JLA #15 featured a plethora of guest-stars in each JLAer's nightmare...brought about by THIS man:
continued after the jump!
Showing posts with label Number 15. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Number 15. Show all posts
Friday, March 16, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
JL #15 Dream Analysis
Commentary/Analysis of the Justice Leaguers' Nightmares
BLACK CANARY (pages 5-7)
Black Canary's mother was the original Black Canary, but was killed by the alien Aquarius. The current Black Canary left her origina dimension to help her escape painful memories and moved to the Justice League's dimension. Her nightmare is that her mother's former team-mates the Justice Society would blame her for her mother's death.
AQUAMAN
(pages 10-12)
Aquaman has a large family: his wife Mera, his son, and his apprentice, Aqualad. His nightmare is that all of them are murdered by his three worst enemies: Black Manta, The Fisherman, and his half-brother, Ocean Master.
MARTIAN MANHUNTER (pages 14-15)
Martian Manhunter is a true Martian, and his dream is to one day return to Mars. His nightmare is that the planet he returns to has been destroyed.
GREEN LANTERN (pages 17-19)
The Green Lantern of Earth (real name John Stewart) is a member of the Universal Police Force Green Lantern Corps. His nightmare is that his closest friend in that group turn against him.
THE FLASH (pages 20-22)
The Flash has many terrible enemies. His nightmare is that six of the worst ones get together to kill him. His wife is not a super-hero.She is a "normal" woman named Iris Allen who is a newspaper reporter. However, her nephew is the teen super-hero Kid Flash, who will appear in the next issue.
SUPERMAN
(pages 23-25)
Superman is the most powerful man on Earth. However, there are things that even he can not do. His nightmare would be for his worst enemy, Lex Luthor, to kill his good friends in the Justice League, his girl-friend Lois Lane, and his cousin Supergirl. Not only that, but Superman must always control his powers so that he doesn't use them in anger; to lose control is his worst nightmare.
WONDER WOMAN (pages 26-28)
Wonder Woman lives on Paradise Island. When she wants to escape the pressures of "the real world" she returns home. Part of her nightmare is to come back to her home and find everything she loves destroyed. The other part of her nightmare is that the Gods she worships have turned against her.
GREEN ARROW (pages 29-31)
Green Arrow does not have the power that Superman or Green Lantern has; he has only his own skill and self-confidence in his abilities. His nightmare would be to lose control of those skills and abilities, and to be responsible for the death of Black Canary, the woman he loves. This would be a huge shock to him.
HAWKWOMAN (pages 32-34)
Hawkwoman from a very young age wanted to join the Hawk Guard Police Force on her planet, Thanagar. After she graduated from high school she joined the Officers Programme and after five years she became an excellent officer. She found romance at work, as well, as her husband Hawkman was a colleague in the police force. Her nightmare is to be expelled from the police force she loves.
BATMAN
(pages 2-4)
Batman has many allies, but his best friends are his partners Robin and Batgirl. To see both of them murdered like this is a great shock to him. Also, most of his enemies are demonically Evil (The Joker, Two-Face, Scarecrow, etc) but only one of his enemies is a simple thief. So to see that Catwoman has also turned demonic would be another sad event in his life. (Catwoman's profile will be featured tomorrow, as will all other guests/villains mentioned below)
BLACK CANARY (pages 5-7)
Black Canary's mother was the original Black Canary, but was killed by the alien Aquarius. The current Black Canary left her origina dimension to help her escape painful memories and moved to the Justice League's dimension. Her nightmare is that her mother's former team-mates the Justice Society would blame her for her mother's death.
(pages 10-12)
Aquaman has a large family: his wife Mera, his son, and his apprentice, Aqualad. His nightmare is that all of them are murdered by his three worst enemies: Black Manta, The Fisherman, and his half-brother, Ocean Master.
MARTIAN MANHUNTER (pages 14-15)
Martian Manhunter is a true Martian, and his dream is to one day return to Mars. His nightmare is that the planet he returns to has been destroyed.
GREEN LANTERN (pages 17-19)
The Green Lantern of Earth (real name John Stewart) is a member of the Universal Police Force Green Lantern Corps. His nightmare is that his closest friend in that group turn against him.
THE FLASH (pages 20-22)
The Flash has many terrible enemies. His nightmare is that six of the worst ones get together to kill him. His wife is not a super-hero.She is a "normal" woman named Iris Allen who is a newspaper reporter. However, her nephew is the teen super-hero Kid Flash, who will appear in the next issue.
