Batwoman crosses paths with another "Bat"-character in this, the first part of "Cutter," teaming artist Jock with writer Greg Rucka. And yes, the title implies that things get a little grisly.

DETECTIVE COMICS #867 hits 1/27.

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Not long ago, we checked in with GOTHAM CITY SIRENS artist Guillem March to get some insight into his creative process when it comes to creating cover artwork for the series. The post worked so well, we thought it'd be cool to check in with another Bat-artist. This time, we got some notes from none other than Dustin Nguyen, artist on BATMAN: STREETS OF GOTHAM. Take it away, Dustin:

1- for this one( thumb # 1), i was approved for 2 of my 5 sketches turned in, so was able to work on them both at the same time. This was especially fun because they both allowed me the use of heavy blacks and playing with ink and quill a bit, really playing up my love for Sergio Toppi's work.

2- after figuring out logo placement and making sure the image would work nicely once at comic book size, i start to layout in pencil on 300lb hotpress watercolor stock. at this point, i wasn't sure how much ink and water i wanted to put on it. so 300lb is a nice safe paper.

3- i move into inking the piece with quills and brush and a soft graywash for atmosphere.

4- Finally- from the original thumb, i felt this piece would be strongest with bold crisp colors, so i opted to go with photoshop to add the colors rather than watercolor itself. The choices of classic blue and yellow is from my love of the way Batman looked in the 80's comics i grew up on, not to mention Dark Knight Returns.

GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #7 hits today, as Catwoman takes charge as the other Sirens fall victim to their most dangerous challenge yet.

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It's not a stretch to say Guillem March is one of the most talented artists in the Batman group. Doubly talented when it comes to creating compelling and great-looking covers. So, it was a no-brainer to suggest having him chat on the blog about just what his process is. Especially when the very talented Bat-editors Mike Marts and Janelle Siegel send me some pretty art to post. So, here's his take on the creation of GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #8. Take it away, Guillem:

When I was thinking about a concept for this cover, I focused on Poison Ivy since the issue is about her. I had the idea of a frontal closeup of the face. I like face close-ups and I´ve drawn others, like the covers to Oracle #2 or Gotham City Sirens #2. In this case I went further and the face is so big that it´s only shown partially. It´s a very simple idea, but I don´t remember many covers like this, and that´s the point--making something new and eye catching! I made some layouts of this idea, some of them with additional elements to make the other Sirens appear in the final image.

Once editor Mike Marts and Artistic Director Mark Chiarello had selected one of the layouts, I decided the technique I´d use for it. Sometimes I do painted covers, and sometimes I follow the typical process of penciling, inking and coloring by computer. For this cover I did the same as for the Gotham City Sirens #3 cover, a painted illustration in gray wash, with a plain color applied on it by computer. I drew the face on the back of the DC regular paper so I don´t have any blue guides on it. It was a little bit of a challenge for me, as I´m not used to painting such an oversized view of something that is usually only a few millimeters in the interior art, and it´s easy to lose the sense of proportion. The leaves falling were drawn separately so I could then compose the whole image better by computer.

The last step of coloring had no complications, but has a vital importance for the final result. While coloring I noticed the huge iconic content that the colors of Poison Ivy have. The gray wash shows a woman´s face, but green skin and red hair means Poison Ivy with no doubt, without needing to put the leaves on it.