That said, this post, more than the others I think, I DO NOT advise you reading this post until after you’ve read the issues in question. The Annual in particular would be a bummer to experience outside the issue first. So go read the annual first and then come back!

Before we do that, a tiny bit of HOUSEKEEPING. Anyone expecting an order — they are ALLLLLLL going out today — you can check your Paypal Accounts this evening for tracking numbers if you’re anxious. Sorry for the delays and thanks for your patience. There will also be some refunds going out — I had some missing books and some damage (you will also be able to see any applicable refunds tonight in your Paypal Account). I’ll talk in a bit more detail about that in tomorrow’s post.

Okay! Let’s get into it!

Today we’re focusing on two arcs where Hayden did the design, but the issues were drawn by other artists. First up, from this week’s ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL #1, we had Athena, one of my favorite god designs thus far.

The og design by Hayden:

Admittedly I wrote a big DPS reveal for her in the Annual when I saw the genius and spectacle of Hayden’s design, suffice to say Mattia De Iulis did not disappoint either:

Hayden also did these incredible GORGON designs for original Medusa and her sisters Stheno and Euryale. I love their weird cool faces, so unlike the kind of design I feel like we traditionally see for female characters in comics:

Some of Euryale and Stheno in action by Mattia:

Obviously we saw the “Medusa” form (below by Hayden and colorist Jordie Bellaire) when Diana transformed into her in ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #5:

And here is Mattia’s take on current actual Medusa as Diana first finds her in the Annual:

That’s about it design wise on the Annual this week, but I also wanted to highlight GAIA and the “Inverse Diana” that Hayden designed for THE PRICE arc a few issues back, which Matias Bergara brought to life so beautifully for those issues.

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This is the original GAIA design by Hayden. Really leaning into her being made up of whatever Earth is around. I tend to think of her as not really having a representational physical form (because she is EVERYTHING) but when communicating with humans she tries to form a “face” for herself…something more representational…just to help their tiny human brains to not explode. lol

And Matias Bergara’s excellent distillation of that in ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #14. The Diana size relationship here is particularly cool:

We also had Diana dealing with a villain for these two issues that was basically a magical “inverse” of herself. But we didn’t want this to be obvious from the jump. So Hayden did a design that felt like a sort of “dark Diana” and we merged it with a more sort of “energy form” — the idea being that the “Inverse Diana” would start pretty non-representational and become more and more like her the longer it progressed and the more contact it had with her.

And then this was Matias Bergara’s version of it when we first see it fully integrated in the issue and understand it’s more than just “energy”:

Okay. That’s it for today. There will be another more regular non-design post tomorrow, so… I’ll see you soon!

Take care of yourselves and each other. <3

Kelly

We’re going to try to do these pretty regularly now — when we hit some good design milestones in the book — and last week’s issue #16 had a bunch (keep your eyes peeled next week for a design post that includes next week’s annual too. The Athena design is one of my favorites thus far). :D

ZATANNA. Obviously Zatanna is the very big design here — and we’ve already showed that off in Post 1 linked above — although I think we neglected to show the back of the jacket — which you can see here:

APHRODITE. I just… could not love this one more. It’s probably neck and neck with Hecate for my favorite Gods design from our run. This was, I believe, the very first sketches Hayden sent in for the concept of the character and the email thread just exploded with everyone going “okay. that’s genius. that design is locked.” Truly, what else can be said?! It’s a design that says so much about the idea of the character and all she encompasses so simply. To me it honestly feels like what an Aprhodite design always should have been:

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DOCTOR POISON 2.0. She got her suit! This was actually a funny design challenge because I don’t think Hayden or I really wanted to change her perfect first costume, but since I’d written into the narrative that she was demanding a new suit (and subsequently basically forced Cale’s hand into giving her one) — our hands were tied. Fortunately, Hayden is a design genius and this new version really keeps the aesthetic of the original while still feeling more mobile and like a clear upgrade for whoever is inside:

ARA, THE MEN-FISH QUEEN. You don’t create a whole bunch of men-fish in a maze and reference their queen, without getting that queen on the table. She doesn’t have a huge role in this arc, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see her show up again down the line as a multi-faceted problem for Diana:

MEN-FISH: And in case you didn’t see them in the previous post, this is Hayden’s Men-Fish design from the Maze arc — and you can see the ways Hayden tied these two designs together, while still letting Ara feel significantly different and like her own character.

CHEETAH. This is obviously not Barbara, but her identity will be revealed in issue 17. Obviously, people have a lot of feelings and ideas about Cheetah and there’s not much I can say for fear of spoilers, except that if you feel this design feels “unfinished:…. it is, and that’s by design:

GIGANTA. She has been incredibly fun to write (and I think Hayden would agree fun to draw — though in that case — A LOT of work). Her big issue for this arc is #17, out next month if “harder they fall” wasn’t enough of a clue for GIGANTA. Of all these villains that debuted, she’s the one most excited to be there which is… not great for Diana long term. ;D

Okay. That’s it for design today. But come back next week AFTER you’ve read the ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL #1 to see some of the designs Hayden did for that (and also a look at some of the designs Hayden did for THE PRICE arc)!

Take care of yourself and your neighbors out there. <3

Kelly

Welcome back to Part Two showing off Hayden Sherman’s ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN designs. If you missed Part 1, which covered designs from the first volume of ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN, you can read that here.

Part Two includes the significant designs from the “As My Mothers Made Me” arc (issues #8 - 12). All designs by Hayden Sherman. Let’s get into it!

DOCTOR POISON

Doctor Poison is one of my favorite new takes on old villains. I love this suit so much and I love how much she hates Veronica Cale. lol. <3

Poison IS getting an update to her suit (if you’re following the story you know why!) — so expect a tweaked design when she shows up again in ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #16 (Jan) — but we all love this design so much I didn’t really want to change it (foiled! by my own storytelling! ahhh!) but I confess that the tweaked design Hayden did for Poison is…perfect. I don’t know why I was surprised.

THE TETRA-SPIDERS

Sometimes something intended to be a one-off thing is too cool to just be a one-off. I actually find this happens a lot with Hayden — everything they create is too interesting and I find I don’t want move on — so I would expect these guys to eventually show up again in new/different ways in the future!

FERDINAND

I love Ferdinand. That is all.

THE MEN-FISH/THE FISH-MEN:

Though they are mostly cannon fodder, doing Clea’s bidding without question in the maze, I ended up really loving these dummies and don’t be surprised if we see them again some day too.

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QUEEN CLEA

Fantastic design that in my view, builds beautifully on the OG design (and the 80s update) in super smart ways that are fun while also making a lot of sense. We ended up giving her a staff instead of the Trident when we realized the Trident of Poseidon should be much more than just a weapon, and tweaked the story accordingly.

Hayden also added absolutely wild platform heels after this iteration — which are super impractical to actually fight in, but made a lot of sense for her trying to make herself larger than life inside the maze.

IO

IO is one of my favorite Amazons (and one of my favorite moons of Jupiter! There are at least 97 so that’s more impressive than you think. Yes, yes, I hear how nerdy this sounds…let’s move on). One of the reasons I picked IO to be our Amazon in the maze, beyond my affection for her, is that she tends to be one of the larger/more muscled Amazons in regular WW canon — she’s often depicted as the blacksmith with big heavy blacksmithing tools more than slender swords and shields. Anyway, showing Diana being larger than even one of the (presumably) larger Amazons was a good way to both show their connections and similarities, and to also suggest that even among the gifted/fantastic, Diana is still quite special.

The specifics of her design were quite tricky — she had to feel like she was an Amazon, but having been separated from them for decades and trapped in a maze, she had to also feel both aligned with the others trapped inside the maze and unique among them. As usual, Hayden mastered all those complications with ease.

We changed her hair color and tweaked the way the maze tattoo looked on her skin, but otherwise this was a hit on the first pass I believe.

HIPPOLYTA & THE AMAZONS

We knew that other than IO, we were going to be seeing Hippolyta and Themyscira, if only briefly. But that meant Hayden had to really dig in and think about the Amazons as if we were diving into a massive story about them, so that everything would feel appropriately fleshed out and well-considered even if we were just getting a glance.

Hippolyta in particular is such a great look that feels like Diana visually but also DOES NOT feel like she’d be confused for Diana. A personal pet peeve of mine is when Diana and Hippolyta look indistinguishable and so I’m particularly delighted by how Hayden handled that challenge.

ZATANNA

I showed off the Zatanna design already in the last installment since everyone was so excited, but I’ve put the cover below and for the folks anxious for Zatanna to arrive INSIDE — expect to see her in ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #14 (this month!) and again in ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #16 (Jan) which kicks off the Season Of The Witch arc. The cover below is Hayden’s cover for issue 16, with colors by Jordie Bellaire.

Okay. That’s it for now, but I will try to do another one of these for issues 13 - 20 (and the Annual!) when appropriate — as we have a ton of incredible design coming down the pike — and as the teases in ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #12 have suggested. :D

Thanks for reading!

Kelly

Part 1 today — which focuses on some of Hayden Sherman’s excellent volume 1 designs (#1-7) with the exception — since she leaked this week — of Zatanna — which you can check out here:

Zee was tricky for a lot of reasons — including that Hayden wasn’t going to get to be the first one to draw her IN COSTUME in story (that’s Matias Bergara in next month’s ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #14). So Hayden had to both think of her eventual “Zatanna Costume” and also what she would look like while trapped inside Cale’s Area 41 Prison. As usual, Hayden pulls it off brilliantly.

