Today we’re happy to share the news that Ryan Stegman, self professed sexy bad boy of comics himself, will be joining Fantastic Four starting with issue #609, still written by Jonathan Hickman. The move will take Stegman off Scarlet Spider, the fun clone spinoff written by Chris Yost, where Stegman has blowing away the eyeballs of anyone lucky enough to flip through the pages, and put him on the biggest name title of his career.
Replacing Stegman on Scarlet Spider is Khoi Pham, most recently seen in the pages of Daredevil #10.1.
We managed to get in a couple questions with Stegman, the man known best for making Deadpool dress and dance like MC Hammer, about the move, and at certain points, they approach serious questions and answers. Listen, he’s a fun guy.
We’ll show you preview art as soon as we get some.
iFanboy: Fantastic Four is about as classic Marvel as you can get. Is this finally the point when you can finally tell your parents what you do and have them take you seriously?
Ryan Stegman: No. They started taking it seriously about 6 years ago when they realized that I probably wasn’t going to do anything else so they better support this or I was never gonna move out of their basement.
Weirdly enough though, my dad’s favorite comics as a kid were The Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four. And now I’ll have worked on both titles. I just found this out about him recently. He has 5 brothers and they all had their own favorite characters. So it’s a strange coincidence. And pretty cool.
iF: Fantastic Four is more of a team book than any of the other regular gigs you’ve been on. Does that affect your approach to the book any differently than with previous work?
RS: No. Because my approach to this book will be to make the FF form into one singular character like Voltron so I don’t have to think too hard. I WISH.
But seriously, yes. It has to. Staging will be much more involved and I’ll have to be a lot more creative with the compositions. It’s not a negative, though. While I may have to work a little harder, it’ll pay off in spades when I draw a well composed action panel of the entire team.
from Amazing Spider-Man
iF: Did Jonathan Hickman force you to draw a freehand perfect circle before you got the job?
RS: Yes. I was offered this job 3 years ago, but I just now was able to finally draw the circle.
iF: Have you figured out the best shortcut to having to draw all the little rocks on Ben Grimm, or are you just going to let the inker worry about it?
RS: Well, I’m gonna ink this book. So there’s no leaving it up to anyone but myself. I’m sure that when I pencil I’ll leave most of it to the inks though and get really frustrated with myself. Ah, comics.
iF: Do you ever worry that Marvel is trying to kill you with an increased workload on continually higher profile books.
RS: The combination of higher profile jobs plus having a 14 month old son AND having a Detroit Tigers team that has high expectations are probably doing a number on my physical health, yes. I have two gray hairs in my beard now. In short, I just booked a room at the old folks home for when this year is over.
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Great news!
The humor in this interview is well played!! Good news to hear for FF fans like myself!!
Despite the great news, I’m sad to say this means i’m going to have to drop Scarlet Spider.
Agreed if Khoi Pham is his regular replacement on SS. I did not enjoy his work on the Daredevil point one that just came out. I’d be feelin’ screwed if I was Chris Yost. But, they’ll probably pull him off the book too so what does he care.
That sucks, Yost and Stegman are why Scarlet Spider is so good right now, gotta be one of they’re best new titles in quite awhile and it double sucks cause its one of the few 2.99 Marvel books. I don’t wanna drop it but they leave the book and so am I plus many others, heres hoping they find another dream team or change the plan after getting all the negative feedback from announcing this change…..but hoooraayy for FF!!! Fucking Figures.
Great stuff the title needs a quality replacement for Epting & Kitson, really pleased!
Does that mean Stegman will only draw 3 issues because Hickman leaves at 611. I want him to go back to Scarlet Spider.
And to think, I just told Wacker to keep him on Scarlet Spider as long as possible. A HUGE part of the appeal is Stegman’s artwork.
Oh well. Dropped. $3 saved.
I am all for diversity but this fast artist turnover is threatening my enjoyment of Marvel comics.
After the last issue, I would love to have seen Ron Garney stay on the book, but this looks cool.
NNOOOOOOOOOO! I love Ryan Stagman, but I don’t like the Fantastic Four. And I was just telling myself that Scarlet Spider and Ryan Stegman go together like PB&J.
Well, I get my Stegman with Hickman now which is sweet… but yea, this artist turnover on books is pretty craptastic. If they can’t come up with a comparable artist for Scarlet Spider that book is as good as dead. That makes me sad.
This is great news! Especially after seeing the ‘meh’ art of Garney for this week’s Fantastic Four.
AHH GET WE GET FOUR ISSUES IN A FUCKING ROW ON ANYTHING PLEASE .
Yes. For example Capullo’s run on Batman.
Yeah that book is really suffering from consistency. I was talking mostly about Marvel, but between DC and Marvel only Iron Man and Batman have consistent artists for more than 4 issues this decade it seems like.
WTF! Everytime I start reading a Marvel book they take the artist of and ruin it. First X-Force then Avenging Spider-Man and now Scarlet Spider!!!!!
great news, but will miss him on scarlet spder
My boss here in sc is ryan stegman’s uncle. no joke. its so cool
Good news for F4.
I hope they get an inker for Khoi Pham on Scarlet Spider.
I thought Ron Garney was great on F4 #605.
I don’t currently read FF but have always liked them and will just wait for FF Hickman omnibuses. I’m not dropping a book a 2.99 book i love right now (Scarlet Spider) to jump on a 3.99 book with him on it (FF). Hope whoever takes over writing for Hickman is someone I like cause down the line if Stegman stays on FF, it’ll make another great omnibus to go with Hickmans run.
Fantastic Four and FF are both $2.99 books. That said, I’m inclined to agree with you about waiting for the Hickman FF omnibus.
Even the trades are very nice.
I have the first four TPBs, then I started getting the title(s) in issues.
I’m sure the Omnibi will be awesome.
Many of the artists have done outstanding work on this (these) series.
Epting, Edwards, Eaglesham and Kitson were all at least four-star consistently.
Usually they were five-star, issue after issue.
And the writing makes it one of the most LoSH/Mystery in Space/Strange Adventures/Superman Family versions of Fantastic Four yet, all while revitalizing decades of accreted and underused previous MARVEL continuity. This is/was/always will be one of the greatest runs on the World’s Greatest Comic Book Magazine, ever.
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