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.

Batman #412 cover sketches

This is an old one, from 1987.  I guess the Mime was intended to be the Joker's lady friend.  She had some kind of electric charge in her hands and DC asked me to design her costume and come up with a sketch for the cover.


I didn't even remember doing the costume design until I found this old sketch yesterday, probably because there wasn't much of my work left by the time it went through Editorial.  Remember when you were in school and your paper was handed back to you with a lot of notations in red ink?  It's rarely a good sign.


We persevered and the final cover turned out okay.  I did the color guide but I'm not sure why I made Batman's eyes white, considering they're tightly closed.

Strange Tales #16: Cover art

This cover was fun; a big, grotesque monster and two helpless heroes.  My editor, Carl Potts, sent me a sketch with notations.  From there, I did the pencils, inks and colors.  It got weirder every step of the way. My copy of the inks is a little light so I'm also showing a scan of the original art.