Origin Story: Kid Flash from Young Justice #5

I posted this on Tumblr a few days ago and at got a good response there, so I thought I’d do a slightly expanded version here.

This is Kid Flash’s origin as told by the Kid himself (aka Wally West) in Young Justice #5. Furthermore, it’s a comparison of my pencil art with the digital inks and the final print version.

Script by Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani
Pencils by Christopher Jones
Inks by Dan Davis
Colors by Zac Atkinson
Letters by Carlos M. Mangual

This comic was scripted by Art and Franco, but the versions of the origin stories presented in it were based on Young Justice continuity as developed for the TV show by Greg Weisman and the other writers. This was my first issue drawing Young Justice, and I was still trying to master the nuances of the character designs. Complicating matters was trying to draw the characters a year or two younger in flashbacks! Let’s dive in!

This issue featured members of the newly-formed team going on a camping trip together and getting to know more about each-other as they tell (origin) stories around the campfire. Aqualad’s story about becoming the protege to Aquaman was just wrapping up as we get to Kid Flash. Wally’s story starts with the origin of the original Flash Jay Garrick, so I got to draw Central City in the 1940s. The “Lampert” Building seen in that panel is a reference to Harry Lampert, artist and co-creator of The Flash with writer Gardner Fox. I love throwing in references like that!

Here we see a young Barry Allen meeting Jay Garrick and getting his autograph on a copy of the Golden Age Flash #1 before becoming the second incarnation of The Flash. I drew a simplified version of the Flash #1 cover art and composited it into the artwork in Photoshop so I could get greater detail than I could have done in the raw pencils.

This page is a good example of leaving room in the artwork for the lettering that is to be placed later. Panel 4 is the simple version – the shot is tight enough on Barry Allen that it didn’t need a background, so I just left enough space to the side of him that the lettering would fit without covering Barry up. But check out Panel 2 right above it.  There’s a whole bunch of background that gets covered up by the fairly large amount of text in that panel. But none of it was important. You just needed to see enough to know you were in a bedroom next to an open closet. All the important stuff (Wally, the open case with Barry’s notebooks) is at the bottom of the panel, with lots of vertical lines in perspective leading your eye down to it.

I remember enjoying drawing the makeshift laboratory in Wally’s parents’ garage. I tried to make it feel kind of ramshackle, with equipment that like it would have been more at home in a high-school chemistry class than a high-tech lab.

Those are Wally’s parents on the left in Panel 2, who appeared in the TV show, but who I didn’t yet have reference for when I drew this. On the right is Iris and Barry Allen. Barry’s hair is getting a little orange here, rather than his usual blonde buzz-cut. Maybe he’s been hanging out with Wally too much…

And finally we see Wally somewhat reluctantly accepted as Barry’s sidekick, Kid Flash.

If you’d like to see more sequences broken down this way, let me know!

Gallifrey One 2013 – Part 3 of 4 (The Young Justice Meetup)

Continuing my report on my trip to the Gallifrey One convention, and what an adventure it was…

SATURDAY (Part 2)

In case you’re just joining us, I had traveled to Los Angeles to attend the Gallifrey One Sci-Fi convention that was celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, and catching up with various Los Angeles area friends. I’d had plans to have a rare in-person meet-up with my Young Justice collaborator Greg Weisman on Friday for lunch, but a longer-than-hoped-for set-up at the Gallifrey One art show meant I didn’t have time to get across town to Greg’s office and the meeting didn’t happen.

With the help of Hal (aka ChristopherJonesWebMinion on tumblr), I had been organizing a meet-up for Young Justice fans at Gallifrey One for Saturday evening in the lobby of the convention hotel. When I told Greg about it, Greg said he was in, but he wanted his presence to be a secret surprise. So now it looked like I was going to see Greg after all, but instead of a quiet lunch it would be along with an undetermined number of unsuspecting Young Justice fans. All during the convention I’d been plugging the meet-up at panels and when talking to anyone who expressed any interest in the show or my comics work. Now I was pushing it even harder, but I couldn’t mention it’s biggest selling point. A lot of language along the lines of “you don’t want to miss it” and “we’ll have surprises” was used.

During the afternoon, Hal had disappeared to retreat to the hotel room and change into her Novice Hame cat nurse costume from Doctor Who. Given the make-up involved, this takes a while, although not as long as you might think, given that it’s basically a process of attaching and blending a 1-piece mask. She and I met up in the lobby in time to start gathering the troops for the meet-up.

