Hi all! Sorry I’ve been so quiet the last few days. Busy, busy, busy. Maybe I should do like Mark Evanier and just post a picture of soup can on days when he’s too busy to blog. Hm, come to think of it I’m not even sure what that means…
Batman Strikes #6 - Title Logo
Anyway, here’s a look at another Title Page from The Batman Strikes!, featuring another hand-drawn story title logo. This one features Catwoman, and I should say something about her design here. Like all the major villains appearing in The Batman Strikes!, Catwoman’s design is based on animation models from the animated TV show the comic was a tie-in for. This Catwoman costume had large yellow goggles, presumably influenced by the then-recent Darwyn Cooke redesign of the character. The animation design also had a loose collar, which could pull over her head as a hood for added stealth. That’s one of those ideas that sounds cool on paper but then doesn’t get used much in practice. I could be mistaken but I suspect that Catwoman was first seen on the show lowering the hood to dramatically reveal her mask and then it never went back on. I’m pretty sure she never had it up in any of the comic stories I drew.
But the main thing about this Catwoman design that was – I’ll be generous and call it controversial – with fans were the ears. Now if you look at her, I see what they were going for. The ears are actually more anatomically in proportion with her head for certain breeds of cats, and the big ears I think actually add to the overall slinkiness of the figure. And this Catwoman was meant to be slinky! But whether it’s Catwoman, Batman, or a host of other costumed characters emulating those or similar animals, there has become something of a tradition that the ears are represented by stylized little triangle shapes, and it’s somewhat disconcerting to see these huge cat wars sitting o Catwoman’s head. I actually found the mask fun to draw, but much like this animated series’ version of the Joker, fans were vocal about their dislike of the design every time the character showed up.
Batman Strikes #6 - Title Page
Here’s the full penciled page. Notice the really elaborate city background and the tiny figure of Catwoman climbing over it in multiple images. I’m a big fan of Marshall Rogers work on Batman, and the biggest lesson I learned from his work is that when drawing Batman one of the main characters of the story is Gotham City. Putting the characters in a rich, detailed, vast Gotham really makes them sing.
As a bonus, one of my hand-drawn sound effects appears here as Catwoman’s whip takes apart an inconvenient security camera. The sound effect is a simple one, but I always like to design sound effects myself when I can, so I can better integrate their shape and placement into the design of the panel.
Batman Strikes #6 Title Page
And finally the finished page. More to come soon!
CHOK!
I was always a little surprised that we got away with that one in a Johnny DC title. Granted, it’s a plant simulacrum of Poison Ivy and not the real flesh and blood original, but STILL!
Here’s the full page for context from The Batman Strikes #33:
Strikes #33 pg 02 color
Inks by Terry Beatty. Colors by Heroic Age Studio.
Time for a look at more hand-drawn logos from title pages, this time looking at two more issues of The Batman Strikes!
The Batman Strikes #02 - Title Logo
This one was simple enough – with a short title and a leaping Batman figure, I thought I’d try to work the title into the highlighting on Batman’s cape. I assumed, therefore, that the logo would appear in blue. Also, I tried to create the letters in swooping, curving shapes as to compliment the flowing cape.
 Strikes #02 - Title Page pencils |  Strikes #02 - Title Page color |
Huh,
yellow. Who’d-a thunk it? Still, I think the logo and the page work well.
Strikes #04 - Title Logo
This one had a pretty straight-forward logo: Hand-rendered letters based on a typeface called Whoopass. Because I wasn’t leaving this for the letterer to typeset, I could position everything as to make sure that the ears of the Batman figure beneath the logo crossed the letters so as to not be lost against the black background.
 Strikes #04 - Title Page pencils |  Strikes #04 - Title Page color |
Here’s the full page. I wish there had been a little more contrast between the colors used on Batman’s cape and the palate of that first inset panel, or that a darker background color had been used in that third panel, but I’m still very fond of this page. I love framing panels artistically like this, even though this kind of thing usually has to be saved for introductory pages like this one or special sequences like flashbacks or montages.
Click on any of the images to visit my gallery where you can find more title pages and see the pages in higher resolution.
More to come, stay tuned!
Whenever possible, I always preferred hand-drawing my own sound effects and story titles during my run on The Batman Strikes! I especially liked incorporating the logo into the background art in some way, probably because of all those great Will Eisner titles for The Spirit. But I always had to work with what I was given. Sometimes I didn’t have a lot of room. Sometimes the story title didn’t lend itself as well to graphic treatment. But it almost always was more pleaseing to my eye than having it left to be typeset by the letterer.
Let’s kick this off with a pair of logos from Poison Ivy stories (boy we had a lot of Poison Ivy stories on The Batman Strikes!).
First up, from Batman Strikes #18:
Batman Strikes #18 - Title Logo
Here’s an example of a title that lent itself to graphic treatment nicely, but as part of a 4-panel page there wasn’t much room to work it into the background art. Still, I was able to give the title something of a flowery flourish, and that was fun.
 Strikes #18 Title Page pencils |  Strikes #18 Title Page color |
Here’s a view of the full page, so you can see how the logo works in context. Inks are by Terry Beatty and colors are by Heroic Age. Which I guess you could read for yourself in the credits if you click on the image to see it full-size!
Strikes #33 - logo
In The Batman Strikes #33 we had the reverse scenario: A big splashy full page shot, but kind of a simple title. I opted to just create really organic character shapes and try to make it look as though it were wrapped around the side of this giant vine structure.
 Strikes #33 Title Page pencils |  Strikes #33 Title Page color |
I was quite happy with this page overall. BTW – those are plant simulacrums of Poison Ivy that Batman, Robin and Batgirl are fighting. I like the dizzying quality to this shot, and the way the vine wraps through the image. The credits were colored a bit darkly, but I suppose no-one really cared except for the seven people who’s names are listed there!
More to come, stay tuned!
Never give the Riddler one of those puzzle boxes from Hellraiser. There’s just nothing good that’s going to come of that.
Batman Strikes #50 pg 07
This is another page from The Batman Strikes #50, the final issue of the series. I was really happy with how this page turned out – nicely moody and transcending the cartooniness of the animation designs. Pencils by me, inks by Terry Beatty, color by Heroic Age Studios.
Misc Artwork, The Batman Strikes! | Christopher Jones | 
October 27, 2011 10:01 pm | 
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