Batman Zero Hour

 More from the Manley Archives! Here is the original cover sketch for batman 511, which I drew on the back of some fax paper--remember that stuff? How many trees died so I could fax stuff back and forth in the mid 90's? I haven't located the other sketches yet for this cover, but I'm slowly working to put my extensive----and I mean extensive amount of drawings, art and sketches in order. Of all of the Batman cover I did this was my favorite. The original is below.

I hated the fact that when I started the book Kelly Jones was doing the cover--I felt that since I was the artist on the book, I should do the covers as well---nothing against Kelly. But DC was always kinda' weird that way, one artist on the book, another on the cover. I was almost always disappointed as a kid when I'd buy a comic with a cool Adams or Cardy cover and the insides were not by the same artist. I think this is pretty much the way it is today, one artist on the cover and another on the guts. i don't really go to the comic shops or buy comics anymore, but when I stop in once or twice a year this seems to be the fashion. Comics are now way, way to expensive for their short entertainment value---but that's for another post.

This was brush and the good old Hunt 108. There is no logo dressing on this which for me is good as the covers at the time were kind of a mess with all kinds of logos and blurbs that really covered up the art.

Blast From The Past: Batman 511 Pencils

I figured I start 2014 by looking backward to around 1994, twenty years into the couldy past on some pencils from my run on Batman.  More pencils from my archives, this time from Batman 511 which was during the Zero Hour storyline. The last two issue of Batman were the only ones I truly enjoyed drawing besides Batman 500 because they were like old Batman comics. Robin, Batgirl, Joker, etc.  Most of the other issues I didn't enjoy so much for a variety of reasons.  The first was since all the books were tied together it was a reference pain in the keister! You had to get ref from what the other artists were doing, wait to get it and there was little freedom for you as an artist. This was in the day of the fax, long before the internet took over the world. It was more like being a hired gun then, no input as an artist, just draw monkeyboy. I wanted to really do single one or two issue stories like the ones I was a fan of, especially during Aparo's run. But that clearly wasn't going to happen. It lead me to eventually leave the book.

 But for a few issues it was fun. I wish I had  more time on these and could have inked them myself, but it was a real race at 3 pages a day at times to keep up with the schedule in those days. 12-13 weeks ahead of shipping! Now things can be late----super late---but back then the "Hot List" was a book 12 weeks from shipping. How things have changed!

 I lobed drawing the Joker the most, and I was definitely tipping the hat to Neal Adams version of the character which was my touch-tone for the character and the whole Batman Mythos as a kid.

There of course are a lot of things that bother me about the drawing now, but I think that's always the way it is looking back at 20-year-old work.