ALL THINGS ASPEN: THE WRAP UP WITH MICHAEL TURNER

**MattBrady** · 06-28-2007, 05:48 PM

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

And it’s a wrap!

You’ve read about Aspen Comics’ plans for Fathom, Soulfire, Soulfire: New World Order, Iron and the Maiden, and Shrugged, but what about superstar artist Michael Turner’s other projects?

And Aspen’s new launches?

Wrapping up our conversations with Turner, we talked about Ultimate Wolverine, Ekos, the Top Cow/Aspen legal issues, and more.

Newsarama: Mike, from right now through September, we'll be treated to more Justice League of America, Fantastic Four, Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America covers, including the Civil War reprints Civil War Chronicles. Are you still committed to illustrating more covers for Marvel and DC in the coming months?

Michael Turner: As of just last night, I finished up my final DC cover that I was contracted to do. It’s the cover for issue #12 of Justice League of America, and it’s reminiscent of the cover to issue #1. Hopefully everyone will like it. From there, I’ll only be doing Marvel and Aspen work for the foreseeable future. I have a couple more Marvel covers on the horizon, but I’m concentrating mostly on finishing up the last few issues of Soulfire.

NRAMA: At the recently concluded WW Philly, it was announced that Brian Michael Bendis is doing Ultimate Origin. You'd previously contributed a cover for the 75th issue of Ultimate X-Men, and you and original Soulfire collaborator Jeph Loeb are doing an Ultimate Wolverine limited series, right? What's the current status of the project?

MT: I’m currently speaking with Jeph about a few options for our announced project. The goal is to still do the Ultimate Wolverine project, but Marvel has a few major X plans scheduled, so there’s a chance things could change. We should know pretty soon, but right now anything is possible.

NRAMA: Back in March, you said in an interview that although you'd drawn several different versions of Wolverine, you were still unsure of what you were going to do for the "Ultimate" version of Wolverine. After months of back and forth with Loeb, have you decided on what you're going to do with the character now? After all, back when the project was announced at WW Chicago, Loeb did mention that his idea for Ultimate Wolverine would be someone who's much more homicidal and antisocial with a deeper history…

MT: Since I’ve pretty much been dealing with chemotherapy everyday for the past 10 months or so, I honestly haven’t had much creative time to explore Wolverine that much. Even though it seems like I always have a lot of covers coming out and have been doing quite a bit of work, many of those were done months in advance. For a long period in there, I was only doing maybe one or two things a week since I couldn’t physically sit down for more than a couple hours at a time. I’d spoken with Jeph on several occasions about the project, and we did discuss the feel and look we wanted to obtain with the character. As of right now, all of those ideas are still fresh on my mind, we just need to firm up the details of the book, and I can start rolling from there.

NRAMA: Now that you're finishing up the last three issues of Soulfire, the plan is to move on to Ekos next, right? Or does Ultimate Wolverine top the list of priorities?

MT: The funny thing about Ekos is that it’s probably the most completed project I’ve ever done. Geoff [Johns] and I have already gone over the storyline many times and the beginning, middle, and end are all pretty much done and figured out. Had my relapse with cancer not occurred, Soulfire would already be out, the Marvel project would have hit this summer, and Ekos would be coming up. As it stands, the finale of Soulfire as you said is what I’m on now, the Marvel project is after that, and then Ekos.

NRAMA: With last year's Top Cow's Best of Michael Turner compilation and the Witchblade covers for issues #100 and #103 of Top Cow's long-running series, does it mean that all is well on the legal front now?

MT: Correct, all of the legal stuff is long behind us thankfully. Since then though, we haven’t done any new work with Top Cow. All of the covers that have been released are older images that I drew when I was there. I don’t foresee doing new work with them anytime soon.

NRAMA: Okay, moving on… Aspen is continuing to produce webcomics for NBC's hit TV show, Heroes, this summer and fall. How did Aspen get involved with Tim Kring and NBC in the first place?

MT: We have a great relationship with Jeph Loeb and it was a discussion with him that originally led us to doing work on Heroes. He added our name into the hat so to speak, thankfully our work spoke for itself, so we were selected to become a part of the Heroes team. We’ve been doing the online webisodes for the show ever since it began.

NRAMA: The wait between seasons, or rather volumes, can be quite daunting for some, although a quasi-spinoff called Heroes: Origins is in the works. In the meantime, there's the aforementioned webcomics on NBC.com. Can you tease about what's coming up, especially the webisodes that you and your crew at Aspen are involved in?

MT: Honestly, I’m at the same place everyone else is pertaining to the shows continuity. Almost every aspect of our work on Heroes is handled by Frank [Mastromauro], so he probably knows more than I do. Jeph gives me a few highlights here and there, but as of right now, I’m just looking forward to the start of Origins, and seeing how they work in all of the new characters coming up.

