Genre art must follow very specific rules. With noir, the art needs to reflect the dark, ominous tone of the story. Moritat, ongoing artist of THE SPIRIT, has done a superb job of capturing writer David Hine’s mysterious characters and storylines. We caught up with him and touched base on everything from Facebook chat to how he got involved with the series to how he turns scripts into the stunning art in the pages of THE SPIRIT:

On the tools he uses:

Chris Conroy told me that a Japanese brush maker by the name Kimitake Hiraoka makes a pretty good inking brush. He had also told me that several creators were using these brushes and that they were getting really good fan responses. I flew to Japan and sought out Hiraoka sensei. It turned out to be one of those ‘wait in front of the temple until you were ready’ or were ‘pure in mind’ scenarios. I’m not into all of that Eastern philosophy stuff. But, there were these cute Japansese girls who were working on their manga waiting and praying out front. So, I hung out with them and creeped in with them … when they were ready.

On how he got involved in the series:

A few years ago, I was catching the train at Broadway Junction to come into the city. Will Eisner walks up and we started talking. He said, “you should come work for me.” I said, “I would love to.” We talked a few times, but then I got drafted and I went off to Vietnam. So, it’s a pleasure to finally work with Mr. Eisner.

On how he turns script pages into art:

I print out the script. I place each page around me and meditate on the meaning. I boil down certain words that come to me in my subconscious. When I feel ready, I ride my motorcycle very fast at night until it finally clicks in a cohesive artistic pattern that I am comfortable with. Sometimes I can’t find the meaning. I confer with Joey Cavalieri and Dave Hine until I get maybe 90%. It’s not a perfect process but I’m getting it to where it works.

On how panels are arranged:

Ladronn arranges most everything. I then convince Rob Leigh to draw for me … while I chat on Facebook.

On the noir genre:

I love the noir genre. It is the field I fancy. The characters are flawed. They carry around some kind of hidden shame. There is something wrong with these people. The environment is barely hanging on. A few steps away from post-apocalyptic hell. The color has been washed away or moved to the suburbs. Gabe Bautista, the colorist on THE SPIRIT, would call me some nights and complain that working on noir was too depressing for him and that he had to quit (he lives in the suburbs). I would spend hours lying to him that it was going to get better.

THE SPIRIT #13 hits stores this Wednesday.

Last month, we revealed a major new storyline in the pages of TEEN TITANS. In issue #94, the Teen Titans and Solstice have to figure out who kidnapped Wonder Girl and Solstice’s parents – and why. Trapped in a lost kingdom and being preyed on by the land’s demonic inhabitants, the team is going to need all the help they can get to find their answers.

Bringing writer J.T. Krul’s epic storylines like this to life is no easy task – but it is one that the unstoppable artist duo Nicola Scott and Doug Hazlewood accelerate at tackling issue after issue. How do they do it? We asked them to describe their artistic processes and what it’s been like working together for so many years.

“Basically I don’t really have an inherent or dominating style. At times I wish I was more of an overall artist and could just plug that style in and it would undoubtedly be faster in a lot of cases. As it is, I try to be pretty faithful to the pencils and whatever I add I try to be tasteful. There are inkers who can dominate the final look, but I have never been that type of an inker. It can come in handy if the penciller is weak and the inker has a strong approach (like Wally Wood or Jerry Ordway or some of these younger Image-y whippersnappers) and can compensate for some things,” Doug began.

“Doug and I have worked together for about five years now, building up a really decent body of work at DC, almost all on TEAM books. TEEN TITANS is a book I’ve wanted to work on since long before starting at DC. I love the characters and I was really interested in seeing how drawing teenagers would be different from drawing adults. I didn’t want to just make them smaller or shorter. Teen bodies are different. Their proportions, their body language and the puppy fat on their faces vary in a different way to that of adults. It’s been a fun experiment,” Nicola continued.

“For me, usually on the second read through, I start doing thumbnails, for each page, in the margins of the script. It’s at this stage that all the tricky stuff needs to be ironed out. Blocking the scene so that characters aren’t randomly jumping around from panel to panel. I think it’s important that it’s clear to the reader who everyone is and where they are. If it changes it’s because they’ve made a move. It keeps the storytelling clear.

I then go straight to the finished art boards and do a really loose composition breakdown in blue pencil. Then I flip the page and on goes my magic lightbox!

