More From Jamal Igle's Blog

I have posted about this before, but Jamal Igle is reviewing his time on Supergirl an issue at a time over on his blog. The individual posts are great with Igle discussing his thoughts about his approach to the art, the story, and the characters. It is the 'behind the scenes' stuff that I just love to read. Here are some links and some great pics starting with Supergirl #35: http://jamalligle.blogspot.com/2011/12/from-vaults-supergirl-35.html

Here Igle talks how he wanted to mimic the 'de-powering chamber' from the Donner Superman II movie. It is so obvious now that he says it! Of course this was the simple way that Sterling Gates removed the angst/anger/crystal powers that plagued the earlier versions of the character. This crystal drained the Kryptonite poisoning from Kara.

And here are some thumb nails from the book. I have to go back to the issue and compare these to the actual layouts of the pages.

Supergirl #36 was the dramatic 'death of Zor-El' issue. Here is the link to that review:
http://jamalligle.blogspot.com/2011/12/from-vaults-supergirl-36.html

Igle does a great job reviewing his approach to that death scene and is definitely worth reading his words.

But this page stuck out to me. First off, Igle was the first to showcase crystal architecture (like the Fortress in the Donner movie) in the New Krypton arc. This was also the first appearance of the white cloaks as part of the Kryptonian culture.

I love that last panel as Kal and Kara look concerned when they hear Alura's bellicose words.

Looking at these pencil pages just remind me what a great and complicated character Alura was. I didn't always like her as a character. But I definitely missed her once she was gone.

Supergirl #37 included the introduction of Superwoman to the Supergirl rogue's gallery. New Krypton was just hitting its early strides and the mystery of 'Who is Superwoman?' was a big part of it. Here is the link to Igle's review of that issue: http://jamalligle.blogspot.com/2011/12/from-vaults-supergirl-37.html

One thing I didn't realize was the Superwoman's, Nightwing's, and Flamebird's costumes were designed by Alex Ross. Here is a picture Ross did.

There was a time I thought Nightwing was Conner (returned from the dead) and the Flamebird was Linda Danvers! That would have been a wild story!

We also meet the 'new' Inspector Henderson in this issue. Here is Igle's character design sheet for him.

I have to say I have been enjoying these posts, especially the production parts. There are now posts on Supergirl #38 , Supergirl #39 and Supergirl #40 as well. Moreover, it just reminds me how invigorating these early issues were. I feel like I am reliving these moments again, except now that this run is over it is almost bittersweet. In 4 issues we had a couple of new rogues, new supporting cast, and all of New Krypton! I don't know if I appreciated what Gates and Igle were doing as much back then as I do now with the run in my rear view mirror.

I highly highly recommend going to Jamal's site and reading his thoughts too!