Thespawnarmy

Hello!

Hi Jim – we’re just about to start!

Who’s here?

Hello Pepople

Whilce!

Erik!

Jim!

I’m here!

Robear!

Whilce! Erik! Vaneta!
Robert!

Aww–it’s just like old times–Todd and Marc are late.

and Rob

Oh yeah.

whadda mean OLD times??

Sigh. It’s just like times, I guess.

Yeah, don’t worry vaneta–it’ll get worse from here

Hey!!! I’m here.

What’s up guys?

Toddy!

Toddy!

woo hoo

Marc!

Just being the quiet shy type

The whole gang – and they said it couldn’t be done

where’s Robby?

Where’s Rob?

He’s on his way.

Uh oh – he’ll never live this down

he never does

Is this really Todd? OMG! I a huge fan!

It’s on the long list of things he” never live down

love your work guys, can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of this book

Can’t be Todd…too quiet…

I can’t wait for you to get a copy!

Thanks Darren, hope you enjoy it

Thanks Darren. I’m looking at it right now. Pretty cool!

It’s very nice Darren, I’m holding on right now.  Mmmmmm.

The Image “universe” varies per books, like the Invincible War didn’t really happen in Savage Dragon — how does Image United differ from this?

Todd’s working on his third paragraph right now.

Just because you didn’t see the Invincible War in Dragon doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

we can’t shoe every waking moment,  descendo–sometimes we’ve gotta say, “He covered that in his book”

Show

There’s nothing to contradict that it happened.  The world could have been cleaned up during one of the many time gaps in Dragon.

@#$%

What’s an “Invincible”? Is that a comic or something?

Been waiting for you guys to start do stuff with each other since Image started

You know, Marc–Invincible Iron Man

So, Image United counts in the continuity of all the books.  You’ll even SEE some things reflected this time around.

We have–here and there–this is just the biggest thing we’ve done together

Marc-No, that’s my new character Fortress, he’s Invincible…

That was for Kieran

…

Oh, cool!

What are the Variants we can look forward to? And what is the rarest?

Hope it was worth the wait Kieran!

Thus far–Jamie–Jim Lee’s pencilled one

Jamie, there are a few more surprises to look forward to as this series progresses.  Nothing we can reveal just yet.  The black and white Jim Lee cover is the rarest.

I am really happy to see Whilce drawing more regularly again as it means his health is keeping in check for now. I always love his Philipino folklore in his books like Stone (one of my favorites), and i am happy to see him create the first superhero with philipino origins.

I think its’ the Kirkman variant Jamie

Paul, we are ALWAYS happy to see more from Whilce

Kirkman variant?  Not a bad idea…

Whilce is the bomb! So is Fortress!

Paul……….Whilce has really impressed me with his inking so far

I think we’re all happy about it Paul! Whilce is blowing us all away!

Reysz-Salamat Po…wait til you see the series and all the Pilipino things well do there…

Not to plug a book from another company, but Whilce’s Hulk issue is SWEET!

any new games or cameos in games for spawn?

Thanks Robert, that was nice…

ORO…………..working on bringing back the animated TV series and lots of meetings about the movie I’d like to direct

Its all what Image is about…new bounderies and going forward…looking cool…

I think there is some Spawn cereal coming out Oro. Right Todd?

Count Spawncula?

I’m wearing Spawn underoos right now during this chat!

Mmmmmm–tastes like skulls, chains and spikes…

who will be the main characters in image united?

john, ALL of them

No cereal, but there is a SILVESTRI vzriant cover for Spawn issue 200. LOok for it!!

Well, John… pretty much all of them.  We’ll be seeing most everyone from the early days of Image and y’know, even more on top of that.

John–all of them–though Fortress gets more play than most because he needs more set up

and he’s cool

Oh crap! Todd just called me out on the cover!

And he’s cool

Everyone get’s to draw a whole mess of their characters, John.

which character’s status quo is going to be affected the most ?

Also a cool LIEFELD piece for Spawn issue 200!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Josh A,
ShadowHawk for one

Cyber Cat is most affected Josh!

Josh–the guys who die.

Someone dies???!!!

Savage Dragon dies…again.

we didn’t want to tell anyone, but it’s Erik

Shhhhh–it’s a secret

Josh A: It’s a toss up.  ShadowHawk, I think.  Youngblood get’s affected quite a bit.  Big changes for Cyberforce.  And Spawn, and Dragon… and Fortress really.  This series really has a lot of changes.

