HERO INITIATIVE ANNOUNCES MIKE WIERINGO TRIBUTE BOOK

[MattBrady]

When artist Mike Wieringo suddenly passed away last August, the acclaimed artist was in the midst of his latest work for Marvel Comics, a What If? story about the Fantastic Four, starring the “replacement team” of Spider-Man, the gray Hulk, Ghost Rider and Wolverine. ‘Ringo was only seven pages into the story’s 27 total pages when he died, and for months the script and unfinished story went on the shelf.

Now, Marvel Comics has provided access to the script and ‘Ringo’s art to The Hero Initiative, while Mike’s friends have stepped in to finish the story. The completed work: What If…This Was The Fantastic Four?: A Tribute to Mike Wieringo, now a 48 page tribute, will ship in June.

Artists for the tribute include: Jeff Parker, Arthur Adams, Paul Renaud, Stuart Immonen, Cully Hamner, Alan Davis, David Williams, Sanford Greene, Humberto Ramos, Skottie Young, Mike Allred, Barry Kitson, and Val Staples. Cover artwork is by Mike Wieringo and Paul Mounts, and The Hero Initiative is publishing the book with the full suport of both Marvel Comics, and the family of Mike Wieringo.

"It happened pretty much out of the blue,” The Hero Initiative President Jim McLauchlin told Newsarama. “Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley was the guy who called. He said that when Mike had passed, he was in the middle of this What If? book. The script was done and paid for, and Mike had completed seven pages. They were happy to hand all that over to us free of charge, and have us work on getting other artists to finish up the book.

"Nate Cosby and Mark Paniccia were the editors on the Marvel end, and we worked hand-in-hand with them in lining up the talent roster. I was pretty amazed at just how 'collaborative' the whole process was. Jeff Parker wrote the book, and Jeff was a good friend of ’Ringo's as well. Jeff threw in with suggestions, and we had these massive email chains between myself, Jeff, Nate and Mark as we lined up the guys. Nate and Mark were great at letting anyone steer the ship. Like I say, very collaborative."

Karl Kesel provided the inks for Ringo’s pages as well as many of the additional pages.

“Karl scans the penciled pages, and prints off a blueline copy. He then inks that, so there are two originals when he works that way—a pencil original and an inked original. Karl was kind enough to donate all his ink originals to Hero, and many of the other artists are donating their pages as well. We're looking toward doing some sort of massive event at HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC, June 20-22. We'll have a lot of the talent involved at that con, so we'll do a massive signing, and likely auction off the original pages as well.”

As for the original art?

"Matt Wieringo, Mike's brother, has Mike's pencil originals from this issue, as it should be,” McLauchlin said. “They're rather precious to him. He was kind enough to loan us two pages so we could display them at the Orlando MegaCon in March to show off the work we had in progress."

And how do these new pages look?

"It's always tough to pick a 'favorite' page when you have so many guys and so many styles on a book like this, but if I had to choose, I'd probably go with Cully Hamner's page. It's a great Dr. Doom page, and Cully just puts so much personality into Doom. He's so wonderfully imperious and arrogant in the body language. He's just total Doom. Most the artists were very generous in doing this. Many offered to do their pages for free, but legally speaking, some consideration must be paid to secure copyright. So most artists did the work for $1 a page.

"I think the book was originally planned at 24 pages, a bit over the today-traditional 22. But when we started lining up guys, Parker had a chance to open up a few scenes, and expanded it to a 27-page story. There are a lot of friends and co-workers of Mike who have contributed written tributes and cartoons as well, so the finished product is 48 pages, all told. Matt Wieringo even writes an intro."

What If…This Was The Fantastic Four?: A Tribute to Mike Wieringo, is listed in Diamond Previews and the Previews Order Form under “Hero Initiative,” for June-shipping titles. The book retails for $4.99. For more information about The Hero Initiative, call 310-909-7809 or visit www.HeroInitiative.org.

[madcapp]

A great looking project. Hope the LCS will pick up on it, and if not, there's the website.

[NTapalansky]

Looking forward to picking this up. Wieringo was a true talent and is sorely missed - happy to hear that so many of his friends and fellow artists stepped up to pay tribute to such a great person.

