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BATMAN #611
posted February 24, 2003 07:48 PM
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Here we are--less than a few days until Batman 612--and not a minute too late for the notes for Batman 611 (thanx food poisoning ^_^)
The cover...yes, allusions to a cruxifion, but the inspiration was actually Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Yep, it's the image with the nekkid dude with his arms and legs laid out; the image is famous for showing the simple mathematical proportional relationships between man's various appendages. Ya know, the relationships us comic book artists throw out the Vitruvian window.
And double yep, this is a conceptual cover. Image does not exist inside, but I did want to show the relationships between the characters. Catwoman is obviously entwined, enraptured, and encircled by Ivy's vines. And how do we know it's Poison Ivy's vines? Well, it says so in the lower left side by Catwoman's bent knee (turn the comic side ways and read from her knee down to the boot).
Despite the fact that most net devotees can find out what's coming up in future issues by monitoring Diamond Previews, Jeph and I still like to maintain the facade that we can surprise the audience. And that's why Superman is not on this cover but rather, is saved for his reveal on the ad before page 22 = D (doh!). But of course, those of us who look at covers sideways knew that was coming since it's spelled out in the ivy ("Superman" read from Catwoman's left boot to her left knee).
Batman, in his most Dracular inspired "Velcome to mah home" pose, is shown as a more graphical element than a true 3-D image--ready to envelope Catwoman in his own darkness (will it be enough to break the spell?!).
Of course, the story is in Metropolis so we need to show the Daily Planet and all this is happening in the shadow of Lex Corp's twin towered superskyscrapper. The black dots on the building spell out in Morse code who Hush "really" is. =D
Onward to the interiors:
Page 1--It's Metropolis so Jeph, Alex and myself wanted to go with gold hues to show how different the city of tomorrow was from our own Gotham City. The airport design was influenced by my own memories of Lambert airport in St. Louis where I grew up < http://www.lambert-stlouis.com/gallery/index.htm . I always thought the airport was the coolest as a little kid and ya draw what ya know. Other buildings in the backgrounds are amalgamations of various hotels I have seen or stayed at (Pan Pacific for one from our own San Diego skyline).
Pages 2-3--I don't know what the exact historic origins of Metropolis were but I wanted to show that there were monuments within the airport which traced it's history. So it's not Atlas and his brother(!) holding the globe in the background as Bruce descends on the elevator but a nod to Romulus and Remus...the idea that there were two brothers who helped forge Metropolis's early transportation history. The globe being a sphere made up of train like tracks and airline routes.
On various pages from 2 to 7, the watercolors were knocked out in a more brownish tint (an allusion to the golden city of Metropolis); would have made them more golden but they wouldn't print dark enough to see clearly.
Funny side story...I was in NYC for most of December when this issue was being colored and I needed to scan these pages in so I could make color adjustments in photoshop to send to Alex Sinclair. Of course, I procrastinate until the eleventh hour (actually it was 3 am) and the deadline was the next day so I had to find a place in the city where I could scan in 11x17 boards in the middle of the night on a Sunday no less. And that's why NYC is truly one of the greatest cities of all time. The place never sleeps. I call a print shop which can do it (all others were closed or couldn't scan that size) but when I get there, hours after I made the call, the guy I spoke to is gone for the night. So I'm being told that the place is for commercial jobs only by a late night production supervisor until he spies the artwork I brought. Turns out he was a comic book fan when he was a kid ("I'm into video games now")...not only comics but Image Comics! I humbly bring up the fact that I was one of the co-founders of said company and next thing I know, I'm in their prepress room scanning away. I make the scans (on the house too!) and go back to make the final adjustments so I can FTP the files back to Alex in San Diego. Now there are so few times where being a "name" in comics amounts to anywhere beyond the confines of a comic book convention hall but this was one of those rare, fortunate times!
Page 8--in the third panel, there is a symbol on the building in the middle. It says WHAK SODA but it got a bit too blurred...it's a nod to a fictional pop drink a character was into from Divine Right.
Page 11--Ahh the Daily Planet...on the way hangs an injoke newspaper edition...just my version of "Dewey defeats Truman." On the cubicle walls behind Lois, there are several items...Ale Dance Studios (named after our own Ale "Gen 13/Graduation Day" Garza...Wizard deadline which was in effect for the Batman cover I did...I figure Lois wrote a piece or two for the magazine filling in for departing mailbag editor Jim McLauchlin as well...a nod to Divine Right Adventures--the Saturday morning spinoff cartoon (yeah, right!)...posties to collect bet money from Scott Dunbier, Carlin...the last letters of my kids' names...the word balloon covers a "Bruning for Governor" or something like that bumper sticker (see patriotic colors). All the other letters and fake stationery have some sort of backstory I forget now...it's hard to just write jibberish on backgrounds; in fact, to make them "feel" authentic even though they are just scribbles--you still need to figure out in your mind what it is you are drawing...make sense?
Page 17--On the warehouse is "Plilo"...an infamous gnome wizard from a rather large, l33t guild from the online game "Everquest." The real life Plilo works at Sigil Games Online working on the next generation of MMO RPG games. This building is where he stores all his burnt out video cards.
That's it for this issue--take care and have fun with 612!
Best,
Jim Lee
BTW--I was lying about the Morse code on the cover bit...but damn, how cool would that have been?!
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