When it comes to creating superhero action, comic book artist Bryan Hitch is up there with such legendary creators as Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, John Romita Jr., Alex Ross and Mike Mignola. Thats why Hitchs comic book series, The Ultimates co-created with writer Mark Millar, was Marvel and Lionsgates first choice to adapt to an animated movie. They cherry picked the best scenes and characters from The Ultimates to create the straight to DVD animated movie, Ultimate Avengers.
After Nick Fury discovers the frozen body of Captain America 60 years after Word War II, he decides to team him up with The Mighty Thor, Giant-Man, The Wasp and Iron to form the Avengers. Their first mission is to beat back an alien invasion.
Buy the DVD of Ultimate Avengers
Daniel Robert Epstein: Whatd you think when you heard they were going to do this movie?
Bryan Hitch: Its like Oh, Hoorah. Theres going to be a larger audience. Then you realize, of course, that youre not going to get any money out of it because we dont own the project. Its a very flattering thing, but nothing that necessarily impacts our career in a very direct way. But initially there was always the concern that things would be changed dramatically and it would be watered down for a young audience or that changes would be made for the sake of making changes. You get that more often than not with an adaptation. But this has been so remarkably true to the spirit of what weve done and the designs have been extremely close to what Ive drawn. I am very pleased with it.
DRE: Is Mark [Millar] pleased as well?
BH: I know Mark hasnt seen the finished movie yet. Ive had a more hands on more hands on approach with it because I worked on some of the designs. But they sent me preview copy several months ago, which I sat down and watched with the kids. I wanted to see if I would like it as well as my children. Even though its been very true to the comics I think they wanted to appeal to the younger audience without alienating a more adult, PG-13 type of audience. I think theyve really managed to do that.
DRE: I read you have three children. Is that right?
BH: Yeah. The youngest one wouldnt have watched it though because hes two and a half. But the older ones are seven and 11. They loved it.
DRE: Was this the first work of yours you were able to show them?
BH: Theyre not comic book fans. Theyre computer game fans really. They come around when Im sitting there at the kitchen table inking a cover or something. They go, Oh, look its Spider-Man or the Hulk. Thats cool. But its not something they go out of their way to look at. Its what daddy does at the office. But the cartoon is something they understand because they watch television and they play computer games. When I did the Hulk game for Universal, they were really interested in that because it was a computer game, regardless of the fact that it was the Hulk. In this case, they were able to sit down and actually watch something on television that had my name on it.
DRE: Did you actually do designs on the cartoon?
BH: No. They followed the comic book very closely so they asked us to act as consultants. I think it was also a way of keeping us on site too because it was such a close adaptation in places. I think almost every panel I drew in the book is in there in some form because theyve tried to keep to the actual Ultimates comic itself. Obviously theres inbetweening because one standard comic book panel will not make three minutes of a TV movie, but essentially its all been based on the comic book panels.
DRE: What did you think of the changes to your guys Captain America?
BH: I understand where theyre coming from because we were going for a much more hard nut kicking kind of guy.
DRE: He literally kicks people in the nuts.
BH: Yeah, the Hulk specifically. Also one of the reasons they called it Ultimate Avengers rather than just the Ultimates was because they were trying to bring in some of the elements of the classic Avengers. Their Iron Man is much closer to the Marvel Universe version than the Ultimate one. I think Captain America is very much a blend of the two as well. Even though the story is very based on ours, hes a little more the Boy Scout from the Marvel Universe than the nut-kicking soldier that he is in the Ultimates.
DRE: What was also interesting was certain things they left out which bodes well for future stories. The aliens in the Ultimates comic were Skrulls but they were changed for the Ultimate Avengers movie. So we might see the Skrulls sometime in the future. Maybe Im being too optimistic.
BH: That also depends on what they have the rights for too. I know that the second one has Black Panther in it and features a storyline set in Wakanda. I think they have plans to adapt the second two stories Mark and I have done in Ultimates II. But I dont know how fixed those plans are.
DRE: You and Mark Millar are credited with creating the Ultimates. Is that correct?