For those who are about such things and are keeping track — first appearance of Zatanna was in ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #12, first in-costume appearance of Zatanna will be in next month’s ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #14 (drawn by Matias Bergara) and her first cover appearance currently is ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #16 as seen here.

Keep your eyes peeled for Part 2 soon which will focus on designs from the “As My Mothers Made Me” arc (#8-12). In the mean time, let’s dig into some of the arc 1 designs:

DIANA

I’m sure most of you have seen these floating around of Diana, since they are obviously pretty key and have been around since before the book was even released. But I thought it was worth posting here anyway, it’s a truly great design and it’s is impossible to understate how nervous the whole team was. When you take it apart there are a lot of things that Diana fans have historically hated — pants, swords, silver instead of gold, an (at that point) unexplained tattoo — but when we looked at it… we just knew it was exciting. I am obviously not the designing genius behind this, but I remember feeling at the time, that it would be pointless to fight against this design. It just sang, it felt perfectly right sort of all at once.

Here’s also the first sketch of her with the prosthetic we decided on. I’m not showing those different off as we might use some of them (or variations on them) in the future.

HECATE:

There are a lot of takes on Gods (and the Greek Gods specifically) in comics and there are many good takes. But I confess I was hard against a lot of pretty white or white-adjacent people in togas. Of that…I’ve, well, I’ve seen enough. It feels like there’s nothing new to be mined there and little to be said about the natures or egos or essences of the gods. So from the jump we wanted our gods to do some things differently and to really think about each one individually. And while they should possess (sometimes) some human traits, we really didn’t want them to ever be mistaken for humans when seen in their “true forms.”

HADES:

The flames pointing down was tricky to execute, but I think we all found it interesting enough to be worth the risk. This idea of everything, even the ruling God being pulled toward the center of the earth, says something without saying anything at all. My favorite way. ;D

PERSEPHONE:

Persephone so rarely gets used significantly in mythology stories that it was really exciting to design her. And the way Hayden mixed what is natural to Persephone — earth, nature, sunlight, spring — with what comes with her role as Queen of the Underworld — hard edges, cold metal, crowns, chains, and barbed armor — was truly exciting as well as a fun nod to her connection to Hecate.

Okay. That’s it for today, but come back soon for Part 2 — a look at all the designs from the “As My Mothers Made Me” arc!

Kelly

Special treat today as Mattia has prepared an awesome Process Junkie guest post on THE CULL! I did very minor editing to correct a few typos and to add some links and images, but otherwise it’s as written by Mattia.

Hello everyone! 

It is exciting to be able to talk to fans and I hope it is the first of a long series! I would like to thank you for all the support, comments, and messages you write to me, I am so happy that you are enjoying what we are creating. We can't wait to show you much more, about the release of the first issue and much more but today I will tell you about how I made page 18 of the first issue of THE CULL!

Every single page Kelly has written is absolutely fantastic and makes things easier for me than expected. In general, her ability to write realistic and well-realized characters helps me in the acting of them, in the micro-expressions to convey the feelings to the reader as well (which is something I particularly care about). 

Before I begin showing you the process for this page, I wanted to share something interesting — in the very early period when I was first getting the initial information for the characters and setting, while I was doing the first studies I accidentally listened to a piece on Spotify that I thought would be perfect for the mood of THE CULL.

Why don't you try playing the track so you can tell me in the comments if it evoked the same feelings for you as well?

So, SOUND ON! 

What you see above is an excerpt from the script and in my first stage of reading, I try to get into the scene and understand how the characters feel. The second stage, on the other hand, technically speaking, I think about how big the balloons will be to give the right space between text and drawing. Here Kaite and Lux are finishing a very intense and emotional conversation, they love each other and want to take care of each other (which is something I'm also doing haha, by now it's like they're my friends too! <3)

Pencil (digital haha) in hand, this is the layout to define panels size, scene, directorial setting.

In general in these scenes I had so much fun making the contrast between the light of the flashlights and the darkness of the scene, rocks etc. and it's important in this phase because already here I’m thinking about when I will color the page.

Now let's move on to the inks. As I said in the opening, I love working on the expressions of the characters. Also, perspective and camera movement (as in panel 2), help emphasize the emotions.

Coloring page! I really like this phase because this is where all the work done earlier with lighting, shadows, and effects are really defined.

Panel 1 - 2 - 3: Kaite and Lux talk openly, trying to help each other. The camera angle on panel 2 is very important because it highlights Lux's expression before returning on panel 3 to show both looks. 

Panel 4: Kaite and Lux approach the rest of the group because they are warned about a mysterious cave. Kaite and Lux are slightly blurred now to put the focus on the cave, the protagonist of the scene.

Panel 5: Opposite camera angle to show the emotions of our characters who are entering the unknown. This, like many others, are moments to show the character of each of them. Fear, determination, skepticism, are all details I can show with these panels.

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And now to enjoy the final work by Hassan who did a fantastic job with the lettering! I think I challenged him in some situations (sorry Hassan, don't hate me haha!) but he always did a perfect job even when I thought it would be difficult! I am in a top team and we are all working hard to give you the most beautiful book! 

Let me know what you think and keep following us, more news will be coming soon!

See you soon!

- Mattia

Kelly again.

It’s honestly so much fun to get to see my collaborators talk about this stuff instead of me — don’t get me wrong, I like my voice, I’d be sunk if I didn’t — but boy oh boy do I get sick of hearing myself talk sometimes. Much more fun for me (and also less work, that too!) to listen to others talk about their process — especially on a book we’re working on together. Like Mattia, I continue to feel incredibly lucky and grateful for this team and this book, and all of you too. <3

~Kelly

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Years ago, my good friend, comics genius, and sometimes collaborator Sophie Campbell expressed her frustration for Double Page Spreads (DPSes) and how they often seemed to be a “lazy way out” for writers and a lot of extra work for artists.

I objected to this because I personally was putting at least as much thought into a Double Page Spread as I was int…

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Mattia has promised to come by and do a proper Process Junkies post for THE CULL that I’m sure will be way more insightful than what I’m offering up today, but until that time, I thought you’d enjoy a look at process on a page from Script to final Lettered Page ready for print.

Let’s get into it!

All art and colors by the brilliant Mattia De Iulis. All …

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Two of the questions I get asked the most are “how I come up with new ideas” and “what cheats I have for solving writer’s block” — and the biggest/best answer to both questions is the same thing: Brainstorming with Mind Mapping.

Which sounds like some crazy high tech nonsense but it’s actually very simple, organic, and messy. And messy is key. Let me ex…

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Issue 4, page 9.

Have you seen the clip where it’s just a preacher saying ‘ya done f@cked up’ over and over again?

Issue 4.  Page 9.

This is Meredith, and I have made DECISIONS.

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I can’t actually post the script, because there are spoilery spoil spoils as the page goes on.  Here, however, is the description of Panel 1:

Panel 1. Essex and Pax, back in their gear and walking the streets of the city (let’s start with them in the Narrows (like where they found Freyal in issue 1) and they’re working their way up toward the precinct. They’re both back in uniform. LATE MORNING.

I approach every page with some level of: ‘I’m going to do better today, than I did yesterday.’  And this page had a lot of potential.  City backgrounds.  A little more rigid than a natural setting, but I’m good with them.  Morning light.  Ooo.  That could be fun.

People that actually occupy this city?  F@ck me.

I read this page and knew it was going to be a long haul.  First, because I can never seem to cram enough small city effluvia into a scene to satisfy my needs.  Especially one like Kiros.  Everything is built on top of each other.  Lots of cues from Hong Kong and narrow New York streets.  Has to feel lived in.  Has to have lots of niddily little things.  And trash.  And uneven ends.  Might have to free hand it a little bit.

And yeah, that took a while.

But now there have to be PEOPLE.  …Or people things.

There has to be.  I don’t buy that this is a city without people.  Nobody else will either.  Could I get away with it?  Probably.  Kelly gives me a lot of slack, bless her.  But I, tragically, have a low threshold for my own bullshit.  And, more pressingly, a CRIPPLING anxiety that you will all one day discover that I am actually a lazy little trash panda and drum me out of the industry forever.

Fear, the great motivator.

Here’s my little confession.  I’m liable to put anybody in a crowd.

That dad I saw with his toddler yesterday?  Yup.  David the Gnome?  Sure.  That robot from Laputa?  We can get that silhouette in there.  If I put Totoro in, would we be sued?  Hachishakusama?  ABSOLUTLEY.  Chewbacca?  No.  Bigfoot.  No.  Just a mass of animate hair.  Yes.  That looks right.  I wonder if I can get away with all the Straw Hat Pirates.  Slenderman was in the last issue.  Did you spot him?  Might put him in again and again and again.

The truth is, I can design characters all day long.  But the second you tell me a scene will require exactly a whole lot of that, my brain goes bye bye.  It’s a manufacturer defect.  I blame the factory.

So yeah.  A lot of the time I have to do a crowd scene, I just pop over to Twitter and see what kind of people like things folks are posting, and into the comic they go.  Selfies, fan art, mascots. Yes, please. Give me more.

I have a whole ’nother page of this.

And I wanna be happy when it’s done.

I have no one to blame but myself.

(There are a lot more people in the next page)

Kelly: Bwaaahahhahahaa! ;D

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Hello friends and foes!

