Art Therapy: "Batman: Hush" Coloring Book (Part 13, 14, 15 & 16 of 104)

Ah...

Four pages!

Killer Croc!

Showdown at sunset!

Rust!

New crayons!

Then back to using the old crayons! (The new crayons - which I brought because they were "jumbo-sized" and figured that would be a relief when coloring backgrounds - wound up being awful; they would break up and file away like rubber erasers, then leave behind smears on my hands and crumbs on the pages! So I went back to the Crayolas...stick to making Mr. Potato Head toys, please, Playskool.)

Incidentally, I noticed in a recent Comic Shop News a criticism of DC Comics repri ting their comics into Adult Coloring Books as part of CSN's annual Red K Awards, citing that these books do not meet the standard of a proper coloring book done by a true coloring book artist.

I've never heard something so boring (aside from negative reviews of Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice). Who gives a flying fortress? It's a coloring book! There's criteria for a coloring book? Do me a favor..do me a favor...grab the issue of CSN with your opinion, sir...use it to clean up after yourself when you've finished letting the horses out of the barn.

Four down...more to go...

Art Therapy: "Batman: Hush" Coloring Book (Part 10, 11 and 12 of 104)

April showers..bring coloring book pages. Witness the wealthy man from Gotham in grey and blue rescue an unrelatable kidnapped effete cipher schoolboy from the clutches of working poor mercenaries gone broke from buying gaudy licensed apparel...in a swirl of pink and orange smoke??

Yeah..much like the corridors, smoke is kind of boring on a coloring book page..then I recall the colorful smoke bombs used in the old Adam West Batman show and rolled with it!

3 down..more to go..

Art Therapy: "Batman: Hush" Coloring Book (Part 8 AND 9 of 104)

A double-page spread? Should I count it as one? Well, if both upload correctly, then yes. If not, then the numbering stands.

I think my mind is made up on using yellow crayon for Batman's 1st person narration. And I got bored with having to color the clothing on the kidnappers, so I decided that last guy buys his wardrobe from the section at Target/Kmart/Walmart that has licensed character apparel.

Art Therapy: "Batman: Hush" Coloring Book (Part 7 of 104)

Details, details, details..close-ups of Batman's gloves and boots...I'm starting to make choices about things like backgrounds and narration boxes..and my choices are that, subconsciously, I must've been a huge fan of 1990s Batman comic Shadow of The Bat.

Another one down..more to go...

Art Therapy: "Batman: Hush" Coloring Book (Part 6 of 104)

This is a "break" page. The last page colored was the cover to part 1 of Hush, so this page replaces what would have been the inside-front cover to that issue of Batman. I'm not sure what panel or page of the arc this image was taken from, but I get to try out more orange sunset skies and rust-colored gargoyles.

Another one down...more to go..

Art Therapy: "Batman: Hush" Coloring Book (Part 5 of 104)

At one point, I was mulling over coloring the cover to this book, which is partially in black & white, but I think I would need to apply markers to that surface texture. This page shows how I would've colored it.

This shot reminds me of Batman's grand entrance in part 1 of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, only instead of swooping down, Jim Lee's Batman swings across, like Spider-Man on his webs, or an homage to his first appearance on the cover of Detective Comics. With crayons, the only chance at a 2nd chance with a coloring book page would be if you bought two copies, but I could imagine coloring Batman in a black and grey suit with purple gloves..

Art Therapy: "Batman: Hush" Coloring Book (Part 4 of 104)

Darkness!

No parents!

Continued Darkness!

More Darkness!

Get it?

The opposite of light!

Has anyone thought of editing scenes of the Wayne's buying the farm in various Batman movies to the tune of Lego Batman's self-composed death metal song from The Lego Movie?

On this page, Loeb & Lee are staying close to the same beat as Bill Finger's account of the Batman origin, barring a callback to Frank Miller's Batman: Year One in the fourth panel. I wanted my crayon colors to echo the color scheme of Miller's tale, which I thought really sold the atmosphere, particularly the scene where Bruce encounters the large bat, though that scene didn't play out the way it's shown here; he was sitting on the floor of his study when the bat crashed through the window of his study, not standing up.

Breaking Bad didn't exist when "Hush" premiered, but the periodic table in the background of panel 3, coupled with Bruce in a lab coat, doing generic chemistry work, had me thinking about nods to Walter White, along with memories of Jeff Matsuda's sketch for fans on Reddit of Walt and Jesse as the dynamic duo back when Bad was hot, so the coat and gloves now look like Walter's standard hazmat suit, and Bruce is holding a test tube of...crystal blue persuasion.. ;)

4 down, 100 to go...