Not Fortress Vaneta

Phew

Dragon dies… again.

So, United will be self-contained, right? Or should we be looking out for crossovers in the regular titles and/or one-shots?

And Spawn’s already a dead character so I’m in the clear there

It’s relatively self-contained,  Hour42

Hour42: There will be some tie ins along the way.  Nothing excessive though, only where it makes sense.  It’s mostly self-contained.

Youngblood #11 in Feb. will reflect what’s going on in Image United…as will subsequent issues.

Unless you guys really like it Hour 42. Then there’s more!

Hour42-What Fortress goes thru in Image United effects massively his own series afterward

is there any way there would be a follow up or even a 2nd series if this does well? [jam style of course]

See Todd – they’re already asking for more

B-stain: we’re not THAT crazy!

See above B-Stain!

B-stain, I wouldn’t rule it out… but these artists might… as they’d have to draw it!

B-stain, see VALENTINO’S RESPONSE

Hour42–mostly what we’ll see are books that reflect what happened

Hey readers, Image United #1, page 1

who is the philipino superhero?

ooo, pretty ppicture who did that?

B-stain:   A second series is always possible, though it would be interesting to get top flight talent to tackle our characters next time

Hey that looks like an Image book!

Oro-That’s Fortress…

I inked the smoke at the bottom of that page

Robert – what is that page? Anything you can tell us about what’s happening there?

I inked a finger or two.

And what wonderful smoke it is, Todd

The bad finger

Yeah, Robert, you’re not supposed to give fans the finger

Veneta, that’s the hit-the-ground-running first page of the series.  I wanted to start with a bang, and actually start with all the guys drawing on the same page right from the start just to show everyone how cool this project was going to be.

How will the influence of Image United affect the story telling of the on-going Image series once the event has concluded.

Six different artists on that page

I knew people were going to expect a lot of action from this series, so I wanted to make sure I gave them what the wanted right from the start.  This book is a crowd pleaser, to be sure.

That page was sent Fed Ex to all of you?

Vaneta–YES, it was

Absolutely Dan. Kirkman hates all of us and is going to ruin our regular books!

It impacts every book in a different way,  Dan Wickline

My books will begin to weave some of the consequencesa into a few plotlines

Yes, FedEx is the highest paid contributor to this book… well… almost.

Vaneta – yes ,mam, went through everyone

Actually Robert you’re the highest paid.

I’m a huge Dynamo 5 fan. Any chance of seeing them or any other Faerber-verse characters in Image United?????

As it should be.  ;-)

Robert Kirkman….where is your HAUNT #6 solicitations…you said I’d have it today (sorry fans, got to do business here)

Anybody got an answer for Walter?

Nice plug Todd

Not in a big way,  Walter Mellan–we can’t fit in everybody in a major way

Walter, there will be LOTS of cameos

Walter, we’re keeping this series to the characters owned by these creators.  As much as I’d love to see Todd drawing Dynamo 5 it just wouldn’t be right to throw in the hundreds of other Image character who could have shown up.

Sneaky aren’t I?

Will any of Kirkman’s characters show up? Invincible, Brit etc.?

There are fun cameos though!

You’ll get it when I’m ready, Todd.  No go take some more Spawn movie meetings.  ;-)

There’s that Invicible character again.

Well, Guest… I’m not ruling that out.  As the writer I certainly could have written my guys in… we’ll just have to wait until issue 5 comes out to see, right?  oh.

Marc- Fortress…remember, Fortress

How far along on the series are you guys? Script and pencils wise. With something this big I can image schedules and meeting deadlines are a big concern.

And you take more Walking Dead TV series meetings, then!

Is this THE Raven?

It’s all over the place,  Raven  –a lot of issues are being working on at once

Raven, we LOVE deadlines–we love the swooshing sound they make as they fly on by

Raven, not as far as we’d all like, but that’s the history of comic books.   Every book gets out by its chinny chin

will cyberforce play a major role in image united?

Seriously, it’s good so far!

We’ve already got all the issues in the can Raven!

Raven, I sent out 2 pages from issue #2 today and got another page from #3 from Whilce.

They’re ALL in the works to some extent.

Raven-I just finished about tenpages for #3…so it keeps going

Raven, it’s an odd process.  There are a few ods and ends on issue 2 that are wrapping up this week… but we’re also working on issues 3, 4 and beyond.  So many hands are touching these pages it’s hard to peg everything down.  I’ll be finished with the plots for the series in about a week.  Then it’s all in the hands of these fine gentlemen.

