Mike Allred takes Hell's Kitchen
Today we took part in a special Marvel Comics press call with pretty much everyone currently involved with Daredevil, including editor Steve Wacker, writer Mark Waid, artists Paolo Rivera, Chris Samnee and…Mike Allred?
Sadly, Paolo Rivera is stepping down as interior artist, though he promises to contribute several more Daredevil covers for the series (including #15 and #18 from below) in addition to some unannounced creator owned projects. He cited interaction with legendary David Mazzucchelli artist and collaborating with his father (new inker Joe Rivera) as highlights of his time on the book.
Trivia question. How long did it take Rivera to render that amazing cover for Daredevil #10? 70 hours.
Speaking of that Born Again artist, editor Steve Wacker revealed that they tried to get Mazzucchelli to do a cover for this run, but he has thus far turned them down.
On a brighter note, Chris Samnee is taking up the baton as regular series artist. Starting with issue #14, Waid promises that Samnee will have more opportunity to draw Daredevil in costume, recognizing that Samnee has been largely tasked with Matt Murdock misadventures (Samnee claims to have barely noticed). Both Waid and Wacker spoke to Samnee’s abilities as not just an artist, but a storyteller, the editor commenting that Samnee thinks like a writer. For his part, Samnee expressed a lot of enthusiasm for the Daredevil character in terms of legacy and overall design. “He works great in silhouette. He’s one giant jumping color from building to building.”
Mike Allred joined the call to announce his upcoming stint as both cover and interior artist on one issue (#17), the first of two one-shots he’s doing for Marvel this year. If you’re looking at past solicit information with a confused look on your face, they bumped the original #17 back to squeeze this new one in.
In terms of writing for individual artists, Waid expressed confidence in his collaborators. Samnee considers Rivera’s solution to drawing Matt’s Radar Sense definitive, suggesting that any future artists on the book would be foolish to diverge from that design. Rivera admits that after establishing the look for this run, he found an old Gene Colan comic with a similar aesthetic, with those same visual shorthands used to achieve different ends (a time disparity versus Rivera’s expression of sonic vision). Not a bad pedigree, even if the inspiration was subliminal.
Because we’re weird, we asked the assembled panelists to align themselves with their favorite Marvel Comics terror organizations recently showcased in the “Omega Drive” story arc. This inadvertently led to Waid’s explanation of “Agence Byzantine” as a last minute substitute for Zodiac (of Dark Reign fame) who’d already been drawn into the book. They’re French, basically. If you’re actually wondering, most agreed that Black Spectre was the most interesting team, while A.I.M. offers the most spacious headgear.
Asked about the potential for Black Cat’s appearance in the series to extend beyond that recent one night stand, Waid suggested that she may cross paths with Matt again, but not before another old flame saunters back into his life. Intriguing…
How about this schism between Matt and Foggy as teased in the preview images? We asked what it would be like for Matt to lose his anchor like this. “Foggy’s the one who’s always stood beside Matt. There is a fracture coming in that partnership and it hurts both of them,” said Waid. “What you’re going to see is that these are decisions that are very, very difficult for Foggy to make.” As teased from the very beginning, Foggy knows Matt’s behavior isn’t the healthiest way to deal with his demons. That’s all coming to a head in the next few months.
Finally, Waid posed a question to the reporters. What iconic Daredevil rogue would Allred tackle in his single issue?
“Stilt-Man!” we called out.
Yep. Stilt-Man. Can you think of a better pairing of artist and villain? Looking forward to that.
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- Daredevil #15, art by chris Samnee
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- Daredevil #15, art by chris Samnee
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- Daredevil #15, art by chris Samnee
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- Daredevil #18 cover by Paolo Rivera
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- Daredevil #16 cover by Chris Samnee
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- Daredevil #17 cover by Mike Allred
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- Daredevil #15 cover by Paolo Rivera
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Old “flame”? Got to be Typhoid Mary!
Its a bummer that Rivera is leaving, but on the other hand, Samnee is a damn good artist so all is good.
To echo the above comment: It sucks that they keep losing the amazing artists that they’ve had on this new volume of DD, but when they keep replacing them other incredible artists it’s not too tough to take.
Rivera blew me away on this series. Did he say anything about what he will be doing now outside of creator owned? I’d love if he and Waid planned something else out together.
Just creator-owned for a bit. Wacker spoke of it in terms of a vacation. “Taking a little break”
@fuzzytypewriter Thanks!
Rivera wrote a blog piece about his decision to part from Marvel:
http://paolorivera.blogspot.com/2012/06/end-of-era.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Rivera’s post makes total sense HOWEVER. I’m going to miss him on Daredevil. That being said, I’ll buy whatever project he’s on next. His blog is a favorite of mine and his Youtube Video’s on his “methods” are a personal inspiration.
Thank goodness we still have Samnee 🙂
Good for him. I love my comics but man, in the end as a creator you really have to look out for yourself too.
They keep shuffling Samnee around. He and Allred are great artists but Rivera & Waid really created something electric and special.
I think this book will lose a lot of its magic. They already kind of torpedoed it anyways. the last few months. Still the first part of this run will always been the height of superhero fun.
Cary Nord and Karl Kesel did a great Stilt-Man story in their run too.
I Have the ex down to three specific characters Elektra, Typhoid Mary or Dakota North. As we all know Matt loves the Crazy Chicks
He’s secretly CM Punk.
