Bryan Hitch (born 22 April 1970) is a British comics artist and writer. Hitch began his career in the United Kingdom for Marvel UK, working on titles such as Action Force and Death's Head, before gaining prominence on American titles such as Wildstorm's Stormwatch and The Authority, DC Comics' JLA, and Marvel Comics' The Ultimates. Hitch's artwork and designs have appeared in direct-to-video animated films, television, and major feature films, such as the 2009 film Star Trek, for which he has been praised by director J. J. Abrams. Early life Bryan Hitch was born 22 April 1970 in what he described as "in the far northern reaches of England." He began reading comics at an early age, likening them to his "underage drug habit" and the newsagent in northern England where he would buy his books from his "dealer". The newsagent was next door to a cinema, and as Hitch explains, he could go straight from enjoying Christopher Reeve Superman films and other genre films to the store to buy Superman comics drawn by artists such as Curt Swan and José Luis García-López. Hitch spent much time as a child drawing, which included and copying the art from comics. Although he had envisioned drawing them as a career, he would eventually find himself in seminary, studying to be a priest. When he realized he needed to leave that institution, relating during an interview at the 2008 New York Comic Con, "Apart from wanting to do comics, I also have a fundamental lack of belief in God." Career 1980s — 1990s Hitch entered the comics industry after submitting "Teeth Like Flint", an Action Force sample story he wrote and drew to Marvel UK, using a style that was fashionable at the time, which resembled that of another Marvel UK artist, Alan Davis. Marvel UK gave him his first professional commission in May or June 1987, approximately a month and a half after his 17th birthday, which was for that very title. Deriding his skills from his early career, Hitch remarked in 2008, "Why they hired me, I have no idea. I assume they were drunk." Hitch worked with Simon Furman on Transformers and Death's Head. He did some work at Marvel Comics and DC Comics during the late 1980s and early 1990s, in particular his run on The Sensational She-Hulk, and continued drawing for Marvel UK. After that imprint closed, he