GREG CAPULLO to take over art on HAUNT

Comic Book Resources (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=24445) announced yesterday that Ryan Ottley is stepping down from the pencils on HAUNT, the new title written by Todd McFarlane and Robert Kirkman, and he will be replaced by Greg Capüllo. Ottley cites the pressure of pencilling two monthly titles as being too much work for him; I can’t blame him. Trying to do your best work while dividing your mind between two completely separate styles of storytelling could easily drive somebody to insanity!

As it was, HAUNT’s creative team was rather unusual – Kirkman and McFarlane wrote the book, Greg Capüllo (SPAWN, CREECH) did layouts, Ottley did pencils, and McFarlane was on digital inks. McFarlane is no stranger to inking other peoples’ work – He inked his own stuff for a long time, spent years inking Capüllo’s work on SPAWN, and, recently has been doing digital inks over Whilce Portacio’s pencils on SPAWN. But, Ottley’s best known for his work on INVINCIBLE (another Kirkman title from Image), and so HAUNT looked nothing like the artwork from either Ottley, Capüllo, or McFarlane. It was too dark to fit Ottley’s general cheery, cartoony style, and too cartoony and cheery to fit the usual work of Capüllo and McFarlane.

So, taking Ottley out of the equation, in fact, may be what the book needs to really stand out and look more like what its cover advertises. I know that the clash of art styles is what kept me away from the book. Capüllo takes over with issue 6, to be released in March, allowing the first arc to be completed by Ottley.

Maybe now’s a good time to look into the series. I’ve always been a fan of Capüllo’s work, especially when he’s drawing for Todd. I’ll give the first arc a try and let you know how it goes, Zoners.