Bryan Hitch
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Bryan Hitch (born 1970) is a British comic book artist. He is the co-creator and artist of The Authority and The Ultimates.
His long list of credits include The Sensational She-Hulk, X-Men, Superman and Stormwatch and, for Marvel UK, Action Force, Doctor Who, Mys-Tech Wars and Death's Head.
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Biography
Comics
Hitch started work at Marvel UK where he started off working on Transformers before working with Furman again on Death's Head. He did some work at Marvel Comics and DC Comics during the late 1980s and early 1990s, in particular his run on She-Hulk, but also carried on at Marvel UK. After that company closed, he provided the art for an issue of Teen Titans and a couple of series at Valiant Comics before returning to Marvel where he would work with inker Paul Neary. It was in the late nineties that he got a series of high-profile assignments, which would mainly include Neary on inks. At Wildstorm, working with Warren Ellis in rebooting Stormwatch and launching The Authority. This led to a year on JLA with Mark Waid and then another return to Marvel. There the art team of Hitch and Neary would join Mark Millar on The Ultimates, The Ultimates 2 and Fantastic Four.
Character design
Hitch was a character design artist for Ultimate Avengers and Ultimate Avengers 2 animated films. He also was a character design artist for the video game Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. He was brought aboard the project due to his definitive rendition of the Hulk in The Ultimates. He was also hired by the BBC as the concept artist for the 2005 relaunch of the Doctor Who television series, having particular input into the design of the TARDIS interior set. He has also provided artwork that served as the cover of Empire, a British movie magazine doing a featured article on comic book movies.
Style
Hitch's art, which closely resembled that of Alan Davis early in his career, is characterized by high level of detail, use of "widescreen" panels on projects like The Authority, and emotive facial close-ups.
Lateness in books
Hitch's career has also been marked by lateness of books, perhaps due to his high detailing. Examples include his run JLA, which was broken up by fill-in artists, a situation which he blamed on bad scheduling on DC Comics' part. There were also long delays in between issues of The Ultimates, where the lateness was due to the birth of his child, two house moves, and an office move. The final issue of Fantastic Four with frequent collaborator Mark Millar was also done by fill-in artist Stuart Immonen. Hitch stresses that Marvel was more supportive of him during his tardiness than DC. The page count of certain issues of The Ultimates, exceeding the usual 22 pages of an American-style comic book, also lends credence to this claim.
