Jamal Igle's Blog, page 16

Signing at Acme Superstore Saturday

Acme is proud to announce Jamal Igle will appearing at the store on Saturday December 17th for the very first time for the debut of THE RAY #1, from DC Comics!
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From the vaults. Supergirl #40

I wanted to jump ahead in this issue because I really like this sequence of pages


Part of the reason I added the shorts to the costume is because of this fight scene. When Sterling and I were discussing his ideas for the book, this was one of the sequences we wanted to do. Originally I had planned for Kara to remove the skirt entirely and go into full on martial arts mode. However as with alot of things , it was cut for lack of space.

Crashing water is particularly tough to draw, so I used some photos of pounding Hawaiian surf to get a feel for it.


I really like this page, particularly the last shot with Lana.

I'm glad that I was able to get across the creepiness of this scene. It's also the first hint of something we're building to in Supergirl 50.



And of course the reveal of Lucy as Superwoman Layouts to Supergirl #40


See you Monday!

From the vaults. Supergirl #39

 Picking up from the events from last issue, Reactron and Superwoman are still in his Ex's apartment when Krull decides he's going to ghet his jollies anyway.  Util Superwoman swoops in for the save.
This double page spread is one of my favorites for a multitude of reasons. First I felt like I really set a good stage, complete with enough acting and believable set dressing. Like I said, this is basically my kitchen demolished. It took the better part of three days to pencil. this was also the first issue that Jon Sibal inked over me and we gelled immediately. I would work with him for the rest of my run as well as on Zatanna and a few other things. Now this is also an example of where things  sometimes have to be changed in midstream. You'll notice on Superwoman both on this page and the page that follows, I had drawn in a "halo" effect in fornt of her eyes. In my mind, her power came from the suit that's how her vision powers would manifest. It was decided that it was too obvious a tell that she wasn't a kryptonian. So Nei ruffino our colorist and a talented draftsperson herself was able to go in and make the changes herself.






Here's a another great penciled page, establishing Mike Henderson's office.

THE PAPERFILMS BLOG!: "The Ray' #1 is out today!

THE PAPERFILMS BLOG!: "The Ray' #1 is out today!: The first issue of the Palmiotti/Gray-scribed, Jamal Igle-drawn The Ray hits the shops today, so get out there and snag your copy now!!!

From the vaults. Supergirl #38

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!! Okay, this is the kind of stuff you get into superhero comics for, a mid air catfight.




Now if you remember from yesterday, Lucy(Superwoman) had just laid out Kara with a sneaky haymaker to the jaw, so I really wanted to go from one issue to another. in the script Sterling had a very specific idea, which worked for me as well. A POV shot of Kara about to take a shot to the jaw.





This of course was all Superwoman's idea of trying to convince Kara to stay off of Earth.
We were also beginning to explore lana lang and her relationship with Kara as well for the first time since our first issue.
We were also laying clues to a sub plot involving Cat grant that we wouldn't pick up again until Supergirl #55. Keep an eye on that doll, it pops up again.The thing with Cat for me was pushing that sort of aging cougar angle, dressing far too inappropriately, picking up the thread that Geoff Johns had started with his run on Action. Cat is a woman of complexity, but for now i wanted to deal with the surface and make her look as shallow as possible.


Now we see Lucy in her dress uniform. in the intervening years Lucy had joined the military and was now a member of her fathers unit ,Project 7734. I tried to make the autopsy scene as accurate as possible, which took time to gather the proper reference.
Reactron... What an asshole... His origin appeared in Doom Patrol Vol. 2 #10  He reappeared in Supergirl # 25, redesigned by Drew Johnson Reactron aka Major Krull would become a reoccurring villian during our run. Originally introduced in The Daring new Adventures of Supergirl in 1983, he's had a few redesigns, the last by artist Gary Frank.Krull was an atomic powered villain who with the help of General Lane was given a boost by placing a piece of Gold Kryptonite in his heart, allowing him to temporarily rob a Kryptonian of their powers.
Krull tries to use the Gold K on Superwoman, but when it doesn't work... Readers get  their first clue that she's not Kryptonian. I have to admit I loved the speculation that was going around at the time. Was she Maxima reborn? A New God, was she Kirsten Wells come back from the future? It was fun to watch the theories form.
I think what I wanted ultimately was to make him as lecherous and reprehensible character wise as possible. I think it worked. The apartment they're in where he's stalking his ex-girl-friend is actually My apartment, LOL. This was also the last issue that Keith Champagne would work on. It's not a situation I'm proud of and I do take some of the blame. Through a combination of miscommunication between Keith and Editorial and a lack of communication between Keith and myself (For which I've apologized for and he graciously accepted.) He ended up losing the book. I'm man enough to admit when I make a mistake and that was one time when I should have been more clear about my feelings with my collaborators. Keith isn't just a talented inker but a talented writer as well.   You would do well to pick up some of his work on Green Lantern over Doug Mahnke and some of his writing work such as Armor X on Graphicly.com
Tomorrow: The Fix is in, and a new inker comes on board.

