Getting to Know the Creators: Robert Kirkman

[iSteve]

While I was away, I read Vol. 1 of Invincible and immediately became addicted. I was already a fan of Robert Kirkman because of The Walking Dead, now even more so.

http://www.splashpages.de/php/images/imagemanager_comics/specials2006/thewalkingdead/Foto_Robert_Kirkman_04.jpg

Biographical sketch from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kirkman):

Robert Kirkman is an American comic book writer. He is best known for his work on Image Comics' series The Walking Dead and Invincible.

Kirkman's first comic book work was self published, through the publisher Funk-O-Tron. This series was Battle Pope (2000) produced with artist Tony Moore, an intentionally offensive super-hero parody.

While pitching a new series that would be titled Science Dog, Kirkman and artist Cory Walker were hired to do a SuperPatriot miniseries for Image Comics. While working on that book, a pitch was made by Kirkman and co-creator E.J. Su for a new ongoing monthly series named Tech Jacket (2002). The pitch was accepted by Image, but was canceled after only 6 issues, due to low sales.

In 2003, at the request of Image Comics, Kirkman and SuperPatriot artist Cory Walker created Invincible for a new "superhero" line. The story surrounded the adolescent son of the world's most powerful super-hero, who develops super-powers and starts his own career as a super-hero.

Walker later failed to meet the grueling deadlines of a monthly title and was replaced by Ryan Ottley. Shortly after the launch of Invincible, Kirkman and Tony Moore began The Walking Dead (2003), an ongoing series set in a world inspired by George A. Romero's zombie movies. Moore, struggling to keep deadlines on interior art was replaced by Charlie Adlard, beginning with issue #7. Moore continued to do covers for the book, however, and eventually became one of the most popular cover artists in comics, even being nominated for an Eisner Award.

These two series have met with critical and commercial success, with Kirkman's work on Invincible especially opening the door to more mainstream super-hero work at Marvel Comics.

His work for that publisher has included work on a new Sleepwalker series that was cancelled before being published, the first issue eventually included in Epic Anthology #1 (2004). He soon became a mainstay at Marvel, writing, amongst others, Captain America Vol.4 #29-32 (2004), Marvel Knights: 2099 (2004), Jubilee #1-6 (2004), Marvel Team-Up Vol.3 #1-25 (2005), Fantastic Four: Foes #1-6 (2005), Marvel Zombies #1-5 (2005-2006), Ultimate X-Men (starting with issue #66), and The Irredeemable Ant-Man.

Paramount Pictures has announced that they have bought the rights to produce an Invincible feature film, and that they have hired Kirkman to write the screenplay. It was recently announced the Kirkman and artist Jason Howard would be starting a new ongoing series for Image entitled "The Astounding Wolf-Man" on May 5, 2007, on Free Comic Book Day.

Kirkman claims to have named his newborn son Peter Parker Kirkman, but it is unclear whether or not he is joking.

1) Invicible Wikipedia Article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invincible_%28comic%29)

2) The Walking Dead Wikipedia Article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead)

3) Robert Kirkman Message Board (http://www.imagecomics.com/messageboard/viewforum.php?f=2)

4) Kirkmania: Robert Kirkman Homepage (www.robertkirkman.com/)

5) Newsarama Article: Catching Up with Robert Kirkman (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=95661)

[fred]

I love Kirkman. I can't wait for The Astounding Wolf-Man. I read a 7 or 8 page preview of it and it seems cool

[the-screw-on-aaron]

Hey welcome back Steve!:D how are ya? Yeah I'm really really really really really like Walking Dead and getting the big old Invincible hardcover for my birthday next month so I'm really looking forward to it.

[paper]

I need to read more of his stuff (i.e. Walkign Dead). I gotta be honest. Invincible doesn't really do it for me. I don't feel like I know who Mark Grayson is. It's fun, and the twists are compelling, but so much of the first hardcover feels like coasting, riding on the coat tails of familiar things. But the personality of this character doesn't really resonate with me. He's sort of like that friend you just give gift cards for their birthday.

[jerome]

I need to read more of his stuff (i.e. Walkign Dead). I gotta be honest. Invincible doesn't really do it for me. I don't feel like I know who Mark Grayson is. It's fun, and the twists are compelling, but so much of the first hardcover feels like coasting, riding on the coat tails of familiar things. But the personality of this character doesn't really resonate with me. He's sort of like that friend you just give gift cards for their birthday.

oh my god. I thought i was the only one.

[paper]

I'll see ya at the gallows, Jerome.

