Monday, January 16, 2012

Dollmaker Designs And Jamal Igle's Run

We are nearing the end of Jamal Igle's look back on his Supergirl issues over on his blog. This series of posts has really been a joy for me, a way to relive those issues and get a look into the creative process. Here is the link to his review of Supergirl #58, the first part of the Dollmaker story:
http://jamalligle.blogspot.com/2012/01/from-vaults-supergirl-58-finale-part-1.html

Here, Igle reviews some of the concept art for the Dollmaker, the Toyman's estranged and insane son. Above was the settled on design which works well giving him a sort of 'wetworks' feel with the apron.

But here were the other designs.


The tophat and goggles look gives him a steampunk feel, something Jamal Igle says Sterling Gates was going for. But it also smacks a bit too much of the Mad Hatter, especially the Depp Mad Hatter.

Igle says he wanted a demented 'Little Lord Fauntleroy' feel to the Dollmaker and so came up with this design. But DC said it looked too much like Klarion. I agree.


And then there was this design with the Dollmaker as an angry young modern man. I am glad this wasn't decided on. For one, this looks too ordinary ... like a kid that lives in anyone's neighborhood. You need a good super-villain look to be a ... well ... to be a super-villain.

Jamal reviews #59 here: http://jamalligle.blogspot.com/2012/01/from-vaults-supergirl-59-final-issue.html

Here is a closing statement by him:

Thank You Sterling, for being one of the best creative partners I've ever had. Thank you Keith Champagne, Jon Sibal, Marc Deering, John Dell and Robin Riggs for keeping up with my maddening exponentially growing obsession with detail. Thank You Nei Ruffino, Blond and Tom Chu for the beautiful color work you did. Thank you to all of the letterers who worked on the series. Thank you Nachie Castro, Wil Moss and Matt Idelson for showing faith, allowing me to experiment visually and pushing me to imrpove.
Most of all, Thank you Supergirl fans, for the love and occasional ire that you showed me over the years.

And I don't know what to say back except thank you Jamal. Thanks for everything. Your approach to the character, the costume, the story-telling. Your run with Sterling Gates was really a high point for the character.

3 comments:

Martin Gray said...

That's one classy closing section from Jamal. I can see how DC might want a new creative team for a new approach to Supergirl, but it seems daft not to then give Sterling, Jamal and collaborators the nod to 'go create'. Surely they'd have come up with something great, whether a new take on a character from the DC library, or something original - after spending so long working up a beautiful creative synergy.

It's not too late, DC ...

Gene said...

Anj wrote:

"And I don't know what to say back except thank you Jamal. Thanks for everything. Your approach to the character, the costume, the story-telling. Your run with Sterling Gates was really a high point for the character."

I completely agree.
I am also 100% with Mart's sentiment that DC should have let Sterling and Jamal recreate Supergirl from scratch. At least the costume would have looked better...

Gene

Anj said...

I think we all knew how good we had it as it was going on.

Too bad DC pulled the plug.

I am hopeful that the new book will achieve something like this synergy.