Previews 

Exclusive Preview: Glory #23 with Creator Commentary from Joe Keatinge

By | November 7th, 2011
Posted in Previews | % Comments

At this year’s NYCC, Image announced that they would be reviving comics from Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Studios with a bevy of creative talent at the helm, amongst them Joe Keatinge: former editor of the Eisner award winning Popgun anthology at Image. Now he’s taking up writing full time, and while you have assumedly already checked out our interview with Joe from NYCC (which we posted earlier) and are assumedly looking forward to his work with Brutal and Hell Yeah, today we’re going to talk about his work for the Extreme Studios relaunch with GLORY!

We’ve got a five page preview of Keatinge’s book Glory with artist Ross Campbell, and the best part of it? It comes with free annotations from Joe himself, giving you behind-the-scenes details page by page, panel by panel, with enough information to hopefully satiate your attitude until the book launches February of next year.

Check behind the cut for our exclusive Glory annotations, care of writer extraordinaire Joe Keatinge.

THE ANNOTATED GLORY #23 PREVIEW
annotated by the author, Joe Keatinge

INTRO

As I write this it’s Sunday, November 6th, 2011 at roughly 2 PM in Portland, OR. I got the bug to write somewhere other than either my home or the studio I work out of, Tranquility Base, so I’m pushing buttons at McMenamins Ringler’s, the one downstairs from The Crystal Ballroom. It’s a fine place for a beer (in fact, they brew my all-time favorite, McMenamins Hammerhead), a burger and a booth to work out of for a reasonable amount of time. You can also play pool here. Do you like pool? We should play some pool after this.

BUT, FIRST: The Annotated Glory #23 Preview, written by me and exclusive to the fine folks at Multiversity Comics. You ready for this? You and I are going to go through each and every panel of the five page preview and break them down, to reveal a bit about our creative process (‘our’ being series artist Ross Campbell and me), what’s going on behind the panels and maybe even accidentally some spilling beans I shouldn’t be spilling.

Lets do it.

PAGE ONE

Before I get to the panels I feel the need to mention each issue of the first arc, ‘Once & Future’, were written to different songs from the Tron: Legacy soundtrack. Why the Tron: Legacy soundtrack? It’s awesome.

I tend to not write dialogue to music, even instrumental, because I feel it interferes too much with developing the rhythm of dialogue. However, I do every other aspect to music, whether it’s pagination, character design, plot, etc. That said, for whatever I broke this rule for the first three issues, doing everything by listening to one of three songs on loop for hours on end. The first issue, the one these pages are taken from, were written to ‘The Game Has Changed’, the second issue was written to “Solar Sailer” and the third to ‘Fall.’ From there I’ve been writing primarily with Karma to Burn, as suggested by my studiomate, Les McClaine. For those curious, my creator-owned ongoing series, HELL YEAH, is primarily written (except dialogue) to The Dandy Warhols and Metric. My half of the writing on BRUTAL is almost entirely WWE entrance themes, primarily those of CM Punk and HHH. I’m not sure what my co-writer, the one and only Frank Cho, is listening to when he writes. Maybe show tunes? He does like show tunes.

I also want to mention that the creative team on this consists of not just Ross (on art) and me (on writing), but also regular series letterer Douglas E. Sherwood and special preview colors by Ryan Hill. The final issue’s colors will be different, but Ryan helped us out with the preview. Give it up for Ryan, everybody!

Continued below

Finally, I wanted to mention this is also the first five pages of the comic itself. One thing Jim Valentino taught me a long time ago was the benefit of having your previews be the first five pages of the book. Not only does it not spoil anything down the line, but if your first five pages aren’t enough to draw someone in, especially in a first issue, you’re doing something wrong. It’s a bit of a writing exercise and one I always took to heart.

The other tip I bring to all my writing was cribbed from Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon. You also want to end a right hand page with some sort of cliffhanger, however small, and start each left hand page with some kind of reveal, surprise or transition. Howard Chaykin talks about how you should never have a transition in the middle of a page and I’ve come to agree with him. Anyway, when you read this, keep in mind this first page is on the right, the second page is on the left and so on.

All right, so Glory #23, Page One, Panel One.

PANEL ONE

No better place to start your story than the beginning, right? So, Glory #23 starts at the root of all of Glory’s struggles, the ongoing war between her mother, the warrior goddess Lady Demeter (on the left) and her father, the demon king Lord Silverfall (on the right). Their people have been at war for longer than Earth has even existed, in a realm just one vibrational plane away from our own existence. Lady Demeter and Silverfall’s struggle was the main focus of the original Glory comics, which we’ll get to more when we talk about the next page. For now all you need to know is that they inherited this war from their parents and their parents before them and so on for countless centuries.