Meredith here, taking over for Kelly today to talk about some of the art process of BLACK CLOAK, featuring a favorite of ours Page 21 of Issue 3 (Issue 3 in print, but it was Chapter 4 on the Substack - Kelly!)

Looks promising, doesn’t it? I was pleased.

When getting started, Kelly gives me a script page, outlining the settings, actions, and dialogues of the characters.  This one was especially fun, because it gave me some extra play with the two parts of the city.  The Narrows and The Trees.

It’s an interesting dichotomy because there needs to be a balance of disconnect and cohesiveness.  Both places are distinct in their atmosphere but must also feel like they were both part of the same city.

For this, the Narrows are based off the small city spaces.  The back-alley shops and tiny walkways we have in panel 1.  But as Essex gets closer to the trees, the space starts to open into something bigger and grander.  Something Essex is only a small part of.

Also, from an artist standpoint, having a different background in each panel gives you a little freedom.  It’s easier to go wild when I know I won’t have to actually figure out the nitty gritty of moving a character through the space for an entire scene.

(That involves physics and a minor in architecture.  Although there is a lot of magic here, so maybe they need less load bearing walls…)

Anyway, new places, for a short time only.  It’s like candy.

My pencils are tight enough that I don’t have to stretch my mental muscles too hard moving on to inking.  For me, each step of setting up a comic page is about making the next step a little easier.  I’ve tried to go down the ‘I’ll fix it in inks/colors’ road.  It does not work for me, unfortunately.  (Though, in the practice of textbook insanity, I do find myself repeating these methods from time to time, hoping it will yield a different outcome, and relearning the same lesson.  Over and over again). But anyways, if something looks bad in pencils, it probably won’t look great later down the line either.  At least for me. So I do my best to just suck it up and tackle problems as soon as they arise.

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I am not a fancy inker.  With hard solid blacks and orderly crosshatching strokes.  Oo la la.   I’m really drawn to the cell animation look, so leaving a page with simple line work, where colors have all the room to shine, is my preference.  Also. I’m lazy. The most variety I introduce to the inks stage is:  stroke width 15 …and stroke width 9.

I am but a simple creature.

This is also usually the point where I flip the picture once, just to make sure everything looks proper.  A lot of artists tend to have a drawing bias towards their left or their right.  When you flip the picture, you can usually spot which way you lean.  (Usually, it’s in parallel lines on a wall or the eyes on a face.  The lines all slant distinctively in one direction.  One eye is all wonky and not at all where it belongs.  It’s usually pretty obvious).

True, there is a STRONG LIKELIHOOD that no one will ever see the page flipped the wrong way around.  But the chance is not zero.  (In the past, when a book was going from a country that reads left to right to a country that reads from right to left, the publishers would cut corners by just flipping the page around.  The results were not always super great and awesome.)

Anyways, you fix what needs fixing and flip it back and then you go to colors.  :)

This was the first pass at colors.  And I was pretty happy.  In previous pages we had established that The Narrows were experiencing a sort of rolling black out throughout the city called a ‘Brown Out,’ making it a little less vibrant.  But the light was fading into late afternoon, which gave me a chance to play with some lovely burnt tones.

Unfortunately, this was not the vibe.

It was too cohesive.  The Trees didn’t feel separate enough from the rest of the city.  They get to keep their magic on during a Brown Out.   They’re playing by a different set of rules.  It SHOULD feel magical and distant from all the muddled colors of the city.  A special place.

Which brings us to:

We kept the burnt tones of the first two panels, easing into the neon vibrancy of The Trees.  Kelly likes to challenge me (in the best, most loving way) with ‘dark’ scenes that are still legible when printed. 

…It’s a learning process.  But there has been improvement on my end.  The trick that’s been working for me lately is just making the highlighted rim lights as BRIGHT AS POSSIBLE.  It makes everything around them look a little darker than they really are.

And with this we were ALMOST there.  Just a little bit off.  Needed a nudge.

We really had to push the element of this area being just a little more magical, so that meant fitting in a mandala somewhere.  And Kelly had this great idea for signage on the gate.  Just to really drive home that this is a place Essex is DISCOURAGED from entering.  The wordage she decided on fit a little neon sign perfectly.

A little lens flare and we had a page.

Obviously, there’s a couple more steps before the page is printed, but that’s my end of it.  It’s fun and rightly challenging, and I really love when I can look at a finished page and say ‘we did real good.’

And on to the next one.

^_^

-Meredith

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Oooooh. Fancy.

Yes, yes it is.

So I’ve been working on this one for a little while - and thanks to the generosity of some of comics best writers it’s turned into such a cool little post.

One of the big things that slowed me down when I was a young writer, was trying to figure out how the hell to format things. How to do it right and not look like a dum-dum…or just plain unprofessional. But back when I was a kid first figuring this stuff out, the Internet wasn’t really A THING. At least not like it is now (yes, I am old, let’s move on!)

In fact, when trying to figure out how to write scripts I finally had to get my hands on a “Hollywood Memorabilia” mail order catalog and ORDER a script THROUGH THE MAIL.

How did we ever survive?

Anyway, even though I eventually got my hands on that TV show script and it helped a lot, finding a comic book script was basically impossible for a cautious nobody like me.

And honestly? That hasn’t changed AS MUCH as you’d think. Because while I assume with the vastness of the Internet that there are a lot more comic book scripts out there - it’s still one of the most frequent questions I get from readers. So I’m going to do the best thing I know how to do for you guys, and that’s show you some samples of other writers scripts along with my own.

In Film & Television scripts have VERY clear rules. There’s a way to make your scripts look professional and read correctly and then there’s almost all the other ways, which, unless you’re already a name (that can break the rules whenever you want) it’s a quick ticket to looking like a rank amateur.

But comic book scripts, while they certainly have guidelines, there is very little “this is right” and “this is wrong.” Sure some script formats are better than others. Some are easier to read and/or prettier than others. And while we all have our favorite and less favorite things we do and don’t do, the truth is you’re still allowed the flexibility to make it your own, without being marked as unprofessional.

One of the coolest things - well after I had broken into comics - was getting to see other big time professional writer’s scripts - to see what they were doing the same as I was and what they were doing differently. It was both educational and super fun. I didn’t ever embrace someone else’s script formatting wholesale (I use mine for a reason - I like it!) but like other writers I know, I definitely borrowed cool things I found in other writer’s scripts and other times took things and changed them slightly to make them my own. And I thought…with the help of some awesome colleagues that I’d like to give you all a taste of that experience.

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I’m sure you guys are already well familiar with Lee Garbett, who’s had a really interesting and impressive career, but just in case you don’t — in addition to two runs of CAPTAIN MARVEL (The Last Avenger and The New World) he did the terrific creator-owned books SKYWARD and SHADECRAFT with Joe Henderson. He also built LOKI: AGENTS OF ASGARD with Al Ewing and he’s currently drawing the very cool DEATH OF DOCTOR STRANGE for Marvel.

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KELLY: Hey Lee! Thanks so much for joining me on here!

LEE: Thank you for having me!

KELLY: Though there are lots of things I’d like to talk to you about, today we’re gonna talk some “Dark Carol” Captain Marvel costume design and I wanna jump right in, if you don’t mind?

LEE: Awesome! Let’s!

KELLY: So, we didn’t really know one another when you joined the project – I mean, I was a huge fan and we’d chatted a bit here and there, but we’d never worked together before and didn’t really know one another – so you came in — cold — to Captain Marvel to do this huge high profile re-design right off the bat, was that intimidating?

LEE: Not so much intimidating as just plain exciting. I’d been hoping to work with you for ages as I was a huge fan of your work and, without trying to embarrass you here, you’re also the writer I’d always heard other writers talking about as being the best out there, so I was super-stoked to join you on Captain Marvel. The added chance to create a new look for her was just more awesome icing on the cake.

My ‘other job’ is designing costumes and characters for TV, Movies, etc so it’s something I love to do and I always want to get my hands on iconic characters and have a go at them. The chance to offer my take on a legend like Carol Danvers was like my two favourite worlds colliding.

KELLY: That’s so kind of you to say. Thank you. And I didn’t know you did a lot of costumes and character design for Film and Television but that makes a ton of sense!

KELLY: So…looking at this first pass stuff - it’s so strong, right out of the gate; I can’t believe these are your first passes. Like, I would like to see her in ALL these looks. I mean, I honestly love that yellow and black look so freaking much – but I still feel now and think I said back then that it was too much like Darkstar’s costume (which I also love). Like, if she saw Carol in this look she’d be all “Carol, was it you I saw digging through my dirty laundry?” But that’s totally a great alt reality look for Carol that I’d love to do one day.

Do you like these when you look back? It’s funny to think where we started – so innocent! – compared to where we ended up?

LEE: Haha. Yeah, it can be a little awkward at first. You try and throw everything at the wall to see what sticks. A lot of it is just getting ideas down so they’re out of your head and out of the way. Also, it’s a case of finding just how far you can go with it. Do you push slightly out of the norm or go for extremes.  A lot of these early images look like gentle feeling around to see what takes. They do seem very tame, compared to where we eventually landed.

LEE: There are elements that reflected the movie version a little more, elements that tried to keep it more classic Kree and the first version of Mar-Vell Captain Marvel. That was something I kept in my thoughts throughout.

KELLY: Smart. And I can see it. Once we’d honed in on the darker edgier helmet look I don’t think there was any going back. But we were still playing with color – and also whether the we were doing a traditional centered Hala star, or the asymmetrical. I was ALWAYS team asymmetrical…you?

