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Stuart Immonen is mainly known as an artist who has worked for many years with Marvel and DC.
He recently finished a short, but very sweet run on Marvel's Nextwave and is taking over Ultimate
Spider-Man from long time artist Mark Bagley. Stuart answers questions about writing comics, drawing
Superman, Nextwave and Ultimate Spider-Man. We also talk about his various ongoing webcomics he does
with his wife Kathryn and other projects he's involved with.
Jamie:
For a while you wrote Superman. What did you learn from the experience?
Stuart Immonen:
Um, I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I suppose every job is a learning experience in some way. Hopefully, it's an opportunity to grow a little as a creative person. I tried to do some unconventional things with story structure at that time... experiments I've continued to try and build on. But it wasn't an internship.
Jamie:
Well I'll be, I didn't realize you been writing comics for a good while now. Do you wish you could write more often?
Stuart Immonen:
Sure, and I take the opportunity as it arises, but I'm happy at the moment to divide my time between providing art for USM and Moving Pictures.
Jamie:
In Superman: Secret Identity you did much more than pencil the book. Did you enjoy doing those extra tasks?
Stuart Immonen:
As with Superman: End of the Century, we knew the format would be better than a regular 22-pager, so I wanted to do something special to suit it. Kurt Busiek also suggested that the art should have a real, almost mundane quality that would set it apart from the "comic book" Superman in the monthlies.
I tried out a few ideas, and ultimately felt a rendered pencil technique would fit all the requirements. At the same time, I knew that approaching the art in this way would mean that some elements, particularly figures, would not have a strong outline as in more conventional inked work, so colouring the job would require a lot of close communication. Prior to that, I'd done colouring on some covers and non-comic projects, but never on anything on this scale.
I quickly found that, because I'd left so much open to interpretation at the penciling stage, the colour work took 2 to 3 times as long as the actual drawing. So, did I enjoy it? It was very labour-intensive and a long haul of almost 2 years, but I'm more or less satisfied with the results. That's about as positive as I get regarding my own work.
Jamie:
People keep saying you're a very fast artist. What helps you with your speed?
Stuart Immonen:
I often don't feel like I'm fast-- It's possible that I just feel the deadline pressure more than some. I honestly don't have any secret method or technique. I read a script and either I "see" it right away or I don't; if it's the latter, it might take 2 days to work out a tricky page. If it's the former, each panel usually takes around an hour to complete. When you factor in note taking, preparatory sketching, thumbnails and research, one page requires a full eight-hour day.
Jamie:
Warren Ellis can be quite the character online. Was he the same way when the two of you talked?
Stuart Immonen:
I've never spoken to Warren.
Jamie:
You communicated entirely through e-mail? Is that common these days? I always thought writers and artists occasionally chatted on the phone about certain stuff that comes up that needs to be resolved.
Stuart Immonen:
Actually, apart from the character and cover design email sessions at the beginning of the project, there were very few emails either. I had very few questions about the scripts as they were thorough and funny and well-paced, and I assume Warren was happy with my work also.
If there were any problems on Nextwave, they were vetted by Nick-- that's part of the editor's job.
Jamie:
The entire Nextwave series was a unique style. Did you spend a lot of time designing it?
Stuart Immonen:
Character design took the usual amount of time, with two or three costume ideas thrown around, and email exchanges between editor Nick Lowe, Joe Quesada, Warren and myself. The "look" got established pretty quickly, though, and the prop and vehicle design only took a few tries before I felt it was right.
The drawing style, though, was something I'd been wanting to explore since doing (with Wade on inks) a Pirates of the Caribbean story for Disney Adventures back in 2003. This was also on the heels of Secret Identity, which was SO much work; I didn't want to undertake another highly-detailed rendering gig. I made some tentative efforts at incorporating elements of "Pirates" into straight superhero stories on Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, but even then, I felt like I had to hold it back a bit because they were ostensibly more serious works. Actually, I felt like I was getting away with something, because it was comparatively easy, and a lot of fun. But it really did take around three years to gel completely, I guess.
All that being said, I think Nextave looks nothing like many other jobs I've done, and I'll probably move in yet another direction in the future.
Jamie:
Some people in the comic industry take continuity pretty seriously. I'm sure Machine Man fans complained that Nextwave's version of the character didn't jive with any previous depiction. What is your view on character continuity?
