Pitt #1

History

Keown conceived Pitt after a late-1991 conversation at Todd McFarlane's home, during which McFarlane urged fellow Marvel artists to develop creator-owned characters; having no such character at the time, Keown improvised an affirmative answer on the spot and immediately set to work designing one from scratch, leaning on his affinity for large, muscular figures and adding distinctive elements like oversized claws and an exaggerated jaw. He departed Marvel — where he and Peter David had produced a celebrated run on The Incredible Hulk — on good terms, and Pitt was announced in the back pages of Spawn #1 (where Keown contributed a pin-up) before the series launched. An ashcan edition, limited to 5,500 signed copies, preceded the full issue; the standard #1 shipped several months behind its originally planned November 1992 date, arriving cover-dated January 1993. The series was scripted by Brian Hotton from Keown's plots, with Keown handling all art, and scheduling difficulties — rooted in Keown's perfectionism and inexperience running a self-owned publication — would later produce a six-month gap between issues #1 and #2.

Trivia · 10 facts

• First full solo appearance of Pitt (Dale Keown's human-alien hybrid created by the extraterrestrial Creed race), cover-dated January 1993, published by Image Comics.
• Also introduces, in their first appearances, Timmy Bracken (the young boy with whom Pitt shares a genetic bond), Jereb (the benevolent energy-being consciousness fused with Pitt), Detective Bobbie Harras, Detective Jack Smithers, and Timmy's Grandpa Bracken.
• Pitt's origin: torn from a human mother's womb by the alien Zoyvod, spliced with Creed DNA to serve as an assassin, then fused with the child-consciousness Jereb — who functions as Pitt's conscience — before escaping to Earth.
• The lead story, 'Fight & Flight,' is plotted by Dale Keown and scripted by Brian Hotton, with Keown on all art duties; lettering by Chance Wolf, coloring by Joe Chiodo.
• Issue directly continues the events of a Pitt backup story in Youngblood #4 (February 1993), where Pitt first arrived on Earth, saved Timmy and his grandfather in a New York subway, and the subway destruction becomes the case Detective Harras is assigned to in this issue.
• Rai-Kee is established in series lore as an Axiom agent who had been masquerading as 'Bobbie Harras' — though her first named on-page introduction unfolds across early issues rather than strictly within #1 alone.
• An ashcan preview edition, signed by Keown and Hotton, was limited to 5,500 copies and preceded the standard issue.
• Keown was the first non-founding creator to publish a creator-owned title at Image; Pitt #1 was originally scheduled for November 1992 but shipped several months late due to production delays.
• A Pitt pin-up by Keown appeared in Spawn #1 (1992), offering collectors a preview of the character before either the ashcan or the main series shipped.
• The series was later collected in a trade paperback (Image, 1999) gathering issues #1–4 and the #½ special, with an introduction by Bobbie Chase — the Marvel Hulk editor Keown departed on good terms, and the namesake inspiration for Detective Bobbie Harras in the comic.

Cast · 7 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Pitt

Variants (1)