I do all my real rough work on the reverse side of the page. Getting my anatomy and faces right is really important and I don’t want to damage the surface of the right side with regular erasering. Next step is flipping it back to the right side and doing the final pencils. Even though this stage takes the longest, it’s the most straight forward because I’ve already done all the grunt work. What I’m left with is generally pretty tight, clean pencils all ready for Doug to ink,” she said.

Doug agreed: “Nicola’s pencils are quite tight. TEEN TITANS is the first series we have done via bluelines. She scans in her pencils and uploads them. Nicola is in Australia and I am in Texas. I download them and work with them a bit in Photoshop to make them a bit more high-contrast and clean up some smudges. Then they are converted to non-photo blue/cyan and printed out that way full-size onto DC boards.

This was MY first book done this way also and it took a bit of getting used to. I now have figured out a fairly reliable system and owe a lot of thanks to Walden Wong’s blog for great information on how to do stuff like this! It would have been tougher without it.

I’m not that fast an inker and here I have been on four TEAM series in row! I ink mostly with crowquill dip pens and Micron markers. Before I turned pro many moons ago, I really used brush a lot, but I don’t know if I could have kept up with deadlines if I had stayed loyal to that as much. Some of the things Nicola turns in I just marvel at and wish I was blessed with as much overall artistic ability,” he replied.

TEEN TITANS #94 hits stores on Wednesday.

Last we saw Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner, they made the unprecedented decision to remove their rings in the midst of battle. In part four of the epic War of Green Lanterns, the duo reunite with John Stewart and Kyle Rayner to stop the evil forces consuming their fellow Corps members. Their strategy will not only put their lives at stake, but will also go down as one of the riskiest acts committed in the Corps’ history.

GREEN LANTERN #65 is written by Geoff Johns and features art by Doug Mahnke, Keith Champagne, Christian Alamy, Mark Irwin, Mick Gray and Tom Nguyen. In stores this Wednesday.

How often do you talk to or e-mail your editor and the other creators working on FLASHPOINT titles? What kind of creative collaboration is going on behind the scenes?

J.T. Krul: A lot actually. Geoff is creating a rich universe within the main book, and we get to play in our corners of it on our books, but there is a very strong effort to keep things connected in an organic way.

Javi Fernandez: Everything is perfect, the script, the editor, the result… everything…

Tony Bedard: I’ve had a lot of interaction with Geoff, Eddie Berganza, and with Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning since my EMPEROR AQUAMAN series is closely tied to their WONDER WOMAN AND THE FURIES mini. It’s been a real pleasure working with DnA. I’ve been trying to beat their cosmic stuff at Marvel with our own R.E.B.E.L.S. and now we have a friendly competition to see which rocks harder, Aquaman or Wonder Woman.

Dan Abnett: All the time. It’s one big Skype party.

Scott Snyder: A lot of collaboration is going on. I’ve already spoken with and come up with joint story elements with Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, JT Krul, Tony Bedard, Jeff Lemire. It’s great, because the world is this shared sandbox, with all this vibrant stuff happening all around you.

Rex Ogle: I really lucked out to have Pat McCallum and Sean Mackiewics as my editors. They not only push me to make the story that much bigger, but they help me tap into the potential of my ideas. (“Care Bear Stare”, right guys?) As for the talent, the amazing Brett Booth & Andrew Dalhouse are working on covers, and when I saw the first one, it blew me away. It took all my restraint not to post it online. I’ve also got Eduardo Francisco and Paulo Siqueira doing the interior art and it’s just gorgeous.

Dan Jurgens: It’s very intensive with a lot of ongoing conversations and contact to help pull everything together.

Jimmy Palmiotti: I hit the crew up whenever I have a question and they get right back to me. This is a well oiled machine on every level and one of the easiest crossovers I have ever worked on. It’s been great.

Lowell Francis: Often- working with everyone, especially Scott Snyder, has been an amazing creative experience.

Have you ever been involved in an event of this magnitude before?

Lowell Francis: No- it’s like playing a massive game of live-action Tetris. We’re trying to get all the pieces from the many amazing titles put into place. This event’s an incredible network of cascading effects.

Dan Jurgens: Quite honestly, yeah! A few times!

Mike Carlin: I’ve been involved with a few since 1981… But when we heard this whole storyline laid out, I believed this to be an event with immense personal stakes. That’s unusual for these big stories, that’s for sure.