BH: Right but Marvel still owns the initial character creations like Captain America and Iron Man, so technically they arent created by us.
DRE: When I spoke to Avi Arad at the Fantastic Four press conference, I asked him if Jack Kirbys estate is getting any money for the movie. He said no because Jack Kirby was a hand for hire, like all the Marvel artists. Were you guys always in favor of being credited with creating the Ultimates?
BH: Warren Ellis and I are credited with the creation of the Authority in every issue. Thats not going to happen on the Ultimates simply because these characters preexisted. Captain America was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby so no matter how weve interpreted it, its actually their character. We dont have any legal claim on any of these things. Anytime you create a new character for Marvel, you do get a participation in any profits they make. Avi doesnt run Marvel as a charity by any stretch of the imagination. Hes certainly not going to give away anything that he can keep for himself.
DRE: Were there any characters that werent in the cartoon movie that you wish could have, like Hawkeye?
BH: I wouldve liked to have seen Hawkeye because, especially in the Ultimates II, he is turning into one of the coolest characters. There are sequences in issues ten and 11 where I defy people not to stand up and cheer Hawkeye. That comes as a result of us massacring his family.
DRE: I think they kind of went with Hank Pym as the Hawkeye-esque character.
BH: Yeah, I guess so. We went with Pym as the asshole so go figure.
DRE: Would you like to have seen Hank Pym smack his wife around a little bit?
BH: Well, how do I answer that one without sounding like a jerk? I can understand fully why they didnt do it because theres a very limited amount of time in the 70 odd minutes that they had. If they had included that scene, they wouldve had to have some character resolution within the confines of the film. Either Hank wouldve got his comeuppance or wouldve had his turnaround and made good on it. Thats an awful lot of time so its one of those things you probably have to cut out simply because there isnt enough time to show those things happening.
DRE: But they did always have Tony Stark with a drink in his hand.
BH: Thats good. At least thats one character dynamic that we get. I like alcohol abuse in a cartoon. If theres anything I regret not doing in the comic, was having Nick Fury smoke big cigars.
DRE: They dont do that anymore, right?
BH: Yeah, no smoking allowed in Marvel comics.
DRE: Its so bizarre. Wolverine doesnt smoke either.
BH: I know and hes the one with the healing factor. Its not like hes going to get cancer or anything.
DRE: Would you be interested in working on an Authority film project?
BH: If somebody wanted to give me $200 million to make a live action Authority movie, Id jump at it. But I wouldnt be interested in an animation of it at all. Id want it to be as visceral as possible because I think thats the nature of the material. If somebody wants me to direct a movie, thats a different thing but not an animated one.
DRE: Have you made short films or anything like that?
BH: No, I havent because Ive been doing comics all the time so I dont have the technical expertise. I know a lot of producers and directors who have encouraged me to pursue a more cinematic career. So thats something Im moving towards but its happening through design more than anything else at the moment.
DRE: Are you designing anything you can talk about?
BH: Nothing I can talk about right now. But I got my first taste of it last year when I did the designs for the new Doctor Who TV series for the BBC. The executive producer, Russell Davies, offered it to me on the strength of my comic book work. I was invited to design some of the key sets and aliens which was great fun. It also got me some very good contacts and some very good technical groundings because even though I know instinctively from reading a script exactly how something ought to look, having the technical knowledge to pass that information on to a crew and the cast, who have their own ideas, is something else altogether. Thats the experience I dont have but Im getting it.
DRE: How did you like the process of designing Doctor Who sets?
BH: It wasnt going to be a full time job simply because they didnt have the budget to have me there all the time. We decided that Id be a consultant and I would just come in whenever they had an initial meeting about several episodes. I would read the scripts then throw out ideas either verbally or visually. Sometimes Id leave scribbles for their design department to follow up on and then Id come back and have another look at them and give suggestions. The only set I really had huge input into was the TARDIS set, which I pretty much designed from scratch. That was great fun because its the first time Id ever got to walk around one of my own drawings.
DRE: I believe that Warren Ellis works with full script. What about Mark Millar?
