KRONA

REAL NAME: Krona
OCCUPATION: Former Guardian of the Universe
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Formerly Sector 0
HOMEWORLD: Maltus
HEIGHT: 3′ 5″
WEIGHT: 62 lbs
EYES: Green
HAIR: White
FIRST APPEARANCE: Green Lantern vol. 2 #40 (October, 1965)
AKA: Renegade Guardian

BACKGROUND from the comic books:
As a member of the immortal Guardians of the Universe, Krona sought to
create intergalactic order, believing the only logical way through
knowledge. His thirst for understanding consumed him as he implemented
perverse experiments to the detriment of the cosmos. Krona’s final
procedure caught the attention of his fellow Guardians, whom expelled
him from their ranks and imprisoned him on the desolate planet of Ryut.
Vowing revenge, Krona passionately waits an opportunity to escape.

ATTRIBUTES:
*Immortal
*Superhuman Intelligence
*Flight
*Devastating DNA blasts

NGILA G’RNT

REAL NAME: Ngila G’rnt
OCCUPATION: Green Lantern
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Unknown
HOMEWORLD: Unknown
HEIGHT: 5′ 4″
WEIGHT: 100 lbs.
EYES: Unknown
HAIR: Unknown
FIRST APPEARANCE: GREEN LANTERN (film, 2011)
AKA: Green Lantern

Find out more at the premiere of GREEN LANTERN. In theaters tomorrow.

Brad Meltzer is the New York Times bestselling author of many titles including IDENTITY CRISIS and numerous novels including The Book of Fate, The Tenth Justice, Dead Even, The First Counsel, The Millionaires, The Zero Game, Book of Lies and The Inner Circle:

“My father had two things on his wall at home: One was the cover of one of my novels. The other was a framed page from the dedication of my very first comic book work: Green Arrow – The Archer’s Quest. The dedication reads:

For my Dad,
who bought me comics all those years,
Even when he would’ve rather been buying baseballs.

For me, I loved that that became a prized possession.”
– Brad Meltzer

Art Baltazar is the co-author of YOUNG JUSTICE and the New York Times bestselling series TINY TITANS:

“My dad, original Art, is a big George Reeves Superman Fan! We would watch the episodes every Sunday Morning right after The Lone Ranger. Breakfast was awesome! When I was a little guy, my dad took me to see SUPERMAN the MOVIE! Seeing Christopher Reeve fly onscreen and save Lois and the helicopter with the John Williams music filling the theatre changed my life forever! I immediately wanted every Superman toy and every Superman COMIC! As a Dad, I played the Superman DVD for my kids and the magic was captured once again…well, almost. My son grabbed his stuffed horse and flew it around while my daughter flew around her Dora doll. Well, It’s a start.”
– Art Baltazar

Franco is the co-author of YOUNG JUSTICE and the New York Times bestselling series TINY TITANS:

“Being a Dad is great source material for writing issues of TINY TITANS! I do not intentionally ever set out to embarrass my son but apparently I do… a lot. Writing Trigon (Raven’s Dad) is surprisingly easy as I take all the silly things I do and channel them into the big red guy with the horns. But as a Dad, one of the proudest moments of my life is coming downstairs and my kid is on the couch and he’s reading an issue of one of my comics and the laughter coming from him is real. It’s music to my ears!”
– Franco

In recognition of Father’s Day this weekend, THE SOURCE has reached out to a number of our books’ creators to talk about what this day means to them. How have their parents or being a parent impacted how they read comics?

Up first is Jimmy Palmiotti, the co-writer of JONAH HEX and the writer of POWER GIRL and UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS.

“My dad has been gone now for over 20 years now and it still feels like yesterday to me. My memories of him and my mom together still comfort me till this day. My dad was a strong man in every way, the kind of strong that isn’t so easy to find anymore. He was a father to four boys, owned his own business and answered the call to arms in the Second World War. He and my mother stuck together till the day he died and after that day, my mother was never the same till the day she passed a few years back.

One of my fondest memories was that my father would, in his own way, support and involve himself in every single stupid interest we had as kids. He would go “all in” with anything that temporally caught our fancy and would always help us out to investigate whatever it was we were enjoying…and trust me, the interests went from movie making all the way to model building. When my brother Peter and I started to seriously collect comics, he would, on his single day off a week, take us into Manhattan from Brooklyn to go to a comic convention. This was a big deal for us since we were too young to go by ourselves into the city and as well, he would be missing whatever sport he would be enjoying on his day off…a bigger sacrifice then I imagined as a kid.

At one particular Phil Sueling comic show, which was in a hotel basement by the way, I had my eyes set on picking up CONAN #1 by Barry Smith in mint condition and had saved some money to find the best copy I could. I managed to get a mint copy for $20 bucks and went to show my father, who was walking around with my younger brother at the time. My dad looked at the book, looked at me and asked again how much it cost. He then asked me which vendor I had gotten it from, and told me to wait while he talks to the guy. I watch my dad go over, tell the guy he has some nerve charging a poor kid that had to earn his money shoveling snow after school a full $20 bucks for the book. Two minutes later he came back with a ten-dollar bill. My dad had become a superhero himself to me that day…ten bucks was like 200 bucks now…and I got to see my dad in action. He literally charmed the guy into not only giving some money back, but they smiled, laughed and shook hands. This, to me was a better super power than flying! I swore I would learn how to do what he just did and one day become as smooth as he was.