Dan Abnett: No, but an alternate version of me has.

Adam Schlagman: Though I worked heavily on BLACKEST NIGHT, I’ve never been involved in an event where an entire universe is created and coordinated between over twenty creators. It’s unbelievably fun!

Scott Kolins: ROGUES REVENGE was part of FINAL CRISIS and BLACKEST NIGHT: FLASH was part of the summer event last year – so yes I’ve been apart of these events before. This one has a strong and different concept than those, which is great – And I get to write my story this time.

J.T. Krul: BLACKEST NIGHT was epic and huge, but this feels even bigger.

Tony Bedard: I got to do several stories in BLACKEST NIGHT, so I guess this isn’t my first rodeo.

Peter Milligan: I was involved the the Global Financial Meltdown that led to the demise of Lehman Brothers and the ruination of countless economies…but that wasn’t quite as complex or far-reaching as FLASHPOINT.

Gene Ha: It was called GODHOOD, the sequel to KINGDOM COME. We don’t talk about that much…

Rex Ogle: No, this is my first. And it’s an absolute honor to have my name alongside so much phenomenal talent.

Jeff Lemire: I once created an epic crossover with my Superpowers figures that lasted for nearly seven years. I finally wrapped it up last month, it was great. Darkseid won.

Javi Fernandez: Never! As I´ve said, is the first time that I’ve worked for DC and it is so fun, such a treat, that I think that I´ve won the lottery.

There’s been a lot of chatter, online and at conventions, about what kind of consequences will come out of FLASHPOINT. Why, in your estimation, will FLASHPOINT matter to fans?

Sean Ryan: Because I think at the core of FLASHPOINT, behind all the crazy changes and differences, the story has a very deep emotional center that I think will resonate with fans.

Gene Ha: We’re creating a setting and cast of characters that we love. We’re putting every twisted obsessive drop of love from our sick bastard hearts into it. But this event is only the first story. We’re trying to make something so tempting that other creators can’t resist playing with these toys too.

Mike Carlin: Because change CAN be good!

Dan Jurgens: There will be lasting effects.

Adam Schlagman: Wait until you see the end. Oh boy, does it matter. Plus the emotional context will register with all DC fans for all eternity.

Dan Abnett: We can’t talk about that yet. But oh my god…

Jeff Lemire: Because, unlike past events, this one REALLY does change everything.

Rex Ogle: When you take a character and put them in a whole new world with a whole new life, the core of who they are stays the same—but how that different world has changed them, changes how they react to their environment. And as a fan, I’m overjoyed to see some of these new aspects of the heroes (and villains) I love.
As for long lasting effects on the DC Universe, let’s just say at the heart of FLASHPOINT is this very overwhelmingly emotional story (beautifully written by Geoff Johns). And when there’s a story this powerful and intense, yeah, of course there’re going to be some repercussions. Of course I’m not at liberty to say more than that…

Peter Milligan: It’ll allow the reader to consider familiar characters in new ways. And more importantly to be reacquainted with lesser-known characters they may have forgotten about or never been aware of. In other words it will re-populate the DC Universe.

J.T. Krul: They’ll be seeing their favorite heroes and villains in ways they never have before. And, that’s only the tip of the iceberg for what’s coming next.

Pornsak Pichetshote: You’ll find out when it’s over. Boy, will you find out when it’s over…

Tony Bedard: I’m not allowed to talk about it, but it absolutely will matter.

Scott Snyder: Well, first and foremost, it’ll matter because of the strength of the story! It’s just a great tale, really imaginative, epic, with lost of twists and turns… But if you’re looking for a “will it change the DCU,” the answer is definitely yes.

How often do you get asked questions you can’t answer about the world of FLASHPOINT?

Dan Abnett: I can’t answer that question.

Jimmy Palmiotti : About once a day on Twitter, at every convention and once at the airport coming into the country by homeland security.

Peter Milligan: It comes up. But luckily I’ve been too busy to attend too many conventions recently, and it’s at conventions, on panels etc that these awkward questions usually arrive.

Tony Bedard: I live like a hermit, so I manage to avoid most questions.

Dan Jurgens: Too often! It’d be easier to wear a sign around my neck that says, “FLASHPOINT? Don’t ask!”

Scott Snyder: Oh man, constantly.