BH: Yeah, both of them do. But Ive been blessed in both relationships in that once they realize the way I work, I practically ignore anything but the dialogue. At one point, Warren was only writing dialogue in anything but the basic action scenes and in the action scenes, he was pretty much writing You came up with this, you get on with it. With Mark, its not a clear cut writer/artist relationship. He doesnt just write the script and I dont just illustrate it the way hes written it. Its a much greyer area than that.
DRE: Theres so much energy in your work, how much is each panel or page planned out?
BH: Usually upon reading the script it takes very little effort for the images to appear in my head. After that, its just a question of how warm I am. If its early in the day, I have to do a little more in the way of thumbnails until I get what Im actually aiming at in my head. If its later in the day, Im usually right on the art boards without even the use of an eraser because its so clear. Theres no clear cut formula for how this stuff works. Sometimes it comes out very naturally. Sometimes I just have to labor at it because I know exactly what I want to achieve. Other times Im not quite getting it and pages get torn up and sequences get redrawn. I suppose it is much closer to directing and editing a film because its not so clear cut as just drawing the panels as laid out and described by Mark.
DRE: Have you played the Hulk game you designed?
BH: I havent. Im not really a game player. The kids are into games but I never bothered with them for some reason. My eldest son likes the Hulk game very much. Hes a huge game fan and he followed the whole process from when I was designing the characters.
DRE: Did you add in things like the way the Hulk smashes two cars together and uses them as boxing gloves?
BH: No, I dont know where they come up with that stuff. They wanted to base it very much on our take in the Ultimates. That was why they got in touch with me in the first place. They initially wanted me to do the first Hulk game but I wasnt available. For the second game they wanted to make it less like the Hulk movie and more like the Hulk in the Ultimates. All I really did for them was a whole pile of Hulk action shots. Six large poster-size action shots, which have shown up as various publicity shots and the box cover art as well.
DRE: I do enjoy some superhero comics, but my favorite thing in comic books is autobiography. Do you have personal stories that you want to do in the vein of Eddie Campbell or Harvey Pekar?
BH: Ive got plenty of stories in me but I dont have a timeline for them or a suggestion that it will be like a biography. If a story grips me, I dont care what it is, Ill pursue it. But Im much more into the action adventure stuff. I dont really like getting too introspective. I dont mind having things that I understand personally informing the character relationships in the more action based comics, but Im more interested in action based comics than I am in introspective works.
DRE: What else are you working on besides Ultimates?
BH: Im really busy at the moment. Ive got dozens of covers Ive been doing for Marvel. Ive got a couple of portfolio things going on in the side. Ive got a film coming up that I cant talk about and of course theres my follow up project with Mark too. At the moment Im just doing the cover art and promotional material for the second Ultimates DVD.
DRE: Your work has been described a lot as widescreen action. Do you see it as having that 70 mm feel?
BH: I think those are tags other people put on work to try and pigeonhole or quantify it to some degree. But I do tend to think more cinematically than back to classic comic books. Im much more interested in film than I am in comics. This goes way back to when I was a kid. My biggest influence was Superman the movie because I loved Superman as a comic. But seeing it as a movie, where it became real and how it had all those beautifully shot camera angles, suddenly everything clicked for me. I always loved film and I devoured television and comics. The difference was that I was living in the northern part of England where Hollywood and television was something done in a mystical land far away. At seven years old I knew it was 20 odd years away before I could make a film. All I had to do to draw a comic was pick up a pencil. So all that got channeled into doing comics but Ive never lost my love of cinema. Now my drawings allow me to be capable of realizing anything I can see in my head. Its the cinematic vision that I have more than a comic book vision.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
After Nick Fury discovers the frozen body of Captain America 60 years after Word War II, he decides to team him up with The Mighty Thor, Giant-Man, The Wasp and Iron to form the Avengers. Their first mission is to beat back an alien invasion.
Buy the DVD of Ultimate Avengers
Daniel Robert Epstein: Whatd you think when you heard they were going to do this movie?
