On Monday, I wrapped up work on my final issue of The Immortal Iron Fist for Marvel Comics, issue number 16.

When I started the book in 2006, I was returning to comics after leaving my job working on visual effects for films in Los Angeles. Warren Simons, the editor, had told me of an artist named David Aja who he wanted to pair me with. He sent me a link to David's website which had a lot of samples. Upon seeing his amazing art, I agreed. Warren didn't know which book he was going to put him on yet, but it didn't matter to me. I wanted to work with David.

Then, it turned out that the book he was being put on was Iron Fist, along with Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction doing the writing. I'd worked with Ed many, many times over the years and loved working with him. I love his writing and he's also a good guy to work with. I hadn't heard of Matt Fraction yet, but Warren told me to go check out a book called Cassanova, which I did. Wow. Matt's stuff was also great.

This was a great book to become involved with. The scripts handed in showed a deep understanding of the character and a ton of new ideas and directions to push him in, all with a large pinch of humor. They were great scripts to read. Some of that humor wasn't even in the actual book, just little asides to those of us working on the book. I always looked forward to getting those fun scripts.

And David's art was always top notch. His style fuses a realistic, photo referenced look with a heavily cartoony look. The result is a book with a lot of dynamic movement, a lot of gestural shapes, nice layout and design while retaining a touch of realism. Perfect for this kind of book. He shows an understanding of emotional nuance in the facial expressions rarely shown by comics artists.

Then I saw that Dave Lanphear was lettering it. He's great. He's got a nice design sense that fit well with the look of the book.

And to top it all off, the book was being edited by Warren Simons and Alejandro Arbona, the guys who I do 75% of my work with, if not more. We have a nice connection and ability to work together in tight deadline situations. I like working with them.

So, naturally, the book was a pleasure to work on. Sure, it had some tight deadlines that were a pain in the ass. But this is comics. This is what happens. We got through it and had some brilliant little gems that we put out.

But times change and books change and after #16 the entire creative team on the book will change. I don't know that much about the new team, but I'd say give them a chance. Meanwhile, David Aja and I are joined at the hip and will be doing some more work together again soon. Keep your eyes peeled!