Jeff Lemire: Not often, but that’s only because I’m a recluse with little or no contact with the outside world. In fact the only person I’ve talked to in the last three months is my FRANKENSTEIN Heroclix figure, luckily he already knows the secrets of FLASHPOINT. He’s also a great listener.

Rex Ogle: I keep a pretty low profile on the Internet so it’s not too difficult flying under the radar. But my friends are driving me nuts. Every ten minutes, they’re like, “What’s going on with FLASHPOINT? What

happened to the DC Universe? Is anybody going to die?” I just shake my head and change the subject to how much I miss new episodes of Buffy on TV.

What was the first question you asked Geoff and/or Eddie about FLASHPOINT?

Adam Schlagman: If Hal Jordan wasn’t Green Lantern, what happened during BLACKEST NIGHT?

Jeff Lemire: Can I write FLASHPOINT PROJECT: S.W.E.E.T. T.O.O.T.H.?

Dan Abnett: Are you seriously going to get away with something this amazing?

Dan Jurgens: C’mon. Seriously. What are we REALLY going to do?

Tony Bedard: It was, “Can I write the Aquaman series?” I have an irrational love of Aquaman, and everyone at DC knows it.

Peter Milligan: Can I do anything I like with this character?

Scott Kolins: When is it due?

Jimmy Palmiotti : Honestly, I asked them if they were sure they wanted me for this project…but as they both told me what they wanted me to do, I started to sport an evil smile. Anyone familiar with my other work will totally get it once they pick up the first issue.

Scott Snyder: “Is there someone doing a Flashpoint Superman story?” He’s a character I love reading but isn’t exactly my wheelhouse when it comes to writing. But here’s this chance to do a different kind of story with Superman, one looks at the character from a brand new angle.

Mike Carlin: Would this be Golden Age Canterbury Cricket or Silver Age Canterbury Cricket?

One of the central conceits of the FLASHPOINT world is that we’ll see the DC Universe in a way we’ve never seen it before. (Without ruining/spoiling major plot points that we should keep under wraps…) What in the mini-series you are working on is going to make fans sit back and say, “I’ve never seen that before?”

Tony Bedard: EMPEROR AQUAMAN presents a harder, crueler Aquaman than we’ve ever seen. How exactly he ended up like that is one of the great mysteries of the mini-series, but this is a guy who is ready to wipe out the surface world, which is a lot of fun to write because there’s no pulling punches, no holding back.

Peter Milligan: For a start, I’m introducing a totally new character, called Mindwarp. A very different kind of character. And the story answers the question, what does the “M” stand for in Shade The Changing Man’s M-Vest—is it Meta, Madness…or Murderer?

Rex Ogle: In my mini-series WORLD OF FLASHPOINT, I have the unique opportunity to show a wider scope of the FP world. Originally, my 3-parter was going to be a series of vignettes, but I convinced Eddie and Geoff that it might be more fun for readers if it were a single story that tapped into all kinds of different pieces and parts of the FLASHPOINT universe. In the first issue alone, the reader will get to see a map of the FP world as well as get hints at the secret history that differentiates the FP universe from the DC Universe. In the second issue, which I’m writing now, I am stuffing it full of cameos. Some are pretty obvious, others you have to take a closer look at. But I can say easily that every character I write for FP, I tried to push the envelope at making them different.

Lowell Francis: If I said vampire monkeys, would that be good or bad?

Adam Schalgman: Abin Sur – The legendary Abin Sur in action. He never died and is busy saving the universe but the threats are more severe than ever before.

J.T. Krul: For me and for fans, we get to see what Dick Grayson would be like if his parents didn’t die on that fateful day. One of the tragic figures in the Batman universe is actually doing okay.

Jimmy Palmiotti: Just about everything in this book is something you haven’t seen before, including some really sick new characters. The excessive amount of death and destruction goes on will catch people off guard. It is a pirate themed book after all.

Sean Ryan: A baby antelope eating its own dead mother.

Mike Carlin: We don’t see flesh-eaters on the “good guy’s side” often.

Dan Jurgens: An 1950′s era Norge refrigerator. Well, that and a new character who…oh, wait! I can’t!
Scott Snyder: Well, it’s public knowledge that our story is about something called “Project Superman,” and with the cover for issue 1 showing the rocket landing in Metropolis, and the cover for issue 2 showing a boy in a glass cylinder, suffice it to say, this is going to be a very very different Superman story. There’ll be a lot you’ve never seen before – still, at its heart, it’s a story about Kal-El, as Kal-El. The character we all know.

