World's Funnest: Brian Bolland's Cover Inks, Colors, Alternate Colors

The title of the post pretty much tells the tale, other than letting you know that the "green cover" was Bolland's initial take on the cover colors. I felt it wasn't "apocalyptic" enough, and asked for the revision. Most likely through editor Joey Cavalieri. I'm not sure. I dealt with some of the artists directly and others went through DC editorial/Joey, with notes from me going through after work came in. I'm pretty sure I sent Bolland the cover concept myself, so I may have timidly e-mailed a request for a revision. Maybe not. I would have been pretty anxious. Asking for any changes of these artists, or actually having to explain some things couldn't be done for story reasons, was intimidating as hell. There are many reasons why I could never be an actual editor, and this would be among them.   

Anyway, my thinking was that green indicates a toxic chemical destruction of the world while good old traditional red/orange fire and smoke better reflects the near-nuclear results of what bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk have wrought. Hath wrought? Wrought! Right. Was I right? I think so, but it's sometimes hard to tell what's subjective nonsense and what's uptight nonsense. I think pretty literally for someone who draws drunken dairy products. So I saw nuclear skies, not the more mellow green chemical warfare feel. I don't understand color theory, but I kind of understand comic book theory (my take on 'color theory" is that "it should be in color!". At least that's the joke I always go to). 

Since Bolland was working digitally it wasn't a nightmare request and he was kind enough to agree to revise the color scheme. He even did some extra texturing in the clouds to help sell the more fiery approach of the cover as it was published.

Apologies for the tilt in the b&w scan and any deficiencies in the color scans. I'm working with copies from 22 years ago and no one was copying material for archival reasons. DC has all the files, I got anything I could get. For continuity's sake I was given xerox copies of all the interiors, sometimes I managed to get pencils and overlays. I have a set of 11 x 17 copies and a set of 8 1/2" by 11" copies, not everything is in either set, apparently. I was going to post Mike Allred's Phantom Zone page with the script page but it's not in the oversized copy set. Hopefully it's in the smaller set. We shall see.

Above: The Spanish version of World's Funnest. I have a German version in my file copy longbox, if I recall correctly. Or is it the Spanish version? Well, there was a German version, as well, for those craving more of this riveting, two-fisted trivia. Batmito!