Superman #41, my debut issue, comes out Wednesday, June 24!

I’m only handling the script. This art team they’ve got me working with? Dude.

Let me show you our process.  It’ll give me an excuse to tell you about the artist behind each phase.

 

script

1. SCRIPT. This is me. For my first script, I followed the Dark Horse Script Format Guideline, a habit I developed writing Avatar: The Last Airbender comics for the last few years. The formats of my Superman scripts have been evolving ever since.

 

pencils

2. PENCILS. These are done by the legendary John Romita Jr. He doesn’t like it when I use the word “legendary,” but that’s what you get for producing consistently amazing work for over two decades.

John spent most of his career at Marvel. You know that Daredevil show on Netflix everyone’s freaking out over (including me)? Chunks of it are lifted straight out of Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, a classic miniseries by John and writer Frank Miller.  That awesome black costume he wears for most of Season 1?  That’s John.

When I was a college kid, my favorite of John’s works was a graphic novella called Hearts of Darkness, starring the most nineties superteam ever assembled: Ghost Rider, Wolverine, and the Punisher.

 

inks

3. INKS. We’ve got Klaus Janson on inks. Klaus is most well-known as a co-conspirator on Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, the Frank Miller graphic novel that changed the face of superhero comics forever.  But Klaus has done many, many comics besides that. Klaus’s stuff is just a joy to look at: clean and strong and true.

He does a lot of inking — A LOT — but he’s also handled pencils and inks. He and John have worked together for a while now. Hearts of Darkness, that nineties fever dream I mentioned earlier, was his.

 

colors

4. COLORS. Dean White is doing the colors. I first encountered Dean’s work in Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s Kick Ass, a graphic novel my prudish self found uncomfortable and compelling all at once. Appropriate, too, because Dean kicks ass. He truly does. He can wring things out of color — emotion, action, danger — that you didn’t know were there.

Let me tell you, I am astounded by the finished product. I’m proud of my story, don’t get me wrong, but THAT ART! You need to get Superman #41 just to see three masters of comics do their thing.  Your jaw will drop, guaranteed.

Superman #41, available at comics shops everywhere on  Wednesday, June 24, 2015!