Cyber Force does indeed Clay. Watch for them!

Raven, Like Erik said they come in and out, different issues, different pace

Pity poor Eric Stevenson who has to keep track of everything

Cyberforce are all up in this thing’s guts, Clay.

Roberts writen in some cool stuff for Cyber dudes!

And every appearance Cyberforce makes is drawn by you, Marc, right?

Absolutely Vaneta. Just like all the other guys. It’s what makes this so much fun!

who takes the most time on a page?

No comment, Josh.

Uh oh….

Everybody but me Josh!

cough sputter spurt

Josh– not me

it’s a toss up between…. I’m not saying.

cool page. How long did it take to get it done?

The person that has the most characters, and sometimes it’s just one artist because and entire page is completely their characters!

Its really about how much Robert puts on each page for each artist Josh

Lierson, about 5 months of actual time.  About 8 hours or less of work time.  Shipping and what not drags things along, that’s why we’ve been working on this book for so long.

did you say cool page Lierson? How about another?

That one took a while,  Lierson but not every page has every character–some pages are by one guy

Todd just throws lots of cape around so it take him about 10 min.

Issue #1, pages 2-3

wow–that’s a nice page!

That page came out great!

We need to start having Spawn’s cape cover up most of the other guys on the pages, too… go ahead and get this thing wrapped up.

Hey that girl’s not wearing much. Who’s the green guy?

That’s that Hulk guy, Marc

Sigh.

Rodd McSilvestrifeld is teh answer to an earlier question.

Hey, I was the last guy so I finished up everything!

Damn, Hulk is cooler than I remembered!

It’s an absolute dream to be writing script for all these guys and to type out words and get back pages like this.  A real highlight of my career, by far.

So describe for me the process that this page went through… first obviously was the script page, but then who gets it first? And how do you decide what order it goes?

Rob started with the layout.

Wow, Robert– I was going to say it was the rock bottom of mine…

Lierson, collectively maybe 40 hours

I drew the layout and sent my figures to Erik

Erik did you lay this one out?

My bad it was Rob!

You’re too jaded, Erik.

I got a bunch of pages last, so most of the ones I worked on were fun to see almost completed!

i forget who got this spread after Larsen

I think I may have

Todd inked the hell out of this page!

Generally,  Vaneta we try to have it drawn in layers. Start with the front character and move back. That way the next guy knows what space he has to work with

….and Rob drew the hell out of it!

He touched up everything a little.

This is the page I remember seeing when I knew it would work.

I mean, the heck out of it…Rob’s more religious than I am.

The order on the spread, as I recall, was Rob, Larsen, Valentino, Whilce, Marc and then Todd.  Todd actually inked ShadowHawk and Badrock, aside from drawing Spawn.

Just curious, but when you guys get the pages to draw, do you get more than 1 page at a time, say 5 pages, finish all 5 pages, and then mail them out to the next guy? Or is it literally get 1 page in the mail, finish the 1 page, mail it out, and wait for the next page? Or, does 1 person get all 22 pages to start, and then that person mails it out to the next? I am really curious on how this process worked itself out, and how it continues to with the forecoming issues still being worked on.

Religulous!

Jason, they usually come in batches

We all get a batch

To keep the train rolling I send pages as I finish them

Then the round robin mailing begins

So you only get an original page IF you need to actually draw on it, right?

I have about five pages now

Yeah, it varies.  Sometimes it’s 10 pages sometimes it’s 2.

That is correct, Vaneta.

It’s all over the place,  Jason–it starts off with one guy getting a mess of pages but then he splits it up because the pages he does may need to go to three different guys

Its all being done on the original pages Vanetta

Will Rob and Whilce be launching a Fortress mini or ongoing out of this series?

right now I have 7 pages of issue #3. and they are freakin great pages from Kirkman and Larsen

Adumb-yes Fortress is in production and going to be launched thereafter

Larsen brought evry page from issue #3 to Baltimore and slpit em up at the con. con season was great to share pages.

I just sent out one page to Todd today.

Adumb, Whilce will be launching a Fortress series out of Image United, but he’s going to be doing the whole thing himself.  I won’t be writing it (neither will Rob Liefeld, if that’s the Rob you were talking about).

I’m thinking of launching a new mini series with a character called marshmallow, and I’m going to call it mini marshmallow.   I’m going to have five color cover variations.

