The Incorrigible Hulk Lives!

Hey look! All my bitching and moaning about Peter Bagge's long-shelved Incorrigible Hulk story finally paid off! Well, either that, or Marvel decideed it was time to print this one and get it off the damn books already, and my pissant little blog had nothing to do with it. Either way, Marvel's Max imprint brings the long awaited tale to print in September, in Strange Tales #1-3. More from Marvel's PR:

Just what does Peter Bagge have planned in “The Incorrigible Hulk”, a story so incredible that we had to serialize it over all three issues? Will Spider-Man make it out alive of Jason’s thrilling story? This first issue comes wrapped in a marvel-ous cover by Paul Pope and Jose Villarubia!

“Flat out, this is the apex of human artistic achievement. This is it. The end. The crowning result of tens of millions of years of evolution, right here, in three packed-to-the-gills issues,” said Editor John Barber. “The philosophy of the book was to have these creators from ‘indy’ or ‘alternative’ or “literary” or ‘art’ comics come in and do what they do best. I think Marvel readers will really dig seeing radically different versions of their favorite characters, and the fans of these cartoonists will get to see the creators work in a milieu they never thought they’d get to see. It’s win-win. It’s really the best of both worlds.”

Editor Jody LeHeup added, “This book is a metric ton of solid gold awesome. The talent we’ve got lined up are without hyperbole some of the greatest creative minds working in comics today. I mean, who wouldn’t want to read a Spider-Man story by Jason? Or an Iron man story by Tony Millionaire? Or anything by any of the contributors we’ve got attached to the project? I’ve been reading independent comics my whole life and I’ve always wanted to see what those creators could do with Marvel characters if they were given free reign to tell their stories. Well, now that visions becoming a reality and I can’t tell you what an incredibly special thing it is to see the final result. If you’re a fan of comics of any school, do yourself a favor and pick this up.”

STRANGE TALES MAX #1 (of 3)

Written and Drawn by: PAUL POPE, PETER BAGGE, MOLLY CRABAPPLE &JOHN LEAVITT, JUNKO MIZUNO, DASH SHAW, JAMES KOCHALKA, JOHNNY RYAN, MICHAEL KUPPERMAN, NICK BERTOZZI, NICHOLAS GUREWICH, AND JASON

DC did a similar project a few years back, the fine Bizzaro Comics Volumes 1 and 2, (fine, though they suffered a bit from an odd editorial edict that no contributor could both write and draw their stories). The MAX project has no such restrictions, so I expect to enjoy the final product that much more. Aside from the Bagge Hulk story, I eagerly await "an Iron Man story by Tony Millionaire", for example.