Bryan Hitch Leaves Marvel After A Decade. It’s Cool, It’s Cool.

I hadn’t realized this, but Bryan Hitch has been at Marvel for a solid decade. Now the pencil-smith is leaving, and I’m cool with it. Why? ‘Cause wherever he goes I’ll be following.

CBR:

On November 28, “Ultimates” artist Bryan Hitch teased huge changes on Twitter for the new year. “I am making massive changes,” he said via Twitter. “New things are happening. 2012.” The mystery continued when, on December 3, he began a 31-day countdown to the announcement of those changes. Every day, Hitch would count down the number of days until he would share his news with the world while speculation ran wild from his followers as to what it could be. The most massive update came today, a mere five days away from his announcement, when the artist implied that he would be leaving Marvel Comics at the end of 2011 after ten years of work.

“In two days time, an amazing decade at Marvel closes for me,” Hitch told his Twitter followers. “What a wonderful time to have joined the party. Very proud and honored.”

Hitch’s tweets have been devoted to thanking his collaborators and editors during his time at Marvel including “Ultimates” writer Mark Millar, Marvel Senior Editor Tom Brevoort, colorist Paul Mounts and many others. While most of the artist’s tweets have been directed at his followers’ well-wishes, he did tease a bit about the big January 3 announcement. “So naturally new horizons beckon. Boy ate [sic] they something. See you there.”

With the countdown so close, news is expected on Hitch’s next moves after the New Year.

I fell in love with Hitch during his run with Ellis on the seminal rockatron, The Authority. He’s also dominated on JLA, The Ultimates, and Millar’s actually pretty good F4 jaunt. Here’s hoping he’ll be rocking out something creator owned. Just please God. Not with Millar.