Dan Abnett: Diana as a full on Amazonian warrior, true to her heritage. That’s scary. And Lois Lane at her most resourceful and determined.

Jeff Lemire: Frankenstein vs. Hitler.

Scott Kolins: There’s bunch of stuff in my CITIZEN COLD 3-parter that’s has never been done for COLD or THE ROGUES. Can you imagine COLD being the hero of Central City? What kind of hero would he be? Plus there’s the whole IRIS angle – that’s new and soooo much fun.

There are a lot of unanswered questions about FLASHPOINT and, starting today, we’re going to start laying out some of the answers. Many of the key creators working on the FLASHPOINT mini-series will be joining us, as we pull back the curtain on this summer’s superhero event.

FLASHPOINT is a huge, huge undertaking. What got you to sign onto the series?

Peter Milligan (Writer, FLASHPOINT: SECRET SEVEN): I first heard about it when Dan DiDio and Jim Lee were in London last year. I thought then that it sounded like a really interesting concept—I particularly liked the opportunity to put a spin on some characters that have lain dormant for a while.

J.T. Krul (Writer, FLASHPOINT: DEADMAN & THE FLYING GRAYSONS): Being part of the big DC events is always fun. Just look at BLACKEST NIGHT: TITANS. Well, it was fun for me, even if it wasn’t fun for the Titans. As for FLASHPOINT, it’s such a wild west feel that it allowed the opportunity to write characters in a completely new way. Plus, signing on to write Deadman and the Flying Graysons gave me the best excuse in the world to swing on an actual trapeze as “research.”

Dan Jurgens (Writer, BOOSTER GOLD #45): Dan DiDio first started talking about it when we were putting together the TIME MASTERS: VANISHING POINT project. He was quite clear when he said, “Let’s start with a search for Bruce Wayne and transition to a teaser for FLASHPOINT. Between that and THE FLASH, we wanted to give the readers a taste of what was to come.

Mike Carlin (Writer, FLASHPOINT: THE CANTERBURY CRICKET): Having been in on the story since Geoff (Johns) pitched it to us … I knew it would be one of the coolest, universe-spanning epics in a while. And then when asked to play in a teeny tiny corner of that universe … it was easy to wanna play along!

Adam Schlagman (Writer, FLASHPOINT:ABIN SUR; FLASHPOINT: HAL JORDAN): I was signed on from day one. Coming out of BLACKEST NIGHT, Geoff was already hard at work developing the next universe spanning epic event…. FLASHPOINT. The massive project centers around an emotional tale featuring The Flash and Batman. But surrounding it is what happens to the DC Universe when everything changes in a flash. I’ve crafted a tale in which FLASHPOINT: ABIN SUR and FLASHPOINT: HAL JORDAN interact but can also be enjoyed separately. These two are destined to meet and when they do, they’ll leave a lasting impact on each others’ lives.

Lowell Francis (Co-Writer, FLASHPOINT: PROJECT SUPERMAN): A call from Gene Ha telling me about the chance to work with Scott Snyder.

Scott Snyder (Plot, FLASHPOINT: PROJECT SUPERMAN): The story and subsequent world Geoff came up with. Period. As soon as he told us the story, I was in.

Rex Ogle (Writer, FLASHPOINT: THE WORLD OF FLASHPOINT): When Geoff Johns and Eddie Berganza asked if I’d like to take part in DC’s biggest summer crossover, it wasn’t even a question—the answer was yes.

Jeff Lemire (Writer, FLASHPOINT: FRANKENSTEIN AND THE CREATURES OF THE UNKNOWN): Geoff’s enthusiasm for the project and the world he was creating was infectious. Plus I’ve been an avid fan of DC and DC crossover series since I was a kid, so a chance to be part of one with such a strong core concept was something I couldn’t pass up.

Gene Ha (Artist, FLASHPOINT: PROJECT SUPERMAN): Eddie Berganza. He was my first assistant editor, and he’s still the most exciting comic geek I know. “This is gonna be COOL!”

The world of FLASHPOINT has been cloaked in secrecy. What’s the hardest part of not spilling the beans?

Dan Jurgens: Whenever you know something cool, you want to be able to talk about it. Same thing with FLASHPOINT– there’s so much cool stuff being put together that you want to be able to let people in on the scoop!