Hal as Novice Hame
Photo by Teh Curmudgeon

The lobby was crowded with Gallifrey One attendees chatting and milling about, so when I spotted a chair in the corner that was opening up I pounced on it, figuring I could plant myself there and hold court as a hopefully respectably-sized gathering of Young Justice fans gathered. I had fashioned a makeshift “Young Justice Meet-up” sign earlier in the hotel room, and as the first YJ fans gathered Hal took to holding it so it could be better seen – so we had Novice Hame from Doctor Who promoting our Young Justice gathering!

And gather they did. The fans seemed as happy to gather with other Young Justice fans as to talk me, I think, which was fine. I think a couple may have stopped by and left, but our group had grown to about a dozen when I spotted Greg standing at the back of the group. I introduced Greg to the assembled group and just stepped forward, made his way into the corner behind me and the two of us (mostly Greg) held court for the next hour. It was all very low-key and rather informal, which I think was part of its charm. I had a great time and I think the meet-up proved to be a weekend highlight for a lot of the Young Justice fans who managed to make it there. More fans attended than stuck around for the picture below, but 0negirlarmy was good enough to supply a some of the photos she took of the event, as her camera was doing better under the lighting conditions than mine. 0negirlarmy, by the way, wasn’t even attending Gallifrey One. She was local to the area and when she saw the event mentioned on Tumblr, drove across town to be there! Hopefully she found it worth the effort!

Greg and me in the corner Photo by 0negirlarmy

The Young Justice Meet-up – Gallifrey One 2013. That’s me holding the sign and Greg in the blue shirt taking a knee.

Greg and I with Greg’s gift.

Afterwards, Greg, Hal and I were joined by my friends Mike and Alicia for dinner in one of the hotel restaurants. It was a great opportunity to for Greg and I to talk shop, reflect on the last year and a half on the Young Justice comic, and share stories. All this was while Hal was still in full Novice Hame garb, which posed a problem when she wanted to order a beer and got carded. When we were leaving the restaurant, some of the staff stopped Hal to get photos. Even with all the crazy costumes at the convention, it’s not every day a cat nurse dines in your establishment!

Eventually Greg had to run and the rest of us soon called it a night. The Young Justice meet-up had been a grand success, and soon it would be time for the final day of Gallifrey One 2013!

NEXT: SUNDAY

You can find all the installments of my Gallifrey One 2013 trip by clicking the link.

OUT NOW – Young Justice #25: INVASION 6 of 6 (Final Issue)

Young Justice #25

And so the epic saga concludes (in comic book form anyway) withYoung Justice #25, the final issue of this DC Comics title based on the Cartoon Network animated series of the same name. Official details and preview pages are available below.

Preview Page 1

Preview Page 2

Preview Page 3

Preview Page 4

Preview Page 5

That’s what the DC Comics solicitation says, but odds are you’ll be more concerned about scenes with Dick Grayson that begin and end the issue, and with two very different moments in the history of the relationship between Superman and Superboy. And then there’s that scene with the truck…

The cover price for this issue is $2.99US.
Be sure to pick the issue up at your local comics shop or in digital form!

And don’t miss the COLLECTED Young Justice!

VOLUME 1 Collecting #0-06! $12.99

VOL. 2 – Training Day Collecting #07-13! $12.99

VOL. 3 – Creature Features Collecting #14-19! $12.99

In Stores NOW: Young Justice – Volume 3

Mine, all Mine!

Young Justice: Volume 3 – Creature Features is in comic book shops and book stores TODAY! Volume 3 collects issues #14-19, featuring our Atlantis, Kobra Cult and Gorilla City storylines. Carrying a cover price of $12.99, this volume joins Volume 1 (issues #0-6) and Volume 2 – Training Day (issues #7-13).

Young Justice #14-15

Young Justice #16-17

Young Justice #18-19

If you can’t find a copy at your local comic shop or bookstore, you can ask them to order one, or order it on line from a source like Amazon.com!

Creating a Cover: Young Justice #24

It’s time for another installment of my Creating a Cover series. As usual, this cover was being designed before I had seen the script for the issue in question, let alone had drawn it, so a suggestion from series writer Greg Weisman was key in figuring out a cover concept. Greg suggested Batgirl being grabbed by the throat by an arm belonging to the yet-to-be-revealed Match in his mutated “Bizarro” form. Behind them, would be Plastic Man, helpless to intervene behind the force-field barrier cutting off central Metropolis from the outside world.

Cover Sketch a

Cover Sketch b

Young Justice #24 cover pencils

Young Justice #24 cover inks

Young Justice #24 cover colors

Young Justice #24 final cover

You can find my previous Creating a Cover installments here.