Happy Halloween… from Gotham City

Batman Strikes #50 page 1

This is Halloween-appropriate page comes from the final issue of The Batman Strikes.

Pencil art by me, inks by Terry Beatty, colors by the Heroic Age studio.

This page is LOADED with self-indulgent in-jokes.

• CONvergence fans should note the Trick-or-Treater in the lower left corner dressed as Connie.

• Another Trick-or-Treater is dressed as Two-Face, on of my very favorite Batman villains who I never got to draw in my 44-issue run on The Batman Strikes, thanks to an embargo on the use of Two-Face, the Scarecrow, and Ra’s al Ghul in this animated incarnation of Batman.

• The first panel sees Batman perched upon Aparo Tower, named for one of my favorite Batman artists, Jim Aparo.

• And finally, the 433 Bar is named as a reference to the internet handle of my friend Jeremy Stomberg.

Creating a Cover: The Batman Strikes #28

OK, time for one more Creating a Cover breakdown before Fallcon!

We’re looking again at an issue of The Batman Strikes!, the comic book-tie in to The Batman animated TV series.

This issue featured a story by Jai Nitz that had Joker stealing Scarface from the Ventriloquist and going on a crime spree with the dummy. Batman ends up working with The Ventriloquist to track down Scarface and defeat Joker. It’s a fun story idea. I’d have loved to see more done with the fact that Scarface is just a dummy and his personality is manifested from the personality of the individual holding him. But it’s a 20-page comic and I don’t know what went on behind-the-scenes with the developing of the story. DC often has different ideas then I do about what’s appropriate in an all-ages comic. But I digress…

I began as usual with submitting some sketches for different cover concepts. Just 3 this time.

Batman Strikes #28 Cover sketch a

Sketch A: This was my main idea – a leaping Joker (he was very bouncy and monkey-like in this incarnation) holding Scarface and menacing Batman. I figured it would probably have a background added (and indicated such when submitting my sketches), but I wasn’t going to bother to work out a background yet when just trying to get sign-off on which concept to pursue. It should be noted that Scarface in the comics is typically drawn as a ventriloquist dummy caricature of an Al Capone-style gangster. The Batman had chosen to update Scarface’s look to reference the John Travolta-like disco suit worn by Al Pacino in his Scarface film. I actually thought that was one of their more successful villain redesigns.

Batman Strikes #28 Cover - sketch b

Sketch B: This one is a little hard to appreciate in sketch form, but I really liked this concept. I had subtly distorted Scarface’s features to make them more Joker-like – essentially an amalgam of the two. I indicated that I wanted Scarface colored with the Joker’s white skin, red lips and eyes, and yellow teeth. This version of Scarface was bald, so sadly there was no hair to turn green. Obviously a symbolic cover and not something literally appearing in the story, I think this close-up would have been very striking on the comic shop shelf, especially with some nice under-lighting.

Batman Strikes #28 Cover - sketch c

Sketch C: Finally I thought it would be fun to show Joker and The Ventriloquist battling over Scarface. Not a lot of room for Batman in this design, but I didn’t think it was essential. His name was on the book.

Sketch A was chosen, so I proceeded with pencils, adding a background modeled on the Arkham Asylum rec room as seen in the animated TV show. I tried to make the setting claustrophobic and moody, with the lines of perspective working with the curve of Batman’s cape to really pull the characters together and emphasize the confrontation.

Batman Strikes #28 Cover Inks

The inks were provided by Terry Beatty, who did an especially nice job on some of the background textures on this one.

Batman Strikes #28 Cover Colors

This is the version of the color art that was used for solicitations. I wasn’t happy that so much of the background was washed out, and it seemed odd to me that such a bright light source was used behind the figures but the coloring on the figures themselves didn’t seem to follow that light source – or really any light source. But I liked the color scheme over all and I thought the amber tones used for the background worked well.

Batman Strikes #28 - Final Cover

So at some point someone decided that it would be better if the background were pink.

Yeah, I know. I don’t get it either.

It always seemed to me that regardless of the tone of the story inside, the covers of the Johnny DC books were always geared with their logos and cover copy to appeal to 5-year-old boys. And apparently someone thought that 5-year-old boys really loved a lot of pink with their Batman.

See you next time…

Creating a Cover: The Batman Strikes #13

Here’s another breakdown of the cover creation process, this time diving further into the past and looking back at one of my covers for The Batman Strikes, specifically issue #13. It’s an interesting case study as a lot of things went wrong with this one.

As usual, we start with sketches inspired by the story for the issue. I knew that the story involved Catwoman and Batman working together against a common enemy, so I thought it would be fun to treat Batman and Catwoman as a Dynamic Duo, especially since Robin and Batgirl had yet to be introduced into this animated TV show continuity.

Batman Strikes #13 - cover sketch a

Batman #9 (1942)

Batman Strikes #13 - cover sketch b

Sketch A was the most literal expression of this “Dynamic Duo” idea, deliberately evoking the classic cover to Batman #9 from 1942 (seen above). Sketch B was a more original design, with a leaping Batman and Catwoman with some nice underlighting and casting shadows on Batman’s cape. These sketches were drawn in marker and then I added the logo and some gray tones in Photoshop to better indicate what the finished cover would look like. As usual, I’m also trying to allow space for the UPC Code box and the cover text blurb I know will be added. You’ll notice that the masthead says #9 – that’s simply the issue I scanned to grab those cover elements for my layouts.