Scott Kolins (Writer/Artist, FLASHPOINT: CITIZEN COLD; Writer, FLASHPOINT: REVERSE FLASH): I haven’t been out in public since I signed on, so it’s been quiet for me.

Scott Snyder: The hardest part is honestly the coolness of the shared world. Every corner has something fun and wild going on. Every character is re-imagined in surprising ways – but ways that make sense given who they are. You want to share it with people.

Dan Abnett (Writer, FLASHPOINT: WONDER WOMAN AND THE FURIES): I keep having to shout at my cats to vent my excess excitement, so I’m probably looking at serious vet bills right now.

Jeff Lemire: I’m so excited about the amazing ideas and characters in the FLASHPOINT world that its really hard not to talk about them at cons when fans ask me questions.

Lowell Francis: I only have a few beans, so it’s been pretty easy keeping the lid on.

Mike Carlin: The story is so big I don’t even HAVE all the beans! I have the beans I was given and I’m holding on tight! They’re MY beans!

Tony Bedard (Writer, FLASHPOINT: EMPEROR AQUAMAN): Having worked on the editorial side, I’m not having much trouble keeping a lid on my project. They’re called “spoilers” for a reason, and I’m not going to spoil anyone’s enjoyment of this event.

Jimmy Palmiotti (Writer, FLASHPOINT: DEATHSTROKE AND THE CURSE OF THE RAVAGER): When taking on a project like this it’s hard not to get excited and talk about it at the conventions or to other pros, but I knew going in secrecy is key to the project and in the end, there is nothing I hate more than having a story ruined for me, so in the end, it all world out. There is this one scene where death stroke puts a gun up to…wait, I can’t talk about that, can I? Ah…didn’t think so.

Adam Schlagman: Knowing how exciting and awesome all the ideas the writers and editors are generating as they bring this one cohesive world to life. There are so many shocking moments across the books that incite chills. It’s not easy keeping my lips sealed and holding in the enthusiasm. Fortunately all the creators have each other to talk to, yet that just amps us up more with utter excitement.

Javi Fernandez (Artist, FLASHPOINT: THE OUTSIDER): What I´m more pleased with is that people are wrong with the suppositions, so that will make for a lot of surprises.

We’re going to ask the impossible. Can you sum up the series you are working on in five words–or less?

Tony Bedard: Will Aquaman drown the world?

Peter Milligan: Shade summons Secret Seven, disastrously.

Jeff Lemire: Classic monsters fighting giant robots.

Lowell Francis: Laboratory superheroes and uncontrolled variables.

Mike Carlin: Demons and Amazons and Crickets!

Scott Kolins: Cold love and burning hate!

Dan Abnett: Peppermint aardvark plethora corduroy– no, it appears I can’t.

Pornsak Pichetshote (Writer, FLASHPOINT: GREEN ARROW INDUSTRIES): Big business always = bad guy?

Javi Fernandez: Amazing.

Jimmy Palmiotti: A celebration of wrong.

J.T. Krul: Abandonment; despair – and Ruthless Amazons!

Sean Ryan (Writer, FLASHPOINT: GRODD OF WAR): Grodd suffers from extreme Anhedonia.

Dan Jurgens: For BOOSTER GOLD it’d be… Intrigue. Challenging. Chaos. Doom. Death.

Children’s titles involve a very specific kind of cartooning – engaging and easy to follow panel-to-panel. And it doesn’t hurt if it’s funny, too…

Ongoing artists Art Baltazar and Franco have been doing an extraordinary job with their NEW YORK TIMES bestselling, Eisner-nominated children’s series, TINY TITANS. We asked Art and Franco for some behind-the-scenes insight into the steps they take to create the art you see in TINY TITANS.

What’s the first step they take when they get the script pages?

“We usually write them so this is an easy one for us!” Franco said. “AW YEAH! Our Tiny Titans scripts are more like notes. After talking on the phone for hours making up stories, funny dialog, and awesome situations, Franco will type up everything we talked about and email me the notes. It’s a cool system we got going on. After I re-read the stories, I pull out the gags and start thumb-nailing the story ideas in my sketchbook. Once we got something funny, the rest is easy,” Art said.

