Young Justice Vol 2: Training Day

Hey, the second collected edition of my Young Justice series hit stores this past week. Following the first volume which collected issues #0 – #6, Volume Two has a cover price of $12.99 and is chock-full of Young Justice goodness by writers Greg Weisman and Kevin Hopps, pencils by Yours Truly, inks by Dan Davis, colors by Zac Atkinson, and one issue drawn by guest artist Luciano Vecchio.

Here’s how DC Comics describes it:

Based on the animated show from Warner Bros. airing on Cartoon Network, Young Justice collects single issue, all ages appropriate stories featuring the popular characters from the hit Cartoon Network show.

In this volume, Superboy, Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Miss Martian and Artemis defend Gotham City from Batman’s biggest foes Ra’s al Ghul and Clayface while also fending off Professor Ivo’s malevolent MONQIs!

And that doesn’t even mention appearances by Talia al Ghul, Ubu, Sensei, Amazo, Green Arrow, Rako (The Cambodian!) and Captain Atom!

Here’s more about the issues included:

Young Justice #7: “Rabbit Holes”
Young Justice #8: “Wonderland”
Young Justice #9: “Cold Case”
Young Justice #10: “Hot Case”
Young Justice #11: “The Pit…”
Young Justice #12: “The Pendulum”
Young Justice #13: “…And the Penalty”

This volume joins:

YOUNG JUSTICE: VOLUME ONE
Features issues #0-6.
Released on January 11, 2012
Cover Price: $12.99

and coming in 2013:

YOUNG JUSTICE: VOLUME THREE – CREATURE FEATURES
Features issues #14-19!
Release Date: February 13th, 2013
Cover Price: $12.99

Young Justice #24

YOUNG JUSTICE #24
Written by GREG WEISMAN
Art and cover by CHRISTOPHER JONES
Color by ZAC ATKINSON
On sale January 23 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED E

• Deadshot attempts assassination!
• Batgirl fights alone against Match!
• Kylstar decimates Superboy and the Justice League!
• Nightwing’s team fails against Brainiac!

Batgirl vs Match? How bizarre!
The Invasion continues!

Young Justice #20 is still on the stands, and #21 will be out TOMORROW! You can find Young Justice at your local comics shop or in digital form!

ALSO – The COLLECTED Young Justice!

YOUNG JUSTICE: VOLUME ONE
Features issues #0-6 of the all ages series.
Written by: Art Balazar and Franco, Greg Weisman and Kevin Hopps
Art by: Mike Norton, Christopher Jones and Dan Davis
Cover by: Mike Norton
Released on January 11, 2012 (Out of print, but a 2nd Printing Coming Soon!)
Cover Price: $12.99

YOUNG JUSTICE: VOLUME TWO – TRAINING DAY
Features issues #7-13 of the all ages series.
Written by: Greg Weisman and Kevin Hopps
Art by Christopher Jones and Dan Davis
Cover by: Christopher Jones
Release Date: November 14th, 2012
Cover Price: $12.99

and coming in 2013:

YOUNG JUSTICE: VOLUME THREE – CREATURE FEATURES
Written by: Kevin Hopps and Greg Weisman
Art by: Christopher Jones, and Luciano Vecchio
Cover by: Christopher Jones
Collects Young Justice #14-19!
Release Date: February 13th, 2013
Cover Price: $12.99

Young Justice #17 Cover

YOUNG JUSTICE #17 is written by Kevin Hopps and Greg Weisman and Christopher Jones with color by Zac Atkinson.

• KOBRA is back – and he’s scheming to become a god!
• Don’t miss the action as ROBIN, KID FLASH and ARTEMIS tackle MAMMOTH and SHIMMER!
• Guest-starring BATMAN, THE FLASH and GREEN ARROW!
• The issue is set in MINNEAPOLIS, so for readers local to the area you should recognize a number of familiar landmarks and Easter eggs!

YJ #17 page 1

YJ #17 page 2

YJ #17 page 3

YJ #17 Title Spread

Be sure to pick the issue up at your local comics shop or in digital form!

Young Justice #16

YOUNG JUSTICE #16 is written by Greg Weisman and Christopher Jones with color by Zac Atkinson.

Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis fight crime with their adult counterparts (that’s Batman, The Flash and Green Arrow, respectively) in this first part of a new storyline. As an added bonus there’s an Easter Egg for attendees of CONvergence!