I’m still working on issue #1 which is cool since its already done. Weird

Whilce – do you know yet if the Fortress comic will be an ongoing? Or is it starting out as a mini?

Ok, Marc made a serious funny!

For what it’s worth, I’ll be inking the last of my pages for issue #2 during the Thanksgiving break.

Marc will draw his pages into your copy of Image united #1!

Vaneta- it will start out as a mini…and Im thinking of keeping it that way..important arcs

Todd, I’m gonna virtually slap you for that one!

Rob you just gave away the surprise gimmic!

With all of the founders having such vast character libraries… Which character [created by another founder] would you most like to have the opportunity to work on.

Pitt Flowers!

It’s a great gimmick….we   should do it! Breaking new ground alla time

Flowers, Badrock and Fortress for me

Flowers, I’d most like to work on Darkness, Badrock, or Dragon.

i love ‘em all,  Flowers– but I have a book–I can get that shot having those guys guest star

Flowers, I’d go with Cyber Force and then Spawn.

Who’s the most obscure character each of you guys have drawn so far in the series?

Flowers-Dragon for me

I loved when I did Spawn. I’d do it again. Badrock is cool too.

I’ll be done with all these guys by the end of Image United, Flowers… or maybe not.

Grant, Blackjak

Grant-Fortress…but we can fix that

Grant….uh, that would be Spawn.

Robert made me draw Warbuck Grant. I will kill him when I see him.

Grant–Bud Ugly

Grant, watching Marc draw Splitzkrieg was the most obscure thing i’ve seen…

Boo hoo, Marc.  Boo hoo.

Bloodstrike for me Grant.

Grant-Fortress for me, but we’re fixing that

Can we expect a more cohesive image superhero universe after IU.

I @#$%ing love  Splitzkrieg

You can have him Erik!

One of my favorite things to do in this series is dig through my collection and have these guys draw guys they may not even remember.

No kidding?

OGloc, that’s the hope…plan…er, we’ll see

Ogloc, we hope!

I think on some levels, OGloc, but Image Comics isn’t set up the same way as Marvel and DC Comics.

Yes OGloc I think that’s what Erik sold us on!

I thought it was cohesive already,  OGloc

Is that binding, Marc?  Larsen on Splitzkrieg would be sweet!

I’ll put  Splitzkrieg  in Savage dragon tomorrow–I love  Splitzkrieg

We can split (zkrieg) him!

Jim Valentino, in a forum you mentioned there would be a new Shadowhawk ongoing starring a new Shadowhawk. Do you have a team to write and draw this yet? And if so, could you at least hint at who they are?

I know who it is, Andrenn!

Andrenn, Yes I do…and not yet. I can say I just read the plot for issue #2 and it’s pretty cool

Seriously, Marc–I thought all those Cyberforce villains kicked ass

Come on Jim. Tell us!

How about some more art? Issue #1, pages 4-5

I’ve also asked the other guys if they’d do a cover for the new series

@@ Why didn’t you guys work all digital?

Thanks Erik. Let’s have`em guest star in Dragon!

Yeha, why not, guys?!?!?!

That would be more difficult,  secret squirrel]

secret, I’m an old fuddy-duddy, I like the board

1/3 of that spread which is pages 4-5 was drawn at Phoenix Comic Con last January.

I’m doing traditional inking on these pages and I don’t like it when my hands get dirty.   I’m a bit of a diva.

a BIT????

Its kind of important to us with this to be traditional Secret. Plus its fun to see all these characters on one real page of art!

Secret Squirrel-being a digital advocate, Eriks right, digital in some ways is slower

Working all digital, Secret Squirrel, could have led to all the pages looking pasted together and not organic.  Todd, god love him, is still doing inking digitally here and there.

Yeah, I had it with the inky hands, trying more marker

Not all of us work digital–most of us still put pens to paper and piecing it together would be the mother of all nightmares

Will this be released as a trade eventually for fans who cant get there hands on the single issues?

Joe, don’t wait for the trade!!!

Every issue will be available!

It will be available in both formats Joe. Get`em both!

The trade will be awesome, but you will not resist the single issues! They’re amazing!

Absolutely, Joe R… although you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding the issues.

Buy it before the sell out tomorrow

How new-reader accessible is this project?

There will be an eventual trade–but the single issues have all kinds of cool stuff you can’t get elsewhere–so buy them too.

Not if Robert is writing it James…Was that out loud?