SUPERMAN
(pages 23-25)
Superman is the most powerful man on Earth. However, there are things that even he can not do. His nightmare would be for his worst enemy, Lex Luthor, to kill his good friends in the Justice League, his girl-friend Lois Lane, and his cousin Supergirl. Not only that, but Superman must always control his powers so that he doesn't use them in anger; to lose control is his worst nightmare.
WONDER WOMAN (pages 26-28)
Wonder Woman lives on Paradise Island. When she wants to escape the pressures of "the real world" she returns home. Part of her nightmare is to come back to her home and find everything she loves destroyed. The other part of her nightmare is that the Gods she worships have turned against her.
GREEN ARROW (pages 29-31)
Green Arrow does not have the power that Superman or Green Lantern has; he has only his own skill and self-confidence in his abilities. His nightmare would be to lose control of those skills and abilities, and to be responsible for the death of Black Canary, the woman he loves. This would be a huge shock to him.
Hawkwoman from a very young age wanted to join the Hawk Guard Police Force on her planet, Thanagar. After she graduated from high school she joined the Officers Programme and after five years she became an excellent officer. She found romance at work, as well, as her husband Hawkman was a colleague in the police force. Her nightmare is to be expelled from the police force she loves.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
JL #15 AFTERWARD
Well, what did you think?
One thing I seriously *do* think I was doing well is the coloring. This issue featured ten very specific background scenes and I think I knocked most of them out of the park, atleast color-wise. Here are two of my favorites: Mars and Paradise Island... I really liked the underwater scenes I did with Aquaman, Mera, and Aqualad, too, but they didn't pull out easily to feature here. (click on the images to enlarge them) I was enjoying coloring most of these stories, and I think it shows.
Another thing I liked about this issue was the amount of history I was able to jam into the story. For example,for the Flash I was able to feature six of his most dangerous foes. If I were the Flash, with his truly terrible Rogues Gallery, I would be afraid of them ever teaming-up. So it was easy to feature them here, and in one sequence we add depth to "my" universe. By the way, Captain Boomerang and Weather Wizard had already appeared, and the others were going to make "real" appearances before the series concluded. I had never loved the character of the Flash, but I have to admit I liked his villains. :-)
Another sequence I thought I handled well was Superman's nightmare. It opens with all of his loved ones killed. Sure, the scene is gruesome, but I thought it was something this terrible that would be Superman's fear. Then basically Lex Luthor is a bully, taunting him about his friends being killed. Superman kills Lex in anger, which rings true to me. I'd be interested to read any other opinions about this (and the other scenes, too).
In Hawkwoman's nightmare I was able to show all the other "Hawk" costumes in DC continuity, which I thought was a good touch. This was the time that the HAWKWORLD continuity chaos was in full effect at DC, so I wanted to be able to say "my" Hawkman and Hawkwoman would/could wear whatever they happened to be shown in, haha.
Speaking of Hawkman, I liked how he was the protagonist of this story. It just made sense to me that if the entire JLA was put out of commission, it would be characters like him, Aquaman's wife Mera, and Batman's "son" Robin who would lead the effort to come to their aid.
Also, I loved coloring the JLAers being teleported. I thought I did a good job with those scenes. One last pat on my back before we move on to what I didn't like....for some reason, I really
REALLY like the drawing of Hawkman reproduced below. As a kid I never liked JLA artist Mike Sekowsky's version of Hawkman. I much preferred Murphy Anderson's version, and then, later, Dick Dillin's version. In the mid 70s I came across an illustration of him by Terry Austin that I LOVED. From that day to this, that is the "template" I use in my head when I draw Katar Hol.
The one thing I really don't like about this issue is Green Arrow's nightmare. I wanted to do something Escher-like or Dali-like, but I ended up doing something simple and not at all good! The idea was fine, I think, but the execution was not.
Besides that, the one thing I sort of regret now is that I didn't manage to wrap this story up in one part. I kept thinking that two-parters when done sparringly would be okay. However, except for maybe the first one (The Time Lord story) NONE of my two-parters really worked. In hind-sight I wish I had had Hawkman and Elongated Man rush off to find Dr. Destiny and stop him in a few pages here. Of course, you haven't read the conclusion yet so I should probably not say anything....never mind. Let me end this AFTERWARD with this image, the composition I swiped from TEAM TITANS' artist Kevin Maguire. For some odd reason, I didn't end up using it as the cover of the next issue! :-(
Re-reading it now, I certainly admire the bravery I exhibited by creating ten different nightmare scenarios. If this had been the real JLA comic it would have only featured five or so "core" members' dreams. I liked that I included everybody, but on the other hand, it does make for a long "busy" issue. I only distributed my comics once every few months so I didn't want to only use a few members. And in stories like this, it didn't make sense to me to only use a few anyway; if Dr. Destiny didn't kill all of them at once, the survivors would track him down for justice! So I had to have him attack all of them, although I guess I could have only actually featured a few....still, if my featuring all of the characters is the only complaint you have, I think I'm doing pretty well, haha!
