JL8 #13 - Creator Commentary

JL8 #13 by Yale Stewart

Originally published on February 6th, 2012

It is WILD to me that this is Diana's first full appearance (by which I mean we see her and she actively participates in the narrative). I'm also kind of embarrassed by it, that it took so long, but I like to think I've made up for it since.

I do like how even though Diana is framed as a "love interest" here, it's entirely through Clark's lens in a pseudo-(500) Days of Summer kind of way. Diana's just being friendly and polite, but since Clark's already got a bit of a crush, he reads a bit more into it than he probably should.

I remember having fun with the book selections. They're not exactly subtle easter eggs or anything, but I think it's helpful in establishing the characters for people who maybe weren't as familiar with them. The subtlest is probably J'onn's pick of mysteries, which was a nod to his adult moniker being the Martian Manhunter, and something of a detective.

In hindsight, I'm not crazy about the staging of the first panel. It doesn't really allow for the lettering to convey the joke of Barry's dialogue and Bruce's response in a satisfactory way. If I were to do it again, maybe I'd have Barry also on the left side of the panel, which would help sell that he beat everyone to the book case because he'd visually read as leading the group, and I'd just overlap Bruce's speech ballon over his figure so that it would read more clearly as a 1-2. That may be a little inside baseball, so I'm not sure how well anyone will understand that. It's harder to describe than it is to draw it.

Speaking of lettering, though, this is the first installment that's fully lettered by hand, a decision I've stuck with to this day. If I remember right, I made the shift because the laptop I had at the time could barely handle the lettering. I'd type out a sentence or two and patiently wait for Photoshop to actually load in the text, which would take maybe 30 seconds. Anyway, I did not like that, so I just figured I'd letter straight onto the boards, and I've been doing it ever since.

I think that about covers it for this installment. See you again next week!

-Yale