With Matt Fraction and David Aja closing out their epic run on "Hawkeye" -- arguably one of the most critically acclaimed comic book series of the past decade -- Marvel Comics realized it would need a top shelf creative team to commit to the title if it was going to continue its high quality and craftsmanship.
The House of Ideas just hit a bullseye.
During the Axel-In Charge panel at New York Comic Con, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso announced that Eisner Award-nominated writer Jeff Lemire ("Sweet Tooth," "Essex County") and Eisner Award-winning artistRamón Pérez ("Jim Henson's Tale of Sand") would be teaming up on "Hawkeye" beginning in Spring 2015, thereby securing a dream team worthy of the series, which has generated multiple awards including being named an Official Selection for Festival d'Angoulême 2014.
This project marks Lemire's Marvel debut, with the superstar writer recently finished an exclusive deal with DC Comics and branching out with new projects at Image Comics, Dark Horse and Valiant. Once Alsonso and series editor Sana Amanat knew Lemire was open to creating comics for Marvel, Alonso reached out to the cartoonist personally to offer him "Hawkeye." Pérez has been illustrating series for Marvel for a few years, including bestselling titles like "Amazing Spider-Man" and "Wolverine & The X-Men."
In this exclusive first interview about the upcoming series, which will launch with a new "Hawkeye" #1 in March 2015, Lemire, Pérez and Amanat discussed the secret origin of the top secret project, how it was nearly named "Hawkeyes" to reflect the importance of Clint Barton's protégé Kate Bishop, and why the brand of storytelling will be reminiscent of Lemire's work on indie hits like "Essex County" and "The Underwater Welder."
