Posts tagged: cover

Coming in May: Young Justice #16

Young Justice #16

Young Justice #16

YOUNG JUSTICE #16 – On Sale May 16, 2012
Written by Greg Weisman and Kevin Hopps, art and cover by Christopher Jones.

Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis fight crime with their adult counterparts! Guest-starring Batman, The Flash and Green Arrow! First part of a new storyline.

  • 32pg.
  • Color
  • $2.99 US

Issues #1-12 are currently available. Pick an issue up in digital form or at your local comic shop!

Young Justice #12 out today!

Young Justice #12 - cover colors

Young Justice #12 cover art

…and I didn’t draw it. Well I drew the cover, but the interior has “fill-in” art by another artist.

When  I started on the book it was about a month behind schedule, and month after month we just weren’t able to pull enough ahead to make up an issue in the schedule. So, we got a fill-in issue and I jumped directly from drawing #11 to Young Justice #13.

The good news for me is that starting with issue #14 I’m inking the interiors in addition to penciling them. I’m just finishing up the inks on #14 now while penciling issue #15. I can’t wait for everyone to see how that looks (although I’ve inked all my covers on this title, so the look shouldn’t be too startling), but that’s a couple of issues off.

In the meantime, Young Justice #12 is written by the regular team of Greg Weisman and Kevin Hopps, and continues the storyline wiht Ra’s al Ghul, Talia al Ghul and Clayface begun last issue. It’s a good read and I recommend checking it out. I’ll be back drawing the interiors next month with part three of our Clayface epic!

As always, you can pick up the comic in digital form or at your local comic shop, and questions and comments are always welcome!

Marvel Superhero Squad: #4 Hulk Talk Smack

Marvel Superhero Squad

Marvel Superhero Squad

Are you familiar with the Marvel Superhero Squad Show? Based on the Marvel Super Hero Squad action figure line from Hasbro, it was a comedy-adventure series that portrayed the Marvel Comics characters in a cartoonish super-deformed-style. Each episode had a “title card” that showed the title of that episode next to a parody cover, based on a classic Marvel Comics cover but depicting characters in the style of the show. I drew several of those for the show’s first season, and I wanted to share some of them with you!

Typically, I would be told what cover I was to parody, and what (if any) characters on the cover were to be substituted with other Superhero Squad characters. I was provided with model sheets for the Superhero Squad animation designs of all the relevant characters, and I then I’d get down to work!

Incredible Hulk #1 cover

Incredible Hulk #1 cover

The first of these covers was for Superhero Squad episode #4: “Hulk Talk Smack!” The cover to be parodied was The Incredible Hulk #1, the first appearance of the character! The Hulk was to merely be replaced with the Superhero Squad version  of the character, but all the other characters depicted were to change. The solder on the left was to become Wolverine, General Ross and Betsy were to become Ironman and The Wasp, the soldier behind them was to become Thor, and Dr. Banner himself was to become The Falcon! They also wanted the rocket-pad background eliminated, and the Hulk figure a little smaller in the frame so it wasn’t “cropped” by the edge of the frame.

Squad Cover #4 pencils

Squad Cover #4 pencils

Squad Cover #4 Inks

Squad Cover #4 Inks

MSHS Cover #3 Color

MSHS Cover #3 Color


Here’s the pencil version of the cover I had to get approved before I could proceed with inking. One of the ongoing challenges with these covers was to replace characters with (more or less) human proportions with the stocky proportions of the Superhero Squad characters, and yet I had to preserve the composition of the original. Sometimes this was tricky, but this time around everything was framed around the large Hulk figure, and his proportions were relatively unchanged. Still, you can see where I made some slight alterations in the composition to make it work with the new proportions. Also, note that the Hulk has lost some fingers and toes in translation to his Squad form!

The inks are by me, and the color is by another artist working for Marvel. Click on the color version to see the cover with revised color and complete with logos. One of the issues with these covers is that the “Superhero Squad” logo is very square, which meant it didn’t usually fit well into the space at the top of the cover art.

Squad #4 Title Card

Squad #4 Title Card

Finally, here’s how the cover appeared in the TV episode, next to the credits for the writer and director. I always thought this was something of an odd format as the story title and other text are fairly small and there’s a LOT of pen space the text and cover art are floating around in. But he, I wasn’t going to complain. It was giving me work!

More Superhero Squad covers soon! As always, questiosn and comments are welcome.

Young Justice #11 colors!

I just saw previews of some of the color pages from Young Justice #11, that’s next month’s issue, featuring Ra’s Al Ghul, Batman and a bunch of other characters I love to draw (yes, that includes the regular Young Justice team).

Zac Atkinson is doing his regular terrific job, and I was particularly struck by page two. I’d love to be able to show it right now, but the powers that be seem to get upset by that sort of thing. You’ll know the page I’m talking about when you see the page with this on it:

YJ #11 pg2 tease

YJ #11 pg2 tease

And it’s the issue with this on the cover (also with colors by Zac):

Young Justice #11 cover

Young Justice #11 cover

Young Justice #13 solicit is out!

Young Justice #13

Young Justice #13

YOUNG JUSTICE #13

Written by Greg Weisman and Kevin Hopps,
art and cover by Christopher Jones.

In Star City, Artemis is under arrest — and in Gotham City, it’s Clayface vs. the rest of the team in a battle they cannot win! Aqualad’s leadership is on the line, and a fateful choice must be made.

32 pages, $2.99, in stores on Feb. 15.