From the Vaults: War of The Supermen #1

There's a lot to be said about War of the Supermen. Whether you liked it or hated it, It did have an impact for awhile with Superman fans.

War of the Supermen (or The 100 minute war) as DC described it was supposed to read in real time, each issue taking place over 20 minutes of time. It was a massive undertaking. For myself, it was daunting. I wasn't supposed to be the artist of Issue #1( Issue #0 was drawn by Eddy Barrows), it was supposed to be Aaron Lopresti. I was scheduled to draw issue  #3 because i had scheduled a family vacation to Orlando. Suddenly, I get a call from Matt Idelson, saying they needed me to draw the first issue.

Are you fucking kidding me???

As usual I, I knuckled down and found a way, drawing the first half before i went on vacation for 10 days ,coming home and finishing the book at warp speed so that it shipped on time. 

Which wasn't easy...

This page alone took two days to finish.

It was  also my first real opportunity to draw Superman, I mean really draw Superman, So I think i made myself much more nervous that I probably should have.

At the same time we were putting a very definitive ending on the New Krypton story of Alura and Kara's rather rocky relationship.

It was also a rather finite ending for Reactron as well, going out like the son of a bitch he was. I think it's a really strong scene. In the end, no matter what their differences, Alura did what any good parent would do and protecter her daughter at the cost of her life.

I wish I hadn't draw such a derp face on Superman in panel 4

My Kirby moment.

one of things you might notice is that the shape of the rocks on this page were changed in the inks. While I was on vacation, I get an email  from Idelson, again. he thought the original drawing I did made the asteroids look too much like potatoes. So he wanted something more crystal like. So I told him to let jon Sibal change them. I did a quick sketch of what they should look like, and had to scramble to find a Kinkos so that I could scan and email the sketch to Jon.

The other thing you'll notice is the change in the last panel from the pencils. Apparently DC frowns on crotch shots of the Junk of Steel.

James Robinson, one of my all time favorite comic book writers wrote this sequence and when I sent him the pencils, he paid me the best compliment I could have gotten:

"This is exactly how I saw it in my head"

The space fleet were laid out using Pete woods designs in Sketchup and then hand drawn.

Layouts for War of the Supermen #1

So that's the end of "From the Vaults" this week. I'm going to take tomorrow off from posting and enjoy the NewYears Eve celebrations. I have a big announcement coming on Monday, and from the Vaults will continue on Tuesday, January 3rd with Supergirl # 53

Happy New Year.