Bryan Hitch: Its like Oh, Hoorah. Theres going to be a larger audience. Then you realize, of course, that youre not going to get any money out of it because we dont own the project. Its a very flattering thing, but nothing that necessarily impacts our career in a very direct way. But initially there was always the concern that things would be changed dramatically and it would be watered down for a young audience or that changes would be made for the sake of making changes. You get that more often than not with an adaptation. But this has been so remarkably true to the spirit of what weve done and the designs have been extremely close to what Ive drawn. I am very pleased with it.
DRE: Is Mark [Millar] pleased as well?
BH: I know Mark hasnt seen the finished movie yet. Ive had a more hands on more hands on approach with it because I worked on some of the designs. But they sent me preview copy several months ago, which I sat down and watched with the kids. I wanted to see if I would like it as well as my children. Even though its been very true to the comics I think they wanted to appeal to the younger audience without alienating a more adult, PG-13 type of audience. I think theyve really managed to do that.
DRE: I read you have three children. Is that right?
BH: Yeah. The youngest one wouldnt have watched it though because hes two and a half. But the older ones are seven and 11. They loved it.
DRE: Was this the first work of yours you were able to show them?
BH: Theyre not comic book fans. Theyre computer game fans really. They come around when Im sitting there at the kitchen table inking a cover or something. They go, Oh, look its Spider-Man or the Hulk. Thats cool. But its not something they go out of their way to look at. Its what daddy does at the office. But the cartoon is something they understand because they watch television and they play computer games. When I did the Hulk game for Universal, they were really interested in that because it was a computer game, regardless of the fact that it was the Hulk. In this case, they were able to sit down and actually watch something on television that had my name on it.
DRE: Did you actually do designs on the cartoon?
BH: No. They followed the comic book very closely so they asked us to act as consultants. I think it was also a way of keeping us on site too because it was such a close adaptation in places. I think almost every panel I drew in the book is in there in some form because theyve tried to keep to the actual Ultimates comic itself. Obviously theres inbetweening because one standard comic book panel will not make three minutes of a TV movie, but essentially its all been based on the comic book panels.
DRE: What did you think of the changes to your guys Captain America?
BH: I understand where theyre coming from because we were going for a much more hard nut kicking kind of guy.
DRE: He literally kicks people in the nuts.
BH: Yeah, the Hulk specifically. Also one of the reasons they called it Ultimate Avengers rather than just the Ultimates was because they were trying to bring in some of the elements of the classic Avengers. Their Iron Man is much closer to the Marvel Universe version than the Ultimate one. I think Captain America is very much a blend of the two as well. Even though the story is very based on ours, hes a little more the Boy Scout from the Marvel Universe than the nut-kicking soldier that he is in the Ultimates.
DRE: What was also interesting was certain things they left out which bodes well for future stories. The aliens in the Ultimates comic were Skrulls but they were changed for the Ultimate Avengers movie. So we might see the Skrulls sometime in the future. Maybe Im being too optimistic.
BH: That also depends on what they have the rights for too. I know that the second one has Black Panther in it and features a storyline set in Wakanda. I think they have plans to adapt the second two stories Mark and I have done in Ultimates II. But I dont know how fixed those plans are.
DRE: You and Mark Millar are credited with creating the Ultimates. Is that correct?
BH: Right but Marvel still owns the initial character creations like Captain America and Iron Man, so technically they arent created by us.
DRE: When I spoke to Avi Arad at the Fantastic Four press conference, I asked him if Jack Kirbys estate is getting any money for the movie. He said no because Jack Kirby was a hand for hire, like all the Marvel artists. Were you guys always in favor of being credited with creating the Ultimates?
BH: Warren Ellis and I are credited with the creation of the Authority in every issue. Thats not going to happen on the Ultimates simply because these characters preexisted. Captain America was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby so no matter how weve interpreted it, its actually their character. We dont have any legal claim on any of these things. Anytime you create a new character for Marvel, you do get a participation in any profits they make. Avi doesnt run Marvel as a charity by any stretch of the imagination. Hes certainly not going to give away anything that he can keep for himself.