LEE: Yeah. Asymmetry is always great. That little unbalance adds that extra element of interest to the design. Especially for characters that are meant to have a darker or monstrous edge. Just throw things off-kilter a little and it makes it more alien. Plus we had the centre-star of the helmet already.

KELLY: One of my favorite things about this costume is how simple it actually is – despite having a complicated helmet and a tattered sash…it’s just really clean – only two colors, nice simple lines. I feel like simple is really hard. When you’re designing something like this how do you even get started? What kind of references do you look at? Do you go back and read old comics? Is there any trick you’ve found to help trigger you?

LEE: That’s music to my ears as simple is the hardest thing but it’s what you strive for in the design. I try and work with a silhouette in mind. If you can identify a character from just the silhouette then you’re onto something.

With the stripes I figured let’s make them more like blood trails than uniform piping. It just adds to the rawness and dangerousness of the character and the sort of organic quality of the costume. Again, you’re looking for a bit of function to dictate the form too, so you try to tap into what the image is meant to represent and then work outwards from there.

I’ve been a life-long Marvel reader. I grew up in a house where they were always around and they’re pretty much the first things I remember seeing so I’ve got all that in my memory banks too.

KELLY: Do writers/editors/whoever frequently send you references if you’re designing something like this – or is more often a sort of free for all? I’d imagine references could be both a blessing and a curse.

LEE: Usually it’s a free for all, though some reference for the character, if they’ve existed beforehand – or their homeworld or cohorts etc - is always helpful. If there’s some history there you always want to echo those elements. 

KELLY: Speaking of reference, I can’t remember if we sent you the Vox design – you hadn’t yet designed the Vox Supreme variation – but were you looking at Vox when you did the Carol design? I ask because, I don’t know if I realized it before, but looking back, the Dark Carol look actually FEELS like what Vox Supreme would design – and since he made the suit – that’s exactly as it should be. Was that on your mind?

LEE: That’s great! Yeah, I tried to work on the basis that the costume comes from Vox’s world so it would have to echo his aesthetic, to some degree. It’s all those little touchstones you throw into the mix and hope something comes out of it that resonates and feels connected but it’s own thing too.

KELLY: Do you feel like you make different choices when designing for a male character vs a female character?

LEE: I don’t think so. It’s more a focus on the intent of the character. Whatever their tone and vibe is, I try to echo that in the design. Carol is a soldier and this costume is for a dark warrior with a dash of sci-fi so that’s the bag of tricks I have to work with. Then you add in some comic-y stylings into the mix too. I do have an eye on designing with a mind that MCU and Game characters might develop from these too now, of course, so that’s also another element.

KELLY: A lot of people are very into more practical/realistic costume design and a lot of people really hate that idea – where do you fall?

LEE: Probably somewhere in the middle but leaning towards the more comic-based designs. Which is not always the case with my own work. I recently designed a bunch of costumes and characters for a Doctor Strange book (Ed Note: Death of Doctor Strange! Pick it up, kids!) and I was leaning towards realistic/movie design styles as I’d assumed that was what was now preferred. It was great when the feedback from the Editor was to push it back towards a more comic-y look.

That’s why we love comics. It’s not always meant to work, real world. It just needs to be awesome on the page.  You can’t beat Kirby designs and that is pure comics.

KELLY: Totally agree. I remember one impractical thing on Captain Marvel’s “Dark Carol” design was the dark eyes/under eyes “make-up warpaint” – it makes literally no sense but sometimes you just wanna do something because it’s looks fucking cool. You, me, and our editor Sarah all loved it, despite ourselves, so we kept it. Do you find things like that happening a lot? Or are people typically more cautious?

LEE: God, yes. Haha. I love that look. And I thought you and Sarah would too. What’s not to love?

I actually have to stop myself adding it to characters as it’s just always cool but I figured we could get away with it on Dark Carol – especially as I wanted her to still have that badass vibe even when she’s not wearing the helmet.

KELLY: Does whoever’s asking you to do the design EVER pick your favorite?

LEE: Haha. Almost never. This was an exception.

KELLY: I’m so glad to hear we were an exception! So is there anything I didn’t ask that you want to say? Now’s your last chance! (Well, of course it’s not, but we should try to end this with SOME DRAMA!)

I do want to thank you and I did think of one last question - one of the many reasons I wanted to do this with you is because the new Captain Marvel “Last of the Marvels” storyline started up last month – which heavily features lots of characters in your “Dark Carol” suit – how does it feel to see others drawing it and sometimes even taking it on in a new direction?

LEE: It’s surreal – and awesome. When it’s you drawing your own design it feels like it’s limited to your project but when you start seeing that design cross over into other books or story arcs it feels like it’s really taken on a life of its own. It’s the highest hopes you could have for a design, really. I was thrilled when I heard the Last of the Marvels storyline was happening. Thank you for bringing it back!!! =)

KELLY: Thank you for making the first one so good that the fans wanted more and we were able to get another great story out of it!

LEE: Now if we can just arrange a Dark Captain Marvel action figure or Hot Toy, my life will be complete.

KELLY: You are reading my mind, Lee!

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Huge thanks to Lee for coming on and talking costume design. I hope to have him on in the future to talk creating new characters and some other cool stuff. Shout out in the comments to show him your love & support and feel free to lob questions at us, I can’t promise Lee will answer, but I definitely will.

All right, I gotta get back to work, these comics won’t write themselves, much to my eternal chagrin. Be safe and kind when possible, kiddos. <3

~Kelly

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Although it’s hard for me to imagine any of you guys following this Substack NOT knowing who the insanely talented Elena Casagrande is, just in case I’ll do a short introduction.

In addition to drawing the hell out of our Eisner-winning BLACK WIDOW book, Elena has worked on books like CATWOMAN, BATGIRL, BATMAN SECRET FILES, and much much more.

Elena has made a name for herself in a very short time as one of the best action artists in modern comics with her incredible action speads in BLACK WIDOW, but she’s pretty great at the non-action stuff too. I did a cool process post on one of those spreads from Black Widow #3 which you can read about here:

1979 Semi-Finalist

Newsletter #6 Now Eisner Flavored!

Here we are again. Thanks for coming back. I’ve got an extra special treat for you…well, actually two. Let’s get into it! First things first. BLACK WIDOW got nominated for an Eisner for best new continuing series! WOOOO! There are a…

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5 years ago · 13 likes · 4 comments · Kelly Thompson

And I plan to have Elena back to talk some more about those action spreads, but TODAY I wanted to talk to her about another thing she’s becoming known for - really terrific superhero costume design. So let’s dig in!

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KELLY: Hey Elena! Thank you so much for joining me on here! I am hoping to have you back soon to talk about some of those incredible action spreads from Black Widow, but today we are going to talk about Black Widow costume design and I want to jump right in, if you do not mind?

ELENA: Absolutely!

KELLY: This costume was scary to even consider changing, because Natasha has one of the great iconic looks in comics – very simple but with huge impact. Were you intimidated by that?

ELENA: Thinking about it today, yes, I'm a bit intimidated because reading the feedback by the readers I'm surprised (in a positive way) how much they enjoyed it and gave real importance to the design. Initially I was really excited, I always get big pleasure creating costumes or dresses, and this represented to me a huge opportunity to have fun and give to the character something mine. I can't deny I had some anxiety when I had to find a way to keep the classic version of the costume and at the same time to make it more contemporary, but I love these kind of challenges!

KELLY: Even I was hesitant to change her costume, because I love the existing one, but we knew for the story that we needed to indicate a change in her, one that should show even in her costume – a make over of your life has to include your costume, right?

ELENA: Yes, totally agree! We "refresh" our look when something is changed in our life, like new haircut or new wardrobe, why she shouldn't do it? Something huge has happened in Nat's life, I think it's really human to let that be acknowledged in her costume and also in her very concept of hero.

KELLY: When you are designing something like this how do you even get started? What kind of references do you look at? Do you go back and read old comics? Is there any trick you’ve found to help trigger you?

ELENA: If I'm working in a team I consider all the opinions from my team, they can give me a lot of great input and help me understand the ways I have to explore. From that point I look for references from the real world — obviously we don't have real superheroes, so I look for work-uniforms or tracksuits that could have the features that could be useful in a fight. I don’t usually look at the movie version of costumes, because despite the fact that they have great designs, they're often too complicated to re-create into comics. And yes, I check old comics, to have some idea how the character moves with the different costumes, and to just to keep in mind what seems nice to repurpose and what not. My personal trick (don't laugh) is to put me into character's mind, imagine what she/he has around and try to image what she/he can build with that material... like a cosplayer, ahaha!

KELLY: I think that’s really smart, especially for a character like Natasha. In fact, we were really interested in something that was practical – not just that she could fight in – but also that we could debut a lot of fun – but hidden toys. Was that a big part of your approach on this one?

ELENA: I thought that like in the old version of the costume, she could have a lot of tricks into the gauntlets and into the belt (also - it’s not a classic belt but a belt of circles full of tiny gadgets), but the biggest part of this design has been the backpack. I had to create something "hidden" but consistent that she can use in a practical way, so, inspired by the back of the motorbike tracksuits, I imagined this parachute inside her jacket that she can digitally program by remote or with a little touch screen on the top allowing the parachute to fully open - letting the backpack open like a lotus flower and then close again once she on the ground. The backpack is integrated as part of her new jacket, in order to keep her stable during flight, and the jacket has two straps to be sure she's safe with it. I'm pretty satisfied with the result!

