Jamal Igle's Blog, page 17

Ramp up to THE RAY! part 5:Talking comics with Tim

Over on Comic book Resources Tim O'Shea and I talk the Ray amongst other topics. Click here

The Ray # 4 Solicitation

THE RAY #4
Written by JUSTIN GRAY and JIMMY PALMIOTTI
Art by JAMAL IGLE and RICH PERROTTA
Cover by JAMAL IGLE
On sale MARCH 14 • 32 pg, FC, 4 of 4, $2.99 US • RATED T
The final conflict between The Ray and the evil maestro who has been behind all his woes comes to a conclusion. Lucien will need to take his powers to an all-new level to defeat the evil Director and his reality warping abilities.

Firestorm fan talks about my redesign of Pohzar

The Firestorm fan page (http://firestormfan.com/) is doing a week of discussion of former Firestorm Mikhal "Pozhar" Arkadian, including artwork from my run on the character as well as the redesign I did for the character, Check it out here

Ramp up to THE RAY! part 4: The League of Ordinary Gentlemen podcast

This week, we chat with Jamal Igle about his new project The Ray for DC's new 52.  Plus, his travels to comic-cons around the globe, his long association with DC, and even his brief but poignant meeting with John and Dursin years ago.  And he remembered!  Plus, some big news from Big Josh!

Click here

From the vaults. Supergirl #36

Probably one of the most emotionally difficult sequences I've ever drawn, The opening 10 page sequence from Supergirl#36 will stand as one of my all time favorite issues.
Okay, there's a problem that most people don't know about. When I was drew this sequence I was ahead of schedule, so when Pete Woods drew this page in Action comics.. [image error]
Reactron was in front of him rather than behind as it was in my script. I wanted to redraw it but there wasn't time.
The whole idea for me, visually was to create a great sense of chaos in the scene as Kara runs headlong,ignoring the carnage around her.
Superman chanelling Magnus:Robot fighter. I love that panel.

I had actually intended the first panel to be akin to a shot that was done in Josh Whedon's astonishing X-men run. I still think it works but I had hoped for a much more solid red tint to the shot.



These three pages were the toughest for me. As some of you know, I've had two friends of mine killed by gun violence. One was murdered, the other accidentally. Sterling had lost his father to illness as well, so this seen was very personal for both of us. I was on the verge of tears for three days drawing this seen , particularly Page 10. Nei wasn't available for this issue, but we were ably and beautifully colored by the fantastic Tom Chu of ColorDojo.

The first appearance of the white Kryptonian robes in the DCU as well as the whole crystal fortress motif.
Pencils from the argument sequence. I always liked the way this came out. 
A rare touching moment for the cousins of Steel
Here's where we begin to see the hard heart of Alura start to take form. We likened her to a person trying to deal with PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder). He captivity, coupled with the death of her husband forces her to build a wall between her and her daughter.


Tomorrow: Superwoman!

Ramp up to THE RAY! part 3: The Acme Wave Projector podcast

Recorded at NC Comic con. Click here

Ramp up to THE RAY! part 2:Agent of Style

Over on Newsarama Alan Kistler discusses the various incarnations of the Ray and says some very complimentary things about me redesign. Check it out here

From the vaults. Supergirl #35

I love this page, it took me almost two days to complete.

So I'll cop to it, I was totally trying to channel the Krypton scenes from Superman the movie and the Power drain chamber from Superman 2. Which is hard. I would do it again for War of the Supermen #1 but at this time I hadn't quite figured out how to drawn the floor in perspective.
 I really wanted to get the acting just right with these pages, the sense of pain from Kara, the sense of caring, particularly with Alura since it would be contradicted by the hard emotional shell she tries to hide behind after Zor-El's death next issue.

I really over think these things occasionally but you might notice in panel 3, I gave the Kryptonians this sort of, sideways thumbs up salute.
I based my Zor-El on Scott Bakula. I always thought he had a kind fatherly face.
  Again with this scene I was not only trying to show a progression of age, but also mimic stylistically Gary Franks' work in Action Comics and Pete Wood's designs for Kandor.
Thumbnails from issue #35

Images for Inkers now available

I've uploaded a batch of  High Resolution pages to my deviant art folder for all of you budding inkers to use. You can hit the deviantart like or click here.

From the vaults. Supergirl #34

So as with everything, if you want examine your future it helps to look at the past. We start with Supergirl #34. As it's pretty well documented, I came on the book in the midst of working on Tangent:Superman's Reign. Unfortunately I didn't have a lot of time to get comfortable with Kara as a character before I began working on the book  This wasn't the first Image I drew of Kara, it's the second (Ably inked by Keith Champagne, who also inked issues 34-39). It really captured the feeling I wanted to bring into the book for readers. A fun, light version that defied the heavy subjects we ended up exploring during our run.


I was so excited and nervous while drawing this scene at the Daily Planet. Again, I really didn't have much prep time and I was trying to emulate the designs the Gary Frank did on Action Comics. I hadn't figured out how my Superman/ Clark Kent would look like because I was trying to match an already established design.


One of the fun parts of this issue was drawing Jeff Johnson of the website http://www.drawmein.com/. I'll let Jeff describe how this came about:

First off, I love these panels. I really do. Jamal Igle did a great job. I can't praise the man enough! He's been so cool about things since I first contacted him in August of last year.

Yeah, patience pays off. Originally he said, "I can't make any promises because it all depends on the script I'm working on. However if I can fit you in, I will."

Time passed on by, and I usually don't sweat it. After all, even if I get drawn in the same day I ask, it takes at least three months before it sees print. But I was beginning to think I was forgotten about. Then the news hit in June; Supergirl was to get a new creative team with Jamal as the penciler. I decided to congratulate the man, after all... as a reader of the book, this was great news. I reintroduced myself and my campaign, thinking he'd forgotten all about me. He hadn't.




"I do remember you actually, I have your site book marked. I'll see what I can do about slipping you into issue 34.... I think I can get you in as an angry baseball fan."
A month later he sent me an e-mail with the penciled page attached. When Supergirl #34 hit the stands in October, he even blogged about the panel, myself, and the campaign. What a shock to see somebody blogging about me!
Thumbnails from the first eight pages of the issue






I had also pitched an alternate costume design which would have incorporated elements of previous Supergirl costumes. Particularly a variation of the boots and red skirt from the 1980's/Matrix Supergirl. It was decided however that they didn't want to stray from the then current costume as designed by Michael Turner. I did however take some elements such as the new cape attachment and the ...well...
THE SHORTSThe Shorts, the shorts, the infamous shorts. Since there's no way to get around it, I'll tackle it head on. The first thing i need to say is they were never intended to appear as a separate pair of shorts. the whole idea was that they were supposed to be a skort, which is a popular item with female athletes. What happened is,Nei Ruffino had accidentally colored them red with a gold trim rather than the blue they were supposed to be. We went with it and most people didn't notice, until I did the interview with Newsarama that was picked up by NPR


I actually drew the unmodified costume into the issue until the end of the baseball scene. Notice that the height of the shirt, the sleeves and skirt are the same as when Ian Churchill drew the book.

Then after her talk with Superman, Kara subtly changes her skirt. We never point it out because frankly I didn't think it would be that big a deal.
Live and Learn.
Tomorrow: Supergirl# 35 and the difficulty of trying to draw kryptonian floor panels
ESSADEE Larry.