PANEL TWO

Our first big glimpse at the two different sides of the battle. In the original comics, Silverfall’s people were pretty standard monsters and one of our big goals was to expand on that, introduce creatures wildly different from what went on before. I figured if there was a civilization of monster-like people, it would be much more diverse than wolfmen, vampires and catwomen. I wanted to see those alongside creatures you would see in a Hayao Miyazaki movie. We also wanted to take Demeter’s people away from the standard supermodel amazons in the original run and make them much more diverse as well, in addition to having a much stronger focus on being warriors and soldiers. Her people are the best battalion any existence has ever seen. This panel also contains the first of countless Doom (yes, the first person shooter) that Ross Campbell has strewn throughout the series. Let us know if you find them all and we’ll consider getting you some sort of prize. I still haven’t found all of them.

Also, can you spot the appearance by one of Ross Campbell’s characters?

PANEL THREE

The first appearance of Glorianna Demeter, who will later on be known as ‘Glory.’ I wasn’t kidding about starting out at the beginning, this her straight out of the womb, being held by her father, Lord Silverfall. Yeah, dude, the blood there is partially afterbirth. Let that one soak in.
For reasons we’ll get to later in the series, Lady Demeter and Silverfall wanted to bring an end to the war and knocking boots to create Glory was the way to do it.

PANEL FOUR

Glory’s first public appearance, to the combined forces of Demeter’s warrior tribe and Silverfall’s monster society. I think this was the panel which made me think Ross and I were on the exact same wavelength in terms of goals with the series. As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t want the ‘demon’ people to be straight up monsters. I wanted more diversity. I can’t think what shows this more than the dude behind the snake in the upper left, the one with the weird red head and that crazy body. What is his deal?! He’s totally Ross’ design, but I loved it so much I plan on bringing him back.

Continued below

PAGE TWO

And now we jump ahead, several hundred years later.

PANEL ONE

Glorianna Demeter, age five hundred, very young by the standards of her people. She’s at the tail end of her people’s adolescence, about to fully enter adulthood (which typically lasts thousands of years). I have to give Ross major props for his redesigns here. I love the elements of fashion he brought in here (and really, to all of the characters in the book). Also, a lot of people commented to me about how young Glory looks here. Well, yeah. I wanted to contrast her here with how she is now, which we’ll get to once the issue goes to the present day (which you’ll have to buy the book to see!).

See what I was saying about the transition? It should work even better in print, but having to turn a page causes a pause in the reading process, one long enough for your brain to fill in something has changed without it being too jarring.

Also, cool winged cat, huh? Yeah, she’ll be coming back before too long.


PANEL TWO

That’s Lady Demeter in the background, out of her war garb. Also our first indication that Glory has a rebellious streak. I’ll tell you, it’s not going to end her. Glory’s defiance to just about everybody is a major ongoing theme of the book. It’ll have some massive repercussions down the line. She does what she wants, sometimes despite the consequences.


PANEL THREE

I will say the defiance is largely rooted in the given ‘purpose’ Demeter mentions here. Glory’s been trained her entire life to be the one woman police force of her both her lineages. She’s tasked with keeping them both in line in a position of leadership or, if it comes to it, destroying the side that breaks their truce. Her father is always on the verge of doing the latter.


PANEL FOUR

I have nothing to say about this panel.

PANEL FIVE

This line is pretty much my war cry for the entire series and comics in general.


PAGE THREE

Another shift in time, albeit not as dramatic. This one’s on the right hand page, which kinda spits in the face of the rule I mentioned earlier, but I feel the tight panels mixed with the credits help make it smoother.

I’ll get into this a bit more one page four, but this page is a great example of what you can get when you collaborate. I originally had this written as a nine panel grid, but Ross went with a more ‘widescreen’ approach and I think it ends up a lot better for it. So much so it’s how at least the first three issues begin.

PANELS ONE – THREE

These are heavily inspired by the cover of Tales of Suspense #39, the first appearance of Iron Man. I wanted to showcase her transition from being Glorianna Demeter to Glory, as she puts on these various parts of her first costume (it shifts over the decades, eventually to Ross’ design, which you can see on the cover) without completely showing her.


PANEL FOUR

Continued below

This is the last time Glory sees Lady Demeter (in our series) before she’s murdered.

Oops!

