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Exclusive: “Harley Quinn” #50 Art-Jam Full Lineup (Minus One) Revealed!

By | September 17th, 2018
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On Wednesday, “Harley Quinn” #50 will hit comic shops. The oversized ‘anniversary’ issue will feature a number of iconic artists from DC’s stable, playing around not just with Harley, but with the larger DC Universe and even the Multiverse. This is due to the presence of Jonni DC, as well as Harley having, kinda, sorta, broken continuity. Over the next few days, we will be revealing a few of the myriad creators stepping into this issue, written by regular series writer Sam Humphries. Today, we can reveal the whole kit and caboodle…well, minus one we are saving for tomorrow. First up, is an Image original creator, best known for “Wetworks,” Whilce Portacio!

Sam Humphries: Whilce is the first artist in the art jam, the lead off batter, the pole position, and other sports metaphors. It’s a big job and Whilce blows it out of the water. His pages really set the tone for how beautiful and crazy the rest of the book is. Sure, we all want to see Whilce draw Batman, but no one has ever seen him draw Batman like this! Keep your eye on Robin, or should I say…nah, no spoilers!

Next, we’ve got “Batgirl” and “Motor Crush” artists Babs Tarr!

Babs Tarr: Sam told me I could embrace my inner shoujo manga artist when he gave me my pages for the script. I don’t think I’ve ever stressed less about pages before because I could just embrace what I grew up on and loved! I would have never in a million year dreamed I would get paid to draw a “manga” inspired Harley. I love my job.

Sam Humphries: My eyes turned into hearts when I saw her pages! Babs is one of the first artists I thought of for this jam issue. I knew we have a shared love of a certain style of manga and anime – something I knew we’d both have a lot of fun with. No spoilers, but Babs draws Jonni DC in her ultimate form.

Next up, we’ve got “Hitman” and “The Demon” artist, John McCrea!

John McCrea: Ya-Haaarr! Ever since I drew a pirate themed #50 waaay back in “The Demon” #50 (duh), I have been itching to do it again. Then along comes the Fabulous Sam Humphries with a pirate themed #50 of Harley Quinn and it was like I’d found buried treasure, me hearties!

Sam Humphries: YO HO, YO HO! I’m of the opinion that John can draw anything and make it stunning. And if you ever meet John, he’s got a delightful glint in his eye – of mischief and adventure – he might have been a pirate himself in another life! So I threw him a curveball I pulled from five fathoms deep. John’s pages will shiver ye timbers and swab yer deck. Honestly, I would love to see a whole pirate saga from him. Fantastic stuff.

Joining the party is “DC Comics Bombshells” and “Wonder Woman” artist, Mirka Andolfo!

Sam Humphries: It’s funny, I was working through this issue with Alex Antone and Andrea Shea when I attended Raleigh Supercon. I had the delight of tabling next to Mirka and her husband. My brain started whirring. On the plane back to Los Angeles, I wrote these pages for her. I knew I wanted a sequence that expanded upon Jonni DC’s mythos and I thought Mirka would be perfect to draw it. LUCKILY she said yes.

Up next is one of the most iconic artists to ever work on “The Flash,” Scott Kolins!

Scott Kolins: I’m more of a fan of the original Bruce Tim Harley, but this one is fun too – more everygirl. My pages aren’t really about her though. Mine are more about the quiz show gag until Harley comes in near the end, so I spent way more time on the gameshow stage and the “contestants” and getting a chance to draw The Creeper! Perfect wacky stuff for a Harley story.

Sam Humphries: When Scott sent in his pages, I thought, “I can’t f***ing believe we pulled this off.” Then I thought, “Are we gonna get fired for this?” I mean, retconning Superman’s origin into a game show! Scott’s artwork is manic and daring and that’s exactly what we needed. He sells the heck out of it, weirdness and all. Plus, his Creeper is just…SO creepy in all the best ways. We need more of Scott drawing the Creeper!

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And, last but not least is another legendary DC creator, one of the Superman architects of the 90s, Tom Grummet, doing his best Multiversal jam.

Sam Humphries: Tom and I did “Bugs Bunny vs. Legion of Super-Heroes” together, and it was an absolute blast. Wrote him some pages that I knew would be a challenge, but I knew would look gorgeous from him. He didn’t shy away one bit. In some ways, he has the most epic sequence of anyone in the art jam – the last stand of the multiversal Justice League against M. Clatterbuck! And he absolutely nailed it.

Make sure to check back tomorrow, when we can exclusively reveal the final artist featured in the book. And thanks again to DC for providing this exclusive for Multiversity.


Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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