Bryan Hitch Goes Indie with AMERICA'S GOT POWERS
And while Hitch is working furiously on the upcoming issues of the series with #2 primed for release on May 16, Newsarama did manage to pull him away from the drawing board for a quick chat about this superhero competition, his upcoming DC work, and his bold choice to break away from the Big Two and create his own future.
Newsarama: This has been a long time coming for you, Bryan. What’s it like to step out from work-for-hire and do true creator-owned work with Jonathan here with America’s Got Powers?
Bryan Hitch: It’s a joy. It HAS been a long time coming and something I've wanted to do since Mark and I were on Ultimates. He was able to jump off and do Wanted, etc way ahead of my having time to do likewise but, certainly for the last two or three years, it's been an absolute intention to concentrate on my own or co-creations.
Hitch: Well, America is the home of super heroes really and it would've looked pretty durn daft calling it America’s Got Powers and setting it in France, wouldn't it? I'd love to do a big book set in London or even small town England but to my inner child, super hero comics are American through and through. I grew up on a cultural diet of American comics, TV and movies and its part of who I am. One of the characters I'm best known for is my work with Captain America. Not too shabby for a Brit.
Nrama: From time to time I’ve seen you ink your own work, especially in covers. I was halfway hoping to see that in America’s Got Powers but noticed you deferred that to long-time collaborators Paul Neary and Andrew Currie.
Hitch: Yeah, I started to but with being co-creator and the editorial concerns, there just aren't enough hours in the day. When it comes down to it though, I'm more interested in telling stories than drawing pictures so I'd rather use the time to do more pages, more stories and more projects than ink my pencils. I'm not fast enough to do everything so having to choose, it's the inking that goes.
Hitch: Initially it was just to offer a huge kick of momentum and realizing that our first issue was getting so big it was best to split it into two. That's changed now though as we felt that was unfair, to ask readers to pay for it that way so we edited it a little and now instead of two issues in April it became a REALLY big one. It's 38 pages of story and still only $2.99. That seemed fair to us, a huge chunk of story and still cheap when others are charging $3.99 for twenty pages.
Nrama: Let’s talk about your creative collaborator here. Jonathan’s still a newcomer when it comes to comics creating, but he showed a lot of progress just in the few issues of Turf. Bryan, since you’ve worked with the top creators in comics, how’d you measure him to be someone you’d like to spend the next few months working on a project with?
Hitch: There's no measure; he's a tremendous creative partner and we're having a great time. I've been very fortunate these last fifteen years and had great creative or working relationships with writers and it's no exception. Jonathan brings a huge passion to the project and he works very hard indeed. We are having such a good time working with each other it's clearly going to last well beyond this project.
Hitch: Chris, I'm doing a load of covers for DC but it's not building to anything beyond that right now. Just having great fun playing in my childhood sandbox!
I have LOTS of plans and it's a mind-blowing list of writers too. Just like Mark is doing by his writing for the biggest artists in comics, I'm clubbing together with a wish list of the biggest and best writers. Yes, obviously Mark and I will collide for something massive soon and there's more with Jonathan. I'm writing some myself and then there are these four other guys. Your minds will blow.
Yes, there are certainly plans...
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