“Pernille is one of my favorite artists in the world.”
On August 20, 2018, Kevin Smith announced that his “The Golden Rage of Hollywood” story arc, of the Hit-Girl comic book series, was being drawn by Pernille Ørum.
Left: Pernille Ørum's Hit-Girl, Right: Hit-Girl #13 cover by Francesco Francavilla
“Pernille will be the first woman published to draw an entire arc for Mindy McReady and her fascinating, assassinating alter ego!” said Smith.
Ørum, an animator/illustrator based out of Copenhagen, Denmark, is known for her work as the head character designer on Warner Brothers’ DC Superhero Girls. She has also done work for Disney, Angry Birds Toons, Nickelodeon Jr. and others.
“Pernille is one of my favorite artists in the world,” Smith told the audience attending the live recording of Hollywood Babble-On #298. “I don’t just mean graphic artists; I mean artists, period.”
While attending a previous recording of Hollywood Babble-On, Ørum and Smith first connected, when she gave him an art piece featuring his Yoga Hoser characters.
“I fell in love with it, and it came at the right time,” said Smith. “She captured the essence of it [Yoga Hosers]. It reminded me of why I did it."
Smith wrote about how moved he was by Ørum’s art work in the foreword to her book Coral.
“Besides being a great personal inspiration,” Ørum posted on Instagram, “Kevin Smith has always advocated for women in the industry and happens to like my work.”
On that same episode #298 of Hollywood Babble-On, Smith stated that he and Ørum would be working on a comic book together. A project he then vaguely described as “a thing with a buddy of mine.” On August 20th, we found out that buddy was Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl creator Mark Millar.
Millar announced the new on-going Hit-Girl comic book series in November 2017. The launch of the series marks the tenth anniversary of the original Hit-Girl mini-series Millar wrote with art by John Romita Jr. The new series is broken down into four-issue story arcs with a different creative team for each arc.
“This is an ongoing monthly we’re launching, and every big arc has a superstar creative team,” Millar told comicbook.com.
Issue #1 of the series went on sale in February, written by Millar with art by Ricardo Lopez Ortiz.
“I’m being followed by someone better by the name of Kevin Smith, and his idea is just so unique,” said Millar.
After leaving heaps of corpses in Columbia, Canada, and Rome, Smith’s story places the 12-year-old assassin Mindy McCready in the heart of the movie industry, Hollywood.
“Kevin is one of my favorite people in Hollywood,” Millar told deadline.com. “He writes dialogue the way I wish people talked, and his intelligence and humor fits into this world just so perfectly.”
“The Golden Rage of Hollywood” begins with issue #13 and is scheduled to hit your local comic book shop in January 2019.
“I wrote most of the arc while recuperating after my health scare,” said Smith. “So it was Hit-Girl and her bloody thirst for justice who helped me mend my broken heart.”
“Telling tales with Mark’s toys was an absolute pleasure,” said Smith. “But having Pernille bring it all to life makes this a must-read for me!”
