Fading Newsprint: Supergirl Adventures Is 25 Years Old

Originally planned as an oversized Supergirl one-shot, delays in the two-part episode debuting the character in the Superman animated series (which Sarah and I co-wrote) caused it to be published as issue #21 of the Superman Adventures title. It was supposed to complement a Batgirl Animated one-shot, which is why both Bruce Timm covers mirror one another. It was eventually published in May, 1998.

The comic used a lot of material we developed for the animated series that wasn't used, or couldn't be used, owing to time restraints. Sarah came up with the idea of using the material to develop a comic exploring Supergirl's background further while giving her a spotlight story.

We worked in a new version of General Zod (who hadn't been used in the series), brought Jax-Ur and mala back from where they were left in the Adventures comic series, worked in the back story from the "Little Girl Lost" two-parter, paid a nod to Streaky (the un-super cat), and got to work with Bret Blevins and Terry Austin, which was a blast (with Lee Loughridge on colors, and Kevin Cunningham on letters). Blevins was a storyboard artist on the Superman series and worked on some of the episodes we wrote for the series (Little Girl Lost parts 1 and 2, Livewire, and Monkey Fun).

I have xeroxes copies of most, if not all, of Blevins' pencils from #21, and the sequel comic, "Reunion". If folks want to see more of them, feel free to let me know and I'll scan some more pages asap.

I posted the full script to "Reunion" earlier on the Patreon, I think that's a post open to $5 and $10 backers, but here's a link for anyone who hasn't seen it and can access it:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/superman-39-73057870

The two Supergirl comics we wrote have been collected in a digest-sized trade paperback from DC Comics entitled  Supergirl Adventures" Girl of Steel.

I unabashedly love this comic. It didn't sell well, no one talked about it much, it didn't "matter" and isn't in the "real" continuity, but I'm proud of it and the work everyone put into it. It's just a straightforward, super-solid superhero comic, with a lot of neat stuff in it.

I wish we got to do a lot more of these, and we hoped to, but we were busy freelancers back in that decade, with more work than we could handle. A lot changes in twenty-five years.