JL #38 "The Yellow Alert!" FORWARD

Nearly a year ago, my cyber-buddy Andy Kapellusch and I were chatting about my Justice League series. I was finishing up my JLA-JSA team-up story (#34, hyper-linked on the right) and we talked about how much we both loved the Justice Society. Either he made an off-hand comment about wanting to help create something with me, or I offered him a chance...I don't remember. One way or another, we somehow decided to work together.



Of course, we talked about a JLA-JSA team-up, but that story is still under wraps (sorry!). Then I went through my list of "I'd love to do the following stories but don't really have a plot yet" ideas. Two items immediately caught Andy's interest. One was "a story featuring The Atom." The other was "a story with Sinestro, bringing Hal Jordan into my universe."

Although we are still trying to come up with a story for The Atom, you can see that we have since come up with this, "The Yellow Alert!" Andy and I chatted on the phone regularly about it, and the excitement built as we decided that we would work "the Marvel way." That means we plotted the story together, then he did the initial pencil art, then he sent me his work to ink. I added the dialogue and the colors. And here we are!

For someone who has never worked with anybody else on the art chores, this was a fun "job." The first time I ever took a pen to Andy's pencils I was so worried that I would "mess it up" that my hand was literally shaking! I ended up copying his pencils and inking over the copy just to see what kind of experience it would be! Eventually, I managed to find the confidence to ink all of his work. It ended up being kinda cool...I hope you agree!

As the writer-editor, it was also a challenge to "write" the story! For example, Andy had thrown Robin the Teen Wonder into the story because he was one of his favorites. I didn't mind that, but it was suddenly my job to figure out in the dialogue WHY or HOW Robin would show up, and stay! Like I said, it was a challenge. I think Andy is okay with what I ended up doing, so I hope you enjoy the results, too!

As for the illustration above....it's the first idea Andy came up with for the cover. When I saw it I asked if he could do something similar to one of Brian Bolland's classic GLC covers. You'll see what he came up with tomorrow.