Batman Strikes #13 - cover sketch c

Batman Strikes #13 - cover sketch d

Sketch C had Catwoman essentially taking over the book, not only appearing solo on the cover, but with her name plastered over Batman’s in the book’s logo. I didn’t think it was likely this one was gonna fly, but I love covers that play with the logo in some way, so I thought it was worth suggesting. Finally (or so I thought), Sketch D features Batman and Catwoman framed by the shadow of the monsterous true villain of the story.

Usually four cover ideas are plenty – either one of those is chosen as is, or often an editor will want to modify an idea or combine elements from two of them, leading to the final design. Not this time. The editor informed me that they wanted to have Catwoman and Batman in a confrontational posture, so none of the ideas I’d submitted were going to work at all. I thought it made more sense to play up the unique dynamic from the story rather than a more generic situation that could be applied to any other Catwoman appearance, but that’s the nature of commercial art – you’re hired for your ideas and your skills but the decisions are up to the client. So I got to do a whole second wave of sketches!

Batman Strikes #13 - cover sketch e

Batman Strikes #13 - cover sketch f

At this point I was wanting to deliver sketch ideas that were conceptually pretty generic but still visually interesting. Sketch E has Batman and Catwoman facing off on a ledge while surrounded by cats. I thought this design had some nice depth and the cats added some interest. Sketch F featured a leaping Batman and Catwoman, but surrounded by Batman’s curling cape.

Batman Strikes #13 - cover sketch g

Batman Strikes #13 - cover sketch h

Sketch G had an angry Catwoman and an army of cats facing off against Batman, and Sketch H had Batman and Catwoman simply on a rooftop, using the curling shape of Catwoman’s whip and still more cats to add visual interest again.

After all that, Sketch G was chosen, so it was time to draw some cats!

Batman Strikes #13 - cover pencils

Batman Strikes #13 - cover inks

I changed Batman’s pose slightly from the sketch to have him holding his cape up in a protective gesture, and added shadows behind Catwoman and the cats to create a bit of a sense of depth, as the drawing was looking a little flat prior to their addition. Looking back I’m not entirely happy with the Batman figure here. The art style from The Batman animated TV series that I was emulating here was stylized in ways that ever felt natural to me. There were a lot of stylizations around Batman’s cape and how it should drape and move. I always found it challenging to balance the look of the animation design from that series with my more naturalistic instincts for animation, the draping of fabric, and so on. Early on I tried hard on The Batman Strikes to stick to the rules the TV show had for how Batman’s cape should drape and move, but over time I took greater and greater liberties with it as I realized I was trying to make the cape look its best in the static images of comics, rather than in the moving medium of animation. But I digress…

I drew Catwoman to be snarling in a threatening manner. It’s always hard to keep women’s faces from looking unattractive with expressions like this, especially in a small drawing. It was further complicated here by the fact that Catwoman’s mask design included goggles that concealed her eyes, so you only have the mouth to convey expression. The expression was a little rough in the pencils, and I think was a little harsher after being inked (inks by Terry Beatty as usual for The Batman Strikes).

Batman Strikes #13 - cover colors

I was rarely happy with the color on The Batman Strikes. Batman was never colored on-model for the animation design, which used a deep, rich blue for the highlights on the black parts of Batman’s costume. For some reason in the comic based on the art for that show, Batman was always colored in grays, with little contrast between the highlighting on the black parts and the tones used for the gray bodysuit. I always thought the result was drab and tended to flatten out the figure.

The colorist chose to interpret the lighting scheme of the line art by coloring the cats in different flat colors, and then overlay a glowing lighting effect over everying behind the Batman figure in the foreground. I find the effect rather washed out and flat, and it looks like the cats are fading away like ghosts.

Most interestingly, Catwoman’s mouth has been redrawn, without input from Terry Beatty or myself. The snarl has been replaced with a smile, which I imagine was consedered “prettier”, but I consider the redrawn mouth to look a bit crude and I’d have liked to have been consulted on the change.

Batman Strikes #13 - cover w logos

Finally, here’s the published cover with the typical masthead, UPC Code and cover blurb. The colors appear a bit darker – some of which might be the result of scanning – but I suspect the brightness and contrast have been tweaked since the previous “clean” image which was used for the solicitation of the issue to retailers.

Well there you have it! Another cover breakdown. I’ll be doing more of these as well as some interior art analysis in the weeks to come! Until then, you can check out more of my cover art for The Batman Strikes – concept sketches, pencils, and finished covers – here!

Batman meets… Cal Ripken?

Remember that time that the Penguin kidnapped Cal Ripken Jr? And he had to escape from a giant bird cage using a huge wad of Big League Chew? No? Well you MISSED OUT! But you can still see the art – including a step-by-step breakdown of pencil art, inks and colors!

Click the image to go to the gallery…

Batman meets Cal Ripken

New art in the Batman Strikes cover gallery

I’ve added a bunch of new art to the Batman Strikes cover art gallery, including unused cover sketches. You can see the selection of concept sketches, then follow the cover through the pencils, ink and color stages! Check it out by clicking the image!

Batman Strikes #41 Cover Color