When Dustin and I were coming up with a full calendar year's worth of stories to pitch for Li'l Gotham, it was a matter of trying to figure out the best villain for each holiday. Of course many of the holidays will have multiple villains showing up in it. Such is the nature of wanting to watch Dustin cram in as many characters in fun situations. But for Thanksgiving, it really came down to just one villain. With the holiday centered around turkey, it was easy matching up Penguin as their advocate. And having it take place in a sort of Macy's Parade in downtown Gotham, lent itself to some fun visuals. Parades and celebrations will continue to be a theme around a few of the upcoming holidays.
It was kind of serendipitous how closely pilgrim-wear was to Penguin's own black tuxedoed attire, both in color as well as similar hats. And Dustin draws a great Cobblepot. He pulls off such great expressions in such limited space. The other thing I love about working on this project is it allows us the levity to have the characters say all sorts of puns and cheesy lines that probably wouldn't fly elsewhere. All in the name of fun.
Dustin added a lot to my initial story idea. Having turkeys playfully peck away at Damian was something he added in at the last second, as well as Damian naming one of them as a sort of pet. Might not be the last we see of "Jerry" either.
It really can be a team effort shaping the stories on this project. Most of the original ideas coming from Dustin and I. But in the case of the Wayne Family dinner, it was something brought up by our previous editor to the title, Ben Abernathy. We were just going to have the story end with Penguin in jail being served turkey. But he brought up the idea of maybe having a Rockwell-esque gathering around the table for Bruce and his extended family, and that made it a perfect way to get all of them together by the end. I liked the idea of having all these heroes hang up their capes and cowls before sitting at the table, so that made for a fun visual as well to show who attended.
Some of the villains in prison with Penguin all come from our beloved run working on Detective and Streets Of Gotham with Paul Dini. A nice way to show Tweedledee & dum, Little Italy, and Mr. ZZZ. I'm sure we'll be sprinkling in more over the months ahead.
I think my favorite part of this issue was that the Batman balloon ended up saving the day. It was such a great Adam West kind of moment and I loved it.
ReplyDeleteOne question, who are all the dinner guests? Damian,Dick,Barbra and Bruce are easy enough to identify but I'm iffy on the others. For instance is the woman serving the turkey Catwoman? And the costume to the left of Damian's looks like Katana's so I assume that's who is between Babs and Damian in the corner but it's hard to be sure.
I don't think I specifically said how the balloons should look, so I'll attribute that to Dustin. But the stories will tend to be a celebration of all things Batman...a lot of Batman:TAS in there, some from our runs on Detective and Streets Of Gotham, as well as some nods to the Adam West show here and there. And other visions too still to come.
DeleteAs for the other guests at the table, lil kid next to Damian is his friend Colin ("Abuse" from Streets Of Gotham), Selina is next to Bruce, then Tim Drake, Jason (without a seat at the table bringing in the bread), and Katana is the other girl threatening the turkey with her knife. heh
Always appreciate an appearance by Colin.
ReplyDeleteYep he's a favorite for us. He'll show up from time to time when appropriate.
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