Art Therapy: "Batman: Hush" Coloring Book (Part 3 of 104)

This page begins the mini-prologue included with issues of Wizard Magazine offered as a preview..in case somebody out there wasn't entirely sure Jim Lee could draw Batman. Well, rest assured, he draws Batman phenomenally well. This prologue retells Batman's origin..in case somebody out there didn't know Batman's origin. Well, now they do.

I think the earliest Zorro pulp stories are considered public domain, so it might be okay to refer to the name of that character and his first adventure..but the film, "The Mark of Zorro", might not be. Tricky thing, copyright..that's why the Waynes are seen leaving a theater playing a cheery musical in Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman" and an opera playing Die Fledermaus in "Batman Begins", not to mention the creation of The Gray Ghost as a substitute for Zorro in the various animated series. Zorro's cool - at best, he has an unflappable presence - but Batman has more going for him than Zorro did. All you can do with Zorro is..keep him classy. Anyone interested in a crossover where Batman meets Zorro? Dynamite and DC Comics seem on good terms - they already did crossovers with Green Hornet and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - why not Zorro?

I think Thomas Wayne is a Tom Selleck-type of guy..Martha Wayne has always been an enigma. Even when Grant Morrison hinted that she might've been a drug-addled socialite before and during her marriage to Thomas..and I recall the novel Wayne of Gotham danced around the same circles, but...eh. She's just..Bruce's mommy.

And then there's Joe Chill. Around this time, Batman's continuity was subtly revised so that he never knew who killed his parents. Jeph Loeb toyed with the idea with having the killer be unveiled in Batman/Superman as John Corben, aka, Superman foe Metallo, back when he was a small-time criminal and long before becoming a robot housing his disembodied brain ( ah, comics ). This turned out to be a red herring in the storyline, and it wasn't until the Grant Morrison years of Batman comics that Joe was reinstated as the Wayne's killer.

3 Down, 101 to go...

Art Therapy: "Batman: Hush" Coloring Book (Part 2 of 104)

Pg. 2 - Legal Jargon

Boring, but necessary, at least they threw a bone by adding a moody illustration of Batman in the shadow of what looks like a graveyard..very Bronze Age Batman-esque.

I wonder if fans think of getting autographs from the people listed on this page..or similar jargon at the bottom of the first page of most comics (or maybe the last page, or inside front-cover; the format hasn't been particularly uniform for two decades, now)...surely the Vice President of "Content Strategy" would be happy to sign his name? He helps develop a strategy for the President of Content Strategy!...The content must look strategic!! ( Double (!!) Exclamation point! )

I chose an orangey Orange sunset over the grapeity Purple night sky from "The Night of The Reaper!" because I like the symmetry it has with pg. 1...I do have an intentional color pallet here, but I don't want anything written in stone...suffice to say, I'll give the orange crayon a break for the next two pages..or less heavy-lifting..

2 down, 102 to go...

Art Therapy: "Batman: Hush" Coloring Book (Part 1 of 104)

"When I was a child, I thought as a child, but as an adult, I put away childish things..."

..and then we, as adults, decide, as adults...'Whatever - let's have some fun with crayons!'

DC Comics got their feet wet in the Adult Coloring Book market by offering variant "Adult Coloring Book" covers to most of their superhero comics a few months ago. Reprinting Jeph Loeb & Jim Lee's seminal Batman: Hush storyline as a series of coloring books aimed at this new trend is pretty cool..largely because I don't own a copy of the graphic novel that reprinted the story; ditto any of the original issues of Batman it premiered in. I might be reluctant to buy the upcoming coloring book that adapts Mad Love, only because I own the graphic novel of that, whereas with Hush, I get to explore that story while playing with color.

Two observations:

Bill Finger gets credited here on the first page of the coloring book for co-creating Batman "with" Bob Kane, but not on the actual title pages of reprinted from the comics...I don't think they'll ever go back and re-edit old comics to stamp Bill's name in there, but since Batman is a fictional character that will outlive us all, we'll have another 75+ years crediting Bill to even things out.

I like Catwoman's Golden-Silver Age look - the purple dress that offered gratuitous thigh shots. And the green cape. I had no reference for two minor cross-hatched details on the lower-right corner, so I just built it up as her green cape.

1 down, 103 to go.