Also, anybody who hasn't already should pick up Spider-Man Family #7, another great 'Ringo tribute featuring the writing talents of Todd Dezago and Mark Waid with art by Karl Kesel! Big fun and not to be missed.

[EMeadow]

This will no doubt be a big seller for Hero.

I'll be getting it not only for Ringo, but I alway did love the short lived New Fantastic Four.

[Hutchimus Pr]

I'm there. Just emailed my LCS to have it added to my pull list.

[lombardo]

awesome idea, especially seeing as i was looking forward to this even when the man was alive.
big fan of Ringo's.

[ejulp]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

What If…This Was The Fantastic Four?: A Tribute to Mike Wieringo, is listed in Diamond Previews and the Previews Order Form under “Hero Initiative,” for June-shipping titles. The book retails for $4.99. For more information about The Hero Initiative, call 310-909-7809 or visit www.HeroInitiative.org.

Its too bad it couldn't share some space in the Marvel section...maybe they'll give it a note by the FF comics...hope so, there's a lot of retailers that don't dive back too far into the "good book" unless its for pull lists.

I'll be sure to be getting this, not only for Mike and the cause...but, I've always gotten a kick out of this team. I think Bendis could make great fun with a very short mini-series.

[ssava]

Cool!
This is wonderful.

[andrew9976]

The "new" FF is so clearly of its era. But that was my era, when I fell in love with comic books, so I'm glad to know of this story's existence. Like everyone else, I wish 'Ringo had been able to finish it, but the all-star cast of artists will do an awesome job. A fitting tribute, I think.

[GLX]

Looking foward to it.

[VinnyPic]

I'll have a copy of this, for sure.

[GOSD]

Originally Posted by EMeadow

This will no doubt be a big seller for Hero.

I'll be getting it not only for Ringo, but I alway did love the short lived New Fantastic Four.

Word.

I'll be picking this up..

I still miss Mike..

[spidertour02]

I'm crossing my fingers that my LCS orders this.

[Jeffbot]

Ah! I'm glad that this is finally available. 'Ringo's final work deserved to be printed, and this seems a fitting tribute.

[Jed Saxon]

Great move by Marvel.
I'll be getting this for sure.

[artiepants]

this is just shear awesomeness on the parts of everyone involved.

Edit: Just added to my pull

[Salieri]

Very cool. I've always wanted to read the modern take on this story, and as a tribute to 'Ringo - the artists whose unique style got me into comics - it'll be even better.

I love it when Marvel & THO do things like this.

[Mafus]

Originally Posted by ejulp

Its too bad it couldn't share some space in the Marvel section...maybe they'll give it a note by the FF comics...hope so, there's a lot of retailers that don't dive back too far into the "good book" unless its for pull lists.

I'll be sure to be getting this, not only for Mike and the cause...but, I've always gotten a kick out of this team. I think Bendis could make great fun with a very short mini-series.

That's a great point. I hope everyone will let their LCS proprietor know to order this!

[Sean Walsh]

I was hoping we'd see some big "last 'Ringo project" featuring lots of his friends & colleagues. The Spider-Man Family issue a few months back (with Dezago, Kesel & Waid) was very nice, but rather underhyped by Marvel.

I'll be picking this one up, I do believe.

[Tom Daylight]

I hope Matt Wieringo has some of his own work showcased in the issue - he's a pretty good artist in his own right.

[Salieri]

EDIT: Nevermind.

[PaxHouse]

Glad to hear about this news about the Tribute......

Looking forward to its release........

[Jovencub]

This is a major thing. He was my favorite artist (still is) and it was so sad (still is) that he passed on. I will be ordering heavy for this for the store and i personally will be getting three.
Kudos to Marvel for not being dicks about this and letting them do this.

We miss you Mike.

[House of J]

Finally a thread where the powers-that-be at Marvel aren't getting trashed by fans. It was both thoughtful and generous of them to give this book to the Hero Initiative. I'm definitely looking forward to this, but I hope it's a long while until there's another like it.

[shanealt]

I will gladly buy this.