Bryan Hitch: The Ultimates VisionaryBy Sam Evans Okay you have Bryan Hitch on hold for about two weeks. Finally, you send him some questions. One week goes by, then the next, then all of a sudden on the third week he responds to the questions you sent a month ago. What do you do?
You write him back and say, "Would you mind answering a few more questions?"
Let's face it folks, the man is busy; a highly acclaimed, visual master, and a down to earth good spirit. You know what time it is. So sit back, shake off your knickers, and grab a cold one; it's time to get personal.
 Sam Evans: Tell me what happened. What comic book did you read that made you say, "I gotta do this". Like the majority of fans I'm in awe with you're performances on paper. What inspired you to join this medium?
Bryan Hitch: I don't recall one single event, one single comic. I've read comics since I was about four and I think it was the general concept of superheroes that grabbed me. Every month the shipment of DC's (Marvels were unknown to me then) would arrive in my local newsagent and would just be stacked in a tall pile at the end of a counter. I think they were brought over as ballast in ships then, as the direct market didn't really exist over here then. I would pick out the ones I wanted most and just run to the park next to the shop to sit and read them as I could never wait until I got them home. Even now, I can remember the pure excitement and escapism that they represented and how my summers would be spent just reading and drawing from them. I get the same buzz now as I go into the office every day to draw my page of Ultimates. As the month would wear on, I would gradually buy more and more of them until I had the whole stack, by which time the next months pile would be due in. This went on for about twelve years until the town got it's first comic shop.
SE: What about your early days in comics? What was your first printed work? Did you get that feeling that you were on to something great even at that age?
 BH: Marvel had a successful UK office that produced weekly Transformers, G.I. Joe (known as Action Force over here) and Thundercats comics during the mid 1980's. I left school at sixteen with the intention of going to art college, but sent some samples (which I still have) to the editors at Marvel UK and was given my first commission right away. It was a two part Action Force story, each of five pages and saw print in about June 1987.
I don't know that I thought I was on to something great, but I knew I had my eye on the main chance and wanted to be the best. I was very driven to improve, but also frustrated at not really being very good. Still, I haven't been out of work since then, so I must have been on to something.
SE: What happened after the Transformers and Action Force gig?
BH: After a year or so doing Action Force and Transformers stories, Marvel UK decided to try their hands at a couple of books in the 22 page US format. The weekly comics were closer to the format used by 2000AD, so these were something of a departure, like the UK branch trying to make an impact in the US market; this was a daft idea in itself since Marvel had a US market of it's own which in the 80's was doing pretty well. Anyway, I ended up doing one of those books called Death's Head. (Not to be confused with Death's Head II, which was later and considerably more successful!)
SE: I've seen some very hard to find work of yours; a Death's Head/Punisher story. Any old work you would have liked to see get printed back then?
 BH: Most of the work I've done has seen print except for that Death's Head/Punisher story, easily my best work at that time. A couple of Superman fill-ins, the first issue, and a half of an Outsiders relaunch that I left for numerous reasons. I ended up back at Marvel UK working for Paul Neary on a project that was later redrawn and launched with Paul Pelletier. None of these I am particularly keen to see in print, mostly because they are so old and I feel like I've moved on.
When Marvel completed and published that Thing/She-Hulk story from five years ago recently, it was like having your girlfriend over while your mother digs out your baby photographs.
SE: Moving forward a little, you seemed to disappear from the radar for a while over here in the states, just after Marvel UK and right before StormWatch what were you up to?
BH: When I left Marvel UK the second time, with Paul Neary in tow, I spent a few years working on odd jobs for Marvel US. These included some X-Men minis and one-shots, fill-in issues and other stuff. Quite a depressing time really, about three years in all, and a period that led me to thinking I was going to quit comics and try something else since it felt like I was never going to get anywhere. I was in regular employment, so clearly I was getting somewhere, but I just wasn't engaged by the material and for all the pleasure I was getting out of it I might as well have been working in the local biscuit factory. Then Wildstorm offered me StormWatch, with a decent pay raise and I thought I would knock them out to get some capital behind me while I looked into film production work. The rest, as they say, is history.
SE: With your work on StormWatch and The Authority, you started picking up some steam. People started noticing your work. What do you contribute this too?
