest Comic Magazine and it's been a while since it really lived up there in the top ten. Again, there's that little fanboy part of us that wants to put the book right up there on the front-lines of the Marvel Universe. Other than a few spikes for events of promotions, it's only sold around an average 45-50K these past ten years and we wanted to just put it up there with the Avengers and Spider-Man books again. They told us the Avengers characters were dead and we shouldn't do Ultimates before we started, but we knew it would work and we feel the same charge here. When you love something it's contagious. We want this to be the book everyone is reading again.
NRAMA: Since you already mentioned Kirby, give us your take on the revered first 100 issues? Is this for you as it is many creators the Marvel Holy Grail? How does that legendary run, inform your plans (if at all)?
MM: Yeah, I think those first 100 issues tie with the first 100 Spider-Man comics as the greatest Marvel books ever. But the middle of that run from issue #35 to around issue #60 are just unbeatable in terms of creativity. What made FF work was that you had absolutely no idea what could happen next because it was constantly breaking the rules. Combine this with the endless new characters being introduced as villains and supporting characters and you have something akin to a universe by itself, something the book has been feeding off really for close to thirty years now.
So our plan is to honor those first 100 issues not by imitating the Kirby dots or the drawing style or recycling the characters we've seen brought back again and again. We're going to honor them by doing what Stan and Jack did and that's being as new and creative as possible. Naturally, we're going to see familiar touchstones of the FF universe, but we're only doing it when we have something new to say about them. A brand new way of doing them. For the most part though it's going to be new concepts, ideas, and a new supporting cast.
What I loved about FF as a kid is that it was constantly evolving like a real family. People got married, people broke up with their girlfriends and found new ones, friends became enemies, enemies became friends, children were born, and so on. To a boy who had seen Clark Kent gulping and wishing wishing he could tell Lois Lane how he really felt for four decades this seemed incredibly radical and I want to apply that same radicalism to our run. Things are about to move on and the characters are going to find themselves in slightly different situations. It's the only way to keep the book fresh. I want it to feel as new as the book felt in 1965.
NRAMA: How about those first 100 issues for you Bryan? Of course from an artists standpoint, Kirbys contributions both conceptually and from an artistic standpoint are at least equal to Lees contributions. Mark just said something to the effect of not coming in and doing Kirby-dots, so if not direct visual inspiration, how does that run inspire you as the artists?
BH: We've both said that sometimes it's better to remember the feelings the work inspired in you than it is to go back and look, slavishly follow and attempt to repeat. That's what we feel here. To take the example of "Kirby dots"; that was Jack's specific way of solving a problem, is way of delineating patterns of energy and all pre-computers. So many other avenues are open now that to specifically follow that technique, which may well have been ahead of it's time forty years ago, would date a modern comic.
It's much more important to follow the spirit and intent of the thing than it is to attempt to slavishly reproduce it. I'm not and never will be Jack Kirby or John Byrne (whose run is arguably the equal of Kirby's for fun and invention; more coherent too) but I do remember how it felt when I read that stuff and that's what I want to reproduce. Or try to anyway.
NRAMA: Okay, youve both now mentioned Byrne in addition to Lee/Kirby. So lets just ask about any other stand-out creative eras and let you guys run with it?
MM: I know it's fashionable to knock him right now, but I think Byrne's run actually gives Kirby's a real run for its money. I didn't read it as a kid and stumbled on it a couple of years back, but it's one of the reasons I wanted to do this book. I ate up every page. The storytelling is just beautiful and the radicalism seemed to be back. Again, you just didn't know what was happening next and it felt like the Fantastic Four (something other runs didn't always quite achieve). It was that perfect mix of the everyday and the cosmic that Stan and Jack captured so magnificently. Because the FF was always as much about them trying to find a new nanny for Franklin as fighting the Mole-Man.
The secret to all the best stories is that they're rooted in the ordinary and supped-up to the fantastic. The Baxter Building is a dream version of the house we grew up in, the Fantasti-Car is a dream version of Dad's old Ford and so on. Even Doom is that weird Uncle your Mum and Dad don't speak to anymore. It's got to be rooted in the real world to work and Byrne was very good at this too. He and the original 100 issues are the two perfect runs, but there are others I love too like the Waid/Ringo issues and the ones immediately following Stan and Jack. The very first FF I ever had was a black and white British reprint where Magneto had captured Sue and Namor's bird, keeping them in little tanks and goading the FF and Namor. Calling them poofs or something on the cover. I think this was written by Roy Thomas and drawn by John Buscema. I never remember the American numbering because I read this stuff years later as a UK reprint, but that run was really definitive for me too. Likewise the Simonson issues. I only got these last week (I was too busy reading DC Comics in the 80s), but these look great.
NRAMA: Conversely Mark, as Bryan mentioned you had a run on Marvels newest take on the FF - Ultimate Fantastic Four. What did you take away from that, and how if at all, did that play a part in getting you here?
MM: I got great advice from Stan before I started and I've taken this onboard for the main book. He told me there was no idea too insane for Fantastic Four and that was actually very liberating. Some ideas are too crazy for the Hulk or Spidey or the X-Men, but the FF is where the crazy ideas live and breathe. You have to give them a hook a nine year old can understand, but they can be as wild as you like. This is what led to the Marvel Zombies (something that seemed so unlikely editorial actually laughed when I suggested it) and I've tried to bring that same head to this run too. I've been flying on it since I started and really having a good time. I sent Tom and Bryan the script for our ninth issue last week and I'll be working on ten on the plane home from Chicago.
