Coming to Denver Comic Con – May 31-June 2 2013

They couldn’t keep me away! In a last-minute addition to my 2013 schedule, I’ll be a guest at the Denver Comic Con at the end of May. I’ll be joining my Young Justice partner-in-crime Greg Weisman at the Denver show, so it’ll be a great opportunity to get us BOTH to sign all those Young Justice comic books and prints! I’m looking forward to this, it’s my first visit to the Denver convention and really my first visit to Denver if you don’t count layovers at the airport.

I’ll have more to say about the Denver show after I get back from the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) this weekend!

You can check out all my planned convention appearances for the coming  year on my Appearances Page!

Creating a Cover: Young Justice #25

It’s time for another installment of my Creating a Cover series. As was often the case, this cover was being designed before I had seen the script for the issue in question, so I had to rely on a suggestion from series writer Greg Weisman for an idea of what would be appropriate subject matter for a cover. Greg suggestion was basically “Everybody versus Brainiac.” I hadn’t seen a script for our Brainiac (aka “The Collector of Worlds”) in action yet so I wasn’t sure what kind of offensive capabilities he was going to display. I figured I’d just have him in a “ready for action” pose and make it obvious that combat was imminent. The “everybody” he was going to be fighting included all the Young Justice Team members, plus members of the Justice League – everybody who had been seen up to this point on Brainiac’s ship or the ship belonging to our other villain Kylstar.

I asked if there was any one character who was the focus of the final showdown with Brainiac and I was told that there wasn’t. Because of that and the fact that this was going to be the final issue of our series, I didn’t want to emphasize one of the heroes over the others for the sake of a more dynamic layout, so the the challenge became how to include more than a dozen heroes fighting a single opponent, without giving any one of them the lion’s share of the focus.

As is often the case when trying to include this many characters on a cover, the way to organize them into a layout is a process of almost mathematical deduction. I knew what I wanted to do, but I felt the need to offer multiple options and present my reasoning.

Sketch A

Sketch B

Sketch C

Sketch A places Brainiac at the center background with everyone else rushing him. The disadvantage of this approach was that while it makes for a compelling image, it puts most of the heroes in a position with their backs to the viewer – something I especially wanted to avoid on the cover for our swansong issue.

Sketch B takes more of the lateral view – viewing the gang-rush of heroes more in profile, with Brainiac down in the corner to allow the heroes to be more spread out and coming at him from both ground-level and from the air!

I felt the strongest option was the one presented in Sketch C – with Brainiac in the foreground, cheated “towards the camera” so we get a better look at him, but his attention clearly on all the heroes converging on him from the background. This option has the heroes coming at us front on, and gives us lots of open space to spread them across the cover, still leaving room for the logo at the top.

Pencils

Inks

Final Cover

And finally, here’s the final version with color by Zac Atkinson complete with all the final logos and other trade dress.

I really enjoyed getting to draw so many of the covers for my run on Young Justice. I enjoy drawing covers overall, and I really enjoyed getting to contribute more fully to the total look and feel of the Young Justice issues I did, as opposed to The Batman Strikes were most of the covers were by other artists.

You can find my previous Creating a Cover installments here.

Young Justice Invasion: Volume 1 coming in December

Young Justice #20

Young Justice: Invasion – Volume One TP
Writers: Greg Weisman
Artists: Christopher Jones
Collects: Young Justice #20-25
$12.99 US, 160 pg

With Volumes 1-3 the collected tie-in comic for the Young Justice animated TV series in print, I had been hoping for some news on a Young Justice: Volume 4, but it seems instead that the last 6 issues will be collected as Young Justice Invasion: Volume 2.  It’s funny that they went that way – when we were talking about the comic making the jump to the timeframe from Season 2 of the show, there was talk of rebranding the comic as Young Justice: Invasion and getting a new #1 issue. But that didn’t happen – they just continued on with the existing title and numbering, just designating the “Invasion” storyline with a subtitle and numbering it as 1-6 of 6. I guess someone decided that Young Justice: Invasion Volume 1 was more marketable than Young Justice: Volume 4. Fair enough.

Young Justice #23

Young Justice #24

Young Justice #25

The book won’t be out until December. I’m not sure why there’s such a delay, but better late than never! Young Justice recently aired its final episode earlier this month on Cartoon Network. The series is set to remain in reruns for at least a couple more weeks before being shuffled out of the DC Nation programming block. A lot of people are looking for ways to show their support for the Young Justice series right now, and pre-ordering this would definitely be one way to do so! Or, you could just pick it up when it comes out because it’ll be a good read!

Until then, Volumes 1-3 of the COLLECTED Young Justice are available NOW!
Look for them at your local comic shop or bookstore, or order a copy online!

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

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.