Stuart Immonen:
I think it's part of why the industry's so broken. But I've personally never taken it seriously. If I read, say, Avengers and Marvel Team-Up as a kid, it didn't matter to me if Thor was in both. Other comics I liked, like Archie, Little Lulu, Donald Duck or (to a somewhat lesser extent) Tintin, didn't address continuity at all, and they weren't lesser stories for it. In fact, they may stand up better to scrutiny, historically speaking.
Jamie:
You mentioned in another interview that you do more experimental webcomics in order to keep your superhero work fresh. Can you tell us how a webcomic effected a title you did?
Stuart Immonen:
Well, the webcomic series don't affect the superhero work at all, per se. What I meant was that doing something in a different style concurrent with my "day job" forces me to think about how I draw something, instead of looking at a blank page and picking from rote panel compositions. With the schedule of a monthly book, it's so easy to think of templates for panels-- like Wood's "22 panels that always work". I think it's very tempting to rely on tropes; from the way one draws a nose, for example, to the way to draw a fight, or a building. I never want to be that artist.
Jamie:
I understand you are doing a story in Marvel Comics Presents with your wife Kathryn writing it. Can you give us any details?
Stuart Immonen:
Nope, that's under wraps for now. I'll say it stars Hellcat... and Patsy Walker.
Jamie:
Are there any plans for Sebastian X to be translated to English and sold in North America?
Stuart Immonen:
I really don't know. My association with Humanoids ended with the book's publication for the French market.
Jamie:
So.. Ultimate Spider-Man, you think you'll do 111 issues just to show up Bagley?
Stuart Immonen:
I don't want to show up Mark; I don't think I could.
Jamie:
Are you interested in doing a long run on the character?
Stuart Immonen:
Well, I wouldn't have accepted the job if I didn't think I had it in me to go the distance. As long as editorial is happy with the work, I'll stay on.
Jamie:
With Spider-Man, do you feel you need to keep your art more traditional?
Stuart Immonen:
Not really. The stories are light and fun, and require a pretty deft touch. I think there are "darker" artists who wouldn't be as suited as others to what Bendis is doing, so I'm trying to keep that element in my own work out of the equation.
Of course, this depends on your definition of "traditional." Is Ditko traditional in terms of the character, or is McFarlane?
Jamie:
Oh, I guess Bagley would be the new "traditional" when it comes to Spider-Man. But what I mean is more like your older work, Superman, Shockrockets, etc..
Stuart Immonen:
Maybe I'm in a minority of one here, but to me, Superman and Shockrockets are both projects that need to be "grounded" in a way that Spider-Man doesn't. Obviously there are elements of fantasy in all three projects, but there's a mundane quality that I intentionally brought to Superman and SR that I don't think suits USM. If anything, I find myself having to play up the cartooning quality (for lack of a better term) on the Spider-Man pages.
Jamie:
Do the Spider-Man movies affect the way you're presenting the story?
Stuart Immonen:
Jamie:
Have you seen Spider-Man 3 yet? If so what did you think?
Stuart Immonen:
I probably wouldn't have seen it if my son hadn't wanted to. It didn't do anything for me.
Jamie:
I noticed a new webcomic on your site called moving pictures by you and Kathryn. What can you tell us about it?
Stuart Immonen:
Actually, I think we'll just let it unfold. The story's complete, but not drawn at this point.
Jamie:
It's in a normal page format, do you plan on publishing this in print at some point?
Stuart Immonen:
I suppose that's always our aim at some level, but another self-publishing enterprise is a long way off. We're finally talking about releasing Never As Bad As You Think in a very limited press run, for sale off the website or at cons only. We haven't been approached by any interested third party... but we wouldn't turn down that possibility outright.
Jamie:
Do you plan on doing anymore comics with the Misery Loves characters?
Stuart Immonen:
I have a number of unfinished strips in various stages of completion, but I really don't have the time to dedicate to it, with USM, Marvel Comics Presents and Moving Pictures.
A special thanks to Stuart for doing this interview despite his busy schedule. You can see Stuart's webcomics and other artwork at his homepage,
http://www.immonen.ca.
Regards,
Jamie Coville
http://www.TheGraphicNovels.com
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