 BH: This is a question one can only answer in hindsight, and one without, I think, any real definitive answer. I could probably put it down to a couple of things: a regular monthly appearance, and a developing approach of my own. I don't think you can ever make a continuing impression by doing one shots and mini series. No matter how good any given short term project is, there is usually too long between publications to generate any real buzz, unless of course you have already established a strong reputation and following like Frank Miller had on Daredevil. Working with Warren Ellis really brought out the best in me too. It happened at the right time for me in as much as I had begun over the previous couple of years, maybe more, to see how I wanted to approach drawing comics; not in the exterior style of rendering but in the approach to the stories.
Comics are quite simply a storytelling medium and nothing more. It isn't a poster book, it isn't a grandstand for would-be prose writers, it is a visual storytelling medium. Warren was the first writer I had worked with that really understood how that works. He understood that, like music, the story flows in beats and rhythms; staccato beats here, a crescendo there and this simply MUST begin with the writer. It is not something that can be as successfully imposed by the artist later if it hasn't been accounted for by the writer.
Working on StormWatch was the first time drawing a comic didn't feel like a struggle. When we jumped to The Authority we were able to properly develop those ideas and approaches, something I am still building on today.
SE: Did you ever experience any of the editorial challenges that Mark Millar, Frank Quitely, and Art Adams faced?
BH: Not really. Mark and Frank took things a lot further graphically than we did. Mark really pushed the boundaries where Warren and I didn't. I had thought the exploding heads and entrails I occasionally dropped in would have caused some to comment, but it seemed more amusing than anything. The only editing I received was in the removal of the Engineer's nipples. Angie is basically naked and covered in a second metal skin so in the original design she had nipples that were no more outrageous than the ones on the Batman costumes in the Schumacher movies. Last time I looked I too had nipples, yet on Angie they were considered rude even though I rendered them as large metal studs! First I was told to make them a simple circle as Laura had been ordered to remove them during coloring, then they were gradually taken out all together so I stopped drawing them. Not quite in the same ballpark as Mark and Frank, but annoying enough at the time.
SE: When you and Warren)Ellis wrapped up your run, did you think The Authority would fizzle out?
BH: Not at all. Mark and Frank were our recommendations, so we knew it would be big, outrageous and fun. If anything they built on our start and achieved greater success despite the long running problems they encountered.
SE: At first like with all things comic book related these days, there was some backlash from the community as to what The Ultimates would be like. I was one of them and still, despite my best effort, I had to pick the book up just to be the judge for myself and not listen to what others were saying. (Kids try this at home). With some of what people felt were the most taboo changes in comic book history: Captain America with no wings (Which I always thought the wings were kind of silly), Nick Fury a black male who looks an awful lot like Samuel L. Jackson. Despite all the fuss what told you that this would work?
 BH: Instinct, I suppose. We had a safety net in as much as no matter how much we changed the characters for The Ultimates, the Avengers remained unaffected. Those that were appalled and wanted to remain firmly rooted in the classic versions could do so; we weren't taking any of that away.
We just set out with the basic idea: What would we do if we had to make The Avengers as a movie? There were obviously things you keep and things you don't. You have to approach it as though nothing has happened before and tell the story fresh from the start, find the current day relevance and the best actors. We had to get to the core of who these people were and build outwards, so Cap was a soldier, Thor is either a nut case or a messiah (maybe both, today we would treat them same way: a cult following and a spell in the loony house), Banner an insecure genius, and Fury the king of cool.
We always knew that it had to be Sam Jackson. The idea of a high ranking black officer came from Colin Powell, but there would never be anyone cooler than Sam Jackson. That would be who we would cast if we were making the movie.
The end result has to be that whatever we kept, and whatever we jettisoned; however we defined and designed these characters and if we were true to Avengers continuity, we had to deliver the best story and the best art we could manage month after month. Mark and I work very hard and constantly edit and challenge each other to make sure that we deliver the very best we can manage. We know that this is just the beginning, and the best is still to come.
SE: Who contacted whom to get you doing The Ultimates? Did Mark reach you and say, "Hey people are bitching about Marvel doing an Ultimate line. Wan to throw some gas on that fire?" What was said to you to get you on the book?
