Stuart Immonen

Early life

Stuart Immonen grew up in a Finnish family in Canada. The first comics he read as a child were Disney comics and Harvey Comics. He would later seek out superhero comics from Marvel Comics. Sporadic distribution in the 1970s and 1980s led to the development of an eclectic sense of taste in titles, as he was often only able to find a few issues available per series. A later increase in self-publishing in Toronto spurred him to pursue a career in comics following his studies at university.

Career

In 1988, he self-published a series titled Playground; it was his first published work. From 1990 through 1992, he drew several issues of Rock 'N' Roll Comics for Revolutionary Comics, including issues on Prince, 2 Live Crew and Public Enemy, ZZ Top, Anthrax, and more. He worked at several smaller comic book companies before being hired by DC Comics in 1993. Since then, Immonen has drawn such high-profile characters as Superman, the Hulk, and the X-Men. His work since 2004 includes stints on the titles Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men with writers Warren Ellis and Brian K. Vaughan, as well as a 12-issue run pencilling Nextwave, which again paired him with Warren Ellis.

Stuart Immonen has also done work for Top Cow and Image Comics.

In 1993 and 1994, Immonen drew the Legion of Super-Heroes and with writers Mark Waid and Tom McGraw created a new Legion continuity, beginning with a retelling of the team's origin story starting in Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 4 #0 (Oct. 1994). In 1996, writer Karl Kesel and Immonen produced The Final Night limited series. That same year, Immonen was one of the many creators who contributed to the Superman: The Wedding Album one-shot wherein the title character married Lois Lane. Immonen wrote and drew part of the Superman Red/Superman Blue one-shot which launched the storyline of the same name which ran through the various Superman titles. Immonen ended his ongoing involvement with the Superman franchise with the Superman: End of the Century graphic novel in 2000 but returned to the character for the Superman: Secret Identity in 2004.

In 2000, Immonen was one of the founders of Gorilla Comics, a company formed with Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek and several others. Immonen and Busiek collaborated on the Shockrockets limited series and the Superstar: As Seen on TV one-shot but the company folded after a short time.

In 2005, Immonen published 50 Reasons to Stop Sketching at Conventions, a series of fifty comics that detail why he no longer does sketches for fans. Besides self-publishing, Immonen also maintains a webcomic called Never as Bad as You Think which is co-authored by his wife, Kathryn. Moving Pictures - a webcomic co-authored by the Immonens - was published as a graphic novel by Top Shelf Productions in 2010.

Immonen illustrated Marvel Comics' Ultimate Spider-Man from issue #111 to issue #133. He subsequently worked on The New Avengers from issue #55 to issue #64. He continued to be the series artist when The New Avengers relaunched during the "Heroic Age" storyline and was the regular artist for the first seven issues as well as issue #11.

In 2011 Immonen illustrated Marvel's Fear Itself miniseries which formed the core of a company-wide crossover storyline of the same name. In November 2012 he and writer Brian Michael Bendis started the series All-New X-Men.

Reception

In 2010, Immonen won the Joe Shuster Award for Outstanding Artist.

Doug Zawisza, reviewing the 2011 Fear Itself miniseries for Comic Book Resources, praised Immonen's art. He consistently singled out Immonen for his simple but detailed storytelling, and his ability to render varied subject matter, from Nazis to sea monsters. Zawisza called his art "incredible" and "gorgeous", and Immonen a "modern master" whose ability to convey a large amount of story in a small portion of a page Zawisza compared to that of George Pérez. Though Zawisza was not reluctant to note the occasional error, he praised specific visuals, including Immonen and Laura Martin's depiction of Yggdrasil in issue #1, as well as numerous scenes in issue #4, such as the scenes of global chaos, the Odin-Serpent framing sequence and the shots of British Columbia, which he called "chilling". Jennifer Margret Smith, reviewing the first issue for Newsarama, while praising the entire creative team, commented, "but it's Immonen who really shines", in reference to Immonen's storytelling and skill at crowd scenes. Similar reactions was garnered among reviewers at Comics Bulletin, with Danny Djeljosevic echoing Zawisza's comments regarding Immonen's ability to effectively render different subjects, such as sleepy seaside Canadian towns from superhero battles, saying, "Immonen is easily the most versatile artist in comics, who will surely go down as one of the greats with his striking layouts and dynamic, varied panel to panel storytelling. Immonen reminds me of the old-school Marvel Comics artists, who were capable of delivering strong, consistent work every month with little need for fill-ins." Alex Evans and Dean Stell of Weekly Comic Book Review thought the art and colors were vibrant and detailed, and Immonen the perfect choice for the series, though Stell thought it looked a bit rushed in issue #6, and not up to Immonen's usual standards in issue #7.