X-Ray Studios

We're now less than two weeks away from the release of our first issue of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. So it seemed like this would be the appropriate time to start making some Batman related posts.

When we announced our work on this book, I mentioned that Eric and I had already been developing something conceptually similar to the current Brave and Bold animated series. Well, I found some of the images. This was very much a work in progress, but I'm going to share it anyway.



Above is the first batch of images Eric created. He was shooting for a 1960's approach. But I wanted to see a bit more of a 1950's lantern jaw look. So this was his next batch:



I was of the opinion that this Batman was to smiley.

We envisioned the series would be titled: Batman and Robin. Robin would have been a key player in the series. But, having just come off of a Supergirl series, we would likely have avoided Batgirl.

Our intent was to revive some of the long lost TV show Batman villains, along with certain iconic trappings of 1950's-60's Batman. It would start off as goofy weird fun, but edge a little to the creepy side by the end of the series. Batman: The Brave and the Bold is a different animal. As it is based off of the current cartoon, we have a little less latitude than we might on a series we created. But sometimes imposed structure strengthens artwork rather than curtailing it. Eric and I work well with guidelines, and we're having tremendous fun on the series. Eric just finished drawing his third issue, and I'm writing my 6th, with at least 3 more mapped out.

Well, it's in the new Previews catalog, so I guess I can finally announce what Eric and I have been working on since we wrapped up Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures...



We'll be doing some issues of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. A comic series based off of the current animated series. A funny thing about this book for Eric and myself:  We had actually spent a bit of time before San Diego ComicCon last year formulating a pitch for an all-ages reinterpretation of Batman based off a combination of the 1940's Dick Sprang art style and the 1960's television series. We then arrived at ComicCon to see images everywhere of this cartoon series and immediately scrapped the proposal.

And now we're doing a comic that is fundamentally the same as the series we spent the summer quietly creating. Strange world.

Our intention with this series is to capture the feel of the cartoon rather than literally interpret the style of the animated series onto a comic book page. Comics and animation are two very distinct (even if related) mediums, and neither wholly translates into the other. We're a bit past our first issue now, and I'm very happy with the result of this approach.

Our first issue introduces a character that, at the time of conception and execution, was unseen on the television series. Catman appears as a mysterious new superhero with bold plans to help Batman takes down his most notorious foes. Since we created this particular issue, a very different rendition of Catman has appeared on the TV series. Such as it goes.

Our first issue of this series goes on sale September 30th.