DRE: Were there any characters that werent in the cartoon movie that you wish could have, like Hawkeye?
BH: I wouldve liked to have seen Hawkeye because, especially in the Ultimates II, he is turning into one of the coolest characters. There are sequences in issues ten and 11 where I defy people not to stand up and cheer Hawkeye. That comes as a result of us massacring his family.
DRE: I think they kind of went with Hank Pym as the Hawkeye-esque character.
BH: Yeah, I guess so. We went with Pym as the asshole so go figure.
DRE: Would you like to have seen Hank Pym smack his wife around a little bit?
BH: Well, how do I answer that one without sounding like a jerk? I can understand fully why they didnt do it because theres a very limited amount of time in the 70 odd minutes that they had. If they had included that scene, they wouldve had to have some character resolution within the confines of the film. Either Hank wouldve got his comeuppance or wouldve had his turnaround and made good on it. Thats an awful lot of time so its one of those things you probably have to cut out simply because there isnt enough time to show those things happening.
DRE: But they did always have Tony Stark with a drink in his hand.
BH: Thats good. At least thats one character dynamic that we get. I like alcohol abuse in a cartoon. If theres anything I regret not doing in the comic, was having Nick Fury smoke big cigars.
DRE: They dont do that anymore, right?
BH: Yeah, no smoking allowed in Marvel comics.
DRE: Its so bizarre. Wolverine doesnt smoke either.
BH: I know and hes the one with the healing factor. Its not like hes going to get cancer or anything.
DRE: Would you be interested in working on an Authority film project?
BH: If somebody wanted to give me $200 million to make a live action Authority movie, Id jump at it. But I wouldnt be interested in an animation of it at all. Id want it to be as visceral as possible because I think thats the nature of the material. If somebody wants me to direct a movie, thats a different thing but not an animated one.
DRE: Have you made short films or anything like that?
BH: No, I havent because Ive been doing comics all the time so I dont have the technical expertise. I know a lot of producers and directors who have encouraged me to pursue a more cinematic career. So thats something Im moving towards but its happening through design more than anything else at the moment.
DRE: Are you designing anything you can talk about?
BH: Nothing I can talk about right now. But I got my first taste of it last year when I did the designs for the new Doctor Who TV series for the BBC. The executive producer, Russell Davies, offered it to me on the strength of my comic book work. I was invited to design some of the key sets and aliens which was great fun. It also got me some very good contacts and some very good technical groundings because even though I know instinctively from reading a script exactly how something ought to look, having the technical knowledge to pass that information on to a crew and the cast, who have their own ideas, is something else altogether. Thats the experience I dont have but Im getting it.
DRE: How did you like the process of designing Doctor Who sets?
BH: It wasnt going to be a full time job simply because they didnt have the budget to have me there all the time. We decided that Id be a consultant and I would just come in whenever they had an initial meeting about several episodes. I would read the scripts then throw out ideas either verbally or visually. Sometimes Id leave scribbles for their design department to follow up on and then Id come back and have another look at them and give suggestions. The only set I really had huge input into was the TARDIS set, which I pretty much designed from scratch. That was great fun because its the first time Id ever got to walk around one of my own drawings.
DRE: I believe that Warren Ellis works with full script. What about Mark Millar?
BH: Yeah, both of them do. But Ive been blessed in both relationships in that once they realize the way I work, I practically ignore anything but the dialogue. At one point, Warren was only writing dialogue in anything but the basic action scenes and in the action scenes, he was pretty much writing You came up with this, you get on with it. With Mark, its not a clear cut writer/artist relationship. He doesnt just write the script and I dont just illustrate it the way hes written it. Its a much greyer area than that.
DRE: Theres so much energy in your work, how much is each panel or page planned out?