Green Arrow & Artemis

In the Museum

Batman and Robin

Young Justice #15

DC Comics has posted a 5-page preview of Young Justice #15, due out tomorrow, March 17. It’s the conclusion of our 2-part Atlantis storyline, written by Greg Weisman and Kevin Hopps, penciled and inked by myself, and colored by Zac Atkinson.

In last month’s Young Justice #14, Aqualad, Superboy and Miss Martian dove deep into the underwater kingdom of Atlantis.

In issue #15, Ocean-Master has kidnapped Mera. Together with Prince Orm, the Young Justice team members must figure out how to retrieve the Atlantean queen before Ocean-Master is successful in his plan of draining her of her powers and taking over the seven seas. Could this be the end of Atlantis as we know it?

YOUNG JUSTICE #15 comes to you from the creative team of Kevin Hopps, Greg Weisman and Christopher Jones. Click here to see an exclusive preview of the issue, in stores on Wednesday. Then be sure to pick the issue up at your local comics shop or in digital form!

Young Justice #15 Title Page

Long before I drew the issue itself and even before I’d seen a final script for the story, I needed to design the cover for the issue, needed early for publicity and solicitation purposes. The scenario I was given was to do an underwater downshot of Aqualad, Miss Martian and Superboy surrounded by Hooded Atlantean Purists. Furthermore, Superboy was to be wearing one of Aqualad’s spare costumes, but MINUS the Water-Bearers, BackPack and “A” belt buckle. He was also to be sporting a clear oxygen mask that covers his mouth and nose with some form of filter/re-breather attachment. Miss Martian was to have shape-shifted into a more underwater-friendly form, having ditched her usual cape and morphed herself to copy Lori Lemaris’s mermaid tail from the waist down and having grown Aqualad-like gills on her neck.  She was also meant to be shorter than usual, but that didn’t end up being a big issue with the floating figures on the cover.

The Purists were meant to be cloaked and hooded Atlanteans of Aquaman’s type, i.e. to the naked eye they look completely human.  Like all Atlanteans, there were to have bare feet.  I was also instructed that their eyes were to magically glow from within the shadowed depths of their hoods.

Miss Martian’s mermaid form was almost a non-issue, as it was just putting the top of her body on the bottom of the design for Lori Lemaris, plus adding gills identical in design to Aqualad. Superboy was basically in Aqualad’s costume minus key accessories, plus the addition of an oxygen maks. And I had to design the Purists.

Purists first:

So now it was time to design a cover!

Young Justice #14 – cover rough 1

This was a relatively tight drawing for a cover rough, but we seemed to be pretty firmly locked into a concept, so I felt I could do something fairly tight I could then use as a basis for the final pencil art. Given that the characters were floating in water, I wanted the heroes to be “surrounded” in a fairly 3-dimensional way. I tried to make it clear that the Purists were not only coming from all sides but also from above and below.

The feedback was that DC wanted a little more of a feeling of action. Also, they wanted the piece to have a little more focus, so it was suggested to emphasize Aqualad a little more since it was his story.

Young Justice #14 – cover rough 2

The revised version is pretty similar – I just changed the proportion of some of the characters, bringing Aqualad forward and pushing Superboy and Miss Martian back. I turned Miss Martian’s head to better show off the gills on her neck. Aqualad is now deflecting a magical attack from one of the Purists with one of his hard water blades.

This version was approved, so from there it was the routine progression of pencils and inks, with color by Zac Atkinson.

Young Justice #14 – Cover Pencils

Young Justice #14 – Cover Inks

Young Justice #14 – Cover Color

As always, questions and comments are welcome.

Young Justice #14 Cover

OK, I’m pretty excited about this one. Not only is it the start of a new storyline set in Atlantis, but this issue marks my debut as inker of the interior of the book!

I’ve been inking the covers since I started on the series, but this is the first I’ve had a chance to ink any interior stuff at DC. Taking on this additional step in the artwork has given me a chance to futher tighten up the rendering as well as add greater detail to the finished pages. This was a challenging story to start but I think the comic really benefited, as there was a ton of Atlantean architecture to play with, as well as some epic scenes with a large cast of characters. Check it out, and I’d love to hear from you all on what you think of not only the artwork but this new storyline!

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

Young Justice #14 Cover

DC Comics has posted a 5-page preview of Young Justice #14, due out tomorrow, March 21. It’s the first part of a new Atlantis storyline, written by Greg Weisman and Kevin Hopps, penciled and inked by myself, and colored by Zac Atkinson. That’s right, and now inking the book in addition to penciling it starting with this issue, and I’m pretty excited about it.

