I finished up issue 4 of Batman: The Dark Knight this past week. What an experience! This book was one of the biggest labours of love I've ever done. Batman has been my favourite character in comics since I was 5 and to be working on one of the main Batman titles at this time in my career was a dream come true.
The script that Dave Finch wrote was a lot of fun to draw. I've been lucky work with JT Krul and now Dave on my last few books. JT knows how to write for an artist and Dave, being an artist, knows how to really tell a great visual story. This also gave me a chance to work closely with Dave on the layouts and get his final approval on the finished pages. Ryan Winn is inking the book and has been really blowing me away with his skills. I feel this book is really going to look fantastic.
I started issue 5 on thursday and I'm excited about the final issue of the first run. This book is going to be packed with some really insane detail. It's going to be a hard book to pump through but I think the final outcome will have fans excited.
It's also been really great to interact with my editors at DC. I've been blessed to have some really great bosses in my short career. First with Eddie Berganza and Adam Schlagman on my first few jobs, then with Vince Hernandez at Aspen and now with Mike Marts and Katie Kubert at DC. Mike is a great guy and we really get along well. His enthusiasm and passion for Batman and making every comic the best on the shelves really pushes myself to perform at top notch quality.
I've also been doing some signings and appearances here and there. I got to speak to my old High School art class a week ago. That was a blast. My art teacher, Sue Leslie has been a great friend and inspiration to my life and career and it's always cool to go back and see your teachers (and I'm sure they like it when you bring a giant stack of your work to give to them). I also did a signing with my good buddy Tony Gray (The Incredible Conduit) who lives and works in Windsor at Border City Comics.
So far, looking back on the first year of my career, I am really thankful for all of the opportunities I have been given and the trust that Aspen and DC is giving me with their properties. It's now time to get back to work on Batman, but I won't leave you empty handed. Here is a new piece of artwork I did with Ryan Winn that I've been using at signings for promotion. Ryan inked my pencils and I did the colors.