NRAMA: Finally, I understand that besides Iron and the Maiden, there is also another new property that Aspen is either interested in or developing in house. Can you shed some light into this top secret project? Otherwise, what else is coming from Aspen next?

MT: We have quite a lot planned for the next year or so. It’s been tough to stay involved in everything at work as much as I wanted to the past year due to my illness. Whenever Frank or Vince [Hernandez] would call or show me some of the new stuff, it would really get my creative juices flowing. I would want to draw so bad, but knew I had to beat this thing first. With everything on that front looking up now, I can say next year will probably be Aspen’s biggest and best year yet. Aside from two new projects, one of which we’re already starting to tease in our books, fans can also look forward to the release of Soulfire Volume 2, Fathom Volume 3 and the premiere of our new title, Aspen: Showcase. We’ll be releasing more information on all of these projects in the near future, so make sure to check back here or on our Aspen website for more details!

Lucifer · 06-28-2007, 06:28 PM

Sad to see him leave the DC covers...yeah I said it! Good to hear he's doing well physically though. I lost a friend 3 months ago to cancer and it's a rough battle. Keep up the good work Michael.

maynard3eyes · 06-28-2007, 06:29 PM

Turner's work on batman superman was the one thing that almost made me stray from being a marvel zombie, and i love all the covers he has been doing for marvel too. i hadn't realized how bad his relapse had been slowing him down, thats horrible(for him, not fans).

FEEL BETTER BROSEFF!!

*edit* dang so close to my first ever first post. *edit*

LikeaPhoenix · 06-28-2007, 06:35 PM

It's best that he's no longer straddling the fence, doing covers for both companies. Personally, DC and Marvel should be distinct from each other as much as possible, especially when his characters' faces are so similiar. The other day, my little sister asked me how come the Invisible Woman isn't fighting along side Superman! Go Figure!

johnny.blaze · 06-28-2007, 06:50 PM

NO MORE TURNER-POWERGIRL? NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

eloso · 06-28-2007, 07:35 PM

I just don't understand why this guy is so popular. He doesn't draw feet. He does not have a firm grasp on basic anatomy. Why oh, why is this guy the biggest artist in comics. Can someone explain it to me?

WildcardZ · 06-28-2007, 07:39 PM

Glad to hear you are doing better. Looking forward to Ekos.

stvnhthr · 06-28-2007, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eloso

I just don't understand why this guy is so popular. He doesn't draw feet. He does not have a firm grasp on basic anatomy. Why oh, why is this guy the biggest artist in comics. Can someone explain it to me?

He draws plenty of feet. Just cause he doesn't cram them into every panel doesn't mean he can't draw them. Feet are pretty easy to draw anyways, I've never understood why this is a complaint against Michael. Still eloso it is good you changed your original snarky post. Chemo is not time off.

Michael keep fighting man. You are an inspiration to many, not for just your skill, but your tenacity toward life. Never give up.

Kon-EL · 06-28-2007, 09:03 PM

So if all the legal issues with Top Cow have been resolved, why the hold up on the Fathom Definitive Edition TPB that was supposed to be out back in, um, DECEMBER?

BATFAN · 06-28-2007, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eloso

I just don't understand why this guy is so popular. He doesn't draw feet. He does not have a firm grasp on basic anatomy. Why oh, why is this guy the biggest artist in comics. Can someone explain it to me?

I could explain it to you, but it wouldn't matter to you anyway now would it?

CapnSpandex · 06-28-2007, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eloso

I just don't understand why this guy is so popular. He doesn't draw feet. He does not have a firm grasp on basic anatomy. Why oh, why is this guy the biggest artist in comics. Can someone explain it to me?

I'm going to guess because his characters have such elongated, ridiculous abdomens that they would snap in half if a strong gust of wind were to suddenly pick up. Or perhaps it's his thin limb/huge eye/sunken cheek combination that tends to make his females look not unlike the aliens from Kamino in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.

Corrector · 06-28-2007, 11:50 PM

Michael,

I just wanted to say I wish you the best in health and life. Thanks man.

LikeaPhoenix · 06-29-2007, 12:05 AM

IMO, Turner's style is a cross between Liefeld, Silvestri, Lee and Liefeld, again (unfortunately, it's 98% Liefeld). And like Liefeld it's all splash and poses without any substance. Didn't Silvestri discover him and groom him to be his successor on the Witchblade series?

