Monsters in the Closet: page three

These pencils are incomplete. After inking the lettering, I inked the portions of the art that looked okay, then finished up the background, pencilling and inking in more or less one step. It would have been better to finish all the pencils at once but I often resort to this tentative, wishy washy approach to keep things moving and avoid getting hung up on the details that I'm not sure about.

Dalgoda: The Hero of the Tale, page 6

I just noticed something about panel two. The director has a lens around his neck -- something that Jan Strnad asked for in his script -- but he also has a long, skinny object hanging next to the lens... something I threw in spontaneously, then forgot about. It made me laugh more than two decades after I drew it. Anyone care to guess what it's supposed to be?

Grimwood's Daughter: cover sketch

It looks like this was drawn for a previous Grimwood collection that never came together.

Monsters in the Closet: page seven

Here's what the pencils looked like when about half of the details were still unresolved. You can see quite a few changes that were made between these two steps; the mermaid's face, left arm, etc.

Monsters in the Closet: page four

This isn't the most interesting page in the story but I like the mechanical stuff in the last panel.  And it looks like I almost forgot the "CLICK" sound effect in the bottom left panel.

Dalgoda: The Hero of the Tale, page 3

Some of these running sketches may have been for page seven so I'm including a scan of it as well.

Grimwood's Daughter: Chapter three, page four

Several sketches for this one.  I think I could have gotten away with the first version, but my final take on the last panel has better expressions, or at least it has expressions that fit the dialog better.

It takes a lot of work to make something look this simple: Dalgoda B&W story page one

I'm only showing a portion of the false starts for this page; mostly involving panel three.  I also had a lot of trouble with the first panel.  I was laboring to set up a sight gag; the ferocious, aggressive Dal we see first is actually a standee.  The real Dal is getting his makeup applied.  I tried every way I could think of to make it clear but I still think I fell short.  Still, I like the page and the rest of the story went much smoother.  Hope those Zip-a-tone screens don't look to strange on your monitors.  This was for A1 #4, in 1989.

Man-Bat page 16

Not much to show on this page.  Only one small preliminary sketch, half of which I used and the rest I completely redrew.  I like the way Jan described the action he was looking for here. 

Man-Bat page 17

In the second layout, Man-Bat's drool is about to drip on Batman's face.  Looks like I moved things a little in the pencils so it's not a direct hit.  Too bad...

Man-Bat page 18

Jan Strnad's script and a couple of roughs for the bottom panels.  I'm sure I did similar preliminary sketches for the rest of the page but they're long gone.

Man-Bat page 19

Script, rough sketches, pencils and inks.  This is the final page from the Man-Bat story in Secret Origins #39, April 1989. The editor, Mark Waid, didn't like the idea of Batman just walking through a door in his kitchen to access the Bat Cave so I took out the door knob in panel three.  I guess the thought was that he had to go down a hallway or maybe another door before entering the cave. I inked the line work and the shadows as two separate steps in the final panel.


Jan Strnad's script called for a milk mustache on Bruce but DC strongly objected.  That's why you see him wiping his mouth in the second panel of the layout. I've heard that Bruce Timm has a rule against showing Batman like this, mostly still in costume, but with his cowl down.  It surprised me when I first heard about it but it makes sense now.  It takes away from his mystique.  Bruce Wayne's, not Bruce Timm's.  Nothing could diminish Bruce Timm's mystique.

Grimwood's Daughter Hardcover Collection

Grimwood's Daughter wasn't my first work in comics but I think it was the first thing I did that was really worth buying. It ran as a back up feature in Dalgoda during the early 80's. The script was terrific. It was dark and sad and fit my twenty-something attitude better than any of the super-hero stuff I was being offered.

This collection is in black and white, with a "new" cover painting. I think it was done back in the early 90's for a French collection that never came together. We had a tough time rounding up art for all the interior pages and I ended up redrawing a few of them. I think most of you will be happy with the results.

If you enjoy those "sketchbook" sections in the back of collections, you're gonna love this one. There are pencil scans, thumbnails, rejected logo designs... more than a dozen pages of bonus material that's never been seen before.

So, go out and order a copy already! If you live anywhere near Wichita, Kansas, order it from Prairie Dog Comics. The owner, Marc Brown, is not only one of my oldest friends, he helped us out by supplying original art -- both story pages and prelims -- from his private collection. The book wouldn't have been as nice as it is without his generous assistance.

The order code for Previews is: JUL09 0942 GRIMWOOD'S DAUGHTER HC (MR) 09/30/09 SRP $12.99

Or you can always go with Amazon. They're offering it for 20% off.

End of plug. Thanks to Patrick Wedge for the prompting. I tend to overlook these things.

Grimwood's Daughter: the last page

Jan Strnad's script asked for a small inset of Tirol and Brii in the land of the Frost Giants, framed with a garland of ivy. I sketched it several different ways, two of which I'm showing here. But neither of us were satisfied with the layout and Jan thought the garland looked too much like a Christmas decoration so he suggested dropping the inset panel all together.

It made for a rather stark final page but it fit the mood of the story.

Fast forward 26 years...

We're trying to pull together all the art for a new Grimwood Collection, but no one can locate copies of the last few pages. I decide to redraw them and look forward to taking a second crack at a few details that always bugged me about the earlier versions. Most of them are just little inking problems but this final page cried out for a larger revision, in keeping with Jan's original script. I discussed it with our editor, Scott Dünbier and he agreed, if we're going to go to the trouble of redrawing that last page, why not get it right this time.

So I dropped the garland and made the inset much larger. I'm really happy with the results... finally.

I'll post a scan of the inks as soon as I finish them. Maybe even later today.