One thing I seriously *do* think I was doing well is the coloring. This issue featured ten very specific background scenes and I think I knocked most of them out of the park, atleast color-wise. Here are two of my favorites: Mars and Paradise Island... I really liked the underwater scenes I did with Aquaman, Mera, and Aqualad, too, but they didn't pull out easily to feature here. (click on the images to enlarge them) I was enjoying coloring most of these stories, and I think it shows.
Another thing I liked about this issue was the amount of history I was able to jam into the story. For example,for the Flash I was able to feature six of his most dangerous foes. If I were the Flash, with his truly terrible Rogues Gallery, I would be afraid of them ever teaming-up. So it was easy to feature them here, and in one sequence we add depth to "my" universe. By the way, Captain Boomerang and Weather Wizard had already appeared, and the others were going to make "real" appearances before the series concluded. I had never loved the character of the Flash, but I have to admit I liked his villains. :-)
Another sequence I thought I handled well was Superman's nightmare. It opens with all of his loved ones killed. Sure, the scene is gruesome, but I thought it was something this terrible that would be Superman's fear. Then basically Lex Luthor is a bully, taunting him about his friends being killed. Superman kills Lex in anger, which rings true to me. I'd be interested to read any other opinions about this (and the other scenes, too).
In Hawkwoman's nightmare I was able to show all the other "Hawk" costumes in DC continuity, which I thought was a good touch. This was the time that the HAWKWORLD continuity chaos was in full effect at DC, so I wanted to be able to say "my" Hawkman and Hawkwoman would/could wear whatever they happened to be shown in, haha.
Also, I loved coloring the JLAers being teleported. I thought I did a good job with those scenes. One last pat on my back before we move on to what I didn't like....for some reason, I really
REALLY like the drawing of Hawkman reproduced below. As a kid I never liked JLA artist Mike Sekowsky's version of Hawkman. I much preferred Murphy Anderson's version, and then, later, Dick Dillin's version. In the mid 70s I came across an illustration of him by Terry Austin that I LOVED. From that day to this, that is the "template" I use in my head when I draw Katar Hol.
The one thing I really don't like about this issue is Green Arrow's nightmare. I wanted to do something Escher-like or Dali-like, but I ended up doing something simple and not at all good! The idea was fine, I think, but the execution was not.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
JL #15 To Be Continued....!
Continued Next Issue!
The Justice League is in a deep sleep that if they do not escape, will eventually kill them! Who can possibly help them!? Hawkman and The Elongated Man have called together the Reserve Members and Honorary Members to go after Dr. Destiny! Next Issue will be jam-packed with Special Guest Stars, so don't miss--"The Deadly Dreams of Dr. Destiny Part Two!" (Next Issue on-site the week of April 2)
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
JL #15 FORWARD
After two interminable ssues of having our characters sit around and talk (there were, what, three bits of action waaay back in number thirteen?) we are *finally* going to have something akin to rip-roaring super-hero action! This issue features each of the Justice Leaguers living and re-living their worst nightmares...for example, we start off with Batman dreaming that his close friends Robin and Batgirl are murdered, and his on-again/off-again companion Catwoman is a demonic monster. Yikes! Heady stuff. The idea was to give the readers a better understanding of what made these super-heroes "tick." We can discuss whether I managed to succeed at that endeavor or not...after you read it. haha!
The villain this time was one of my favorites from "the Silver Age of Comics" (circa 1958-1968), Dr. Destiny. He first appeared in JUSTICE LEAGUE #4 (Spring, 1961) and came back several times after that. In one appearance in particular he had the Justice Leaguers dream about fighting various menaces (JLA #35, March 1965) and then when they actually appeared to exist, the JLAers were confused and defeated. This is the basic idea I borrowed, even though the execution (no pun intended) is totally different. I did steal the title, as well...."The Deadly Dreams of Dr. Destiny" by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. One more side note about Dr. Destiny: I could not find that he had any first name established in the comics, so I gave him one: "Julius," after long-time JLA editor, Julius Schwartz.
This time I used my friend Shoko-san to help me translate. She had a wonderful interest in the English language, which was great, but she had a habit of asking all sorts of questions about why I would phrase something one way or what I was trying to say if I used a specific Japanese phrase. It made the process longer, but it was also helping her learn English (nominally) and me learn Japanese (I never made the same mistake twice). However, it was a process that neither of us really liked...
Saturday, March 3, 2012
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