KELLY: What do you find gets in your way when you’re trying to design for others? What about for yourself?

ELENA: Well, I don't find big difference between design for others and design for myself, surely when I do something with a team I have more "limits" to consider because I have to respect and realize what others have in mind, but when I do it for myself I can put away some limits that usually are always practical: how complicated is this costume? Can I draw it every time in every panel? Is it practical for the character or is just fantasy? So there are different obstacles but no more in a situation than the other one.

KELLY: Obviously Widow is the big draw here, but you also did a terrific costume for new hero Lucy Nguyen.  It was a tricky directive in that we needed something that at first felt like she could have assembled it from Black Widow’s spare stuff…but we still needed it to eventually look really specific and personal to Lucy. How did you approach that design?

ELENA: Like I said before... like a cosplayer! XD I imaged Lucy in Nat's refuge walking around and seeing what she can use and what she would like to have on her, so I considered keeping something from her civilian style and something high-tech (you suggested to give to her a belt with potential toys!), then I had to fuse these needs also with her new power feature: that she can't touch pretty much anything! So the base of the costume is a "basic" tracksuit ("basic" but obviouly it has tecnology that can help Lucy to be more resistant, strong or just safe) like it could seem to be Nat and Yelena's ones, and put something over it that was more personalized, in her street-style, like the poncho-cape-gloves and the boots with the straps.

KELLY: You seem to have a real talent for complex costumes – that have multi-functional pieces – like jackets and capes and gloves and toys – but you still keep the design really elegant and sleek and almost simple. What’s your secret? Any tips or tricks you can suggest?

ELENA: Comic artists need to be a lot of things at the same time: art directors, actors, set designers, sometimes scientists, photography directors and obviously costume designers. Based on the kind of comics I'm working on, I used to imagine myself to behave like a real costume designer, who works for movies or TV series, imagining something that can be "easily" used by the actor/character but it's also cool to see for the audience. The part of the job I have to consider more than that is that I have to replicate the costume by myself every time, so I try to be cool but "smart" as well.

KELLY: What are some of YOUR favorite superhero costumes?

ELENA: I love the modern version of Hawkeye, so simple but cool; the version of Catwoman by Joelle Jones is a perfect combination between the movie version, the classic version, and a stylish modern version; Batgirl by Cameron Stewart has been a great example of how to renew and actualize a character and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new design of Spider-Man Miles Morales by Chase Conley. It's so stylish, fresh, in character, and cool to draw... it's perfect!

KELLY: What do you look for in a good costume?

ELENA: Beyond all what we said about practical inspirations and various references, aesthetically I always look at the dynamic lines and how they go be broken: I refer to them like ideal lines that suggest the most important parties of a body or its movements, that can suggest fluidity; but having only them can be boring so what I like to see it's how they can be interrupt by something else, some opposite lines. It can happen into haircut of a characters, into their dress, their shoes, their armor. White lines on Nat's dress follow this fundamentals and give something more dynamic to see.

KELLY: Do you feel like you make different choices when designing for a male character vs a female character?

ELENA: No, I don't. Gender is less important than the personality of the characters. The origin of a costume is exactly that: not what they are, but what they feel to be.

KELLY: A lot of people are very into more practical/realistic costume design and a lot of people really hate that idea – where do you fall?

ELENA: In the middle! Why is it impossible to think that there's a way that can be a perfect combination of the two situations? Honestly, it depends on the target of the audience of the comics I'm working on, but I do look at reality when I think about how the character will move in their costume, and then I use imagination to let it be more catchy for the readers. Like those white lines on Nat's costume I mentioned: they have no practical sense, they're useless, but they didn't invalidate it and are cool to look at.

KELLY: Does whoever is asking you to do a design EVER pick your favorite?

ELENA: I did few designs during my career and most of them I did for creator-owned projects, so the visual supervisor was only me and I didn't have to spend too much time fixing them, ahaha! When instead I did designs for famous characters, they have not always they picked my favorite, but in the end I felt this could bring me to do a design even more beautiful than the design I initially fell in love with.

KELLY: How does it feel to see other iconic artists like Adam Hughes drawing your design? What about seeing fans cosplay it?

ELENA: I grew up looking at Adam's works and cosplaying characters by others, so every time, EVERY SINGLE TIME, that I see them use something I created... I still need to realize it! I don't know if I'm stupid, naive, or it's just me who doesn’t want to admit I'm getting old and now I'm on the other side of the fence, ahaha!

KELLY: You are none of those things! But you ARE a brilliant comic maker - just like those you looked up to like Adam!

KELLY: Did I miss anything we should talk about?

ELENA: Yeah! One of the hardest parts of the design of Nat's costume was how to hide her identity... ahahaha! Remember initially we needed to keep her face under the radar? I proposed a lot of things but nothing that was so cool and practical (to dress and to draw), and then the simpliest idea won: the hood!

KELLY: You’re right of course. I liked a lot of these ideas, but since she’s not gone to much trouble to cover her face in the past, I felt like the hoodie was the simplest solve that made the most sense for her.

ELENA: It has been really nice to work on it together!

KELLY: I feel the same, Elena. It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience to work with you on this book - we have an amazing team.

KELLY: Well, thank you for doing this, Elena, I hope you’ll come back and talk about those famous action pages with me sometime!

ELENA: Thanks as always to you Kelly, my deep pleasure! To the next time! ^_^

Okay, my doves, that’s it for this week. I have a couple more interviews with awesome creators in the pipeline and I’m also working on a fun scripting piece. Plus I want to start ramping up the BLACK CLOAK teasers as that launch gets closer. So gird your loins…and make sure to subscribe so you keep getting this content! There will definitely be something cool next week that is BEHIND the paywall, so get in now! ;D

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Be good to yourselves and others and make sure to wear a mask and wash your hands. Again. <3

~Kelly

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Today we’ve got another special installment - part two of my interview with the fantastic Carmen Carnero - as we discuss Superhero Costume Design and in particular her terrific apocalyptic CAPTAIN MARVEL designs for Carol Danvers, Echo, Hazmat, and Spider-Woman.

For any of you not already in the know, Carmen is the incredible comic book artist that currently draws MILES MORALES SPIDER-MAN, she also helped me launch CAPTAIN MARVEL way back in 2019 — and drew not only 9 gorgeous issues (#1-5 and #8-11) — but as you can see here she did TONS of costume design for us. If you haven’t already, check out Part 1 about the design of her iconic STAR costume.

KELLY: Picking up where we left off last time, Carmen, do you have a different process for those different types of design — all new design versus re-design of an iconic character? Can you walk us through some of the steps you take when doing these kinds of costume designs or re-designs?

CARMEN: I always begin with research. To give you an example, for the post-apocalyptic designs I watched movies, TV shows, fashion designs, etc. Anything that would get me on a path and didn’t look like anything before it. I enjoy that part a lot. Then I start playing with ideas and designs and I send that first batch. At that point the hard work starts. Once I receive the feedback I develop the design we’ve all liked the most and I send I again. The next and last pass would be to polish details and to send the definitive design.

KELLY: When we got put on Captain Marvel together it was huge for both of us – the movie was coming out just a couple months after our #1 and Carol Danvers was about to have millions more fans than she had before. It was such a big moment. So what did we do? We took her out of the traditional highly visible costume after one issue and put her in a weird post apocalyptic bubble with a new look! Haha

KELLY: But all jokes aside, this is really a case of your designs just being TOO POWERFUL! Because as I recall Marvel was pretty nervous about us telling this sort of alternate reality FEELING/LOOKING story right off the bat – but when they saw your apocalyptic designs everyone just got really excited. It was like suddenly there was no resistance. I was at the summit where they first showed off the designs and people were freaking out over them. That was actually how we were able to get that wraparound “design variant” for issue 2 as I recall -- impressing everyone at the summit.

CARMEN: I remember the day you told me about all that and it was just too crazy for me. I had just landed in New York to announce issue #1 and my Marvel exclusivity at New York Comic Con and the first thing I did upon arrival was to have dinner with almost all the Captain Marvel team, only Tamra couldn’t join us. The thing is that we started having dinner and you were all so happy for the reception the idea had have in the Summit. In that table, that eve, we discussed many ideas I hope we can do someday…

KELLY: Me too! I can’t wait until we can work together again!

KELLY: So, I’m a huge fan of alternate reality stories, and though this wasn’t technically that, it had a lot of that energy. And one of my favorite things about those kind of stories is seeing new looks for beloved characters. How do you approach something like that – something where you’re trying to do something all-new that fits a new environment/circumstances but that still FEELS like the character we know and love and maybe even directly references it? Any secrets you can share?

CARMEN: In this case the first thing I thought is that in that post-apocalyptic world all the “new” clothes should come from or evolve from the old ones. Maybe with add-ons of leather/armors a la Mad Max or simply patches in their suits that show the passing of time in that bubble. Once I had the idea designs came much easily. What worked was to start from their regular suits and that those distinctive parts were recognizable with the add-ons/modifications. 

KELLY: As I recall we went back and forth on a lot of different Carol options, but I remember loving your Jessica Drew (and Echo) looks right off the bat. You had three to start and they were all great, and one I was just totally in love with – I don’t think you changed anything from that first design. AND you had done on that first pass this sort of spider-shaped “war paint” on her face and it was so damn cool. When EVERYONE goes “well that looks fucking cool” it must feel pretty great.