BH: Joe Quesada called and said "Hey, the lunatics are running the asylum over here, want to join the party?" The project came from Millar, and it was perfect. Joe put us together, and after three hours on the phone, we had started the journey that was to develop into The Ultimates.
And it really is a party!
SE: It sounds like you've had a very long and very fun run in comics. With the exception of a few bumps. What's the one thing you could tell someone like myself trying to break into comics? It's because of guys like you that I no longer pick up a pencil and start drawing again. With little or no luck for the "common man" in the industry how do you simply get your work noticed?
 BH: Please don't stop on my account! Getting your work noticed is a mixture of good luck and careful planning; being good enough to be employable is always an advantage, though that hasn't necessarily been a problem for some I could mention. Never be discouraged, find a way. Mark Millar wanted to be an artist, but he was shite, so he concentrated on being a writer instead and has become one of the best the industry has seen. There is always a way to get in if you are single minded enough. Stop whining and start drawing.
SE: What do you do in your free time other than answer these stupid questions?
BH: At the moment, I'm house hunting as my girlfriend and I are expecting our first baby in about seven months. Mostly I listen to classical music and go to a lot of live concerts to hear all this fantastic stuff played live by the best orchestras in the world. I play the piano and go to see lots of music, read, write, throw dinner parties of Babylonian profligacy and generally have as much fun as I can manage in the half an hour a day I am not drawing Ultimates.
SE: This is so totally self-serving: will we see more of the Hulk in future issues of The Ultimates?
BH: Oh goodness me, yes!
SE: When you were drawing Shannon Elizabeth in issue#3 of The Ultimates did you draw her naked just to get a feel for the character?
BH: I always draw naked.
SE: [Note to self: Find a proper way to ask that question.]
I have noticed that on the boards most people are saying that Thor kicked the shit out of Hulk. While the book clearly shows the Hulk coming back and knocking the hell out of Thor. Any comments on that.
BH: We haven't seen the extent of either party's power yet, so we'll have to wait and see.
SE: Any other celebrites showing up in future issues.
BH: Yes, if only to stop them all showing up at my house begging.
SE: What's in store for future issues of The Ultimates. We already know that the Scarlet Witch and Quick Silver show up. Who will be “ultimatized” next?
BH: It's all up for grabs, but I ain't saying...
SE: Someone get me a crow bar. With a nod to Bernard Pivot, James Lipton and some alcoholic that lives down the street, It's time for the top ten.
1. Last good movie you saw.
BH: Minority Report, except for the last half an hour which should have had the sub-title of "And now to recap for those of you who weren't paying attention before we fuck up the ending."
SE: 2. What is your all time favorite album?
BH: Simon Rattle's recording of Bernstein's wonderful town is a favorite, as is Previn's 1968 recording of Vaughn Williams' 5th symphony. The list could be endless, as I fucking love almost all the thousand or so classical CD's in my collection. Most of them blow my skirt up, when I am wearing one...
SE: 3. Last good book you read?
BH: The Technicolor Time Machine, by Harry Harrison, which was bought for me by Andrew Currie as he was appalled I hadn't read it as a child.
SE: 4. What turns you on?
BH: In no particular order, my girlfriend, my girlfriend's underwear, me wearing my girlfriends underwear, Mark Millar wearing my girlfriend's underwear, me wearing Mark Millar's underwear and Mark Millar wearing Grant Morrison.
SE: 5. What turns you off?
BH: Grant Morrison wearing Warren Ellis. It's shocking.
SE: 6. Is it okay to break wind on the first date?
BH: Ask me on a date, and I'll let you know.
SE: 7. What is your favorite curse word?
BH: Fucked if I know you daft cunt. Stop asking shite questions.
SE: Uh. No.
8. Will masturbation really make you go blind?
BH: No, but the calluses on your hand may reduce sensitivity.
SE: 9. What's your wildest sexual fantasy?
BH: I couldn't possibly tell you, but it involves dwarfs and two household pets.
SE: 10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
BH: Fuck, you're about thirty years early, piss off!
SE: Thanks for your time, Bryan, it's been a real pleasure!
Dedication:
It has been exactly 24 hours since my grand mothers death. In light of all that has happened to me in the past several weeks, this interview is dedicated to her memory and spirit. Thank you Bryan for adding some fun into a sad environment. As my grand mother would say, "Fuck'n'ass!"
|
