Just when you thought the game was over, we go into sudden death...
Even though Arkham City: End Game completed it's 6 issue (chapter) run in digital form, it's now being collected into a complete 60 page print edition. It's available to pre-order in the current Diamond Previews retailer catalog, that came out this week. It's always important to pre-order books like this that might not be ordered heavily or at all, at your local comic shop, to ensure you get your copy.
What makes this extra special, is that the print version has an all-new wraparound cover by interior artist Jason Shawn Alexander. The current digital two part cover by Patrick Gleason and myself, will be offered as a variant edition. But it's nice to see even more of Jason's moody art now gracing the cover for the regular edition. He did it on a whim, just as a fun piece to give to DC if they wanted it, but they ponied up and paid to use it. Kudos to all around on that one!
You can see half of the colored cover in the Diamond catalog. But here's the full wraparound cover (minus colors) in Jason's glorious black & white art. Incredible stuff!
What makes this extra special, is that the print version has an all-new wraparound cover by interior artist Jason Shawn Alexander. The current digital two part cover by Patrick Gleason and myself, will be offered as a variant edition. But it's nice to see even more of Jason's moody art now gracing the cover for the regular edition. He did it on a whim, just as a fun piece to give to DC if they wanted it, but they ponied up and paid to use it. Kudos to all around on that one!
You can see half of the colored cover in the Diamond catalog. But here's the full wraparound cover (minus colors) in Jason's glorious black & white art. Incredible stuff!
For those that never played the Arkham games or followed the comics, I still highly suggest giving this story a try. While there are various nods to what happened in the game for the avid gamers out there, I still approached writing "End Game" for any Batman fan to pick up and be able to follow. Anyone with a passing knowledge of Batman, Joker, Harley, Jim Gordon, and Harvey Bullock; should be able to be put through their paces in a psychological battle between two rivals with Gotham caught in the aftermath.
Call it crazy timing that the big "Death Of The Family" Joker event running through the regular DC books is happening at the same time as End Game will be released in print form. So those looking for more Joker to read, don't have far to go.
That cover is beautiful, even though I have the digital chapters I might need to plunk down some cash and get this in print.
ReplyDeleteI know when DC originally approached about doing a story that tied in with the "Harley Quinn's Revenge" DLC, we had contemplated using two artists for the 60 page story (each doing half). But I'm glad we resolved to just use one artist for the whole thing, and that they're releasing the whole thing under one print collection instead of dividing it up into two issues.
DeletePlus I'm just happy that Jason got a new cover out of this. It feels complete now.
I first encountered Jason Alexander's work in the Abe Sapian: The Drowning a few years back and I've loved him ever since, and I'd be hard pressed to think of another artist that would really compliment his style. I'm glad you went with him for the whole thing but my mind's really spinning thinking about how it could have been, are you allowed to discuss some of the other artists you were tossing around during the planning of the story? Or did it not get that far?
DeleteIt was an odd set of circumstances for this. The idea for doing a tie-in story came fairly late, and then it was a matter of having to get the story written up (60 pages no less) and accepted in probably a month or less. And finding an artist is a lot like pro sports recruiting. It's finding out who isn't exclusive, who is available and not tied up elsewhere, and who can be dependable to make a tight deadline. That doesn't take into account the quality of the person as well. Not the best of circumstances to be placed in when trying to assemble something with the eye on the clock, under the gun.
DeleteWhile we had been getting a lot of great artists on Arkham Unhinged, I was of the mindset we should try not to repeat anyone from that group. Let's find a new artist (not new to comics but someone who hadn't already drawn an Arkham story). I won't list any specific names, since we all had various names we thought up but probably had to cancel out for any of the above reasons. Jason was brought forth by the editor, who had already been in contact with him, knowing he was interested in doing some comics work after having been away for awhile. I knew of his work in Abe and Gotham Central I believe, but couldn't place the name offhand. But when I saw his Joker samples...I was sold.
There was a bit of a pursuit for the cover artist. To actually try to find someone from the New52 to do a cover. Various people were busy wrapping up runs on titles or unavailable due to travel at the time. I know Capullo had been talked about but he was just getting done with his Owls run and needed some downtime (would've been interesting to see his Joker here before the version he'd be doing coming up). But it was cool they were able to get Gleason for the cover and they'd let me ink it. I had gotten a chance to ink Pat on a few pages of Green Lantern Corps awhile back, so it was fun to work over him again.
Man, that does sound like a pretty crazy deadline to come up with an artist. And a cover by Capullo would have been neat; he's another one of my favorite artists in the business these days.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing all this behind the scenes work!