Fan Friday Creator Spotlight: All-New Marvel Young Gun Valerio Schiti (Late again, maybe this should just be called Creator Spotlight?)

We are rapidly approaching the new convention by Reed Pop, Special Edition NYC. Previously announced at C2E2 and receiving a big promotion and spotlight at Special Edition are Marvel's All-New Young Guns, a collection of artists who they see as being the future of their comics. And what an almighty list it is. I decided with Special Edition around the corner and San Diego also not to far away that for the next 5 weeks I will spotlight each of the Marvel All-New Young Guns, what have I read by them? What haven't I read? What everyone should definitely check out.

So first up is Valerio Schiti. I've been a big fan of Valerio Schiti's work since reading Journey into Mystery with Katherine Immonen I've also done a little research so there won't just be the stuff I have read, which in some cases unfortunately is very little so lets begin.

What I've read by Schiti to date;

The first time I came across the work of Valerio Schiti was when reading Journey into Mystery by Kathryn Immonen, himself and the ever popular colorist Jordie Bellaire. This series received good acclaim from many corners of the comic internet, both for the storytelling by Kathryn and visual storytelling by Schiti. He got to work with many characters on this series, including the likes of Superior Spider-Man, Beta Ray Bill and proved that no character was a challenge for him. He brought a great stylization to the character and with Jordie Bellaire's colors the emotions he visualized were truly brought to life. It was sad to hear when this series was ending, and one of my first thoughts was where would Schiti be heading next, this surely can't be his last work at Marvel, and it wasn't, he has gone on to be a fill in artist on certain series, Mighty Avengers, Avengers A.I. and also did some fill in art for an issue of Guardians of the Galaxy with Sara Pichelli, one of his fellow All-New Young Guns. His work on Mighty Avengers, being the only issues I enjoyed, no disrespect intended but Schiti's art work is far more pleasing to the eye that Greg Land's.

What work had he done before;

Dungeons & Dragons

I can't say much at all about Valerio Schiti's earlier work, I personally have not read any of this and the images in this post all come from his back catalogue from the previews pages on the Comic Book Resources website. It is evident thought that Schiti began his work at IDW. Among his list of works are Battle Beasts, Dungeons & Dragons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, another fan favourite title where he worked on a one shot containing the story of one of the turtles. So if you fancy checking any of his earlier work out here are some of the titles where you could begin.

Battle Beasts

Where can you find him next?

Since being announced as one of the All-New Young Gun's at this years C2E2 Schiti is now working with fan favourite writer, Jonathan Hickman, and the man currently responsible for Marvel's hottest property in the Avengers. The specific title Schiti is currently working on is Hickman's New Avengers which contains the current incarnation of the Illuminati, containing Iron Man, Beast, Mr Fantastic, Dr Strange, Namor, Black Panther, Bruce Banner/ Hulk and Black Bolt, so he has been given the responsibility of working with some of the biggest characters in the Marvel Universe and also one of the biggest on-going storyline's which effects will finally be coming to fruition this September in "8 Months Time Runs Out". I hope that Schiti will become the regular artist on this series, he has already illustrated issue 18 and as you can see from the related images he will be working on issue 19 and the current arc where the Illuminati have come across another Super Hero team during one of the incursions, his style really brings great life to the characters. One thing of note for me is how awesome he draws Dr. Strange and with the film confirmed and an obvious solo title on the way, I hope Schiti may be with in a shot for illustrating that title. This looks to be the current project taking up Schiti's time and although in August Kev Walker is solicited on the issues for New Avengers and Deodato Jnr is back for the September issue I do hope that Schiti will be returning to this title or bigger things.

You can find Valerio Schiti on twitter and Tumblr which I strongly recommend checking out, there are some awesome sketch studies for the characters within the Illuminati which certainly prove why he has been given the chance on this book. I can't wait to pick up this weeks issue of New Avengers to see more of his art work and strongly recommend anyone interested in his work to pick up the trade copies of Journey into Mystery.