San Diego Comic-Con: New Mutants Retrospective

[GeneTitan]

Here are a few highlights from artist Bill Sienkiewicz's panel on his work on "The New Mutants."

-fans hated his style
-was offered x-men, but turned it down. he thought "i'm not taking the flagship book & driving it into the ditch"
-he wanted zero attention, fly under the radar with his work
-claremont offered him a 3 issue arc & they just kept going
-warlock heavily inspired by animation. "jazz" and "zen."
-he added the soulsword, wanted illyana to be a "badass."
-legion was inspired by stories & comics in his grade school notebook.
-he left the book when marvel wanted "the new mutants" to look more
like the other x-books

[planetxmen]

-fans hated his style

Don't be so utterly ridiculous.

[sage]

That's cool. Was there any mention of the movie at all? I was hoping someone would ask Bill if Fox ever got back to him about doing the movie poster.

[Vegan Daddy]

Don't be so utterly ridiculous.

I remember reading in an interview that some fans didn't like his experimental artwork. There was some pushback.

[Confuzzled]

Don't be so utterly ridiculous.

If you read the letters column for the old Dazzler issues, there's a fair share of bitching and moaning over the covers he created for that title.

It's kind of reassuring to know that fanboys were always ridiculous.

[SneakyLookingSort]

Wonder how those same fans felt about Rob Liefeld's art

[GeneTitan]

They didn't talk too much about the movie. There was nothing noteworthy

[sunofdarkchild]

Here are a few highlights from artist Bill Sienkiewicz's panel on his work on "The New Mutants."

-fans hated his style
-was offered x-men, but turned it down. he thought "i'm not taking the flagship book & driving it into the ditch"
-he wanted zero attention, fly under the radar with his work
-claremont offered him a 3 issue arc & they just kept going
-warlock heavily inspired by animation. "jazz" and "zen."
-he added the soulsword, wanted illyana to be a "badass."
-legion was inspired by stories & comics in his grade school notebook.
-he left the book when marvel wanted "the new mutants" to look more
like the other x-books

Is he saying that he was part of the planning of Illyana's origin? Because her soul sword first appeared in the same issue of Uncanny Rogue joined the X-Men, it's creation was shown during her origin in the Magik mini, and it was used in New Mutants for months before he came on board. He did change how it looks to a more medieval looking sword, but the only way he could have 'added' the soul sword to anything is if he was involved in the plotting of the Magik mini well before he started drawing New Mutants.

[Ricochet Rita]

Wow, I wish I've been there to hear his talk. Amazing.

-warlock heavily inspired by animation. "jazz" and "zen."

I'm thinking of Warner here

-he added the soulsword, wanted illyana to be a "badass."

Well, he rather brought it back from her former mini. Illyana created the soulsword then, with her magic and life force, but it turned indeed much better under Sienki's pencils --that hilt!

-legion was inspired by stories & comics in his grade school notebook.

It's not the first time I hear something like that. Sometimes your school scribbles are useful

Don't be so utterly ridiculous.

What do you mean? Fandom in large part hated his style! TNM lost so many old readers as it gained new ones! That's a fact!

As for me, he totally blew my mind for good.

[victor borkowski]

"fans hated his style". are you kidding me? his time on New Mutants was one of the best times for the book. the art made th book. period.

[Ricochet Rita]

"fans hated his style". are you kidding me? his time on New Mutants was one of the best times for the book. the art made th book. period.

No kidding.

(Many many) fans hated his style --AND-- his time on TNM was one of the best times (maybe the best) for the book. These two facts are not incompatible.

[Master of Sound]

At that time most hated his art big time. Now years later some see it different, but it was a fact at the time.

[Tycon]

Makes me wonder how many fans that hate more 'experimental' artists today will view the art styles in the later years.

[lollie_poppy]

Wonder how those same fans felt about Rob Liefeld's art

That was divine punishment for those fans. Karma.

[Fildro]

I love the new mutants but I didn't liked his art then and don''t like it now. But it's a mater of personal taste. To be honest I hated Bret Blevins much more and just stoped reading the book when he started drawing it.