[mikegraham6]

nice to have you back iSteve!
Im reading the ultimate invincible vol 2 right now and im really enjoying. the only critique i have of it would be that sometimes it feels like its missing a scene, i check back a few pages to see if i missed something but i didn't but its referenced in another panel

[jgg0610]

I need to read more of his stuff (i.e. Walkign Dead). I gotta be honest. Invincible doesn't really do it for me. I don't feel like I know who Mark Grayson is. It's fun, and the twists are compelling, but so much of the first hardcover feels like coasting, riding on the coat tails of familiar things. But the personality of this character doesn't really resonate with me. He's sort of like that friend you just give gift cards for their birthday.
You two are not the only ones believe me. It took me a while to warm up to Invincble. It was actually the third trade before I was convinced I would continue with it. I've only read the first trade of TWD and I don't get it at all. I didn't think it was all that great. I may get the second trade someday and see if it wins me over but there are a lot of other things that I'd like to get first.

[jerome]

Walking Dead > Invincible > everything else he writes

[lindseyd]

THAT's Robert Kirkman? Oh man, he's adorable.

Wait... um, maybe I should contribute something meaningful to this discussion. Okay, you know what character of his I really liked? Monster Girl. The concept for her character is pretty interesting and thusfar I've enjoyed her dialogue a lot.

Right. I'm sorry.

[fred]

I love it when they use this picture (or some variant of it)


http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u116/fredhosley/kirkman.gif

[darron]

Kirkman was a Newsie?

[six-gun]

I've never read anything by Robert Kirkman

Anyone want to send me some trades? :)

[fred]

Kirkman was a Newsie?

he was. when you go to his website they have a video of him singing King of New York

[alexg]

I do enjoy Ant man for the sheer ridiculousness of it. Been meaning to give Walking Dead a shot, but it seems like I should start at the beginning.

[marshallg]

I just finished the first trade of Invincible and I have to say it was quite entertaining. I'm not saying I'm "addicted" yet but I'm intrigued enough to pick up the second one.

[darron]

I do enjoy Ant man for the sheer ridiculousness of it. Been meaning to give Walking Dead a shot, but it seems like I should start at the beginning.

I can't reccomend this enough. Walking Dead is a phenominal series, but you'd miss quite a few major points along the way. I'm only on the fourth trade myself, but couldn't imagine jumping on at any point other than the beginning.

[jgg0610]

I just finished the first trade of Invincible and I have to say it was quite entertaining. I'm not saying I'm "addicted" yet but I'm intrigued enough to pick up the second one.
I felt pretty much the same way after the first trade. Good but nothing to write home about. Then I read the second and third trades and bam, it really turned a corner. The first arc is really 12 issues long. Give it at least that long.

Also, welcome to the forum.

[kwok_talk]

The Walking Dead is my favorite series that I've started from recommendations from here. Haven't tried Invincible yet, but I haven't been as amazed by some of his other works that I've read (Ant-Man, Ultimate X-men). I'll probably peek at the Wolf-man book, but it doesn't grab my attention right off the bat.

[conorkilpatrick]

THAT's Robert Kirkman? Oh man, he's adorable.

I take it, then, that you've never seen our first video (http://www.ifanboy.com/archive/weblog/ifanboy_present.html) which includes a very funny interview with Robert Kirkman.

[mikegraham6]

ive read the first 3 walking dead trades and the first two ultimate invincible hardcovers and im convinced that kirkman only really works well when they are his creations. his ultimate x-men run has been underwhelming, not bad, just not great either, tremendously average. Ant-man is a great concept that lacks proper execution. i read the first 3 issues and as interesting as a the character is (a superhero who is dispicable) it doesn't work for me because of the people he was playing off of. as soon as you get to know a new character ant-man screws them over in some way and they're gone. if your main character is going to be an ass, the readers need someone to empathize with, at least thats how i feel when i read it, i need someone to relate to. but i haven't read marvel team up or anything else he's done for the big 2, so if he can transfer his strength from his creator owned books into his marvel (or DC) work then i think kirkman definitely has room to grow as a writer (either that or stick to the indies, i'll be picking up his wolfman book based on the strength of his indy titles)

[mikegraham6]

I just finished Invincible Ultimate collection vol2 and i just had to mention why i love this book. Kirkman is great at lulling the reader in a false sense of security with the characters. As soon as you think you know where this book is going he throws you a curve ball. It seems like a run of the mill action/teen book but every few issues or so, it goes very dark and violent and Kirkman brings you back down from cloud 9, feet planted firmly in reality (as real as a superhero book can get). It's funny because he's gotten me more than once with this trick. For all those who have read it, you know the big event that surprised me in the 12th (?) issue, and now he's done the same thing with the Allen the Alien issue. It's great and i applaud kirkman for fooling me twice:D

[iSteve]

ROBERT KIRKMAN: SUPERNATURAL WORK MACHINE (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=114893)
Newsarama Article
by Steve Ekstrom

Robert Kirkman is a busy man in the comic book industry. Currently, he’s working on monthly titles Ultimate X-Men and The Irredeemable Ant-Man for Marvel Comics. He’s also working on his own monthly properties, Invincible, The Walking Dead, and his newest creator-owned project, The Astounding Wolf- Man, over at Image Comics. Five titles in one month and he’s still a relatively new father with the birth of his first born last year in April. How does he do it all? When does he sleep? Newsarama could only come to one conclusion:

Kirkman must be supernatural himself.