“The whole inspiration for this issue came from a familiar line to most comic and movie buffs, ‘I like pink very much, Lois!’ In this issue, we take that line to heart and turn everything PINK! We get to use the entire DC Universe and spin them with our take. I can’t believe issue #39 is here already. It seems like we were just getting underway with the first issue! This book is so much fun, I can’t wait until we’re talking about issue #139!” Franco continued. “The Pink Issue! This is an idea we had for a long time! Being a lifelong fan of the Superman movie, working on this issue brought out the 8-year-old in me! Aw Yeah PINK! Aw Yeah DC! Aw Yeah TITANS!” Art replied.

So how often do these two communicate?

“We (me and Franco) talk all the time. Everyday even! We’re always creating and writing and making stuff up ‘til we are both laughing! That’s when we know we got something cool. Man, I go through 3 sketchbooks a year filled with thumb-nailed stories ready to be drawn onto the comic page. We are kind of like one entity with two brains. We think alike so much it can scare the average person. Even when I am drawing an issue we are already talking about the next one. Making comics is in our blood. It’s a way of life. Comic stories are constantly rushing through my brain. It’s like breathing,” Art said. “We talk all the time – sometimes many times a day. Occasionally we even talk about comic work stuff,” Franco chimed in.

How do panels get arranged?

“I let Artie do all of that,” Franco said. “Arranging panels is all about timing! Panels must also move the page along nicely not to leave the reader stuck in one place for too long. I like a nice flow. I like to use panels with no words sometimes to show the characters faces and reactions. This allows the joke to zing a little stronger sometimes. The sizzle before the bang, the bongos before the bass drum…dig?” Art replied.

How do they take a humorous style and translate it into their cartooning?

“Humorous, funny, style is really natural to me. I love the funny! It’s what I know and how I grew up. The style I draw in is the way things look when they leave my hand. It comes from within. Cartooning lives in my heart. I am what you see. And what you see is full of AW YEAH!” Art said.

“There are differences between children’s book art and other comics but to me it’s the same thing. I love traditional comic book artwork, but when I draw comics, they look the way TINY TITANS look. Kids are very open-minded and think lots of stuff is awesome and cool. I think it depends on the age of the kid and what they can relate to. As a kid gets older, they graduate to other styles of art that they find appealing at a certain age. It’s the subject matter and story that is different. Artwork can be interpreted differently depending on who is drawing the comic. It’s a total visual thing and appealing to the beholder. Yep, it’s like being in love,” Art added.

So what’s the biggest perk of the job?

“Working on these awesome characters with my bestest pal! It’s truly a dream come true!” Franco expressed. “I love creating! I love creating new characters! I love redesigning many of the characters I grew up with! I love making comics! I love going to conventions and meeting the fans! I love interaction! I love our AW YEAH TITANS PEEPS! Our fans are the best fans in the world!” Art proclaimed.

TINY TITANS #39 hits stores on Wednesday.

Superman and Power Girl’s battle against dinosaurs in NYC takes a grave twist when they discover these aren’t just normal dinosaurs – they’re magical dinosaurs. Luckily, Power Girl has a magician on speed-dial. Not-so-luckily it seems that Zatanna isn’t able to answer the phone at this moment…

Judd Winick and Sami Basri’s POWER GIRL #23, the newest issue of one of the funniest superhero books on shelves right now, and hits comic shops next week.

A baseball game has nine innings. Catwoman has nine lives. Here on THE SOURCE, we’ve got nine art teams we’ll be focusing on over the course of the next week. We’ll be in conversation with various artists – pencilers, colorists, and inkers – and editors to shed spotlight on nine samples of art. Needless to say, comic books are a visual medium, and we here at THE SOURCE like to pay extra attention to those artists who bring our stories to life.

Why nine? Obviously there are far more styles of comic book art, but nine is just the nice, magical number we decided on. The artists we’ll be spotlighting run the gamut from superhero artists like Brett Booth or ChrisCross and Marc Deering (whom we’ll be leading off with today), to genre artists like Moritat, to the cartoonists of children’s titles like Art Baltazar and Franco.

ChrisCross and Marc Deering have formed a dynamic pencils/inks team, as evidenced in the above spread from the upcoming issue of SUPERMAN/BATMAN with writer Cullen Bunn.

Up next for those two after this arc of SUPERMAN/BATMAN? A stint on SUPERGIRL, joining writer Kelly Sue DeConnick with issue #65. ChrisCross and Deering’s next issue of SUPERMAN/BATMAN is #83, and hits stores next week.