I didn’t expect anyone to get the CM Punk reference
I’m confused, Allred is just doing one issue?
I happy about Samnee, but I’d have preferred Martin and it’s really too bad about Rivera. Seems to me like this series is in danger of losing some of its magic if it hasn’t already with this overdone omega drive story. You’d think with that many Eisner nominations they would try to keep the team intact…
Allred is doing #17. Then he’s doing one issue of another yet to be named Marvel title.
I’m pretty sure he has something bigger with Marvel that they still haven’t announced yet though I’m sure most of us are excited for that one as well.
Though i wonder who will be the second artist on the book. River and Martin was great so was River and Samnee. But who could tag in when Samnee needs a break? Khoi Pham can’t since he’ s busy with Scarlet Spider.
Rivera posted his reasons for leaving on his blog which seem wholly understandable.
http://paolorivera.blogspot.com/2012/06/end-of-era.html
Can’t wait to see what he does next, he’s one of the best artists around.
He says his page rate is almost the same as it was 10 years ago. That sucks.
I don’t know if I’ve ever read anything with his art. I know I bought all those Mythos books but never read them. I will have to check them out.
Will Samnee be the only artist, apart from Allred’s issue, from this point forward? As sad as I am to Rivera go, a more consistent art team would make me very happy.
*to see Rivera go
I don’t see how any of this could possibly be bad news. I also don’t see how any of this points to the possibility of this title “losing its magic”. Furthermore, I don’t see how anyone other than Samnee could be a better fit as Rivera’s replacement. I don’t see lots of things. Much like Daredevil.
I don’t see how the removal of 2/3 of the team that created the magic doesn’t open up the possibility of it being lost. Still, I hope you are right about Samnee.I loved the issue he did do.
I know a lot of people are enjoying this, I haven’t checked it out yet. I love Mike Allred (and Marcos Martin), but I’m afraid if and when I do pick this up they will just jack the price up to $3.99 and it will all be for naught.
Probably going to check out the first TPB when it comes out in August – Amazon has it for $9 bucks. 9 bucks for 6 issues, that I can get behind.
You should definitely check it out, those issues were amazing! All of them, safe maybe Omega Effect which was good, but not great.
That #10 cover alone should make you salivate from your eyes dude… 😛
Sad to see Rivera go, he’s definitely a big reason why this series got big the way it did. But Samnee isn’t a bad replacement and I’m sure he’ll bring his own style of the series. I do wonder whether Samnee got the job because of The Rocketeer or not. Like, did that series come about because of Daredevil or vice versa?
I remember reading that Samnee already had the Rocketeer job, but it hadn’t been announced yet when Wacker came calling to recruit him for the Daredevil gig. Apparently he had to get clearance from IDW to tell Wacker that he’d already been paired with Waid on the other job. Things worked out so that Waid / Samnee are probably going to be the best creative team for the rest of the year, my prediction!
Sucks seeing Rivera leave. He was outstanding on this book. He’ll be greatly missed.
Hope Samnee actually stays on this for a decent run. Love the dude to death. But get tired of seeing him bounced around all over Marvel. Never allowed to gain any traction or momentum.
Well, this is some bittersweet news. I’m happy for Rivera, and I will for sure grab his creator owned book when it’s released, but I’m bummed he won’t be drawing Daredevil and Co. anymore. Luckily for us DD fans, Samnee is an awesome replacement. I wonder if the plan is for him to be the exclusive artist–which is fine by me–or if they will continue to have others come in and do smaller arcs to give him breaks. Either way I’m stoked, but if it’s the latter I hope Allred would consider doing more issues.
Just for fun, who else would people like to see jump in for an guest spot? I’d personally like to see Francavilla give it a shot, but admittedly I’d like to see him draw any book. Other names I’d like to see would be Darwyn Cooke, Evan Shaner, Ramon Perez, and Eric Canete. Anyone else have some suggestions?
I love Paolo Rivera’s art on DD, Samnee is a good fit too and Mike Allred is gonna be interesting, can’t here his name or even see his art without thinking of Madman and can’t think of a Marvel title I’ve ever seen him on other than X-Statix, this should be fun, I started out reading the 1st 7 DD issues, fell off, grabbed #10 cause it has an amazing cover and love that its the one they used for the front of the vol.2 HC, now that I don’t have every issue, I’m torn on getting the HC’s as they’re released or wait for an omnibus cause you know they’ll do one. DD=good stuff right now.
Just get both, man. You don’t wanta risk the Omnibus not having that awesome cover.
They can take Paolo Rivera away from Daredevil, but they can’t take him away from me, because I’ve got his autograph on that amazing #10 cover that took 70 hours according to this article.
Can’t wait to see Paolo Rivera’s creator owned work, and can’t wait to see Chris Samnee’s art in DD. There have certainly been greater disappointments than this one.
Regarding Samnee (lots of people seem to be wondering):
Yes, he will be the book’s sole artist (not counting Allred’s Daredevil #17), and there will be no more taking turns. Samnee is an unusually fast artist and I think having once artists doing virtually every issue will be a great change of pace (even as much as I’ve loved Martín and, in particular, Rivera). I talked to Samnee about this and he is clearly very excited to be doing Daredevil and seems to want to stay on board as long as they will have him.
That is awesome news. I agree that having only one artist will be a welcome change.