By Kiel Phegley
One of comics most celebrated creators will up his output to a monthly basis in 2009, and he'll be doing it all at Marvel. Artist Art Adams has signed a Marvel exclusive contract and will be delivering an as-of-yet unknown ongoing series with writer Jeph Loeb.
"I imagine working with Jeph on this new project is going to be like usual: it's going to be completely insane and will drive a variety of readers out of their minds, but people will still be excited about it," laughs Adams. "And I think I can say that it's part of the Ultimate line, but that's all we're saying at this point."
While the how's and the who's of this new series won't be revealed until Loeb and David Finch wrap their universe-redefining ULTIMATUM series, the secret origin of the
Adams/Loeb collaboration stretches back over the past two years when the friends both returned to work at Marvel—Adams delivering jaw-dropping covers for AVENGERS CLASSICS while Loeb broke Ultimate ground with ULTIMATES 3—before the pair teamed up for a three-part tale in Loeb's best-selling HULK.
"I knew Jeph was there, and we talked about possibly doing something. We'd been talking about it for, gosh, basically since he went over to Marvel," recalls the artist, adding that the choice to commit fully to a new series was "really just one of those things where I've been feeling more like doing some comics interiors.
"It's a different challenge, and it's a lot of fun. Doing the interior means I have a little bit more control over what various things look like. Doing covers and doing interiors are both fun—they're just different kinds of fun."
In order to help guarantee that the new Ultimate series will ship on a regular schedule, Adams says that he'll have no inker on the book, instead having pages colored directly from his pencils. And while the process remains somewhat unfamiliar to him, the artist promises no drop in quality.
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HULK cover by
Art Adams |
"I've only had that done on one job [before]," Adams notes. "That one didn't look bad, but I know there are other guys doing it these days like Bryan Hitch's ULTIMATES being scanned from the pencils. And I believe Jeff Campbell has a lot of his stuff printed from the pencils. I'm curious to see how it looks. Basically, we're experimenting at this point. If it looks like crap, we'll make it not look like crap."
As for whether or not Adams will be able to draw his favorite subjects of monsters, explosions and out-and-out action, the artist swears that one thing the book will never be is boring.
"Jeph and I are always going to be able to find fun doing whatever the heck it is we're doing."
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