CARMEN: Yes, it feels amazing! It doesn’t happen often. Jessica’s design was the only one where I knew I had nailed it and it gave me the idea to unify all the designs: that was to create face  paints for all of them. That would unify all the women as if they were part of a tribe.

KELLY: Right! Of course Echo already has that hand print “war paint” as her traditional/base look, so trying it for all of them made tons of sense when you did that incredible Spider-Woman design. Because Hazmat had a covering on her face, we just put it on the mask. But Carol turned out to be tricky. As I recall we all just assumed the Hala star would work great and then we all hated it! It gave her a really evil look, right?

CARMEN: Yes, it didn’t work and that’s why I moved the star to the side of the shaved head.

KELLY: Yeah, as I recall we were sorta out of ideas – we wanted Carol to match the others, but nothing was working - and then you started looking at Military Insignia – right?

CARMEN: True, I found the Captain insignias of the US Air Force and it was only a matter of picking the right position. I love to research because the cool ideas always come from doing that.

KELLY: Because we were dealing with an “apocalyptic-ish” environment, it meant we were doing a kind of Mad Max-ish thing – but that means a lot of details – belts and pouches and layers. Did you ever regret those amazing but detailed designs once you had to execute them in the issues?

CARMEN: Yes, since page 1 of issue 2 I told myself, why have you done these to yourself, including so many details? The problem was checking everything a lot of times to make sure it was correct.

KELLY: I feel you. I’ve never had it THAT bad as a writer, but I’ve definitely done things I thought were cool and then came to regret them because they were a huge pain. When you look back at these designs do you still really like them? And either way, is that typical for you?

CARMEN: I love those designs. I wouldn’t change them because they’re not the typical ones you see in a superhero comic-book.

KELLY: Totally agree, I love them so much even today. Are there things you catch yourself wishing you could change, or wishing that we had picked a different version for?

CARMEN: In my head I always see some things I’d change from the work I did the day before, but this is not one of those cases. I wouldn’t change anything at all. I have a folder full of references for other things that I couldn’t add like vehicles, weaponry, etc. This arc was an endless fountain of ideas.

KELLY: Ugh. That’s usually my biggest frustration with comics, there’s never enough time/space to do everything you want to do! So all of these characters here are ladies, but you also did a Nuclear Man re-design and a new character Som for this arc – do you feel like you make different choices when designing for a male character vs a female character?

CARMEN: I normally don’t make distinctions but in Nuclear Man’s case it was necessary to signal his toxic masculinity and his body build was huuuuuuuuge. I think when you design characters you have to think about their body build, powers, and that kind of thing more than thinking about their gender. Maybe in my case powers are what dictates the most in terms of the design.

KELLY: That makes a lot of sense to me. A lot of people are very into more practical/realistic costume design and a lot of people really hate that idea – where do you fall?

CARMEN: I always think about the realistic part of the design, how it’ll move, if it allows freedom of movement, etc. There’s characters with exquisite designs but then it’s impossible to make them have exaggerated moves in fights. The design needs to be practical first, and then it must look good because sooner or later, at least in superhero books, someone else will have to draw it.

KELLY: Does whoever’s asking you to do the design EVER pick your favorite?

CARMEN: NEVER, same as it happens with the covers, they always pick the one I like the least, hahaha. But it helps seeing other points of view and not getting trapped in your own idea. This is a teamwork.

KELLY: That’s a very generous way to look at it. And you’re certainly right about the teamwork and collaboration. How does it feel to see other artists – and also fans/cosplayers – interpreting and celebrating the designs – both in and out of comic books?

CARMEN: It feels amazing. I love to see other artists interpreting my designs. It made me really happy to see a group of people cosplaying with my post-apocalyptic designs on Instagram, it’s so cool. I dream about going to a con and crossing paths with somebody wearing a cosplay with something I’ve designed.

KELLY: Yeah, Covid certainly didn’t make that as easy as it used to be, but I’m sure it will happen for you. Thank you so much for doing this Carmen - you know how much I hope we get to work together again someday.

CARMEN: I think that would make a lot of people happy, so I hope so, too!

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Okay, that’s it for today, but huge thanks to Carmen for being so generous with her time in taking this stroll down superhero costume memory lane. I’ve got a couple more interviews lined up already, including one with current BLACK WIDOW artist Elena Casagrande! Woo!

So stay tuned and be good to each other when possible, and when not, well, fuck ‘em.

~Kelly

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We’ve got something really special for today - a new “Process Junkie” post - an interview about superhero costume design with the fantastic Carmen Carnero, comic book artist of titles like MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN, CAPTAIN MARVEL, X-MEN: RED, HELLIONS and so much more!

I was so excited about Carmen talking to me about this stuff that I wrote way too many questions, so I’m going to break this one up into two parts. Today we’ll talk about her design of STAR and tomorrow we’ll talk about her apocalyptic CAPTAIN MARVEL costumes.

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KELLY: Hey Carmen! Thanks so much for joining me on here!

CARMEN: Thanks to you for having me!

KELLY: Before we start I just want to give a shout out to the lovely David Macho who helped us with a bit of translation - thanks David! So we’re gonna talk some STAR and APOCALYPTIC CAPTAIN MARVEL costume design and we’re going to start with Star because people are crazy for that costume! Star’s look is just a hugely iconic costume. I credit that perfect costume almost entirely with the character’s initial popularity – did you have any idea she’d be SO popular right out of the gate? Did you feel we had something really special when we locked in the final design?

CARMEN: I didn’t think people would love it so much, so fast, no, but I did know the issue would be a success and the beginning of a great arc. It was one of those times when you know since the beginning it’s going to be a very special issue, because of the presentation of Star but also because of the varied storytelling I would be able to draw on the pages. When we locked the design, I didn’t have the slightest idea it would be so popular but I believe the key to its success was us picking the option that reminded people of a classic superhero.

KELLY: Yeah, I think you’re right. When I look back at those first passes – it’s so clear that WE knew we were building a villain from color palette alone. But I think the notes back from that first round were that there were tons of good ideas but that it just couldn’t be black because though WE knew she was a baddie, we needed her to be pretending to be a good guy. Which totally changed the direction. Right?

CARMEN: True, I remember that in the first designs the general note was that it should be heroic, but it should also work for a villain later on. That made me try something more typical, like a tactical suit, there’s no movie/tv where the hero or villain always has a suit prototype, something more home made. That was the original idea, being true that the combination of black and red made it look as if the balance was shifting more towards villain. That was the moment when we decided it shouldn’t be ambiguous but to trick the readers so they thought she would be the new hero taking the spotlight away from Carol.

KELLY: Exactly! Did you miss the black when we switched it up, or were you excited?

CARMEN: Absolutely not, that gave me more freedom to try other combinations. I remember red was a must (I didn’t know why until half the arc was done, LOL).

KELLY: Sorry about that! It was a while before we were sure the Infinity Stone thing was going to work, but we wanted the red there just in case!

CARMEN: Well, I tried several combinations of colors. I remember I even tried the same colors Carol had but with another design and it didn’t work because we all thought the white worked better.

KELLY: The white was sort of thrilling to me, but nothing was more thrilling than that asymmetrical short cape! I can’t remember whose idea it was to make it red on the underside, but in my memory (where I am OFTEN more impressive than in reality) it was my idea. Confirm or deny? LOL

CARMEN: The white/red along with the asymmetrical cape was the next option after the first feedback, I remember it was a crazy thread with the whole team giving their opinions and exploring options. I don’t remember whose idea was the red on the cape’s interior, but I don’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday. Since I work in comics I’ve become Dory and I don’t remember anything, hahaha.

KELLY: That sounds like confirmation to me! ;D

KELLY: The white of Star’s costume was such a deliberate and smart story choice we made, but it’s incredible how much it dictated what people seemed to think of her. Despite her horrific actions on the page, people saw that white costume and kicky cape and just thought “hero.” It really gave me some perspective into how powerful design can be – for good and ill. Did you have any of those experiences?

CARMEN: Yes, once white was decided, in my head the suit would only work if we really made everybody believe we had a hero that was better than Carol and so that influenced Star’s poses, and I drew her as classic and heroic as possible. It’s something you stressed a lot in the script and it helped us make the readers doubt. And it worked. Nobody saw it coming.

KELLY: Yeah, we totally pulled it off! Which is so hard in comics these days! When you’re doing costume design like this do you prefer to design for an all-new character or to do a re-design for an existing icon? I’d guess both have their advantages and disadvantages?

CARMEN: New character, no doubt, because redesigning a character can be a terrible pressure, at least for me. A new character is like a blank canvas, it’s my idea from scratch that I then refine with the writer. More than once the design also gives ideas to the writer and that’s a beautiful part of this job. I also enjoy re-designs, but sometimes the original suit is simply perfect and you don’t know where to start, which means a lot more work.

KELLY: Great design totally inspires me, you’re right. Sometimes all it takes is a fantastic drawing of a character by a particular artist to make me interested in that character. It’s very powerful stuff.

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Okay! I’m cutting it off here for now! But tomorrow I’ll post Part 2 where we talk about the apocalyptic CAPTAIN MARVEL costumes and lots more!

Until then, be kind to each other, and yourself. <3

~Kelly

But there’s a lot of cool stuff to learn in and around this topic, so rather than lumping it all in one too-long post (too late), I’m going to do a series of them. This first post will attempt to break down the actual comics scripting process for you a little bit and includes a link to a full script of mine. Future posts will include a sort of post-mortem on a full script - breaking it down piece by piece; a comparison between a script and the final comic; and even a post that includes a bunch of different (short) samples from other great writers in comics so you can see what creator X does compared to creator Y.

