Detective Comics 27 Lineart

Here are a few of the pages from the huge anniversary issue I was able to take part it.  It was also my last issue on Detective Comics as I am now moving to Batman: Eternal which launches this spring.

I also got the chance with this story to design some cool alternate universe costumes for some of the characters.  Here's a look at Batman, Catbird and Bluebelle.

With Batman, I wanted an all white version of the suit, but realized I needed some greys to break up the different parts of the suit.  I tried to add a bunch of cool textures and details to the suit to give it a different feel from the normal Batsuit, and also made his eyes visable.

With Catbird (Catwoman as Robin) I originally was going for more of a Catwoman/Nightwing crossover.  But we decided we wanted it to be more Robin-ish.  Above, you can see the idea evolve to the final chosen idea.  

I wanted to keep the Catwoman look, but incorporate the Robin aesthetic into that.  The long jacket I felt took the cape aspect of Robin and fused it with Catwoman's sense of design.   

Bluebelle is the Gothtopia version of Batgirl.  In the end, I mostly took the New 52 design and made it white.  I shortened the cape to give her a more playful, youthful look and got rid of the cowl.  I actually prefer Batgirl to not wear a Bat cowl.  I'm not sure why.  

Detective Comics 27

When Bob Kane and Bill Finger first introduced Batman to the world in Detective Comics 27 back in 1938, I wonder if they could have believed that their character would become (arguably) the biggest comic book character of all time, as well as one of the most legendary and well loved characters of our modern popular culture?  It's a thought like that that keeps me humble and thankful to have had the opportunity to work on this character for the past few years, as well as lend my own little contribution to this massive anniversary issue celebrating the first appearance of Batman.  Thank you Mr. Kane and Mr. Finger for the character that not only inspired me to read comics, but also to follow a dream to one day draw comics and make a career a reality.

Detective Comics 27 hits stores this Wednesday January 8th!

As an extra, here is a look at my variant cover!

Final inks on 11x17 board

I went in digitally and added some splatters and more bats.  

The awesome colors by Tomeu Morey.  The guy kills it every time

You may have alot of trouble finding this cover in stores, as its a 1 or 100 variant.  Good Luck!

Detective Comics 25 Pages

Here are some of the pages from this month's Detective Comics 25.  Had fun with this one.  

I've always felt more comfortable working with dark shadows in my work.  I've always been attracted to comic artwork that really used black and white well.  It just pops for me.  With this issue, I really got to play with a lot of shadows.  

Here, I tried to use the flashlight in order to light the scene.  The city is in blackout, so there wouldn't be any light if I drew it more realistically.  But in the end, I needed to add some light here and there to give the scene some depth.

I normally stick to a very widescreen, simple layout scheme.  I find it works well and keeps the artwork and page looking clean.  But here, for the falling sequence, I wanted to have a bit of fun.  I like the idea of only using vertical panels when showing someone falling or flying up, so naturally I wanted to use that idea for the bridge sequence.

I also love drawing rain and dripping water.  This is easy when drawing digitally.  The rain is a simple rain brush I apply to the work after I'm all done.  I add splashes and little details after.

Originally, the police commissioner was Grogan instead of Loeb.  I had to make the changes a month or so after finishing the book.  These pages show Grogan, which I liked better than the Loeb I shoehorned in after.  I would have drawn Loeb a bit differently if I had the time, but I mostly just replaced the head and called it a day.

Here's my favorite page of the book.  It's sort of my attempt at a nod to the original Detective Comics 27 cover drawn by Bob Kane but with Batman Rescuing Gordon as he falls.  Its also a nod to one of my fav Batman artists Frank Miller.  I was asked to keep Batman very shadowed.  I used the rain to break up the blacked out buildings from the foreground.

Here's the layout.

I also noticed something funny as I scanned my twitter account.  Someone pointed out that the cover to the book closely resembled the cover of a Resident Evil game cover.  When I saw it, I was actually in shock because the pose was very similar, along with the outfit Gordon was wearing.  Someone in a review pointed this out and actually liked that I had made this a tribute to that cover.  That gave me a laugh as well, because before seeing that game cover on my twitter feed, I had NEVER seen that image before.  I've never even played one of those games nor have any interest in them at all.  For the pose, I actually used myself to pose out the image and decided to give Gordon a more "costumed" look.  I just wanted to state that I didn't copy the image, or even use it as an idea or resource, but Im sure someone out there with think I did and rip me online. In the end, every pose and image has been used before, so things are bound to look alike. But if people want to pat me on the back and thank me for doing an homage cover, then Ill take it :)

BATMAN: ETERNAL

The news hit this morning just ahead of NYCC that I'll be joining writers Scott Snyder and James Tynion on a brand new Batman weekly series titled BATMAN: ETERNAL.  The book launches this coming spring and will feature a while host of different writers and talent (such as my pal John Layman!)

Check out some of the news that is swirling around the internet below:
BATMAN springs ETERNAL -USA Today
Comic Book Resources
Batman's 75th- Newarama

This news of course signals the end of my run on Detective Comics with John Layman.  I've had a blast on the series and right now Im finishing up the final few pages of my last issue on the book which will be published next year.  News hit a few days ago that we we're being replaced on the book and I got an overwhelming response from readers asking me what was up and why they were letting go of us.  Well, the truth is, I was presented with the Batman Weekly project and asked to launch it and continue to be the lead artist on the series and it was too good of an opportunity to turn down.  I decided to leave Detective first, and from there the rest of the changes happened.

But don't despair!  John Layman and I will probably cross paths on the Weekly again.  Ill be starting off the first arc of the book with Scott Snyder and James Tynion and then from there, Ill be settling into a role of working on the bigger arcs and issues on the series.  Im very excited about this opportunity and thankful for DC Comics to allow me to expand my career and work on something this big.

And now for a look at the preview promo art!

When they approched me about doing a promo piece, they wanted a big epic Batman drawing, something that looked classic and bold but also showcased what is to come.  I had been working on a sketch cover when they presented this to me, and I liked what I had on the sketch enough to use it as a base for this layout.

Here's my process:

Started with a rough layout to show my editors.  Thought it would be cool to have the characters faces in the cape.  Decided to shift the face a bit and look up.  Big, bold Frank Miller-esque image

I then moved on to the pencil image.  I kept it rough because I decided I would hand ink this sucker for something different.

Here's a picture of the final inked image.  I then had to draw the characters into the cape.  So I roughed them into the image digitally and then light tabled them onto the art once I got them sized up.

I then added the faces, brought the image into the digital realm and tweaked, added rain ect.

Page was sent to colorist Tomey Moreu who rocked it on colors.

I wanted the faces to be muted, and the background to be greens and oranges.  I don't know why, it just felt like that would be cool.

Get ready for an insane romp through Gotham next spring.  I've already read the treatments for this book and right from page 1, there are some big, epic, earth-shattering changes coming to Gotham.  I can't wait for people to check this series out!

Detective Comics 24 Pages

Some pages from last week's Detective Comics 24

Also, Here is the line art for the Arkham War #2 cover featuring Bane and the Talons!

And the cover for next months Detective Comics 25 which is a zero year tie-in.  I've read online that people are going to skip it because it's a "tie-in" but honestly, this is one of my fav issues I've done.  Lots of good stuff here.