Dark Horse has posted three pages from Darth Vader & The Lost Command #3. Reposting below (click to enlarge). No real setup necessary, except to say that these are pulled from the middle of the issue. I was very inspired by Vader stalking Luke in the bowels of Cloud City for much of this issue — Vader in “stealth mode” is not something we get to see very often, so hopefully fans will enjoy it.
Darth Vader & The Lost Command #3 is on shelves next Wednesday (3/30)!
Several pages from the first issue of Batwoman have been released at DC’s Blog, The Source! Check out the pages below (click to enlarge).
I can’t really reveal anything about the story yet, except to say that given my preoccupation with ghost stories, urban legends, and “modern” mythologies, the character who appears in the first few panels of this issue is one I’ve been haunted by for years. It’s both terrifying and thrilling to finally see her realized (and beautifully rendered, I might add).
Just two quick updates. Earlier this week, StarWars.Com posted a preview for Issue #1 of Darth Vader and the Lost Command, which comes out later this month. You can click on the images below to see the larger versions. Rick Leonardi is doing a fantastic job with the art.
And here’s the cover for Issue #3, which I realized I never posted…
Also this month, the writing in the The Force Unleashed 2 was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award. We won a few years ago for the first Force Unleashed, and I’m humbled to be nominated again.
The last few weeks of 2010 proved extremely busy but productive. Here’s some quick updates:
Batwoman: Jim and I finished our script for Batwoman #5, which wraps up the first arc (“Hydrology”) for the new ongoing series. We worked extremely hard to make sure that the arc packs an emotional punch and shows some growth for Kate, and to set up the next arc as well. I think I’m most excited about seeing reader reaction to the new villain and some of the scenes between Kate and Maggie Sawyer. DC posted an update on the series at the The Source, the official DC blog, which is also accompanied by art from the series (including Amy’s variant cover for Issue #1, which I’m reposting here!).I’m still working on various other projects, and some monster-related blog posts as well. Hope to have something up in the next week or two.
Here is Jim’s cover for Batwoman #2, which continues the “Hydrology” storyline, our first 5-issue Arc. I’ve already seen some of the interior art, and it’s pretty incredible stuff — Jim really captures both the horror of the new villain we’re introducing, and continues to humanize Kate Kate.
As with previous issues, Amy Reeder will be doing a variant cover.
On sale in March!
Comic Book Resources posted a Batwoman #0 Preview with several pages of art and an interview that Jim, Amy, and I did earlier this week. You’ll see from the preview pages that Jim and Amy did an amazing job collaborating on this issue. As a writer, it was a very cool process to participate in. Jim and I started writing the outline for the Zero Issue several months after we submitted our outlines for both Arc 1 and Arc 2 and a series overview that covers a little over two years of issues. We then completed the script about four weeks after the script for Issue #1, and while we were working on the script for Issue #6, the first issue in Amy’s arc. Although this meant shifting gears a lot, it actually worked out really well because we had a good idea of where the series is headed and could start dropping some clues about future storylines. From an art standpoint, the basic concept was for Jim and Amy to share art chores – but in a rather challenging fashion. Rather than just have Jim do one set of pages and Amy another, we proposed that they would actually both do panels across two-page spreads. As a result, the script for the Zero Issue is fairly detailed, escpecially in terms of the ways in which the action in one set of panels mirrors action in the next.
Batwoman #0 is out today, and the series starts up in February with Issue #1, the first in the “Hydrology” arc.
It’s a cover bonaza this week! Solicitations for DC’s February lineup have been posted at Newsarama, so I thought I’d post the cover and solicitation text here too…
We’re fusing horror, vigilante action, mystery, and romance together with this first arc, which is called “Hydrology,” and I think Jim did an absolutely brilliant job capturing the tone of the story with this image. Amy will also be doing a variant cover!
And the solicit text:
The multiple award-winning creative team of J.H. Williams III (DETECTIVE COMICS) and W. Haden Blackman (Star Wars, Force Unleashed) launch the first, chilling arc of the ongoing series fans have been clamoring for! In the 5-part “Hydrology,” Batwoman faces bizarre new challenges in her war against the dark underworld of Gotham and new trials in her personal life as Kate Kane. She quickly finds herself in the deep end facing truths about her past and her future. Who – or what – is stealing children from Gotham’s barrio, and for what twisted purpose? Can she train her cousin Bette Kane (a.k.a. Flamebird) as her new sidekick? How will she handle dark revelations about her father, Colonel Jacob Kane? How is she dealing with the supposed drowning of her sister, the villain known as Alice? And why is a certain government agency suddenly taking an interest in her? The road to the answers begins here!
Batwoman #1 will be on shelves February 23rd, 2011!
Dark Horse has released Tsuneo Sanda’s cover to Darth Vader and the Lost Command #2, which hits shelves February 23rd. Here it is!
With each issue, I’m trying to show Vader in all of his various “roles” – not just as the Jedi Hunter. Wiith all the emphasis on his lightsaber abilities, I think it’s easy to forget that Vader is also a fearsome commander, a skilled mechanic, and (as shown in this issue) a relentless and deadly fighter pilot (among other things…).
Here’s the solicitation text:
Vader in command! Darth Vader steps up his attacks when his invasion of the Ghost Nebula meets with stiff resistance. But when a courageous beauty offers her help in conquering the system, visions of what his life might have been if he had not betrayed the Jedi and if Padmé was still alive affect the dark lord’s decisions. Vader in turmoil!
* Darth Vader, the darkest lord of the Sith, at his best—and worst!
* Written by The Force Unleashed‘s Haden Blackman!
* Art by Aliens vs. Predator‘s Rick Leonardi!
* Darth Vader and the Lost Command launched Dark Horse into its 20th anniversary of publishing Star Wars.
Issue #1 will be out in January!
At about 2 AM yesterday morning, I finished the script for issue #3 of Darth Vader and the Lost Command. And today, Dark Horse released more info on the upcoming limited series, including the standard cover (Tsuneo Sanda) and variant cover art (Doug Wheatley). Interior pencils are being handled by Rick Leonardi, who was the penciller on the original Cloak & Dagger for Marvel, which is still one of my favorite stories.
Cover by Tsuneo Sanda
Cover by Douglas Wheatley
The official blurb on Darth Vader and the Lost Command from Dark Horse:
Still haunted by the events in Revenge of the Sith, Darth Vader must set aside his past and put his future on hold for a mission to the mysterious Ghost Nebula to locate—and if possible, rescue—a missing Imperial expeditionary force. But what seems a perfect opportunity to lose himself in his duty is complicated by two factors: he is paired with a willful yet highly competent co-commander, and the officer they are being sent to locate is the son of Vader’s rising nemesis, Moff Tarkin.
Darth Vader and the Lost Command #1 will be on stores shelves January 26th, 2011.
Today The Source posted an update on the Batwoman ongoing series I’m writing with J.H. Williams III. You can follow the link for quotes from everyone involved, but the basic details are this: The Zero issue will hit stands in November, with Issue #1 of the ongoing arriving in February. Both artists (Jim & Amy Reeder) are doing covers for the Zero Issue and are splitting interior art chores — but in a very organic and well-integrated way. And as you can probably guess from Amy’s kickass cover below, Batman shows up in the issue as well, giving us a chance to see Batwoman through his eyes…