Very,  JamesP –you get all you need

Joe R, our books are sold in the UK, too!!

the trade will be a heckuva read

JamesP: It’s as accessible as it needs to be.  There will be bits here and there that would be much cooler if you knew the characters, but anyone could pick this up and read it start to finish and follow along.  I’m making sure everyone will be able to enjoy this thing.

Btw, don’t forget to check out the Kirkman/Silvestri created Pilot season books! Take that Todd!

Who colored Image United?

Nikous Koutsis colored it,  Adam

And he’s doing a great job.  Pages look amazing.

Robert, any instances where the artists had you modify or change the dialogue of their characters?

It looks beautiful.

Was the lag to check the correct spelling of his name, Erik?

It really does look great. Thanks Nikous!

I don’t type as fast as you, Robert

I call him cous-cous

It’s Nikos, actually. @#$%

So far, not so much, actually.  I expected it from Erik but I guess I got it reasonably close to what Erik likes.

Erik you draw faster than anyone could ever write!

Does each artist also ink his character(s)? And what about the colors, what’s the process on that point?

Erik, hah!

I’d like to take a seriuos moment and say that all the guys here on this chat have done a bang up job. Rob has poured himself into this project, Whilce has really impressed me with his new character, Eric is lightning quick, Kirkman is such an enthusiastic writer and Marc is just incredibly Marc.

They are the reason I am ienjoying this so much.

I’ve inked some of my own and also have Joe Weems inking Paul.

The colorist does his job when the pages are complete,  Paul

Paul, I for one, don’t ink–so Toddy, Rob, Erik and Chance Wolf have been doing the honors–and they all do a great job

I ink all my stuff as well. Unless Todd is available…

Im having fun being my own inker

Back at you Toddy. You always were and always will be the man!

Do you wish Jim Lee could’ve been along for the ride?

Yeah, once the pages are inked, they get scanned in and colored.  Once the pages are drawn the process if exactly like that of all modern comics.  Computer colors, computer lettering from Tom Orzechowski (who is AWESOME) and then off to the printer.

I’m on my own and do a lot of backgrounds–which Toddy sweetens

Thanks, Todd.

It’s been fun inking over ROB again…remember those cool covers from X-Factor we did long ago?

We blackmailed Jim into doing a cover.

Marc, well he did a cover, but, yes, of course–we all love the little guy

Speaking of Jim Lee Marc

In response to Todd, I’d like to add that you can see from page 1 of issue 1 that everyone brought their A game to image United. I’m proud to be   a part of a milestone.

just WOW!

I think we all would have liked Lee to be more involved

Holy heck…who did that cover!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Todd, you are and remain my favorite inker in the biz!

How did you guys get Jim Lee to do the variant cover? (Who had pictures and how bad were they?)

LOL

Very bad pics Vaneta. Very bad.

Jim can keep slaving away on Batman, we’ll be having all the fun over here!  In all seriousness, with would have been nice to see Grifter running around in the series, but it just wasn’t possible, and I don’t feel the series suffers for it.

That Jim Lee kid is pretty good. But I think he could have added two more teeth to the ANTI-SPAWN bad guy

Sigh. I guess Jim Lee really is better than the rest of us put together

Him and Todd in Cabo…need we say more?

True story, it’s why I ran and got a camera to shoot my kids, they saw Jim’s cover and feaked…first over Dark Spawn….then they said, who drew this Dad and I said Jim Lee and my son said….Wow…he’s awesome”

He is awesome.  Smart kids.

What Jim lacks in height he makes up for in pencil skills!

And then Rob’s kids said “Jim draws Spawn better than uncle Todd.”

And he is very small.

I wish I would have caught their shock and awe over that cover. But i got them blowin’ the rest of us…:     )

It’s a great cover. Jim really kicks ass when he gets competitive –he wanted to bring his a-game

Thank you for not going all digital!!!

Todd, you can see how they focus on your splash. Favorite page of the book. The little kid in everyone is going to explode tomorrow

James, would have known the difference?

Never crossed our minds James thanks!

Every time I look at that cover all I can say is……NEWMAN!

Does Violator have a cameo appearance in this series?

You’re welcome,  JamesP

I showed my 3 year old the book… I’m glad I didn’t record it… he just stared at Witchblade.  I’m not even joking.  He got to her lying on her back on page 5 and wouldn’t let me turn the page.  He said “I’m going to look at this page all night.”  Little pervert.

I do it for the kids Robert