Somehow it still boggles the mind as to why the Big Two chose him to do their variant covers. I guess just like any entertainment industry, there's always a flavor of the month being built up and hyped until another one comes along. Until he does a few consecutive, on schedule, full issues with a decent number of panels (more than 4) per page, I have no respect for him as an artist.

rwsmith · 06-29-2007, 12:49 AM

Please tell me that he's still doing Ultimate Wolverine!? Why would Marvel's big X-event affect that in any way, as it doesn't take place in the Ultimate Universe? Unless, of course, there's some big things coming with the Ultimate X-men book and that's what he was referring to. Bryan Singer finally coming onboard, maybe? I read that Mark Millar is supposed to be doing something with Steve McNiven starting in January. Perhaps he's co-writing Ultimate X-men with Singer and McNiven is penciling?

Another possibility is that the rumor from All the Rage this week is true, and that Ultimates Vol. 3 isn't going to happen so they're just cancelling the entire Ultimate imprint. In that case Ultimate Origin might be the last Ultimate mini series that they do before shutting it down. If that happens (and it probably won't) my hope would be that Turner and Loeb take over another arc on the regular Wolverine title.

I love Turner's stuff and I'm dying to see him pencil Logan, whether it be the taller and more psychotic Ultimate version or the shorter berzerker runt from the 616 Marvel Universe.

BATFAN · 06-29-2007, 01:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LikeaPhoenix

IMO, Turner's style is a cross between Liefeld, Silvestri, Lee and Liefeld, again (unfortunately, it's 98% Liefeld). And like Liefeld it's all splash and poses without any substance. Didn't Silvestri discover him and groom him to be his successor on the Witchblade series?

Somehow it still boggles the mind as to why the Big Two chose him to do their variant covers. I guess just like any entertainment industry, there's always a flavor of the month being built up and hyped until another one comes along. Until he does a few consecutive, on schedule, full issues with a decent number of panels (more than 4) per page, I have no respect for him as an artist.

Flavor of the month?? lets see he began in '95...carry the 1...devided by....if my math is correct, he's been the flavor of the month for 144 straight months, so yeah, deal with it

I.M.C. · 06-29-2007, 01:12 AM

On the subject of Micheal Turner. Damn good artist. Some dynamic work. Loved his Doomsday Army in Superman/Batman. Can't wait to finally see the the conclusion to Volume 1 of Soulfire.

On the shutdown of the Ultimate line in the words of Kyle's mom in SOUTH PARK, "What, What, What ?"

When the fargin hell was this happening ?

Charlie Hustle · 06-29-2007, 02:05 AM

don't like his art but obviously i wish him the best health wise in his fight against cancer.

Regicidal · 06-29-2007, 02:46 AM

Will this Ultimate Wolverine series be set before or after the Ultimate Hulk/Wolverine series?

OR, will it be set during the several year gap between issue 2 and issue 3?

FIG · 06-29-2007, 06:04 AM

Michael Turners strongest work was on Fathom and Witchblade. Not really a fan of his covers at Marvel or DC whatsoever because I feel that he can do much better than what I am seeing. I hope he makes his way back to his creator owned work and goes nuts with it. Its good to hear he is doing better from his fight with Cancer.

painters_eye · 06-29-2007, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BATFAN

Flavor of the month?? lets see he began in '95...carry the 1...devided by....if my math is correct, he's been the flavor of the month for 144 straight months, so yeah, deal with it

I'm afraid I stared too long. Nice sig.

Speedball93 · 06-29-2007, 10:05 AM

I love Turner's art, but whether you love him or hate him, you have to admit that his stuff sells comics. Sad to hear that the cancer came back. I had thought that he was on the road to recovery.

sleepypimpda · 06-29-2007, 10:49 AM

I really enjoy Mike's work. I have since the witchblade days. I hate to hear that he is having trouble with cancer again. I met Mike at Wizard World LA Last year and he is the nicest guy in the world. Signed some comics for me and talked to me for a couple of minutes even though there was a long line. Awesome guy. I look forward to just about everything he does.

jexxel453 · 06-29-2007, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Regicidal

Will this Ultimate Wolverine series be set before or after the Ultimate Hulk/Wolverine series?

OR, will it be set during the several year gap between issue 2 and issue 3?

Man I almost peed my pants when I read that one. All I have to say is that Ultimate Wolverine better happen. It drives me nuts how marvel wont let any tallented creators near any kind of Ultimate X-Men project. Ultimate X-Men is dying a slow and painfull death and marvel couldn't care less. Now if the Singer Idea proved to be true then I wouldn't mind.

Darth Tigris · 06-29-2007, 01:38 PM

cancer ........

jexxel453 · 06-29-2007, 01:48 PM

And if the Ultimate Wolverine gets cancled for some BS event I am going to drop Marvel all together. I want a good ongoing series damn it not a bunch off anti-climatic cross overs. Its sad because the Ultimate X-Men is what brought me back to comics and now its general anything but ultimate quality is driving me away.