Ramp up to THE RAY! part 8: Lip Service radio show

I appeared on the radio show "Lip Service" hosted by Rod and Barbara Jenkins of Kissmecomix.com
Click here

Ramp up to THE RAY! part 7:Palmiotti and Gray talk to IGN

Over at IGN.Com Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray discuss their take on the new Ray and say some nice things about your truly along the way. Click here
Also if you're in the New York area tomorrow night. I'll be signing at Jim Hanley's universe( 4 West 33rd Street)from 6 to 8p.m. 

Ramp up to THE RAY! part 6: Interview with CBR

Over on Comic book resources Alex Dueben and I talk about The Ray including some behind the scenes material, my career and my advice to a younger me. Click here

From the vaults. Supergirl #37

We originally introduced the new Superwoman in the pages of Supergirl #35. Her identity was intentionally shrouded in secret, even to me at the time but later revealed to be Lois Lane's younger sister Lucy.
Lucy was a long running DC comics character, created to be a pseudo foil for Jimmy Olsen.  In Later years Lucy had appeared in the Superman comics , she was eventually married off to fellow daily Planet reporter Ron "Scoop" Troupe.

Her identity would be shrouded until Supergirl # 40,which was definitely a huge " WTF " for a lot of long time fans, but we'll get to that in another post.

The costume was designed by Alex Ross, Along with the original costumes for Flamebird and Nightwing .At the time Flamebird was going to be Linda Danvers and Nightwing Conner "Kon-El" Kent. Somewhere along the way it was changed that they would be the rescued "Chris "Lor-Zod" Kent and Kara's childhood friend, Thara Ak-Var.

The first time she appears in Supergirl, she tries to pass herself off as an earnest fellow Kryptonian who decided to fight crime under the EL family standard.


In panel one, I was trying to get across the idea that Lucy wasn't living in her kryptonian quarters, just using it as a base. So I had her footprints in the dust on the floor.


The panel with General Lane was also a stroke of genius on Sterling Gates' part. Since we didn't, as readers know her identity, the interchange between them was far more ambiguous and sinister. We would expand on the scene later on in Supergirl #50.
In the opening sequence of Supergirl # 37, Her motivations, if not her identity are made much more clear. At this point I knew exactly who she was character-wise and had worked very hard to make her physically different. I wanted her to be more visibly sexy, more womanly than Kara. I drew her a bit more buxom to push that aspect.
One of the things I did to throw people off was, that we introduced another female Kryptonian, Lyra Kam-Phar. I purposely drew her with the exact same physical proportions as Superwoman.
Another character we introduced was Inspector Michael Henderson who I based physically on one of my favorite actors, Dennis Haysbert. Now you'll notice that in the sketch, He's named William Henderson. That's because at the time, we wanted to bring a new Bill Henderson into the series. For those of you who aren't long time Superman fans, Bill Henderson was a character form "The Adventures of Superman"Radio series and then the TV series played by character actor Robert Shayne. In the comics, Bill Henderson was a police detective who eventually became Police Commissioner of Metropolis.
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Our Inspector would be the head of the MPD Special Crimes unit investigating the murder of Agent:Liberty. Guess who killed him?

Here's the original layout for hte douple page spread. I had originally conceived of the shot as an overhead bird's eye view, but thought it was too boring. I really wanted to push the angles as I'm want to do in my work.Any way... back to Superwoman and Kara, whom Kara has realized she can't trust. again, really trying to push the differences between the two of them physically.


Pow, the shot heard around the world!

Another element I was able to design was the "War Room". It was used a few times but eventually abandoned , since Pete Woods designs were so much better than mine.


layouts and thumbnails from Supergirl #37Tomorrow: Chick fights and REACTRON!

On sale now: Superman:Grounded Vol.2

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art from Superman #714
Written by J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI and CHRIS ROBERSON; Art by EDDY BARROWS, ALLAN GOLDMAN, JP MAYER and others; Cover by JOHN CASSADAYIn this second "Grounded" volume, from SUPERMAN #707-711 and 713-714, Superman meets the new Wonder Woman for the first time! But why can't he shake the feeling that he already knows her? Then, Superman visits Boulder, Colorado, where The Flash made a strange discovery that relates to Superman. And in Salt Lake City, Batman arrives to revisit one of his earliest adventures with The Man of Steel!