From the vaults. Supergirl #59 The Final Issue.

I almost made this my christmas card, LOL.

 

 

I've been trying to figure out what to say about this issue. What I could say about the art and the time but I keep falling short of the proper grandeur I keep reaching for.

I think there really is only one way to approach this.
Thank you.
Thank You Sterling, for being one of the best creative partners I've ever had. Thank you Keith Champagne, Jon Sibal, Marc Deering, John Dell and Robin Riggs for keeping up with my maddening exponentially growing obsession with detail. Thank You Nei Ruffino, Blond and Tom Chu for the beautiful color work you did. Thank you to all of the letterers who worked on the series. Thank you Nachie Castro, Wil Moss and Matt Idelson for showing faith, allowing me to experiment visually and pushing me to imrpove.
Most of all, Thank you Supergirl fans, for the love and occasional ire that you showed me over the years.

We wanted to bookend the series and I think the matching splashes from issue #34 and issue #59 say it all, don't you?

From the vaults. Worlds's Finest # 3

World's Finest #3... Man, what a fun issue to draw. The first official team-up between Supergirl and the former Spoiler/Robin turned Batgirl, Stephanie Brown. How this came about was because of whatever reason the original series artist Julian Lopez didn't get past issue 1, so the editors got different artists to finish the series. The issue preceding mine was drawn by Ramon Bachs and issue after me by the awesome Phil Noto. Sterling called me up as I was finishing Supergirl #50 and asked me if I could do it. Immediately said yes and we were off to the races!

The issue was inked by Jon Sibal  and Jack Purcell and colored by one of my favorite colorists, Brian Miller.

The "Hammersmith Tower" which was the current home of  "Linda" and Lana Lang was based on the Williamsburg bank building in Brooklyn, New York. Now known as "1 Hanson Place" a luxury condominium, it's something I'm familiar with because I can see it from my apartment.

I love this page because it was the first time I've ever drawn Barbara Gordon, then known as Oracle. It was also another opportunity to draw the Batcave, which is always fun. Kara's the typical messy teenager.

 

Okay, I got a little bit of crap in some quarters for this scene, mostly because some people considered it to be fan service. Especially the fact that I chose to have Catwoman's suit zipped open. I'll cop to it, because at that point I really didn't have many opportunities to draw sexy women. I did try to minimize it. It's also a well established visual cue. If you go back and read Catwoman, the only time she has the suit completely zipped is when she's in action.

 

People were also a little miffed that Stephanie and Kara seemed to just leave Selina behind. Here's the thing... there was an entire sequence of dialogue that was cut from page 9

Supergirl: Think We should have freed her?

Batgirl: I would have once upon a time. We used to be friends. But I've heard about what she's been doing for the last few months..

Batgirl: ...And I don't like it.

I don't know why it was cut, but that's the nature of comics. I thought it fleshed things out a bit for new readers but it may have been too much expository information,

This sequence was a good bonding moment for the girls. Both having been trained by Batman and missing their then, thought-for-dead mentor.

I got to draw a giant robot.

I have the best job in the world.

And you can't have a World's Finest series without Superman.

layouts for World's Finest #3

Tomorrow: I don' blowed up New Krypton!