Oolong Island is picking up the pieces after the Black Lanterns' devastating attack. What's next? Only Keith Giffen and artist Matthew Clark know. DOOM PATROL #7 hits today.
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Few people have more skeletons in their proverbial closets than Niles Caulder, founder of the Doom Patrol. And with BLACKEST NIGHT doing a bang-up job of bringing those skeletons back in the form of Black Lanterns, you can only imagine how complicated things are going to get for the Doom Patrol. Caulder's been playing god for years, and the time for a reckoning is at hand. Check out a few pages from this BLACKEST NIGHT tie-in issue below, from writer Keith Giffen and artist Justiniano, with a few pages from the METAL MEN co-feature, by Giffen, writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Kevin Maguire.
DOOM PATROL #4 hits 11/4.
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Remember Mento? Yeah, that guy – goofy helmet, lightning bolt on his chest. After reading this issue, it's a sure bet you won't forget him again any time soon. Oh yeah, and the resolution of that whole "black hole" thing from last issue adds a kinda-sorta new member to the Doom Patrol roster. As for everyone's favorite Metal Men, it's the dynamic debut of Douglas, Robot Hunter!
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Ready for another dose of Keith Giffen and Matthew Clark's DOOM PATROL? Are you sure?
It's a black hole, but it's not a black hole. If you're a Doom Patrol fan, that made perfect sense. And even if not, then you're in for one hell of a ride as the Doom Patrol face off against the most annoying alien this side of G'nort. Who's G'nort? Do we have to spell it out for you? Oh, and the Metal Men in space.
Not satisfied? Check out a few pages below to get an idea. DOOM PATROL #2 hits 9/9.
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Happy Friday, DC Nation! Elisabeth Gehrlein here, DCU editor of…well, a really nice range of titles. One of the things I love about my current slate of books is how varied they are – I’ve got everything on my plate from JONAH HEX to TINY TITANS, with ADVENTURE COMICS and DOOM PATROL and WONDER WOMAN in between. So every day is a genre-bending journey where one minute I could be thinking “Where did those penguins get rocket packs in the first place?” and then suddenly a colorist calls with this disturbing question: “What color should I make the fragments of his shattered legs?”
To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, I’d like to show you some of the fantastic stuff that has crossed my desk recently.
Let’s start with WONDER WOMAN, where Aaron Lopresti’s beautiful covers are a joy to get in my inbox every month. Here’s a sneak peek at the cover for #39, first in sketch form and then with full tonal work:
Oh, and I just got an email from Tony DeZuniga, co-creator of JONAH HEX, who is hard at work on the art for the Hex hardcover graphic novel, due in-store next spring. Tony and writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti have teamed up before on Hex, and here’s what the results looked like:
I thought you might like to see some of Tony’s work-in-progress, though. Here are three pages of his roughs from the hardcover, also written by Jimmy and Justin, that tell an awesome little story all their own. That story is “Don’t mess with this man while he’s drinking.”
Moving on to ADVENTURE COMICS, where Francis Manapul and Brian Buccelato are turning out some gorgeous variant covers. Here are Francis’s inks for the #2 variant:
And then Brian takes Francis’s lovely ink washes to a whole new level with his color. Here it is with color and all:
Sticking with variant covers for a minute – you’ve seen the Matthew Clark/Kevin Maguire jam variant covers for DOOM PATROL issues #1 and 2 in previous posts. I love these covers very much, so I wanted to show you the final one for issue #3, starring Negative Man and a Metal Men obstacle course. We’ll start with Keith Giffen’s layout, and then there’s Kevin Maguire’s inks, Matthew Clark’s pencils over Kevin’s inks, Matthew’s and Kevin’s inks together at last, and finally the color by Guy Major.
Oh, and speaking of DOOM PATROL, remember that thing about the shattered legs? Yeah. When BLACKEST NIGHT comes to Oolong Island, things do not go well for the Chief. These wonderfully creepy cover pencils for issue #5 by Justiniano tell the tale:
Writer Keith Giffen’s comment? “Well, he won’t be getting far on foot.”
Yeesh.
But let’s end on a lighter note, shall we? TINY TITANS! This month in issue #20, Art Baltazar and Franco answer the age-old question, “After you win the Eisner for Best Publication for Kids (AW YEAH EISNER!), where oh where do you put the award for safe-keeping?” Well, where could be safer than Wayne Manor?
OK, I think I’ve spilled enough beans for one day. More to come next time – stay tuned!
Monday's winding down, and while there are still four more work days looming, let's take a glance at some of the notable bits in the press from the last few days:
• Over at EW.com's shiny new book blog, SHELF LIFE, Ken Tucker talks up the first issue of BLACKEST NIGHT: SUPERMAN, calling the issue this week's "smartest, grisliest mainstream comic book."
• AIN'T IT COOL NEWS reviews the first issue of ADVENTURE COMICS, by Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul, succinctly summing up the issue: "This is the good stuff."
• Speaking of ADVENTURE COMICS #1, THE ONION AV CLUB reviews the issue, along with the first issue of DOOM PATROL. Both debut issues nabbed a "B+" rating.
• NEWSARAMA's posted their latest 20 Questions and 1 Answer with Dan DiDio, which is well worth reading if you're looking for a few newsbits. Two words for you: BATMAN BEYOND?
By now, most of you have seen the pages and variant cover to DOOM PATROL #1 on NEWSARAMA and relived the most insane moments of DOOM PATROL history at COMICS ALLIANCE. But there's more to that pretty piece of art than that. And because here at The Source we're all about bringing you between the panels and inside the process, we've got Keith Giffen's layouts for the cover, plus artist Matthew Clark's pencils, Kevin Maguire adding his pencils to the mixed and finished inks. All the more reason to pick up DOOM PATROL #1 today, huh?
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Remember this? Well, here are the finished inks for you to enjoy.
Happy Monday...
We've shown off pretty much all of the upcoming co-features on this here blog, so why stop now? The team that brought you JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL, writers Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis and artist Kevin Maguire, will reunite for METAL MEN, which will be coming out in tandem with Giffen and artist Matt Clark's DOOM PATROL this August. Now, we know this team can deliver the goods, but that's no excuse to not show pages. Am I right? So, here, for your viewing pleasure is a sneak peek at Giffen's plot and Maguire's resulting finished pages.
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You saw the Matthew Clark sketches yesterday, and I did promise more details, so here we go: DOOM PATROL #1, from Keith Giffen and Matthew Clark hits in August and will feature a METAL MEN co-feature by Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and artist Kevin Maguire (more on that soon). You've heard bits and pieces in different venues. but now it's all here, in one cozy place. More importantly, we wrangled Giffen to give us the lowdown on the book (and, well, why you should check it out), plus some pretty Clark pages (with Giffen's breakdowns for said pages) to whet your appetite. Take it away, Keith:
"This is the book I've waited my entire career to write. Oddly enough, it's the book Matt's waited his entire career to draw (and does it ever show!). That's got to count for something. Between Matt on Doom Patrol and my old partners in "bwah,ha,ha" on Metal Men (that'd be Mark and Kevin, don'tcha know) how can we possibly go wrong?
Well... we could, but we won't. No. Really.
Tell you what. Pick up a copy, and you tell us."
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