BH: Usually upon reading the script it takes very little effort for the images to appear in my head. After that, its just a question of how warm I am. If its early in the day, I have to do a little more in the way of thumbnails until I get what Im actually aiming at in my head. If its later in the day, Im usually right on the art boards without even the use of an eraser because its so clear. Theres no clear cut formula for how this stuff works. Sometimes it comes out very naturally. Sometimes I just have to labor at it because I know exactly what I want to achieve. Other times Im not quite getting it and pages get torn up and sequences get redrawn. I suppose it is much closer to directing and editing a film because its not so clear cut as just drawing the panels as laid out and described by Mark.
DRE: Have you played the Hulk game you designed?
BH: I havent. Im not really a game player. The kids are into games but I never bothered with them for some reason. My eldest son likes the Hulk game very much. Hes a huge game fan and he followed the whole process from when I was designing the characters.
DRE: Did you add in things like the way the Hulk smashes two cars together and uses them as boxing gloves?
BH: No, I dont know where they come up with that stuff. They wanted to base it very much on our take in the Ultimates. That was why they got in touch with me in the first place. They initially wanted me to do the first Hulk game but I wasnt available. For the second game they wanted to make it less like the Hulk movie and more like the Hulk in the Ultimates. All I really did for them was a whole pile of Hulk action shots. Six large poster-size action shots, which have shown up as various publicity shots and the box cover art as well.
DRE: I do enjoy some superhero comics, but my favorite thing in comic books is autobiography. Do you have personal stories that you want to do in the vein of Eddie Campbell or Harvey Pekar?
BH: Ive got plenty of stories in me but I dont have a timeline for them or a suggestion that it will be like a biography. If a story grips me, I dont care what it is, Ill pursue it. But Im much more into the action adventure stuff. I dont really like getting too introspective. I dont mind having things that I understand personally informing the character relationships in the more action based comics, but Im more interested in action based comics than I am in introspective works.
DRE: What else are you working on besides Ultimates?
BH: Im really busy at the moment. Ive got dozens of covers Ive been doing for Marvel. Ive got a couple of portfolio things going on in the side. Ive got a film coming up that I cant talk about and of course theres my follow up project with Mark too. At the moment Im just doing the cover art and promotional material for the second Ultimates DVD.
DRE: Your work has been described a lot as widescreen action. Do you see it as having that 70 mm feel?
BH: I think those are tags other people put on work to try and pigeonhole or quantify it to some degree. But I do tend to think more cinematically than back to classic comic books. Im much more interested in film than I am in comics. This goes way back to when I was a kid. My biggest influence was Superman the movie because I loved Superman as a comic. But seeing it as a movie, where it became real and how it had all those beautifully shot camera angles, suddenly everything clicked for me. I always loved film and I devoured television and comics. The difference was that I was living in the northern part of England where Hollywood and television was something done in a mystical land far away. At seven years old I knew it was 20 odd years away before I could make a film. All I had to do to draw a comic was pick up a pencil. So all that got channeled into doing comics but Ive never lost my love of cinema. Now my drawings allow me to be capable of realizing anything I can see in my head. Its the cinematic vision that I have more than a comic book vision.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
Shafter_Wasco said:
Bryan Hitch is up there with such legendary creators as Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, John Romita Jr., Alex Ross and Mike Mignola
Umm . . . no.
I second that. But, I'm old school, so my list would be more Kirby, Adams, Romita (Sr.), and Curt Swan. But that's a discussion for the comics forum.
Honestly, though, I was very unimpressed by the TV ads I've seen for Ultimate Avengers, so I hope the full product is better. The animation looks very average and too anime influenced (in a bad way.) With what the whole Dini, etc. crew are doing for DC , Marvel needs to step up.
Mqx said:
Shafter_Wasco said:
Bryan Hitch is up there with such legendary creators as Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, John Romita Jr., Alex Ross and Mike Mignola
Umm . . . no.
I second that. But, I'm old school, so my list would be more Kirby, Adams, Romita (Sr.), and Curt Swan. But that's a discussion for the comics forum.
Honestly, though, I was very unimpressed by the TV ads I've seen for Ultimate Avengers, so I hope the full product is better. The animation looks very average and too anime influenced (in a bad way.) With what the whole Dini, etc. crew are doing for DC , Marvel needs to step up.
never a big fan of JR Sr.