Now years later, I see how he influenced me, my work, my love for comics and my way of appreciating and respecting people while still getting something I want. It will always be sad to me that he has never seen me successful in comics, but I know he is out there, somewhere, getting a kick out of how I make my living and I just know he is over my shoulder watching me write this and thinking he probably could have gotten me a few more dollars off that comic.”
– Jimmy Palmiotti

GREEN LANTERN is everywhere this week. As the highly anticipated Warner Bros. Pictures’ film based on the DC Comics super hero hits theaters tomorrow, even the folks at MAD Magazine have joined in the excitement.

Alfred E. Neuman poses as the GREEN LANTERN on the cover of the August issue of MAD Magazine (on stands 6/28). Here’s what MAD editor John Ficarra has to say about it: “You’ve read the comic books, you’ll see the movie, now buy the magazine. Actually, if you just do the last, that’s ok with us!

For more MAD fun, head over to THE IDIOTICAL, the recently launched official blog of MAD Magazine.

BOODIKKA

REAL NAME: Boodikka
OCCUPATION: Green Lantern, Warrior, Mercenary
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Sector 1414
HOMEWORLD: Bellatrix
HEIGHT: 5′ 8″
WEIGHT: 125 lbs.
EYES: Green
HAIR: Black
FIRST APPEARANCE: Green Lantern, Vol. 3, #20 (December, 1991)
AKA: Green Lantern, Alpha Lantern

BACKGROUND from the comic books:
Boodikka comes from a warrior race, and was a member of a highly sought-after mercenary team known as the Bellatrix Bombers until she was chosen to join the Green Lantern Corps. Her lust for battle and anti-authoritarian streak overwhelmed her need for discipline several times during her training, and she fell into frequent disputes with her instructor, Kilowog. However, she emerged a capable wielder of the power ring, and one of the Corps’ fiercest members.

Boodikka is a charter member of the Alpha Lanterns, a team working within the Corps to police its members. On accepting the post, Boodikka’s physiology was altered, making her, essentially, a cyborg. As an Alpha Lantern, she possesses a direct connection to the Book of Oa’s Laws and the Central Power Battery.

Boodikka is a humanoid female with an extremely athletic physique. She has pink skin, and her hair is styled in such a way as to give the appearance of wings.

ATTRIBUTES:
* Green Lantern ring allows for a protective shield, flight, and energy constructs.
* Total mastery of hand-to-hand combat and many weapons.
* Cyborg enhancements to physiology, augmenting speed and strength.

A few weeks ago, we posted about two special issues of the Eisner-nominated and New York Times bestselling children’s series, TINY TITANS: the “pink issue” and the “Kroc issue”. Today, TINY TITANS #41, also known as the “Flash issue,” hit stands. The issue introduces Jesse Quick and features Inertia, Mas y Menos, Blue Beetle, and Kid Flash, making a very special shout-out to the FLASHPOINT series that’s currently setting the DC Universe into lighting motion.

We caught up with creators Art Baltazar and Franco to tell us a little bit about what to expect from the issue. Take it away, fellas:

“With FLASHPOINT going on in the other books we felt we needed to acknowledge it in some way in this book! It happens real, real fast so you better keep an eye on it. Artie and I have a long distance working relationship and I was thinking that teleportation would be very useful for us. Artie said if we could run as fast as the FLASH we would be able to get back and forth and get a whole bunch of work done too! Conversations led to making fun of each other and that led to these TINY TITAN stories. The evolution really takes us in different directions and sometimes we don’t see the end of a punchline until it happens. The sections with Blue Beetle came about as a completely separate story but got woven into this one. All in all a tapestry of Tiny Titans hilarity!” – Franco

“Aw yeah! It’s the FAST issue featuring Kid Flash, a bunch of fast titans and..Blue Beetle? We love Blue Beetle! I love it when we put Blue Beetle and his backpack in the stories. The fans get to figure out Back Pack’s secret language. But this time we threw in some Spanish too! I soon learned that our awesome editor Kristy Quinn is fluent in Spanish! She correct Mas y Menos’s with commas and accents and everything. I was impressed. Aw Yeah Bi-lingual!” – Art Baltazar

Upon being dispatched to London on a top-secret Batman Incorporated assignment, Stephanie Brown arrives only to learn that the actual Greenwich Mean has been stolen. As all of London literally grinds to a halt, it’s up to Batgirl and Squire to save the United Kingdom.

Joining writer Bryan Q. Miller on this storyline is artist Pere Perez. With a cover by Dustin Nguyen, BATGIRL #22 acts as a prelude to BATMAN INCORPORATED #9 and flies into stores today.

After being left for dead, Two-Face finds allegiance in one of the most notorious members of Batman’s gallery of Rogues. And not only is he still looking for his coin but his quest for revenge just got significantly more personal. Can the Dark Knight stop the treacherous duo before they unleash complete havoc onto the streets of Gotham?

BATMAN #711 is written by Tony S. Daniel, features art by Steve Scott and Ryan Winn, and hits stores today.