JL8 #19 - Creator Commentary

JL8 #19 by Yale Stewart

Originally published on February 28th, 2012

I still love the gag of this one, but MAN do I wish I could redraw it.

I think the drawings of Darkseid work pretty well--I love that I gave him a bit of a tushy because come on, that's funny--but there are a number of other things I'd change.

I think the first panel assumes too much from the readership; it only really works if you've been following the series. You can BARELY see the tops of the kids' heads. I think adding an establishing shot panel prior to this one would've helped readability by a wide margin.

The last panel is just...I just wasn't that good at drawing and I know I could draw it significantly better today, haha. I think I should've also turned up the red. As it currently stands it's a little too much on the "brown" end of the spectrum, which kind of works, but I think punching it up a bit would add a lot. I'm also not CRAZY that the kids are all sort of isolated. Part of me thinks there should've been more elements of the kids helping each other out, but on the flip side, there is a charm in seeing how they'd each individually deal with the situation.

A little trivia: this strip was actually done in two parts. I drew the first two panels...somewhere, at some scale that I don't recall, and then I drew the third panel on its own sheet of bristol, because I wanted to be able to draw large. Just a little interesting tidbit, I guess.

All told, I still think it's a really funny installment, and generally I'm proud of it. Fans certainly seem to respond to it, as it gets mentioned to me a lot.

This is a pretty straightforward strip, so I don't really have much more to add this time around. I hope you all enjoyed, and I look forward to talking to you all again next week! Have a great weekend!

-Yale