Shazam!

So here's the scoop - even though Cartoon Network has been messing around with the schedule, delaying new episodes until March, itunes has been sticking to the original schedule, meaning you can download The Super-Batman of Planet X! and The Power of Shazam! right now if you want, and presumably the much anticipated (and deservedly so) Chill of the Night! this upcoming Friday.

Now, as big a fan as I am of Captain Marvel, who guest-stars in The Power of Shazam!, I want to talk here about something else that happens in that episode. Something that took me five years to finally accomplish, after repeated failures.  In its own way, the culmination of a lifetime's obsession.  I'm talking about...

Blowing up the Red Tornado.

I became a comic fan back in Nineteen Seventy Something, reading Justice League of America comics in what has retroactively been dubbed the Satellite Era.  Back then, the Justice League had anywhere from ten to fourteen members, half of whom had their own titles.  So usually the writers focused on the other half for character development, and pre-eminent among these B-listers, to my young eyes at least, was the Red Tornado.

Now, the Red Tornado was an android with wind powers and a Pinocchio complex.  Pretty straightforward comic book stuff.  But what drew me to the character was his tenacity. In the era I was introduced to the character, he blew up at least three times, returning from the grave a few issues later each time.  It was almost like his secondary superpower was dramatically sacrificing himself in that gruesomely explosive way that you can only achieve in a Comics Code Approved book with robots.

So many years later, I ended up picking up a little freelance storyboarding work from Justice League.  The episode was Panic in the Sky, and I was boarding a little sequence where the Justice League satellite is under siege from an army of superpowered clones called the Ultimen.  In the middle of the fray, taking up a solitary sentence in the script, was a showdown between Red Tornado and a bunch of Ultimen.  Here, I thought, was a chance to pay homage to my favorite hero in the appropriate fashion - by killing him in a blaze of exploding glory.

So I boarded it that way - Red Tornado beats Wind Dragon but is then overloaded by Juice, and dies in a big electrical explosion.  Unfortunately, Panic in the Sky happened after The Return, in which the Red Tornado also blows up, and James Tucker, producer of Justice League Unlimited, felt that blowing the Red Tornado up twice was once too many.  I argued that blowing up heroically was basically Red Tornado's whole schtick, but James didn't buy it, and Reddy remained unexploded that day.

A few years pass, and I get a call from Sam Register about a new show James is developing called Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and am I interested in working on it?  Of course I'm all for that, especially when Sam, knowing my weaknesses, mentions the prominent role that Red Tornado will be playing as one of the most frequent guest-stars.  In short order, I was on the Warner Bros. ranch drawing Batman and Green Arrow dangling over a pit of acid.

Now, here's how they decide which director directs which show - it's pretty much just left to chance.  But if there's a script coming up that you have a special interest in, there's no harm in letting James or Michael Jelenic know that you wouldn't mind if that script happened to fall into your slot.  And when I got there, in the first batch of scripts was a perfect chance to blow up the Red Tornado in classic style.  So I dropped a few hints about how I sure do like the Red Tornado, and if nobody else wanted that particular script, maybe I could have a go at it?  Which everyone was fine with, so show 4 was to be Invasion of the Secret Santas! starring the ever-exploding android, Red Tornado.

Unfortunately, the reality is that the scripts each have their own challenges, so they get done when they get done, and sometimes that means a script will get delayed or pushed forward to stay on schedule.  Secret Santas wasn't going to be done in time to be show 4, but Day of the Dark Knight! was ready, so that became show 4, and Secret Santas got bumped to show 5.

And so it was left to Brandon Vietti to explode Red Tornado.  And a bang-up job he did - it was a classic Red Tornado explosion, easily one of the character's best.  As proud as I was that Red Tornado got his moment to explode in the spotlight, and as much as I enjoyed watching it, I was still left with the nagging feeling that I wanted to be the one with my finger on the detonator.

And then, 32 episodes later, purely by chance, the script to Power of Shazam! landed on my desk.  And there in the teaser was the moment I had been waiting years for - a chance to explode my childhood hero.  You can believe I boarded that part myself!

And so, after five years and two failed attempts, here it is - I have finally exploded my childhood hero, the Red Tornado.

There's also twenty-one and a half other minutes of stuff in the episode too.

So 2 measly bucks will get you early access to a full Captain Marvel episode, steeped with Captain Marvelly goodness.  Or wait 'til March, whatever.

All characters ™ and © DC Comics.

NAna Nana Nana Nana NAna Nana Nana Nana BLOG POST!

Once again, the Internet has unmasked my latest [secret project]. This one's called Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and I'm one of three directors on it, along with Brandon Vietti and Michael Chang, working for James Tucker, of Legion of Superheroes/Justice League/Batman/the-drawing-at-the-end-of-this-post fame, and Sam Register, executive producer of all kinds of awesome shows that you've spent so much time enjoying like Teen Titans, Transformers Animated, Clone Wars, Ben 10, and so on.

Of course, at this early stage, I can't post any actual images from the show, which are being kept under wraps, but there's nothing to stop me from posting this crude scribbling of Batman I did three or four years ago which (I must emphasize) has nothing to do with the show.



Also, here's a list of characters and guest-stars that will be appearing in the show - self-redacted, because 1/ I'm not allowed to spill these particular beans yet and 2/ it will annoy Colin. Keep checking in from time to time, though, and I will be unredacting names selectively, as I have been doing for my previous Transformers and Legion posts.

I wish I could talk about it, because we have [secret character], Black Canary and The Huntress appearing. How awesome is that? Also Blue Beetle (psst - it's Jaime in the suit) and the new Atom. We also have Green Arrow and Aquaman, rocking a decidedly more Silver Age appearance than they have in the comics currently. I also get to draw Speedy, who I haven't drawn since Teen Titans. We even have some really obscure characters popping up, like Adam Strange, Kamandi and fan favorite B'Wana Beast. Also James has promised that we'll finally see the return of Firestorm to the world of animation, which makes me happy, since I thought he should have been in JLU. Not to mention tons of Green Lanterns, including one who's never been animated before. And of course, my favorite, Red Tornado.

Oh, and the guest star voices! Can you believe we got R. Lee Ermey? We also got Tom Kenny, reprising his role as Plastic Man, and Michael Rosenbaum, but not in the role you might expect (he'll actually be playing Deadman). Plus the return of many familiar faces from shows I've worked on in the past, like John DiMaggio, Greg Ellis, [secret guest star], Wil Wheaton, [secret guest star] and [secret guest star]. So you can see why I would be excited!

Anyhow, the show is apparently airing Fridays on Cartoon Network, but not until the Fall. I will probably forget to remind you when it airs, but please, check it out!


Publicity drawing by James Tucker.

Batman, Blue Beetle, "Brave and the Bold", Green Arrow are all ™ and © DC Comics.

Justice League!

Just got back from the Bruce Timm retrospective thing at the Egyptian, which was fun and awesome. Hooray to Jon Gibson for putting it on, and Hooray to Bruce for making so many amazing cartoons. If you're too young to remember how crappy superhero cartoons were before Bruce got his hands on Batman, consider yourself lucky. In honour of Bruce, here are some Justice League Unlimited (+ Firestorm) doodles I did in San Diego last summer.

I'm not sure why it scanned so terribly. All characters ™ and © DC Comics.