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Something to keep in mind before we dive in is that every writer, every editor, and every publisher varies a little bit. So every experience can be a bit different, but what I’m giving you here are pretty good guidelines and encompass my experiences across a wide range of comics publishers - Marvel, IDW, Dark Horse, Archie, Boom, and Dynamite in the last 10 years. I’ll also say that this post is not specifically about how *I* do a thing or advice about how to do these things, but more a step by step guide to how Scripting works in comics - what you can expect. It’s info I would have loved to know when I was first trying to break in.

For your reading pleasure - and for the first time ever on offer! - a full script of mine - BLACK WIDOW #3 can be downloaded AT THIS LINK. The password is: NATALIE

STAGES OF A SCRIPT

Since there are a lot of different kinds of comic scripts, and I’d say primarily two different methods these days - “Full Script” or “Marvel Style” - it’s important to note for the purposes of this post that I’m talking about “Full Scripts.” I have never written more than a few pages at a time “Marvel Style” so I’m no great expert to talk about writing in that style, but I AM an expert at “Full Script” so that’s what we’ll be focused on here.

That said, there is a great piece on THE BEAT talking about the evolution of “Marvel Style” scripting if you’re interested in learning more about those differences.

The other thing to note here is that I say SCRIPT. There are very important stages before you actually get to this point - like brainstorming, outlining, and even pitching. But those are all their own things, separate from writing your draft (and I’ve got some fun future posts planned for those too - especially the brainstorming post, that’s a favorite of mine).

But once you’re to the point that you’re actually scripting, as a good rule of thumb you’ll have these basic stages for your script:

DRAFT 1 - your first draft of the script that you submit to your editor(s).

DRAFT 2 - your second draft based on your editor(s) notes.

Obviously you may need more drafts than this, and sometimes if you are very very lucky, you maybe only need 1 draft! Yay! How many drafts you do really depends on a ton of factors however including everything from you and the project to all the other parts of the team involved in creating the word.

For fun: the fewest number of drafts I’ve done on one script is 1. The largest number of drafts I’ve done on one script was 9 for POWER RANGERS: PINK #1. Gah. But that was a co-write and so it was more like 4 or 5 drafts for me and 4 or 5 drafts for Brenden Fletcher. I’m pretty sure the largest number of drafts I’ve done on one script that had a sole writer was 4. A quick look at my files tells me that both HAWKEYE #4 and WEST COAST AVENGERS #4 got four drafts each as did DEADPOOL #1 and CAPTAIN MARVEL #1.

And I don’t know what that tells you other than…BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS ARE HARD. #Truth.

Oop - CAPTAIN MARVEL #2 had FIVE drafts. That might be our winner!

I guess all of that is to illustrate that this comics writing thing can be weirdly hard and even though you will absolutely get better at it (most of my scripts these days only need a second draft at most) there can always be exceptions - and those extra drafts can be for a lot of reasons - some of which have nothing to do with you.

It’s also important to remember that while only having to do one draft feels like a homerun, a huge part of the beauty of comics is the collaboration of it all. So while it’s fun to hit that homerun and show off how great YOU are with a “perfect” first draft. There’s nothing wrong with getting great feedback from smart people and making something that’s different - and maybe even better than your homerun attempt - on a second pass.

Uh. This went slightly off the rails somewhere after I introduced baseball for analogy purposes, I apologize.

Anyway, so here you are, you’ve turned in Draft 2 of your script and everyone is happy and the artist is now working on the script. How much you are involved in THIS part of the process again really depends on a lot of factors. Some writers like to step back and not be involved again until it’s time for another script pass, others want engagement at every step. I prefer to be involved - especially to review layouts - not because I WANT to make changes - but because if we do NEED any, I’d rather alert the artist when things are loose and easy to fix, instead of later when it will be a nightmare for everyone - most especially the artist. So I typically give notes on layouts - but I keep them as minimal as possible.

This ISN’T a chance to micromanage your artist - this is a chance to see what they’re bringing to the table, embrace it and lean into it, and only give them notes if there are legitimate errors or things you fear they might have missed in the script (or perhaps things you were not clear enough about in your script. Gasp!)

If you have some suggestions for things to consider, this might be the place to do that too, but you should definitely sort of feel that out on a case by case basis — how open your artist is to that kind of collaboration. Every artist and every writer-artist relationship is a bit different and feeling that out and being sensitive to it is important and gives you a much better shot at developing a great working relationship with a talented artist - and the latter is worth its weight in gold. Truly one of the most rewarding experiences as a writer in comics is in building those strong writer-artist relationships. It won’t always work out, but when it does it’s almost magical and so so fun.

LETTERING PASS - After the art has been finished (and maybe colors too if you’re lucky). Your editor sends you a PDF of the finished art (no lettering or sound effects unless they were drawn in directly by the artist) and asks you to do a LETTERING PASS on your script.

This means you’re matching the script up with the art and making any changes you want to see before it goes to the letterer. This typically includes both content changes you want and any mistakes you need to correct.

But it ALSO includes simply practical stuff - for example: you notice that there’s no room in panel 3 as drawn for the multiple balloons you wanted there — the letterer will absolutely not be able to fit it all. So you solve this by maybe editing or trimming your content, or perhaps you realize some of the balloons can work in the panels before or after the one in question that is too small/tight/crowded.

This pass also typically includes tweaking the script so it better matches the art.

I know that sounds weird, but think of it like this…initially your script was the rule of law for the book, but now that there’s final art, THAT’S the rule of law and your script is now just a map of how to get to the final level. And making the gap between the final art and your script as small as possible is the best thing you can do for your letterer. Give them the most updated and correct map you can.

A simple example of what I’m talking about would be if your script asked for 4 panels on page 1, but the artist ended up doing 5 panels - you now go into your LETTERING PASS and change page 1 to reflect that it is now 5 panels instead of 4.

And that COULD, but does not always, create a cascade of new changes - did adding a panel change where you want to put the balloons? Or make it necessary to add or delete balloons, etc.?

I think the best way to explain this is really just in looking at an example of a scene. Below I posted three jpgs of page 7 from Black Widow #3 (for clarity this is the first page from a multiple page scene).

The first image is the Second Draft of the script.

The second image is the Final Page as published.

And the third image is the Lettering Pass of the script.

I picked this page not because it’s a favorite, but because it’s a complicated scene where we were trying to get a lot of information down over just a few pages. Artist Elena Casagrande did an incredible job with the scene - making it better than it had any right to be - but part of her efforts to make it better also changed it. So I came in after she did her great work, and made mine fit to hers so it would read as seamlessly as possible, while still getting across the important information we needed.

The red formatting you see is because I write in Word (a lot of writers do, but plenty also use different and often fancier programs) and when doing re-drafts I typically turn on “track changes” so editors (and myself) can see what has been changed from previous drafts. So a first draft typically has little to no red, a second draft likely has some red, and a lettering pass probably has the most red.

That all sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Well, yeah, sometimes it is (like above). I deliberately picked a scene that needed a lot of reworking so this is an extreme example - but many pages will have no need for any changes at all. Sometimes it’s TONS of changes and sometimes it’s just a few minor tweaks and corrections. Each project is different, each team is different, each book is different. It’s an adventure!

And here’s something interesting. Not everyone even does a lettering pass.

Yup. Not every writer/editor/publisher finds it necessary. But even then it’s not universal and is based on a lot of factors. For example though most of my Marvel issues have lettering passes, they haven’t ALL had them, and when I was doing JEM & THE HOLOGRAMS at IDW it was running so smoothly at one point that we stopped doing them for awhile as they felt redundant.

Personally, I always say it’s a good idea if for no other reason than to make things easier on your letterer.

So that’s really your last SCRIPT pass, but there is one more important step for you as the writer, even though it doesn’t create a new draft, and that’s…

THE PROOFING PASS - this is when your editor sends you a fully lettered PDF, that typically also includes both pdf and handwritten notes from editors and proofreaders. There are a variety of ways to address these notes — some writers note changes in an email to their editors, others mark up the PDF directly with notes. I do the latter as I find it both easier for me to do and easier for me to keep track of the thread of changes, without bouncing between documents/platforms - feels like it’s harder for things to get missed.

Whichever way you approach this pass, this is your LAST CHANCE* to make corrections and get it right. This is NOT, however, a chance to re-write the whole damn thing (everyone will murder you, just for starters). But it IS a chance to make the little tweaks and adjustments that every comic needs.

*Sometimes you’ll get a couple shots at this - if it’s a particularly complicated issue or there are a lot of last minute changes/issues/problems. But usually you only get one shot. Make it count.

So now you’re done. Hopefully long before you got to this point you turned in your next script and are well on your way to doing it all over again.

That’s it until next time! Unless you guys hated this, in which case, this will be the last one! Yay!

But seriously, if you enjoyed this post and are not already subscribed, please consider subscribing so you can get more great stuff like this going forward. It’s all free for now, but soon, much of it will be behind the paywall. Dun Dun Dun!

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Thanks for reading. Be good and kind whenever possible and wash your hands again! Can’t hurt!

xo~Kelly

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Week Two is upon us! I’ve got some really cool interviews about design with amazing artists lined up - but I wanted to kick off with some cool ass BLACK CLOAK stuff - picking up on the process post from last week about the evolution of that incredible first page - especially as relates to the colors and setting a tone for the series as a whole.

