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| Supreme N. 63. Cover by Erik Larsen. |
Supreme is back! The character, relaunched in the '90ies in an acclaimed run by Alan Moore, will be back this April with issue N. 63.
Erik Larsen will draw (with assistance by Cory Hamscher) the last unpublished script written by Moore and then the series will continue with Larsen providing both scripts and layouts, with final art by Hamscher.
In the following an excerpt from a CBR interview with Erik Larsen (dated 30th of January 2012).
At least the first issue is being drawn from an Alan Moore script that was still on file. Is there more than just the one? How will the story proceed past that point?
There was one script and it was left on a complete cliffhanger. Alan had intended this to be his last issue and for it to feed into the next guy's run. My impression was that he was going to either plot it or guide it after this issue but he really left it on an edge-of-your-seat cliffhanger so the next guy had a guaranteed audience. There's no closure here -- you can't walk away after reading Alan's last issue and feel it's a good place to stop.
The script obviously wasn't written for you and Moore's known to have incredibly complex panel descriptions, so what was it like drawing his scripts? It must have been challenging considering it was written for another artist and he tends to be incredibly descriptive in his panel descriptions.
[It was] absolute hell. He does not write to my strengths and there were all kinds of things he asked for which were a pain in the ass to draw -- there were panels with multiple things going on in the foreground and background and I spent a lot of time combing over other issues looking for reference. It was easily the most difficult script I've worked from. It was torture.
I had the option of not using it, actually. Alan had written scripts for a few Extreme books including "Youngblood" and "Glory," which weren't being used, and it was thought that it would be better to start fresh -- but I really wanted what I did to spin out of what Alan did. What better way than to draw his final script? On both "Youngblood" and "Glory" Alan had barely gotten started but he'd had a rather lengthy run on "Supreme," so it made more sense to use his script and jump off from that. I'm glad I did it and I'm glad it's behind me. My hat's off to anybody who's been able to work with Alan over the years. I have nothing but respect for those people.
There was one script and it was left on a complete cliffhanger. Alan had intended this to be his last issue and for it to feed into the next guy's run. My impression was that he was going to either plot it or guide it after this issue but he really left it on an edge-of-your-seat cliffhanger so the next guy had a guaranteed audience. There's no closure here -- you can't walk away after reading Alan's last issue and feel it's a good place to stop.
The script obviously wasn't written for you and Moore's known to have incredibly complex panel descriptions, so what was it like drawing his scripts? It must have been challenging considering it was written for another artist and he tends to be incredibly descriptive in his panel descriptions.
[It was] absolute hell. He does not write to my strengths and there were all kinds of things he asked for which were a pain in the ass to draw -- there were panels with multiple things going on in the foreground and background and I spent a lot of time combing over other issues looking for reference. It was easily the most difficult script I've worked from. It was torture.
I had the option of not using it, actually. Alan had written scripts for a few Extreme books including "Youngblood" and "Glory," which weren't being used, and it was thought that it would be better to start fresh -- but I really wanted what I did to spin out of what Alan did. What better way than to draw his final script? On both "Youngblood" and "Glory" Alan had barely gotten started but he'd had a rather lengthy run on "Supreme," so it made more sense to use his script and jump off from that. I'm glad I did it and I'm glad it's behind me. My hat's off to anybody who's been able to work with Alan over the years. I have nothing but respect for those people.
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| Larsen's sketches |
I can't wait! I'm glad Larsen persevered and drew the script in spite of Moore's difficult descriptions. He has comics readers' eternal gratitude.
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