MSth08
06-08-2006, 12:08 PM
from the pages of newsarama...
a four-issue limited series under the Marvel Knights imprint, named spider-man : reign by kaare andrews.
http://www.newsarama.com/WW_Chicago_06/Marvel/reign/reign.jpg
Remember Kaare Andrews’ Marvel Knights project, The Spider?
Well, Marvel announced Friday that the writer/artist’s project is now known as Spider-Man: Reign, a four-issue limited series under the Marvel Knights imprint.
According to Andrews, he had originally pitched the idea to editor Axel Alonso after “Ray of Light,” his Electro story that appeared in Tangled Web #10. And that was six years ago. “So like it or not, I have been working on this project on either a part time or full time basis for six years,” he said. “This really is a dream project for me. I will make no bones about it. If this was my one and only comic book project to ever be published, I would not be disappointed. This really is the culmination of my life so far.
“This is a story that runs parallel to continuity. It’s an option. It’s an opinion. This is me taking a world I love, taking the characters I love and making them hurt. I want to be very clear that this is not an alternate reality. This is my reality and I invite you all to explore it with me. At one point in my life, my whole existence was Spider-Man. Now, for a little while at least it’s true again.
“It’s a little intimidating to be honest. My dream project. And I’m not embarrassed to say that I’ve started this book three times before I found my footing. And I explored multiple art techniques all through out this journey.
“In terms of process, I thumbnailed and lettered the entire story before I started drawing a single finished page. I’ve always wanted to do it that way and Axel was very supportive. He really is the sole reason this book is happening at all.”
This being a labor of love for Andrews, each issue will be 36 pages long. “I asked to work with a larger page count because I think this is a larger story. It lets me play a little more with pacing and layout and content. I am writing/drawing/coloring all issues myself and am making full use of the technology of today combined with an artistic sensibility of the 80’s.
“I love this medium so much and I want to be right at the forefront of the evolution of comics. I want to be responsible for change, you know? Push the envelope. Try things. Experiment. If you looked at my whole career, I think you can probably see this. It’s why I work in so many styles, with so many techniques. Whatever works. And for this story, grabbing firmly onto the work of the 80’s while driving hard and fast to the future seems to be what’s working.”
With Spider-Man: Reign being a Marvel Knight book, it is obviously not very kid-friendly as projects that fall under this particular imprint would normally have a grittier edge than your normal Marvel Universe titles. Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man this is not. “This story is as kid-friendly as watching the news,” Andrews admitted. “The funny thing with this story is that I wrote the first pitch pre-9/11. And the things I’m dealing with, the City that Peter ends up living in, the conditions of living, the oppressive nature of the Police State is all very relative. Basically I wrote a cautionary story of the future that’s become a relative story of today.
“Why Marvel Knights? Because I am asking questions that need uncensored answers. What happens to a woman who marries a man with radioactive blood? What happens to these characters 35 years from now? What makes a city trade in its freedom for security? What happens when we no longer need heroes? When a man stops fighting? What brings him back?
There’ve been many interpretations on everyone's favorite wall-crawler for decades now. We’ve had the original Stan Lee/Steve Ditko version and the Amazing Friends cartoon. Now, there’s J. Michael Straczynski's take on the character and the Sam Raimi movies. There’s also the Brian Bendis version in the Ultimate Universe and Andrews’ very own Legend of the Spider Clan mini-series that was set in the Marvel Mangaverse.
For Andrews, there will always be three definitive versions of Spider-Man that he considers as classic. The Ralph Bakshi 60’s cartoon, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s run on Amazing Spider-Man and the Todd McFarlane years. “I love these characters so much,” he added. “Peter Parker, Mary Jane, Aunt May, Jonah Jameson… And I need to apologize to them because they will hurt. They will feel pain. They will suffer. And when they need strength the most… I’m going to take it all away.
“Spider-Man is that thing that makes Peter unique. It’s that thing we all have inside us that can either be harnessed or repressed. It’s the spark of life really. It can make you truly live or it can literally kill you. And we all have this thing in us. For me, it’s creating. Drawing. Writing. Design. If I didn’t do these things my soul would start to char, dry up and blacken. I literally can’t go more than a day without tapping into this thing or I start going crazy. It’s a good place to live and thank you to Marvel Comics and my fans for allowing me to get paid to do it.
“But the big secret is we all have that thing. Whether it’s running, collecting stamps, painting or playing guitar. This is what makes us human, what gives us warmth. Peter’s going to show us what happens when we push it back down. There are lessons here but there is only one class, pain.
“[With Spider-Man: Reign], I’ve taken Peter Parker back to the selfish, whiny, broke all the time, down on his luck tragic hero we all used to know and love. You know, the guy that’s a little closer to you and me. The one that turns his back on people, the one that’s a selfish loner. The Peter Parker that’s forgotten his most important lesson. And when you forget something like that… the world will make you will learn it again.”