So I’ve decided to call these posts “Process Junkie” and they’ll be an ongoing series sort of excavating projects - both the ones I’m developing here - and beyond.

These are still free for now as we spread the word in these first few weeks, but if you want to keep seeing stuff like this, you should definitely consider subscribing if you haven’t already:

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Okay! Let’s get into it!

Let’s see what worked and what didn’t and how we ended up where we are now. These are Meredith’s first incredibly realized pencils. You may remember HOW incredible this is in part from my “Maps are Hard” post from last week where I show off what an idiot I am at drawing maps. Good times:

As you can see she went in and added some sharpness - hard edges and stuff that just feels more tech-y and “man”made. From the jump she really captured a blend of the sort of futuristic sci-fi neo-noir thing we wanted to feel built on TOP of an older and more traditional “fantasy” civilization. Her inks, as usual, are a very direct translation of those pencils:

Her first pass on colors felt very right to both of us in that the image had that bleaknesses…that darkness that we all tend to associate with neo-noir futures. It just FELT right. We had some concerns about readability (something printing overly dark can be a killer), but we both loved the dark moody tone it was setting right out of the gate. We were excited:

But here’s where having a great team that you trust comes in. I think, left to our own devices, Meredith and I would have just stopped here. We were so excited about the design of the city and it was SO early in the process of building this world, that we just saw this awesome page and both were like “well, that’s done!”

But our editor Charles had some thoughts - it WAS too dark, and while the mood it was setting was great, it probably wasn’t going to print super well, and we were losing any of the sort of neon-fun that he knew we intended. He made some specific suggestions and asked some specific questions. Meredith went back to the drawing board and what she came back with was spectacular:

I honestly couldn’t believe the difference. This was a whole new world…and it was better than the one we had already started believing in!

Even though it was less moody than the first pass, it still felt neo-noir and futuristic with the added/pumped up neon colors and all the hard angles and suggestions of tech. But now lightened dramatically you could see so much more detail in the city and it just told you so much more about the world.

It also felt more hopeful…which is a tricky needle to thread neo-noir futures are by their very nature pretty dark, but that doesn’t mean hopelessly grim…or it doesn’t HAVE to. And this felt more like the world I knew we were building.

Even though this wasn’t what we ended up using for our final, it’s still my favorite from a color perspective (I just can’t get over the beautiful blue tones of it) and it’s a great example why “your favorite” doesn’t necessarily mean “right.”

I post this one mostly to show that not everything you try always works. The sort of “electric” vines were a suggestion from Charles that Meredith tried out but that we all agreed didn’t work and were too distracting.

When Meredith did this pass, she had also begun coloring the opening scene, and so as she developed that she went back to my beloved “blue tones” pass that we had all sort of agreed was “the one” and tried a slightly less saturated and greener-hue. Charles and I both agreed with her that this fit the story and worldbuilding much better than my beloved “blue tones” pass. Even though the other was my favorite, this wasn’t about choosing a favorite - it was about choosing which image fit with the story, which was the most informative, and which tonally felt in sync with other things we were still building.

But Charles and I both agreed that the neon of the city went too orange and red here - almost suggesting the city was on fire, instead of just bathed in badass neon. Which led Meredith to her final pass:

And this one was…perfect.

It embraced all the world building that is so important in a page one image - an image that intrigues you and gets your imagination firing from the jump. And it said so much about our world - but it also now well-reflected the tone and mood that would follow it in the opening scene - and that we needed to establish from go.

In the end, an absolutely incredible solution…to a very tricky ask on the first page of a wild new futuristic fantasy world.

I’ve already said a few dozen times that Meredith is a badass, right? ;D

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Okay, that’s it for now, I’ll be back this week with what I think are going to be some very cool interviews with a few different creators talking about design process. Until then, be good and kind when you can, wear your mask, and subscribe!

Or if you’ve already subscribed, maybe tell your friends? Here’s a button for just that!

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xo - Kelly

And the truth is that there both is no secret and there are millions of secrets.

Which is to say there is no one magical secret thing that someone can tell or show you that unlocks everything and makes all of this creation and publication stuff easy or possible or successful. BUT there are tons of magical secret things that people can tell or show you that can unlock things for you personally - some are small, some are huge, but they all add up into a lifetime of knowledge and information…all of it eventually leading you toward more success.

Sort of like the exact opposite of “death by a thousand cuts”?

“Success by a thousand magical secrets?”

So a constant striving for information that we can use to grow ourselves is why we crave process stuff so much, or at least that’s my take on it. And so we will be doing a lot of these process posts here, but I’ll try to keep them interesting and varied and valuable and I’ll bring on other folks to interview when possible - because let’s be real, it takes a really talented whole ass village to make comics.

Today I want to look at the cover image that you all saw a couple days ago by Meredith McClaren and talk about why it looks like that - especially as relates to the colors.

Meredith’s original design for the page was very close to the final right from layouts. Her instincts are great:

My only note on this (because I absolutely loved it) was concern that we make it clear that the central figure not be confused as being the same as the others - i.e the central figure is not a mermaid and the others are. And since we can’t see the central figure’s legs clearly - maybe people would assume she too was a mermaid?

Meredith addressed this comment in such an interesting way - and it’s worth noting that I’m sure this was always her intention - just that it’s not AS clear in a rough layout as it is in pencils. Which is all to say, I was likely useless in this process. Go me!

As you can see, in her pencils she fully addressed my comment in a fantastic way - she didn’t make the central character’s legs more obvious, instead she designed the hell out of those mermaids so that they were clearly identifiable as creatures different from our central figure. This pushes all the design and world-building for the book forward in a terrific way, right from the jump.

Meredith has a really clean tight style and her pencils to inks are typically a very easy transition. And she’s an incredible colorist, so while you might not see a ton of variation between pencils and inks…when it gets to color…OH THE FUN YOU WILL HAVE.

This was Meredith’s first color pass on the piece. I loved it. It was moody and dark and ominous in all the ways that I knew were great for what we were trying to do on BLACK CLOAK. But I had a concern we were maybe going too dark too fast - and also that maybe we would get more mileage out of the idea of contrasting something dark - i.e. what looks like a vulnerable person or body, floating amid “creatures” - with brighter happier tones. Meredith took another pass at the colors to try out my idea.

I loved this. Still do. I think the whole team did. It’s absolutely beautiful. But I think we all agreed that the other one was more evocative and felt more accurate to the world we were building and the tone we were trying to establish. At the same time that she was doing this Meredith was working on colors for the opening scene of the book and it was closer to this brighter palette at this point than the moody dark one, but it wasn’t THIS bright, so she tried a third option:

Also beautiful - and brought back some of the moodiness that we had lost - it was also the best tonal match with the opening scene, and the whole team liked that consistency.

I think we all thought this was probably the one we would go with. It made the most sense in a lot of ways - and I believe it’s still our editor’s first choice?

But in the end, both Meredith and I couldn’t escape the tone of the first one - it was so spooky and mysterious. It spoke to us the most about what BLACK CLOAK was supposed to be - a murder mystery set in a wild fantasy world. And so in the end, we both chose it as our top choice.

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The morale of this little story might be “artists, never bother listening to your writers!” but I hope it’s something more like — creating something is a journey and sometimes pushing forward in a new direction will actually end up leading you back to where you started - but with new confidence that it is and always was the right choice.

Hmmm. The former sure is catchier. Damn.

Okay. That’s it for now - but I’ve got something a bit funny (and much shorter) for you guys later. Be good and kind when you can - and please wear a mask! <3

Kelly

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I honestly went back and forth about showing this to you guys. Because on the one hand...showing it will PERFECTLY illustrate my point, but on the other hand we're in early days here and I need you to not lose complete faith in me as a writer.

But I'm gonna risk it, because there is simply no better way to illustrate what an absolute badass Meredith McClaren is than by showing you my shitty map.

Now, in fairness to me, she ALSO had the script, which I can’t show you (yet) cuz, well, SPOILERS. The script had lots of detail and world building information. And page one was one of the heaviest pages as far as script/world building details because we’re building a whole new world here and we wanted to drop you into that world right on page one - to give you a long view of where the story exists and an inkling of where it might be headed.

But that’s tough on Meredith because that means page one has got to be a home run of an image that draws you in, but it also requires TONS of worldbuilding to already be figured out in order to even begin to draw that image. Fortunately for me (and you guys), Meredith is a genius.

I made the mistake of writing directly into the script (as an aside to Meredith) that I’d made a map of the city. So of course this happened:

Of course, because Meredith is a kind soul (in addition to being a genius badass one) she didn’t remark on how bad it was, she just said COOL. And then got back to the business of drawing the shit out of everything.

Anyway, yes, yes, here’s the shitty map, FINALLY:

So you want to know what Meredith did with it? With that shitty map and about 2 pages of “world building” text in the script? With only that to go on, Meredith turned the walled city of Kiros…into this:

BOOM.

I mean, really?

There were a few moments when we first started working on Black Cloak where I was hit with a sudden wave of relief and the confidence that this was really going to work and be great…and getting this incredible page from Meredith, after we’d only JUST begun talking about the project was a BIG relief moment.

I think I smiled like an idiot for a full day after I saw it.

ALL THAT SAID, the image above was not Meredith’s first pass. We did four or five color passes on it…but THAT is another story. Maybe for next time?

In the meantime, hit that SUBSCRIBE BUTTON, my lovelies.

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Until next time (which will probably be very soon - this IS launch week after all!)

-Kelly