Creating a Cover: Young Justice #10

Time to break down the creation of another cover! This time it’s Young Justice #10, the second half of our Captain Atom murder mystery story! Last issue featured Captain Atom on the cover and no action, so there was a desire to see conflict with our costumed villain, who appeared at the end of the previous issue.

The villain in question is Rako (aka The Cambodian), and you can read more about the redesign of this character in a previous blog post. Once again I was designing a cover before the script for the story, so I didn’t have anything to draw from other than being told there was a fight with The Cambodian at an Asian-styled mansion, and that Superboy being cut by the Cambodian’s sword was a major story point.

Captain Atom #7 cover

YJ #10 cover sketch a

YJ #10 cover sketch b

YJ #10 cover sketch c

YJ #10 cover sketch d

YJ #10 cover pencils

YJ #10 cover inks

YJ #10 cover color guide

YJ #10 cover colors

Young Justice #10 Cover

You can read a 4-page preview here, and then pick up the comic in digital form or at your local comic shop.

I’ll be doing a Commentary blog entry on this issue in a couple of weeks, and will be doing another “Creating a Cover” entry for Young Justice #11 in a month’s time!

Character Design: The Cambodian

Issues #9 and #10 of Young Justice feature Captain Atom and a number of characters dating back to the late 1980s Captain Atom comic book series, the creative team of which – not coincidentally – includeed Greg Weisman, producer and head-writer of the Young Justice TV show and co-writer of the Young Justice comic.

Before a cover or a page of interior art for this story had been drawn, I was told that one of the villains in the story would be The Cambodian, although the character name was going to be changed, and that we’d need to reinterpret the character for the animated look of the Young Justice series. BTW – the character was ultimately never renamed, he was just referred to only by his given name of Rako, and the title “The Cambodian” was never used in the story.

I was sent the following as reference for The Cambodian character. I did some hunting online, but honestly didn’t find anything that helped me out much beyond what I was originally sent!

Original Cambodian Design

Captain Atom #7 cover

The image on the left shows a little more detail of the character’s armor, but Greg pointed out that the gray coloring from the cover of the character’s first appearance in Captain Atom #7 was the color scheme he considered “correct.” Armed with this and my understanding that the design sense of Young Justice tries to mix the colorful look of the superhero genre with a touch of practical functionality and realism (costumes with visible padding, closures, wrinkles, etc.) I set out to design “my” version of Rako – the Cambodian.

Cambodian Model – original

Cambodian Model – revised

The design on my left is is pretty much a straight up translation of the original armor. I was concerned that the original armor was a little boxy and generic. I decided to offer it side-by-side with a version where I took more liberties. I tried to invest the design with a little more detail suggesting ancient armor while keeping the visor and the overlapping triangle design elements from the original. It was my understanding that the armor was modern, functional armor in a sci-fi world, so that meant it could still be stylized and streamlined, even with these ancient armor design elements. I kept the gray color scheme that Greg wanted, but also retained the red color of the visor from the more widely used gold and orange color scheme of the original armor and added a sash in a matching color.

The feedback on this second design was very positive, although I was asked to keep the design of the sword closer to the original (which I hadn’t been able to see very clearly) which includes an odd little rod or secondary blade parallel to the main blade. The design evolved slightly from there to what appeared in the actual story. The headpiece on the helmet become more pronounced and the trim was changed from a lighter gray to what I’d wanted to be a dull bronze color.

A good look at the armor can be had on the climactic page from Young Justice #9.

Young Justice #9 page 20

See more of The Cambodian Rako in Young Justice #10, on sale today!

Title Pages: The Batman Strikes #8

This installment of the Title Pages series features the first Batman Strikes appearance of Firefly.

Batman Strikes #8 - Title Page

The title page of the issue was a 1-page scene establishing an arsonist-fir-hire who is shown to be Firefly by a reveal of his helmet in the final panel. Rather than find a way of inserting a logo and space for credits into this talky scene, I decided to have the title act as a masthead for the page, featuring the title of the story in flaming letters against a Batman logo based on the 1960s logo of the Batman comic book, but using the likeness of the Batman design from this animated TV series.

Batman Strikes #8 - Title Logo

Here’s the final color version with lettering. Note the Film Noir tone I was trying to evoke in the story with the lighting through the blinds. To me, Batman is all about mood and atmosphere, and I think you can be true to that even in an all ages title. More soon…!

Batman Strikes #8 Title Page

Title Pages: The Batman Strikes #7

Batman Strikes #7 Title Logo

Here’s another title logo from The Batman Strikes, this time featuring the frightfully frigid Mr. Freeze. It’s always nice when you have characters as thematically strong as Freeze, as they give you a visual element you can apply to all aspects of design. Thankfully the story title was a single word or moderate length, which meant I could create nice big letters to show dripping with ice. Freeze has just broken free of his prison cell, and I placed the logo against the wall to incorporate it into the scene with the ominous, partially-silhouetted figure of Freeze towering over it.