I’ve posted a few pages from the preview below, and you can see more pages at the DC Comics site. Then be sure to pick the issue up at your local comics shop or in digital form!

Young Justice #14 page 1

Young Justice #14 page 2

Young Justice #14 page 4

When we starting talking about cover designs this time, I learned that Ra’s was our villain and that the story featured an encounter between Ra’s and Batman and Robin, but I didn’t know much about the rest of the story, as the script wasn’t final yet. My first instinct was to pay homage to one of the early Neal Adams covers that represent the comics that made me fall in love with the character in the first place. Here are the covers I was suggesting along with my notes to writer Greg Weisman and my editor Jim Chadwick. (Notes in blue.)

Batman #232

Batman #232 – First appearance of Ra’s. I think it would be fun to swap Batman and Robin’s position on the cover. With or without the same text.

Treasury Edition

Treasury Edition collection of the early Ra’s al Ghul stories – Again I think it would be fun to swap Batman and Robin’s roles. If Talia isn’t in the story, we’d have to decide if there’s another character to put in her place in the composition, or whether to eliminate the figure.

Even if we do a new composition, I’d love to do a cover with a big, ghostly Ra’s figure in the background as in either of these two covers.

Batman #244

Batman #244 – I’m guessing the Lawrence of Arabia setting wouldn’t work, but I think the Ra’s and Batman figures could be recast as Ra’s and Robin.

Not knowing the specifics of the plot, I didn’t know if any of these were remotely appropriate – even as a symbolic cover. Greg responded with the following suggestions of his own that tied in more specifically to the script-in-progress:

1. A confrontation at a missile launch site. (Which I think is more or less where the story opens.)

2. Something Lazarus Pit oriented where someone or something is rising out of the pit. (Which I think is more or less where the issue ends).

I asked for more specifics about what Greg had in mind regarding a “missile launch site,” but a Lazarus Pit scene captured my imagination. I suggested the following:

What about Ra’s rising from a Lazarus Pit in the foreground, with a missile launching from the pad (symbolically) behind him, with Batman and Robin looking on in alarm, either as figures or as ghostly images like Ra’s in two of those classic covers? (I can clarify this with a sketch if it sounds like a direction we’d want to pursue.)

I assume whatever Ra’s is wearing in the story we’d want him in his main costume for the cover, unless he’s seen rising from the pit in which case I’d prefer him bare-chested.

Greg and Jim liked the direction of a Lazarus Pit scene, even though it meant a symbolic cover that depicted a scene that did not literally take place in the story.I wanted Ra’s to be the focus of the piece and make him look powerful, with Robin the next most prominent figure as he’s the only character on the cover who’s a regular star of the book. I settled on a low angle shot looking up at and past Ra’s with Robin closest to Ra’s in the foreground with Batman further back (and therefor smaller.) I did this relatively tight sketch for approval. The dark setting served to simplify the background and keep the focus on the characters, as well as allow for dramatic under-lighting. I tried to make the image more dynamic by using strong vertical lines in perspective, which can be seen not only in the background architecture, but in the Lazarus Pit goo dripping off of Ra’s.

As always, I was careful to leave enough room at the top for the Young Justice logo and other DC Comics trade dress.

Young Justice #11 – Cover Rough

The sketch was approved, so it was relatively straightforward to proceed with pencils and inks. I elaborated on the doorway Batman in running through, trying to pull in some of the architectural detail of the Fortress Al Ghul location where the Lazarus Pit would be located in our story, a location seen in episode 6 of the TV show, “Infiltrator.” Pencils and inks by me are seen below, plus color by Zac Atkinson.

Young Justice #11 – Cover Pencils

Young Justice #11 – Cover Inks

Young Justice #11 – Cover Color

And there you have it! This turned out to be one of my favorite covers for the series so far, and some others must have liked it as I saw it used in a number of articles previewing DC titles coming out that month. And the story inside turned out to be a lot of fun, too! You can check it out in digital form or at your local comic shop.

I’ll be doing a Commentary blog entry on this issue soon, and will be doing another “Creating a Cover” entry for Young Justice #12 sooner still!

Young Justice #17

YOUNG JUSTICE #17 – On Sale June 20, 2012
Written by Greg Weisman and Kevin Hopps, art and cover by Christopher Jones.

Issues #1-13 are currently available and #14 is out this week! Pick an issue up in digital form or at your local comic shop!