Don't F[l]inch
New Ultimate X-Men artist David Finch talks about feeling daunted by Bendis, not seeing 'X2' and his vision of the X-Men's costumes.

ULTIMATE X-MEN TPB VOLUME ONE

Launching a new era of the Ultimate line with writer Brian Michael Bendis (Ultimate Spider-Man) later this month as the duo begin a six-part tale on Ultimate X-Men, David Finch The Call) is quickly becoming one of the hottest artist in comics. But as Finch will tell anyone, the fame of a new superstar is nothing compared to the excitement he gets out of currently turning out a page a day of his best work to date. COTTON: How has working with Bendis been going? Is it at all scary to work on such a high-profile gig? FINCH: I'm half really enjoying it and half totally daunted. Bendis is unlike any other writer. He never makes mistakes. His characters are so believable.

It's actually becoming much easier to draw the characters. It's always easier to draw the characters when you feel like you know them, right? It's much easier for me. It keeps my interest. It's daunting too. His stuff is so good, though. I'm always worried he'll hate it. He's been really supportive and I'm not a storytelling artist-I never have been. But I'm working on that.

COTTON: How do you two work together? Do you talk much?
FINCH: For the most part, Bendis just sends scripts. But we have talked. I know we're going to talk this week about some stuff coming up. I don't know how that'll go. This will actually be the first time I'm talking to him about story stuff. I'm not really sure I have any ideas. I'm sure I'll bring some thing up but for the most part I just leave it to him.

COTTON: How'd you land the Ultimate X-Men gig?
FINCH: I was working on The Call and I knew that would wrap up soon. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do next-but I did really enjoy working with [Ultimate line editors] Ralph Macchio, C.B. Cebulski and Brian Smith. When they mentioned that they had Ultimate X-Men and that they needed someone to work on it with [artist] Adam Kubert because he needs breaks. They needed someone to help out and I jumped at it. Who wouldn't, right?

ULTIMATE X-MEN #34

COTTON: You're not the fastest artist around. What's your average workday like now? FINCH: I get up around 7 a.m. and I work for about five and a half to six hours a day. Today I'm doing a double page spread so it's taking a little longer. I've always been fast, but I've always been lazy too. [chuckles] COTTON: Ultimate X-Men has your plate fairly full, but are there any other writers or projects you'd like to take a crack at? FINCH: I'd love to work with Chuck Austen again. He's writing everything these days. When I worked with him before and he was an absolute pleasure. He's a total professional and a great writer. I like working with people I get along with. Working with people who are jerks just makes your day very, very long.

COTTON: You seem to enjoy the company of people you work with. Ever get lonely working in a studio all by yourself?
FINCH: It can be. What I do is.well, I guess I'm kind of doing it now.is sitting on the phone and talking for four or five hours. I know so many artists that are like grandmothers. You get cooped up in a little room all day. Yeah, it's kind of like a support center for lonely artists.

COTTON: What artists' work are you into right now?
FINCH: I like Bryan Hitch's stuff. I mean, how can you not? And actually Frank Quitely-that one took me a long time. Geof Darrow. Then there are my perennial guys like Kevin Nowlan and Marc Silvestri, obviously, who taught me. Then there's Simon Bisley, who's always a big one for me.

COTTON: Who's your favorite character to draw in Ultimate X-Men?
FINCH: I like drawing characters with a lot of shadows, so I love drawing Nightcrawler. He's the character I can always get away drawing shadow in any scene because he's darker than everyone else. Usually, if I draw one character in heavy shadow I have to draw everybody else the same way-if I don't it can interfere with the storytelling. And he's an acrobatic character; he's a lot of fun to draw. Visually he's got a lot to him. And also, I'm a huge Alan Davis fan, and I love his stuff an Excalibur.

 

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN TPB VOLUME ONE

COTTON: You didn't really read comics growing up, right? FINCH: I read my first comic when I was 20 but my sister was always a fan. I remember teasing her about it as a kid. I never read comics until I was older and needed a job. COTTON: So what was your first comic? FINCH: The first comic I ever read-I'm not sure about the issue number-but it was an X-Men comic by John Byrne. It was about ten years old and I didn't even know it at the time. It might have even been older. All the characters had on bellbottoms and stuff-I just thought [Byrne] had a really bad sense of style. After I finished, I realized that it was old.

COTTON: Any plans to tweak the Ultimate X-Men costumes?
FINCH: I would love to give [the Ultimate X-Men] all-new costumes. I'm kind of torn. I've redesigned all the costumes for myself-it hasn't been approved or anything. I've kind of completely changed my mind on what I want to do. I really like what Frank Quitely's done with the costumes on New X-Men. And I really like the black and yellow-they look like X-Men. I was designing very individual costumes for each character but I'm not sure that works as well. What I've been thinking is going back to the Jack Kirby costumes or the Jim Lee designed costumes, not from X-Men #1 but the black costumes with the red tops. Those seem really classic. I'd like to update them some but nothing huge.

COTTON: Finally, what did you think of X2?
FINCH: We tried to go see it and we couldn't get it. I think there was one more showing but we weren't going to get in until about 10 p.m. We just went home.

COTTON: Bummer.

Mike Cotton is a staff writer for Wizard: The Comics Magazine. For all the comic book news fit to print, check out Wizard on sale every month at comic book specialty shops and newsstands everywhere.

The Cotton Club Archive

August 7 , 2003 - HOLLYWOOD RUN DOWN July 31, 2003 - SPIDER-MAN 2 July 24, 2003 - BAG MAN July 17, 2003 - Moore or Less July 10, 2003 - Ink Test July 2, 2003 - HURRICANE WARNING June 25, 2003 - BANNER BANTER June 10, 2003 - PETER DAVID June 3 , 2003 - PAUL JENKINS May 28 , 2003 - GEOFF JOHNS May 21 , 2003 - BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS May 14 , 2003 - PHIL JIMENEZ May 9 , 2003 - Don't F[l]inch April 29 , 2003 - The X-Factors April 17 , 2003 - X2 Reviewed January 13, 2003 - Game Boy - WizKid’s HeroClix January 3, 2003- 2003 Bigger than 2002? December 20 , 2002 - Ring Bearer - A two-bit tour for ‘Two Towers’ novices December 13 , 2002 - ‘Sine of the Times December 6 , 2002 - Killer Read November 30, 2002 - Lex's World November 23, 2002 - Truth and Consequences November 15, 2002 - Triple X November 8 , 2002 - Giving the Devil his Due October 31, 2002 - Superhero DVD Preview October 25, 2002 - Mad Cow October 18 , 2002 - 80's a Go-GO October 11 , 2002 - Best Bets on Bats October 4, 2002 - Hunters & Pray September 27 , 2002 - The War Within September 19 , 2002 - Lee-Der of the pack. September 13 , 2002 - The Next Generation. September 6 , 2002 - Marvel Melee. August 30, 2002 - Breaking In. Joe Quesada reveals the ins and outs of getting work at Marvel. August 23, 2002 - Painted Into a Corner. An Interview with Greg Hildebrandt. August 16, 2002 - X-citing News on X-Men 2!