Ben Templesmith to leave "Hellspawn"

[Cyber E.]

Artist Ben Templesmith sent the following letter to Newsarama Friday morning.

Well, after much deliberation, I came to a decision yesterday.

It's my sad duty to have to inform you all that as of now, I can no longer do the art for Hellspawn, from TMP and Image comics. Hellspawn #16, I did with Steve Niles, who recently also announced his departure looks to be my last too. It was a hard choice,and one that i knew was coming, but with the workload I have now, with Dark Days from IDW Publishing, Criminal Macabre For Dark Horse Comics and a slew of other things going on, something had to give, and I really wish for it not to have to be my sanity. I think my limit really is two books a month plus a bunch of stuff on the side right now.

I enjoyed my time on Hellspawn immensely. It was life changing in many ways, plus, it introduced me to that warped bastard, Steve Niles, who you may have heard of from that other book I did with him, "30 Days of whatchumacallit" from IDW publishing.

Thanks for all the support, and for enjoying Hellspawn while I was there. It was a helluva time that's for sure.

-Ben Templesmith
Perth, Oz. May 2003
[Source: Newsarama]

Comments?
-aJb

[Cogliostro]

I knew this a few days ago but I was pretty sure there wasn't any HellSpawn fans really here so I didn't mention it. It was sad that Steve Niles left now it's really sad that both Steve and Ben Templesmith are off HellSpawn. Hopefully this doesn't bring the end to such a wonderful title. Brian who writes Spawn (Which I have to say keeps getting better) is going to take Steve's place but it will be hard to find someone replace Ben's unique style. I still want to see more greatness from the title so here's hoping it lives. Both Steve and Ben left on a high note, HellSpawn #16 was WONDERFUL!

If you never read their run on HellSpawn I suggest going in the back issues and picking them up if you can. It starts out a little rough but gets better as it goes.