BATWOMAN LIVES!
Tuesday June 29th 2010, 10:48 pm
Today sees the release of the Batwoman: Elegy deluxe hardcover. I’m extremely proud of the work Greg Rucka and I did on this and even more so now that I’ve seen a copy of the hardcover version. It reads beautifully as a single body of work and has more resonance in this form than reading it one chapter at a time each month. It feels so much more like a book now than before, a more substantial singular reading experience, not just a collection of individual issues. I’m really happy with that aspect, it’s what we were hoping for and worked toward. My time working with Greg on this was a real pleasure that I will always cherish. I’m also amazed at how superior the printing is on this compared to the stapled comics. It looks so much nicer! Not because it’s larger sized, but because there is so much more clarity of detail. Dave Stewart’s colors have so much more vibrancy, and some of his special fx are so much more prominent. The tonal work I did on the black and white art shows up much better, in the stapled versions we had places where it was blackening in a bit, thats not happening anymore. Its very interesting to me, and a bit frustrating, just how much was being lost in places on those stapled versions. But it’s nice to see it correctly now. If you have the stapled copies and you do go and buy this as well, I think you’ll be very happy you did when you compare the quality of production. The book also has a very nice introduction by the wonderful Rachel Maddow, and there is some script samples along with black and white printing of some of the art. A nice package, especially when comparing the printing quality to the stapled comics.
The image above is the real cover for this, don’t believe anything else you might’ve seen for solicitations at various webstores. The cover is designed and colored by me, and I designed all of the text for it as well.
And in honor of this book coming out, below are photos that were taken a few months back at our local comic shop’s grand opening event. As you’ll see there was a lot of surprises and geek out madness to be had. The photos were taken by Daniel Kessener.
Heidi Kessener as Kate Kane
Batwoman attacks!! Heidi Kessener is under that mask and thats me she’s smacking around. The costume was made by Teresa Ozuna. She did a wonderful job I think!
She’s roughing me up!
She’s making me squeal now.
I’m done for!
Now that I’m beaten, she wants a signed comic, she won so I had to give in to her demands.
Local Forte business owner gets it!
Now they’re friends.
Batwoman and me posing with costume maker Teresa Ozuna.
Batwoman with our friend Christina.
Batwoman has made new friend.
And she’s made even more friends.
Batwoman is here with Red Sky Comics shop owner Mike Smid, he looks a little overwhelmed.
No one can get the drop on her.
She single handedly defeats Scott, Red Sky Comics business partner.
Victorious, Batwoman rides off into the night!
14 Comments so far
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LOL !!
I love those photos! How awesome was that signing?!? Man, I wish I had a cool comic book shop like that near my house.
TRULY cannot wait to get my copies ( yeah, I ordered more than one .. try not to be surprised ) of the hardcover.
Comment by Pam 06.30.10 @ 3:45 amHey there Marcel
I guess I should’ve made that clear in the post, yes what you see here is the actual cover. I’ll update the post. I wish they would correct that image on Amazon.
The HC is gorgeous! I have the individual issues, but I just couldn’t pass this up. Can’t wait to pour through every vibrant detail all over again. Having Rachel Maddow provide the intro was an unexpected treat, too.
You’ve certainly whet my appetite for Kate’s return, while also reminding us that work of this caliber is worth waiting for. And thanks for sharing the cool pictures!
Comment by Fey 07.01.10 @ 1:50 pmHey JW3,
Your security settings ate my comment. Again…
The Batwoman pics you posted are beautiful. Did you use Heidi to help you frame any Batwoman sequences?
Just read your DC Archives story, and agreed completely with you! Would’ve paid an extra $1 for those 8 extra pages of gorgeous 7 Soldiers double-page spreads.
Elegy is in next week’s mail from Amazon. Making my wifey read this comic too. Keep on keeping on, sir…
Thanks,
Wayne
Comment by wayne beamer 07.01.10 @ 4:01 pmhey there Fey
Thanks so much for double dipping on the Batwoman stuff. Like I was saying in the post, I think the work looks so much nicer in this production than in the stapled versions. And reading it as a whole works better too I think.
Hello there Wayne
Sorry something is happening to your comments. I’ve been checking the comments editing section of the program I use and nothing appears to be there waiting for approval, so I’m not sure whats going on there.
As for Heidi being a model for the book? I’m afraid not, I never use models or photo reference, I prefer imagining what things would look like. But if I were to ever do that she would be perfect for it I think. It’s amazing how much she looks like Kate and Batwoman. And I had no idea that she was going to don that costume for the signing event. I didn’t even know they were planning that, so it was a huge surprise.
Hey JW3,
On the comments, it could be my browser timing out (Flock). Who knows. But it happened, again, and it told me I was entering an invalid security code, even though I did.
As far as you using photo references, I wasn’t sure that you did. In fact, using them would be counter-productive for your lyrical design style. What’s more, the artists I know who use it, don’t really need it. In both cases, their freehand work is so beautiful, photo-referencing is one unnecessary step that slows them WAAAAAAAAY DOOOOOOOWN.
Like you, I was pretty amazed at how spot on Heidi’s Batwoman garb looked. Can’t have enough attractive, ass-kicking women protecting our streets and comic book stores!
Thanks… Wayne
Comment by wayne beamer 07.02.10 @ 7:15 am“Elegy” is the most beautiful book of the year. Everything in it is spectacular – the color, the design, even the paper. I was stunned by the single issues, but this is, by far, the best way to experience this work. Thanks for all the extra effort. It was worth it!
Comment by Quinton Peeples 07.11.10 @ 4:32 pmHello Quinton
Thank you very much, that is really what we were hoping for, a collected edition that heightened the experience of reading the material.
Quick question here on the European version of Elegy.
I checked both amazon.co.uk and amazon.fr and they both show two different Elegy versions.
Will the overseas version of Elegy have the same cover, features, etc. as the US version?!
Thanks!
~ Pam
Hey there Pam
As far as I know it’s the same version worldwide. I looked and it just seems that they’re still showing the wrong cover.
Fascinating stuff … but it would be nice to discuss/focus on Britain instead of rubbing our noses in it over and over again?
We know that global spivs and money-makers do well
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I really hope the cover on Amazon isn’t the final, your version in this post looks incredible!
Comment by Marcel 06.30.10 @ 2:14 am