NRAMA: Bryan, is your process different from Marks? Do you approach this from a purely artistic standpoint, envisioning imagery and layouts in your head?
BH: Well yeah, that's a natural sort of language for me but it's not so much the pictures as the pacing and story beats. The rhythms and tempo before the music's written. The actual notes and tune come when you sit down and start on solving the specific storytelling problems and indulging in the creative side of composition. Mark and I both wanted to write and draw our own comics but he ended up focusing on the writing and I focused on the drawing but it lends each of us a more full point of view.
Comics are a visual storytelling medium which means they aren't radio plays and they aren't poster books. Too many writers never allow room for the visual pacing and too many artists don't apply their incredible drawing skills solely to needs of the story. If you can combine the two, it makes a good read. Mark has a strong visual sense and I have a strong story sense so although we come from different directions we are both on the same journey. No shortcuts, no easy takes; it's the best we can offer, always.
It's almost a perfect creative partnership, which is why we have so much future stuff planned together no matter what else we do separately.
NRAMA: Bryan, lets stick with you for a moment
Youre fairly well responsible for introducing the term widescreen to the comic book industry. You kind of topped yourself in that regard with your what six? Eight page spread (?) in Ultimates 2 #13. That was more like IMAX than widescreen
BH: Yeah it was pretty wide but please God don't go upping the terms here; I'm not doing that every issue! It's funny but I don't go about trying to 'widescreen' everything I draw, these are terms others have used to describe or label an approach. I just draw stuff how I see it.
IMAX comics, sheesh thanks. Mind you, if there's on Marvel book that could work on that visual scale it's FF.
NRAMA: So not to put you on the spot, but should readers expect the signature layout/perspective style to carry over to FF?
BH: It's certainly going to be familiar enough for those who follow my work but it's a different book so the approach changes to suit what I'm doing. A director like Spielberg can do Schindler's List, E.T., and, say, Catch Me If You Can. Three very different films but all unquestionably his; you can't approach every job the same way, it would be too formulaic but you do bring everything you have to the table every time and hope to hit your marks as fully as possible. You never aim for second best, do you?
NRAMA: Okay then, do you have any new tricks in your bag for the FF?
BH: Oh, I hope so. It would be pretty darn boring if I didn't. You always hope to bring everything you have to the gig and then make it something else, find some new avenues to explore. It's one of the reasons I wanted the book; it's so different from Ultimates and I had to learn a new approach for that project, learn so much about how to draw, perspectives, real world stuff. This is broader, more fun, more grand and spacious; a little lighter perhaps. It still has everything I could want for in storytelling opportunities, design, ideas and great character acting. Breath of fresh air.
NRAMA: As no doubt frustrating as it likely is for you Bryan, we do have to ask about scheduling, since the FF is a series that has been monthly for Marvels entire history. From all indications it seems like youve been working on this for a while, how would you address readers concerns about the FF maintaining its monthly status when yours and Marks run begins?
BH: I'm drawing it quicker. I've been working on it for about five months and am four issues and nine covers in. Mark is writing issue # 10 now so he's galloping nicely. It's actually getting quicker the more into it I get but it's important to note that Ultimates is the only thing I've done that went the way it did. Authority was three weeks an issue and that's what I expected to do on Ultimates; it came as a huge surprise to me that I couldn't do it. Then again there's about three times as much on the page in Ultimates.
Truth to tell, many of the problems with that book weren't with the physical side of drawing it, more the state I got myself into worrying about it. It's different on FF. I don't feel any pressure at all, in fact it's the most liberating work I've done in years.
For better or worse, Ultimates became a magnum opus of sorts and you can't follow it with another one. I can relax. So I'm just setting out to hit the schedule and get some big, bold fun comics out and remind myself that it doesn't have to be hand-wringing, sweating, cursing, worry and poverty to make a good comic. It can actually be good fun, very rewarding and, in the great scheme of world problems, a walk in the park. I'm doing what I love doing: telling stories. It's my goal to win back the reputation I had before I did Ultimates and have a good long, unbroken run at the "World's Greatest Comic Magazine". So far so good. Much, I think, to everyone's surprise.
NRAMA: As you touch on, part of the Ultimates issue was your closeness to the material, that fact that you created it and wanting to go back and continue to edit the art until the public saw it. Correct? Given the FF arent your creations, will that play a role in how you approach the pages? Is that why its been so liberating?
BH: I think my neurosis is still well intact but if I've learned anything from that whole debacle on Ultimates is that doing what you describe didn't achieve anything but make the book late and lose me an enormous amount of money. It's been like coming out of a tunnel on FF, all of that angst, fear and worry that drove me to suicidal amounts of tweaking and 'fixing' has vanished to a degree and I seem to be running free. I'm still tweaking and playing, redrawing and adding stuff to get it the best I can offer and I imagine I always will on any project but those that have seen what I've done so far don't see any drop in quality, quite the reverse so I'm confident about getting it out and it being all right.
I'm also going to stop reading the message boards too. No matter how much I labored Ultimates there was always somebody who said: "Is it just me or does Ultimates look rushed..?"
I have such huge and ambitious plans for the next couple of years at Marvel and see this as just the beginning. Get this in on or ahead of time, make it good and build on that work. You'll hopefully see what I mean as we move into next year. A lot of work to do but having established both a good and bad rep on Ultimates I have a strong need to build on the good and make the bad stuff a memory.
NRAMA: Fair enough, Im sure there are readers who appreciate you again addressing it.