Is Spider-Man: Reign somehow connected to his "Ray of Light" story? “Only in the sense that both Spider-Man and Electro are both in this series,” he revealed. “My lettered thumbnails is a process I used with “Ray Of Light” too. But really Spider-Man: Reign is it’s own entity. But the important thing with “Ray Of Light” is that I was exploring something story wise. It was a story about the reality woven into even the most fantastical situations. And that kind of thing I’m trying to tap into again. Make it real. Make people hurt. Give them actual stakes. I’m not interested in a paint-by-numbers plot. I want to scrape this story off the walls of my own human experience,” he said, adding that he’s also very proud with his work with Zeb Wells on Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One. “That mini-series was responsible for me receiving Canada's first national award for "Outstanding Comic Book Artist".
What’s a Spider-Man story without his rogues gallery, right? “A lot of villains are coming back to test Peter, to make him suffer, to kick his butt. There are a lot of bad feelings out there from bad guys who’ve spent so much time behind prison walls. When they are given their opportunity, they seize it. But this story is about more than vengeance. It’s about redemption and those lessons are learned on every level. From our hero to his City to our villains. It’s a hard lesson. You can only redeem yourself after a very large and prolonged screw up. You know? You can’t be a good guy and then experience redemption. You have to need it. And it this story everyone needs it.
As for what exactly could readers expect from Spider-Man: Reign? Instead of providing solid teasers, Andrews posed two questions instead. “Number One: if you discover you don’t even have the power to save the people you love… if you ultimately have no power at all… do you have any responsibility?
“Number Two: what is the cost when a City gives away it’s personal power and it’s personal responsibility? What happens when you trade freedom for safety?”
Finally, what are Andrews’ own expectations for the third Spider-Man movie hitting theatres in the summer of 2007? “Those Spider-Man movies are some of the most consistent, well executed blockbusters I have ever seen. I am so glad that Sam Raimi is directing all three. I think that you need to keep consistency in directors (ahem – X3…) to keep consistency in tone, story, achievement, and quality. And I am so looking forward to some of the visuals of these bad guys.
“Like I said, life has caught up with my “future story” and I’m excited to see what happens. My very soul is in these pages. And when you put something like that in the hands of readers… to be judged. It’s a scary place. But I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
http://www.newsarama.com/WW_Chicago_06/Marvel/reign/reign2_3.jpg
http://www.newsarama.com/WW_Chicago_06/Marvel/reign/reign_9.jpg
http://www.newsarama.com/WW_Chicago_06/Marvel/reign/reign_16.jpg
http://www.newsarama.com/WW_Chicago_06/Marvel/reign/reign_31.jpg
http://www.newsarama.com/WW_Chicago_06/Marvel/reign/reign_32.jpg
a four-issue limited series under the Marvel Knights imprint, named spider-man : reign by kaare andrews.
http://www.newsarama.com/WW_Chicago_06/Marvel/reign/reign.jpg
Remember Kaare Andrews’ Marvel Knights project, The Spider?
Well, Marvel announced Friday that the writer/artist’s project is now known as Spider-Man: Reign, a four-issue limited series under the Marvel Knights imprint.
According to Andrews, he had originally pitched the idea to editor Axel Alonso after “Ray of Light,” his Electro story that appeared in Tangled Web #10. And that was six years ago. “So like it or not, I have been working on this project on either a part time or full time basis for six years,” he said. “This really is a dream project for me. I will make no bones about it. If this was my one and only comic book project to ever be published, I would not be disappointed. This really is the culmination of my life so far.
“This is a story that runs parallel to continuity. It’s an option. It’s an opinion. This is me taking a world I love, taking the characters I love and making them hurt. I want to be very clear that this is not an alternate reality. This is my reality and I invite you all to explore it with me. At one point in my life, my whole existence was Spider-Man. Now, for a little while at least it’s true again.
“It’s a little intimidating to be honest. My dream project. And I’m not embarrassed to say that I’ve started this book three times before I found my footing. And I explored multiple art techniques all through out this journey.
“In terms of process, I thumbnailed and lettered the entire story before I started drawing a single finished page. I’ve always wanted to do it that way and Axel was very supportive. He really is the sole reason this book is happening at all.”
This being a labor of love for Andrews, each issue will be 36 pages long. “I asked to work with a larger page count because I think this is a larger story. It lets me play a little more with pacing and layout and content. I am writing/drawing/coloring all issues myself and am making full use of the technology of today combined with an artistic sensibility of the 80’s.
“I love this medium so much and I want to be right at the forefront of the evolution of comics. I want to be responsible for change, you know? Push the envelope. Try things. Experiment. If you looked at my whole career, I think you can probably see this. It’s why I work in so many styles, with so many techniques. Whatever works. And for this story, grabbing firmly onto the work of the 80’s while driving hard and fast to the future seems to be what’s working.”
With Spider-Man: Reign being a Marvel Knight book, it is obviously not very kid-friendly as projects that fall under this particular imprint would normally have a grittier edge than your normal Marvel Universe titles. Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man this is not. “This story is as kid-friendly as watching the news,” Andrews admitted. “The funny thing with this story is that I wrote the first pitch pre-9/11. And the things I’m dealing with, the City that Peter ends up living in, the conditions of living, the oppressive nature of the Police State is all very relative. Basically I wrote a cautionary story of the future that’s become a relative story of today.
