JL #38 "The Yellow Alert!" AFTERWARD

So...what did you think of my newest collaborative effort on "my" Justice League?

I am prejudiced, of course, but I think Andy Kapelusch and I did a pretty good job on it. As I mentioned in the Forward, Andy did the pencils for the majority of the story and I did the inks and dialogue. Andy did supply suggestions or hints to what he was thinking, but I was free to use or over-ride his suggestions. Overall I think the story reads pretty darn well. Shall I go over the parts I am especially happy with?

I love this panel. I think Andy did a great job setting up three people on one side of Green Lantern and three people on the other side. I only wish I did a better job with the green energy aura coloring.

Andy threw Supergirl, Batgirl, and The Teen Titans into the story because 1. he wanted to show that Red Tornado had a reason to stay on Earth and 2. he wanted to draw them! So I took the idea of Batgirl and colored her panel with the colors I remembered from the classic BATMAN TV show. Did you notice that?

And I love our combined work on The Teen Titans. Now we need to do a story featuring these characters...!

I like how I made Black Canary totally capable with her power ring so she was almost like Hal's back-up! Here she is barking orders to her boy-friend, who is having trouble mastering "the trinket."

Andy can take responsibility for the great body postures of Hawkman and Green Arrow here...but I added the red and blue coloring in their respective back-grounds!

Andy asked me which Green Lanterns I wanted him to use as supporting players, and it was easy for me to answer, as Salakk was always one of my favorites.

This following sequence was one that bothered me a bit. I just don't think that the Elongated Man is a man who would be considered a suck-up. And even if he *was*, I didn't think Robin was the type to let it bother him. But I left this sequence in as Andy suggested for two reasons: 1. it led into the back story of Sinestro, and 2. I hoped this would show that Robin was nervous. Ralph is NOT a suck-up, but Robin is tense and sensitive. I was hoping that would come through somehow...

This is one of the panels of the GL-Sinestro sequence that I added to the story. I wanted more action between Hal and his enemy, so I added a few panels. This one you may have noticed resembles the Alex Ross JUSTICE cover featuring Hal and Sinestro.

This is one of the best sequences Andy did for the story. The sheer *power* that you feel emanating from this panel...wow. Just...it's awesome.

As a long-time fan of the Legion of Super-Heroes, I couldn't help but add an LSH-recognizable alien Green Lantern to the mix.

And if you are a long-time Legion of Super-Heroes fan you will be able to read this Interlac sign.

And that's that, Sinestro is caught and Hal Jordan flies off stage. Or...maybe one or both will be back? Only time will tell....!

Now as for some of the things that were changed drastically....

First of all, on Andy's original cover he included Red Tornado. I thought that was "cheating," as Red never got a power ring and doesn't participate in any of the action. So I edited him out, over Andy's objections.

Secondly, Andy had Hal Jordan show up at the Hall of Justice *as* Hal Jordan. However, I wanted him to be Green Lantern. I thought it was more dramatic and, since he is clearly meeting some of these JLAers for the first time, smarter. Sure, Green Arrow calls him out by name, but that's because he's Green Arrow. Andy had drawn Hal in his flight suit until the time the heroes leave Earth (when all the JLAers changed into GL members themselves). I added Robin and switched this around a bit.

Lastly, as I mentioned above, I added more action to the Hal-Sinestro sequence. I also added more scenes to the JLA vs Weaponers sequence.

Overall I enjoyed the experience of collaboration immensely! I'm up for another team-up... in fact, next issue is all about the team-up! In a series of shorts, various JLAers team-up to fight various bad guys. And in one of those stories, Andy will get to ink *my* pencils! I also hope to have another guest artist or two participating as well. So look forward to that, sometime in late March or early April!