Originally solicited in December 2009 for a March 31 2010 release, Image United Interlude was to take place between Image United #3, and the still unreleased Image United #4.
The story was meant to focus on the Image Universe heroes not created by the founders, and was to feature, among others, Invincible, Madman, Jack Staff, Battlestone and Pitt.
Robert Kirkman from an exclusive interview at Comic Book Resources:
"There are a lot of characters in the Image Universe that aren't necessarily the founders' characters. Image United is a cool crossover story that takes place in the Image Universe, but at the same time, it's a celebration of the founding of Image and getting all of these guys back together, so it didn't feel right to have Invincible running around drawn by Ryan Ottley or Cory Walker. It didn't feel right to fit Dynamo 5 and Jack Staff and other people into that story and have them drawn with [the founders]. I didn't want to do that. But I thought [the 'Interlude'] would be a really cool way to show that there is a big story taking place in the Image Universe where these other characters are involved, so it's kind of an offshoot of Image United taking place between issues #3 and #4."
In February of 2011, it was announced (rather unceremoniously) on the CBR forums by Eric Stephenson that Image United Interlude was cancelled.
With this news, I decided to tackle the project of getting at least this little piece of Image United done - so I contacted Ryan Ottley through his art rep at that time, Mark Hay. Mark didn't have the piece, but after a few months he got back to me and in October 2011, the unfinished cover as well as the bluelines with the other character outlines were mine!
From there, all it took was a bunch of emails, some very accommodating creators, lots of visits to the post office, all kinds of luck, and some cash.
Every single creator I had dealings with was a consummate professional. Prices were more than reasonable for the work produced, and turnaround times were lightning quick. All in all, I couldn't have asked for a more positive experience.
From solicit to completion it took over 4 years, with my efforts spanning the last 2+ years; but I think the end result was well worth the effort.
Enjoy!