“Why Marvel Knights? Because I am asking questions that need uncensored answers. What happens to a woman who marries a man with radioactive blood? What happens to these characters 35 years from now? What makes a city trade in its freedom for security? What happens when we no longer need heroes? When a man stops fighting? What brings him back?
There’ve been many interpretations on everyone's favorite wall-crawler for decades now. We’ve had the original Stan Lee/Steve Ditko version and the Amazing Friends cartoon. Now, there’s J. Michael Straczynski's take on the character and the Sam Raimi movies. There’s also the Brian Bendis version in the Ultimate Universe and Andrews’ very own Legend of the Spider Clan mini-series that was set in the Marvel Mangaverse.
For Andrews, there will always be three definitive versions of Spider-Man that he considers as classic. The Ralph Bakshi 60’s cartoon, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s run on Amazing Spider-Man and the Todd McFarlane years. “I love these characters so much,” he added. “Peter Parker, Mary Jane, Aunt May, Jonah Jameson… And I need to apologize to them because they will hurt. They will feel pain. They will suffer. And when they need strength the most… I’m going to take it all away.
“Spider-Man is that thing that makes Peter unique. It’s that thing we all have inside us that can either be harnessed or repressed. It’s the spark of life really. It can make you truly live or it can literally kill you. And we all have this thing in us. For me, it’s creating. Drawing. Writing. Design. If I didn’t do these things my soul would start to char, dry up and blacken. I literally can’t go more than a day without tapping into this thing or I start going crazy. It’s a good place to live and thank you to Marvel Comics and my fans for allowing me to get paid to do it.
“But the big secret is we all have that thing. Whether it’s running, collecting stamps, painting or playing guitar. This is what makes us human, what gives us warmth. Peter’s going to show us what happens when we push it back down. There are lessons here but there is only one class, pain.
“[With Spider-Man: Reign], I’ve taken Peter Parker back to the selfish, whiny, broke all the time, down on his luck tragic hero we all used to know and love. You know, the guy that’s a little closer to you and me. The one that turns his back on people, the one that’s a selfish loner. The Peter Parker that’s forgotten his most important lesson. And when you forget something like that… the world will make you will learn it again.”
Is Spider-Man: Reign somehow connected to his "Ray of Light" story? “Only in the sense that both Spider-Man and Electro are both in this series,” he revealed. “My lettered thumbnails is a process I used with “Ray Of Light” too. But really Spider-Man: Reign is it’s own entity. But the important thing with “Ray Of Light” is that I was exploring something story wise. It was a story about the reality woven into even the most fantastical situations. And that kind of thing I’m trying to tap into again. Make it real. Make people hurt. Give them actual stakes. I’m not interested in a paint-by-numbers plot. I want to scrape this story off the walls of my own human experience,” he said, adding that he’s also very proud with his work with Zeb Wells on Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One. “That mini-series was responsible for me receiving Canada's first national award for "Outstanding Comic Book Artist".
What’s a Spider-Man story without his rogues gallery, right? “A lot of villains are coming back to test Peter, to make him suffer, to kick his butt. There are a lot of bad feelings out there from bad guys who’ve spent so much time behind prison walls. When they are given their opportunity, they seize it. But this story is about more than vengeance. It’s about redemption and those lessons are learned on every level. From our hero to his City to our villains. It’s a hard lesson. You can only redeem yourself after a very large and prolonged screw up. You know? You can’t be a good guy and then experience redemption. You have to need it. And it this story everyone needs it.
As for what exactly could readers expect from Spider-Man: Reign? Instead of providing solid teasers, Andrews posed two questions instead. “Number One: if you discover you don’t even have the power to save the people you love… if you ultimately have no power at all… do you have any responsibility?
“Number Two: what is the cost when a City gives away it’s personal power and it’s personal responsibility? What happens when you trade freedom for safety?”
Finally, what are Andrews’ own expectations for the third Spider-Man movie hitting theatres in the summer of 2007? “Those Spider-Man movies are some of the most consistent, well executed blockbusters I have ever seen. I am so glad that Sam Raimi is directing all three. I think that you need to keep consistency in directors (ahem – X3…) to keep consistency in tone, story, achievement, and quality. And I am so looking forward to some of the visuals of these bad guys.
“Like I said, life has caught up with my “future story” and I’m excited to see what happens. My very soul is in these pages. And when you put something like that in the hands of readers… to be judged. It’s a scary place. But I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
http://www.newsarama.com/WW_Chicago_06/Marvel/reign/reign2_3.jpg
http://www.newsarama.com/WW_Chicago_06/Marvel/reign/reign_9.jpg
http://www.newsarama.com/WW_Chicago_06/Marvel/reign/reign_16.jpg
http://www.newsarama.com/WW_Chicago_06/Marvel/reign/reign_31.jpg
http://www.newsarama.com/WW_Chicago_06/Marvel/reign/reign_32.jpg