COMICS: Stuart Immonen Talks ALL-NEW X-MEN Challenges, Costumes And More

In All-New X-Men, we pick up the story of the Original Five directly from a sequence in one of the Lee/Kirby issues and the dialogue starts out verbatim, but quickly becomes nuanced with modern touches. I’m a bit more ham-strung as far as the look of the characters goes, but the panel compositions are more contemporary from the get-go, and once they’re out of civilian clothes, it’s even less of a hurdle. The goal is to make them look out-of-place, but not definitively from a particular era. They don’t wear hippie rags or say "groovy"; thankfully, riding fashion and cultural trends faithfully was not yet in the minds of the creators, so we dodged a bullet there. That apparently hasn’t stopped people from making comics about Dazzler, however.

After quite a bit of discussion, we collectively decided to keep the original costumes as is, at least for the first story arc. I am not a fan of the gym shorts and balaclava look — I think it was not Jack’s finest hour — but in terms of the story, it makes the most sense. I have updated the appearance of the fabric in a very slight way, but even so, have maintained the slightly ill-fitting nature of the tunic; it makes it more interesting to draw than the usual superhero prophylactic, and besides, it feels right.

Don’t forget my first big ongoing job was on Legion of Super-Heroes with one of the largest cast of characters in the business. And I know Brian was worried that I might balk at this aspect, having just finished a cosmic-scale title, but it actually doesn’t matter that much. If they were real people, it would be a worry to keep things straight, but it’s often a relief to switch gears and draw a different body type or hairstyle or age or gender. At this point, we’re just a few issues in, so you have the modern X-Men and their young counterparts, but no other characters from the Marvel U yet, so it’s all pretty manageable. Missteps and re-draws tend to only happen when characters are being revised in other books, but since everyone I’ve had to draw so far is in the X-office, I don’t have to deal with getting information from two or three or more editors. As far as characters I’ve never drawn, I think it’s limited to most of the cast of Wolverine and the X-Men; however, they are also the most numerous.

Well, in a nutshell, Brian’s a pro. He bends over backwards to make the collaboration work which doesn’t go unappreciated and he throws himself fully into each project, which is an infectious attitude. Being able to maintain our relationship (as well as that with inker Wade Von Grawbadger, which in our house is referred to as my other marriage) over so many years is definitely a plus. You get to know and exploit each others’ strengths as well as make improvements to the weaknesses, which ideally makes for better comics. There’s also a kind of shorthand which develops, where one party says it needs to be more "purple" or "be bop" or "fish sandwich" and you know what they mean.