'Animal Man' artist Travel Foreman explains exit

Animal Man artist Travel Foreman has revealed why he stepped down from the DC Comics title.

The illustrator explained that he left the series to join Birds of Prey because he found its subject matter emotionally draining following the death of his mother.

"I needed to take on a job after my mother died (to deal with the financial end of someone being sick for a while and then passing) and Animal Man was the only thing DC was going to let me do. Which in any other time frame would have been perfect," Foreman wrote on the CBR forum.

"Really the context of me dealing with the death of my mum and drawing the kind of content in Animal Man just burned me out sooner than I thought."

Steve Pugh will fill in for Foreman on Animal Man #7 and #8 before taking the reins as regular illustrator the following month.

"I had hoped to stay on the book until at least the spring so that the artist I wanted to replace me was free from his commitments," Foreman added. "But I would have ultimately just dragged the book down if I did, because it was becoming harder and harder to concentrate on the work.

"Steve was bending over backwards on his fill-ins to keep the book on schedule so you have to keep that in consideration. Really, he won't skip a beat once he's doing the book full time."

Foreman will take over art duties on Birds of Prey from May's issue #9.

> Read Digital Spy's review of Animal Man #1