PANEL FIVE

There’s something I really, really, really want to say about this panel, but it’ll spoil issue #25, so just read that and remind me to tell you when it comes out. Although, it’ll be pretty obvious.


PAGE FOUR

KA-POW!

How’s that for a first full, in-costume appearance?

One of the first things Ross ever said to me when coming on board was that he wanted her to punch a tank in the first issue. This page shows dreams really do come true.

Ross really upped the violence from the script, but I think the series is better for it. I don’t recall writing Glory had severed arm in her hand or that there was a dude with only a torso left.
In fact, screw it, lets look at the original panel description.

–-

PAGE FOUR

SPLASH PAGE

WE’RE JUMPING AHEAD IN TIME A BIT – SO SHE SHOULD APPEAR AROUND 23 – 25. GLORY’S IN FULL COSTUME AS SHE PUNCHES THE FRONT OF A WWII-ERA GERMAN KING TIGER TANK.

REFERENCE: http://www.worldwar2aces.com/

HER PUNCH SHOULD BE CONNECTING WITH THE FRONT OF THE TANK, CAUSING IT TO BEND INTO ITSELF. THE FRONT HAS CRUMBLED LIKE PAPER UNDER HER FIST, BENDING THE MIDDLE, CAUSING THE BACKSIDE TO RISE OFF THE GROUND. THE SOLDIER STATIONED AT THE GUNNER HAS SLIPPED OUT OF THE TANK AND IS HOLDING ONTO THE GUN BARREL FOR DEAR LIFE.

IN THE BACKGROUND, A SMALL AMERICAN PLATOON – NO MORE THAN SEVEN SOLDIERS – ARE CROUCHED DOWN, TRYING TO COVER THEMSELVES WITH THEIR HELMETS. IN THE FOREGROUND, THREE GERMAN SOLDIERS ARE RUNNING IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION.

WE SHOULD HAVE A COUPLE OF PLANES OVERHEAD, BUT THEY CAN BE HINTED AT IN SILHOUETTE OR MINIMUM DETAIL.

LETTERING NOTE: I PICTURE THE MASSIVE LOGO TO TAKE UP THE MAJORITY OF THE TOP OF THE PAGE, ABOVE GLORY AND THE TANK, WITH THE TITLE TEXT AT THE BOTTOM AND THE CREATOR TEXT SLIGHTLY SMALLER, UNDERNEATH IT.

MASSIVE LOGO
GLORY
TITLE
ONCE AND FUTURE
PART ONE:
‘THE WAY IT WAS’
CREATOR TEXT
GLORY CREATED BY ROB LIEFELD
–-

So, there you go. Proof as to what it means to collaborate with someone. See how much better the final result is? I think some writers try to restrain the artists they work with too much. You should be open to ideas. This really is a better book because of the collaboration Ross and I have going.

I also wanted to mention my favorite character on here is the bug eyed Nazi underneath the tank. I didn’t even notice him until Ross pointed him out at New York Comic Con, but now he always cracks me up.

Also wanted to mention the logo was designed by Ross, partially inspired by heavy metal band logos, but mostly the Doom font. As I mentioned earlier, this is one of many, many Doom references.

PAGE FIVE

PANEL ONE

I originally had Glory merely pulling a Nazi out of the tank, but instead Ross drew her cracking his spine over her knee. Major improvement. This also contains possibly the only sound effect in the whole issue. I generally don’t write with them at all, but Ross drew this in and I liked it so much I didn’t bother asking for a change.

PANEL TWO

I always got confused why superheroes generally fought in WWII then always went to America. I mean, I get it from a historical perspective. Americans were writing and drawing American propaganda comics for Americans, but from a character perspective, there’s a lot more potential for places to go. This panel’s a major tipping point to show how different Glory is from other superheroes.

Continued below

PANEL THREE

…which tips here. Glory’s a superhero with a global presence, but we’ll later reveal her Earthly ‘home’ is in France. That said, her career has put her in all sorts of different parts of the world, as you may have seen in earlier Glory comics, where she was primarily in America.

PANEL FOUR

I like that guy in the background. What’s his deal?

Also I like the size difference between Glory and this soldier. She could take down her entire platoon if she wanted to. One of my other big goals with this series was to make her into comics’ ultimate bad ass. Suck it, Wolverine!

PANEL FIVE

Glory does what she wants!

OUTRO

So, there you go, an inside look into the first five pages of Glory #23, the first issue of relaunch coming your way February 2012. Let me know what you think! I’ll be posting further updates on both my website, JoeKeatinge.tumblr.com and The Twitter, @joekeatinge. Keep in touch!

– Joe Keatinge


Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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