DC Previews Animal Man After Foreman

Artist Travel Foreman is moving on from the critically-acclaimed run on Animal Man that he's been doing with writer Jeff Lemire, and the choice to replace him with Steve Pugh has puzzled some fans. Pugh, who has drawn Animal Man in the past, with a much more typically-superheroic art style, has caused some critics to worry about a strange and unique comic with a look to match might lose some of its magic if it starts looking more like the other superhero comics on the stands. Well, today DC released art by Pugh, as well as artist Timothy Green, who is drawing Animal Man Annual #1, and it should dispel some of those concerns. "In lots of ways I'm thinking of this as a completely different project to my previous work on Animal Man," said Pugh in brief interview at DC's blog. "A book takes on the personality of its author and that partnership colours your approach to the art. Jeff's wild creatures and dark fantasy, coupled with the move to the DC Universe have made this Animal Man a faster, pacier book, but still with the family at the heart of it-which is great." The artist added that he's excited to be working on the book, and particularly on the upcoming crossover with Scott Snyder's Swamp Thing, which will deal with the battles their heroes are conducting against their mutual villain(ous concept), The Rot.

"I can't lie to you, the first time I drew the swamp thing's face I had a grin from ear to ear on me," Pugh said. "Probably the only bad thing about this job is I can't jump on Facebook and scream 'Guess what I just drew!' because I'll spoil all the big surprises Jeff's got coming up." Another Animal Man-related surprise that DC had for its readers today was a sneak peek at the art for Green's annual issue, along with some thoughts from the artist and even a link to some other sketches done for the project. "Working with Jeff Lemire was such a pleasure," the blog quotes Green as saying. "He's able to give his characters real human qualities. Both he and Travel Foreman created such an amazingly crazy world in the regular series that I was able to draw a great amount of inspiration from." And really? The artist's name is Green? Apparently nobody thought to put him on the Swamp Thing side of this whole ordeal?