Fresh off his coast to coast tour in support of Free Comic Book Day earlier this month, Kirkman sat down with Newsarama to talk about the future of his newest creator-owned series from Image Comics, The Astounding Wolf-Man, as well as some of his stops along his dizzying three-day journey across the US.

For the rest of the interview, click here (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=114893).

[mastap]

I need to read more of his stuff (i.e. Walkign Dead). I gotta be honest. Invincible doesn't really do it for me. I don't feel like I know who Mark Grayson is. It's fun, and the twists are compelling, but so much of the first hardcover feels like coasting, riding on the coat tails of familiar things. But the personality of this character doesn't really resonate with me. He's sort of like that friend you just give gift cards for their birthday.

I'll join you in that

[iSteve]

DAYS OF X PAST & MORE - CATCHING UP WITH ROBERT KIRKMAN (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=143527)

by Vaneta Rogers

After just over two years with the title, writer Robert Kirman announced in late December that he would be leaving the series with issue #93. As he said in his blog, after being hired for a nine issue fill-in arc, sticking around for over two dozen ain’t half dad.

We spoke with the writer about his time on the series.

Newsarama: For those who might not have seen your blog post, why are you leaving Ultimate X-Men now?

Robert Kirkman: Well, I was sitting down with [Marvel editor] Ralph Macchio. Well, he was sitting down in New York and I was sitting down in Kentucky. And he was asking me what I was going to do after the Apocalypse storyline. And everything I've been doing in Ultimate X-Men since my run started -- and you know, there are a lot of subplots and a lot of things going on and different layers to the storyline -- it's all been leading up to the Apocalypse storyline. So I didn't really see the point of overstaying my welcome and trying to hang onto the book after that point, and force myself to come up with more storylines that may or may not live up to what I'm doing in the Apocalypse storyline. So I figured it was as good a time as any to do my swan song storyline and tie everything up and then walk out the door.

NRAMA: You know there are a lot of rumors about changes coming for the Ultimate Universe.

RK: I cannot speak about any of them!

NRAMA: [laughs] That's not surprising, but...

RK: I mean, I'm aware of what's going on. But I can't really comment because I don't know what they're steering people to believe. There are definitely a lot of changes in store and some cool things happening......

[esophagus]

I've never read anything by Robert Kirkman

Anyone want to send me some trades? :)Oh, how things change.

[six-gun]

Oh, how things change.

Oh, you mean that Walking Dead addiction? ;)

[moneytime]

ive read the first 3 walking dead trades and the first two ultimate invincible hardcovers and im convinced that kirkman only really works well when they are his creations. his ultimate x-men run has been underwhelming, not bad, just not great either, tremendously average. Ant-man is a great concept that lacks proper execution. i read the first 3 issues and as interesting as a the character is (a superhero who is dispicable) it doesn't work for me because of the people he was playing off of. as soon as you get to know a new character ant-man screws them over in some way and they're gone. if your main character is going to be an ass, the readers need someone to empathize with, at least thats how i feel when i read it, i need someone to relate to. but i haven't read marvel team up or anything else he's done for the big 2, so if he can transfer his strength from his creator owned books into his marvel (or DC) work then i think kirkman definitely has room to grow as a writer (either that or stick to the indies, i'll be picking up his wolfman book based on the strength of his indy titles)

I couldn't agree with you more. I am really enjoying Invincible, walking dead and Brit. I think they have fantastic characters and the stories are fairly original and I have felt drawn into each world. I like the pacing as well. I started to read antman, and was like, why the fuck would I care about this character or what he does? He's a total dick! :mad:
Suffice it to say i stopped reading that one. :rolleyes:
Haven't gotten into any of the Ult.x-men , but from your review it doesn't sound like I'm missing too much.
That said though, overall I think Kirkman is pretty talented and has a lot of potential.

[six-gun]

That said though, overall I think Kirkman is pretty talented and has a lot of potential.

Yeah I agree with most of your points, but a lot of the things that make Kirkman's work so compelling (No one is safe!) just can't work on Superman or The JSA. That said, the guy is extremely talented.