Batman Strikes #7 - Title Page

Here you can see the context of the whole page. I should mention that I thought that Mr. Freeze was one of the more successful character designs I got to work with from the animated TV series. Most designs for Mr. Freeze’s cold suit I’d seen previously in animation or comics were topped with some kind of helmet, from a bubble dome to something resembling an astronaut’s helmet. This version had Mr. Freeze’s head covered with a spiky ice formation, and his head was a shadowy shape concealed within, with glowing red eyes visible. It was a great, striking visual and upon seeing it I thought it was surprising it hadn’t been tried earlier!

Batman Strikes #7 - Title Page inks

Here’s the inked page art, with inks by regular Batman Strikes inker Terry Beatty. It’s interesting to compare this to the pencil art, especially where I tried to create some translucence effects in the icy mist swirling around Freeze and the just-destroyed door. One advantage of being paired with an inker on a regular basis is learning what kinds of things the do especially well and then playing to those strengths. On The Batman Strikes! I tried to create stark compositions of light and dark shapes, with only the occastional bits of cross-hatching or other effects to create areas of gray mid-tone. I thought this approach preserved the simple, clean lines of the animation design while creating a shadowy, noir-ish mood that suited the Batman material.

Batman Strikes #7 - Title Page

And finally, here’s the page as it appeared with colors and lettering. Note the sound effect that was added in panel 3. That’s normally the kind of thing I liked to draw myself on this series. I’m guessing that the sound effect wasn’t scripted and I hadn’t chosen to add one when I drew the page, but the editor had one added at the lettering stage. I often wasn’t thrilled with the coloring on The Batman Strikes!, but this page looks good to me. The somewhat monochrome color scheme works well for the prison setting, and the color nicely enhances the ice and mist effects in the final panel.

More to come!

Commentary: Young Justice #9 “Cold Case”

OK, I’d meant to do this about a week ago, but I was too busy for blogging, but at long last here’s my commentary on Young Justice issue 9! I’m including samples of a few pages of artwork here, but I’m commenting on close to every page, so grab your copy of the comic from your local Comic Shop or your digital copy and read along!

YJ #9 pencils pg 1

Page 1: This was a fun way to start the story with single-character panels showing the members of the Team bored by the lecture they are hearing, but all demonstrating their individual personalities. Connie cameo in panel two! Probably the most interesting detail on the page lies in what Aqualad is writing on his notepad…

Page 2: This page was a little frustrating to compose, as it features the Team arranged classroom-style listing to a lecture by Captain Atom. I felt I needed to show Captain Atom from the front as this full-page shot was the reveal of his character as the guest-instructor for the Team, and we needed to see what was written on the holographic “white board” behind him. I ended up doing a side shot of this scene in order to clearly include all that detail. A downshot would have been a little more visually interesting, but I was worried that the setting wouldn’t be clear  as the Mount Justice Mission Room if we could only see the floor, and I didn’t want to wait until page 3 of the scene to make it clear where we were. The biggest problem with the angle I showed is that it begs to be a panoramic *wide* shot, but has to fit within the portrait aspect-ratio of the comic book page. I tried to sandwich the shot I wanted before the overhead dome fixture that tops the Mission Room, and some space at the bottom left open for credits and/or the title.

YJ #09 pencils pg 3

Page 3: One of the big things in this story were these holographic displays that appear throughout. I created these images (note the ID photo, typset text, voice print, and fingerprint seen on the display in panel 3), and in any panel where the background is partially visible through the semi-transparent holographic projection, the holo-image was provided as a separate layer from the line art so it can be composited at the coloring stage. Once upon a time this would have been sent to DC comics as a vellum overlay on the original artwork for the production people to deal with, but now it’s a separate layer in the scanned art Photoshop file.

Page 4: The shots of Miss Martian in “camouflage mode” are hand-drawn rather than created the same way as some of the holo-displays, but as those figures they needed to be transparent they also were provided as separate layers.

Page 5: Yet another holo-image, this time projected from Robin’s gadget-laden gloves. It was around this time I realized how much this mystery story was turning out to be very special-effects heaving regarding the artwork.

Page 6: This flashback sequence was described in the script as being in “sepia tones,” and the scenes within the sequence were meant to be not bound by discrete panel borders. Multiple-image montages are a fun challenge when they’re a collage of figures and faces, but given that these images were individual scenes with specific background settings, I had a real challenge. My solution was to stylize the sequence so the characters are floating against an inky black background, with the figures and settings picked out in the (sepia toned) light. This let me suggest backgrounds where they were needed with bits of detail but letting the background otherwise bleed off into darkness so the images were separated but without hard panel borders.

