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JOCK, I’d like this to be a page where you show off! The idea is that the first panel is an aerial view of Gotham, with BATMAN dropping towards the roofs. We are directly above BATMAN, as though we’re falling right behind him. The next panel, BATMAN (and WE) have dropped closer to the city, the next closer… And in each panel, you can pose BATMAN differently, highlighting DICK’S acrobatic style with the PARACAPE. In the final panel – and feel free to do 3, 5, 7, anything you want]. We should see a penthouse patio beneath him. Like he’s been dropping towards it the whole time. This is the patio/balcony of SONIA ZUCCO’S penthouse apartment. The place should be sleek, modern, with a rooftop pool, steaming in the cold, a table, a bar, tasteful, sharp … Something along these lines?
Of course, as always, if you have an idea for a better composition – go for it!
As you’ll see from the image masterfully colored by David Baron below, Jock did end up taking a slightly different approach to composition with this page:
Basically the script called for something a little different (multiple panels - with the viewer following Batman down) which was super cool - and something I'd like to do again at some point - but I went for a splash idea. Hopefully keeping all of Scott's original intent!
When a page turns out as dynamic as that one, you have to imagine everyone’s thrilled with the results! For more behind-the-scenes on Detective, check out our cover design posts from Francesco Francavilla here and here. DETECTIVE COMICS #876 is on sale April 27th.