We asked the duo to talk a little bit about what it’s been like for them collaborating on these titles and to give us a backstage tour of how they take the script pages and turn them into the final art you see in their books. Click on the jump to read what they had to say:

“For my part, this has been an awesome opportunity,” Marc Deering said. “ChrisCross is a phenomenal artist and it’s been a pleasure to ink him. I try to bring a slick, clean look to everything Cross draws as well as adding all the textures that an epic story like this asks for. It’s been a blast!”

“You never know how a story is going to go and how one should tackle it until you read it,” ChrisCross told us. As for his artistic process?

“My method usually goes: editor gives me the script, and I go automatically to the heading to see if the writer put their personal info up on the top of the front page of the script. I read the script ‘cover to cover’ 2 to 3 times so I can memorize all I need to know so that I can dream on the story a bit.

Then I call up the writer and talk with them. And most time’s not even about the script. Just to hear them. Get their views, their humor, their lifestyle. SO I can mimic them. Get in their minds. Their heads. I spend an inordinate amount of time collecting tons of reference. Either from the editors themselves or the writers, but mostly from books I have or the web. Or taking pics from outdoors. Take a trip. Take a pic. By either my phone camera or an actual factual, ‘hood way of saying, ‘the real deal.’

I start thumbnailing the pages. 2 to 5 pages at a time to get the rhythm and to figure how many moves are in one panel in word form so I can make decisions. Add more panels, or take away panels and/or combine. Ad-lib some panels to make things more natural as far as flow …

Then I get into the actual drawing. I blue-line and then I pencil. After each page, I scan at 400 dpi and import into Photoshop. I clean up the page to the best of my ability (I can be messy on a page) and switch it to grayscale. Then to duotone, which gives me many options as to which type of blue I’m going to turn the gray and black lines. Once converted to blue-line, I switch to RGB mode, which now allows me to “stroke” borders in black on top of the blue in layers. I don’t ink borders anymore and neither do the inkers I work with. They thank me heavily.

I add in many layers and many sfx that will tell the story. It could be clouds, trees, leaves, cracks in pavement, explosions, tornadoes, speedlines, energy signatures, Kirby Bubbles…even 3D rigged cities and photographs altered by various other programs at my disposal (including Photoshop)… whatever it takes to make it seem flawlessly hand-drawn when it gets inked, colored and printed. After I apply my PS techniques, I collapse the layer and turn it that background layer into a “0″ layer. By this time, I have already set up background bordering that will fill the gutters between panels that will accent or spiritually mood the story. You won’t notice it on purpose, but your mind has already accepted it as information. I do tons of graphics that will go behind panels. Art you’ll never see in one image. But it’s there. Once I fill those areas and add whited borders to separate the panels from the background art in the gutters, I finally collapse the page and name it for the file folders, which I hold on to until the job is over.

I then make small grayscaled jpegs of the images for the inker, the editor and the colorist. For the inker, so he can see what he couldn’t in the blue-line on the page he’s inking. For the editor, to give he/she the virtual idea of what it will look like when it’s finished in black and white. And to the colorist for color notes, which I will work on again in Photoshop with notes (purely digitally) so that the colorist knows what I’m going for – yet not encumber their abilities. That’s a fine line. Colorists and inkers can make you or break you. So you have to treat them right.

I put the blue-line TIFF files on the DC FTP server or the inkers personal server, or even mine, where they’ll be able to print the blue-lined and black and white images on paper from their own printer – thus saving on courier costs.

And then it starts all over again the next day until it’s all done by, GOD HELP ME …. DEADLINE!

All that production goes into a page so that the reader can enjoy something from me that will be of singular experience to that of any other artist. Storytelling, graphics, draftsmanship, special fx. Even cinematography. I take a ton of pics that in some way will find itself in those pages. I wanted SUPERMAN/BATMAN #81-84 to feel like a great cartoon or a cool DVD the reader had just picked up and could had the time of their life with. And that’s what I had on those four books. And having a great team with me… Marc Deering, Brad Anderson and Cullen Bunn didn’t hurt one bit. I wanna do it again with Supes and Bats soon!”

It’s no secret that since the beginning of GENERATION LOST, Maxwell Lord has been plotting something extreme against the Justice League. In JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #23, available today in stores and digitally, Lord reveals this mystery and unleashes his ultimate weapon. If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, then you probably don’t want to click on the jump (spoiler alert!).

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