There were some revisions on this page around the fact that the body at the center of the story’s murder-mystery was meant to be found with a knife sticking out of his chest. It was key to the plot, as the murder weapon was the key piece of physical evidence in the original trial. Even though that this storyline was in keeping with the tone of the Animated TV show upon which the comic was based (the show whose head writer Greg Weisman is writing the comic!), there was concern that this was too much for a comic considered to be part of  DC’s Johnny DC line. The price of trying to push the envelope of what we can get away with in the comic is that sometimes there’s some negotiation required and sometimes the battleground of those negotiations are art revisions. Ah, well…

Page 7: Problem: How do you do an establishing shot of the Las Vegas strip when it’s the small first panel on a page of 5? You put a couple of palm trees in front of a recognizable neon and light covered entrance to one of the iconic Vegas casinos. Problem: How do you make said entrance even less recognizable even though the name of the casino has been removed from the facade? You change the color scheme!

BTW – I’m amused by Superboy’s flippant response to the unknowing casino employee’s concerned question about his age.
Dealer: “You ARE under twenty-one?”
Superboy: “In weeks or months?”

YJ #9 pencils pg 8-9

Pages 8 & 9: Part of why I wanted a good solution to the flashback montage issue back on page 6 was I knew it was going to come up again on this double-page spread across pages 8 and 9. The biggest challenge was the 3-panel Viet Nam combat sequence, but I think I was able to successfully frame the action in the negative space within the silhouettes of palm trees. Man, the stuff you have to figure out drawin’ comics! (Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the inked and colored version of this double-page spread!)

Page 10: The flashback continues! These images seemed relatively simple to deal with after the jungle combat scenes on the previous pages. Back in the present, Wally is still eating.

YJ #9 pencils pg 11

Page 11: The sequence with Robin and Miss Martian finding a body was fun to draw, as it was filled with lots of moody shadows. I love doing sequences like this, which I suppose is partly why I love drawing the Batman characters so much.

Page 12: Miss Martian proves telekinesis is useful when carefully investigating crime scenes. Oh look, another holographic display!

Page 13: More CSI work simplified by Miss Martian’s superpowers. When the inevitable Miss Martian Mysteries series happens, can I draw it?

Page 14: We meet Captain Nathaniel Adams’ adult children. His son was meant to strongly resemble his father and is wearing an Air Force captain’s uniform, but I didn’t want the characters to appear identical, so I added an extra little cowlick of hair to the short, military haircut, and added a slight cleft in the chin.

Page 15: Aqualad and Artemis walking on the beach. Nice, interesting color choices for this sequence by colorist Zac Atkinson.

Page 16: Another holo-display AND thermal vision. I should have taken the time to do a color guide for the thermal vision panels, as I’d have preferred to see these panels without the black line art and with brighter colors for the “hot spots” in the image. Oh, well. Next time…

Page 17: More panels with Miss Martian in camo-mode, meaning more figures drawn on separate layers so we can see background showing through them.

YJ #9 pencils pg 18

Page 18: Here’s our first look at Rako, the artist formerly known as The Cambodian. This guy was a villain in the Captain Atom comic series from the 1980s during the time Greg Weisman was working on it. One of the first notes I saw about this character from Greg was that he intended to rename him. I guess nothing great ever presented itself other than the guy’s given name, as that’s the only thing he’s called in this story. Rako’s look was redesigned by me from his original appearance as The Cambodian. The armor is meant to look like traditional armor of the region if it had been rebuilt by Tony Stark. I’ll be doing a blog entry on that process very soon. And oh look, another thermal vision panel!

Page 19: That’s the last camo-mode panel of the story. I was kind of surprised to see that a sound effect wasn’t added to Rako’s backhanding of Miss Martian here.

Page 20: As much back-and-forth as there was over that knife sticking out of the murder victim’s chest earlier in the issue, it was nothing compared to the negotiations around how to show the wound on Superboy’s chest. Again, a crucial plot point – Superboy is cut and bleeding. But could we show blood? Was it enough to just show energy steaming up from the wound and have the dialog indicate that Superboy’s skin had been cut? Ultimately a little blood was indicated with color with no wound being shown beyond a slashed T-shirt.

Well that brings us to the end of another issue. I’ve previously done similar reviews/breakdowns of Young Justice #7 and Young Justice #8 over at World’s Finest Online. I’ll eventually be duplicating that content here as well as going back and doing similar reviews for my first two issues on the title.

Anyone still with me after all that? Is anyone finding this level of detail in analysis interesting? I’d love to hear from you. Leave some comments!

Young Justice #9 pages 8-9 color