PRONEA | Jonathan Hickman

Reign it in kid…

The first issue of a 5-issue mini-series I’m doing, Fantastic Four: Dark Reign, also came out this week. Sean Chen is on art and doing a very nice job (if you’re familiar with his work, he’s actually trying out some new stuff and it’s really quite interesting - good stuff). It’s getting decent reviews and response is pretty positive, so that’s nice…

But that’s not really what I want to write about in this post. 

art by simone bianchi

In addition to this project, I’ve also been named the new writer for the ongoing, main Fantastic Four series. At first, this seemed like a great idea… I could take the characters out for a test drive before taking over the main book and tell a cool story ramping up to my regular run. 

Instead, what happened was that at any point where the mini touched close to things I might want to do in the main series, I’d defer to the later, more important, run. In other words, I was saving all my good stuff for later. This made writing the mini an incredibly difficult thing to do. 

In the end, my only solution was to - while still trying to bleed into the ongoing run - tell the most outlandish, bizarre  story I could. 

What’s the point: Issues 2-4 of this thing are absurd. Ab-surd.

Secret Warriors Issue #2

The new issue of Secret Warriors, the second part of Nick Fury: Agent of Nothing came out this week. Numbers were good, Marvel’s happy, response seems to be very positive, and, most importantly, the work is something I’m satisfied with.

We said from the start, that if people would check out the first issue, our belief was that they’d stay for the first arc (6 issues) - and if they checked out the first arc, we would have them for the long haul. We’ll know just how true that is in the coming months, but right now, there seems to be something to what we are doing.

art by jimmy cheung

‘We’ obviously includes myself, Brian Bendis and editor Tom Brevoort, but I think that the work being done on the art of the book by Stefano Caselli and Daniele Rudoni is what’s really tipping the book from ‘good’ to ’something special.’

In a book that’s primarily about quiet moments between characters that later explode into something more significant, the storytelling that Stefano is doing for each character is top notch. I’m lucky to be working with the guy - a couple years from now he’s going to be a monster in comics.

Here’s a couple reviews of the issue:
One at IGN, and another at CBR.

Astonishing Tales

So embarrassed. Completely forgot that Astonishing Tales #1 came out from Marvel the same day Secret Warriors #1 hit. 

I wrote a New Mutants story featuring Sam and Bobby, who are two of my all-time favorite Marvel characters. It’s six issues long (8 pages an issue) with me doing the art on the first 4 and last 2 pages, and Nick Pitarra doing all the art in between.

Nicky’s just a fantastic artist and when he gets his shot on a bigger book he’s going blow up.

 

Art by Jonathan Hickman

Oh, and there’s another blurb about my FF mini at CBR.

Sell out? Sold out!

So, Secret Warriors #1 sold out - Good news. Marvel’s doing a second printing - Great news! Read about it here.

This guy did a decent review of the first issue. For the most part, he gets it. Here are some other guys that did a video review of the book (You asked for the plug, enjoy!)

Okay, all for now.

Back from NYC… what a trip!

Got in yesterday from a back-to-back Marvel retreat and New York Comic-Con extended trip. Went pretty good. Might go back. 

While there, the first issue of my, Brian, and Stefano’s book came out: Secret Warriors #1. Reviews were pretty good: CBR, Buy Pile, Blair did it on Fresh Ink (Around 3:00 in - and I also met her at the con, super nice, super cool… obviously). 

That was on Wednesday, which was when the mini-Marvel writers retreat was. Not going to say much about that other than Bendis and Fraction completely had their story planned out - two smart guy doing it right and it was nice to see. Later we went out to dinner and I got to meet Alex Maleev, also supremely cool (in fact, I can count on one hand the number of people I’ve met so far in comics that I instantly either didn’t like or was repulsed by their behavior. I’m guessing most of that is due to the fact that my state of mind - generally happier - has changed so much in the last few years). All the men ate buffalo. So there.

At the con, it was announced that I would be the new writer on Fantastic Four (pretty cool gig). Marvel’s PR machine spun into motion: CBR, Newsarama, IGN, Marvel proper, CSBG (and this that I had missed. Thanks Brian!) 

Got to see so many friends and colleagues: Cebulski, John Barber, Nick Lowe, Rantz (who, good lord, probably has the best show of anyone), Ryan, Diggle, on and on… great fun.

The year is shaping up nicely!

Secret Warriors at the Start

Okay, so the old news part:

It was announced this past summer that Bendis and I were doing the new Nick Fury book at Marvel to debut in February. Cool gig - honored to be asked. Stefano Caselli was announced on art. 

Here were some links concerning the project: 

• IGN Interview - Hickman and Marvel SuperEditor, Tom Breevort
• Mashup Bendis and I interview.
• Me at Newsarama.

Art by Stefano Caselli and Daniele Rundoni

Pretty recently I did a followup interview with Marvel and also recorded a podcast at the House of Ideas.

After I turned in the first script, everyone at the office got excited about the book and the marketing department developed a teaser site: agentofnothing.com.

 The book comes out February 4th, more news coming in the following days…