Mingjue Helen Chen is a visual development artist at Disney Feature Animation. She's drawing covers for Marvel's Silk and drawn some covers and panel pages for DC's Gotham Academy. On November 23rd, she wrote on Twitter: "Can't express how proud I am as an Asian American to be able to contribute to Asian characters in media." Helen has contributed to
Frankenweenie, Paperman, Wreck-it Ralph, and
Big Hero 6. I'd first seen her name in connection with the
Lovely: Girls of Animation Collaborative Art Book. At SDCC, Helen accepted a request to do this Gotham Academy student duo. Olive is attending the school on a Bruce Wayne scholarship while her mother is in Arkham Asylum. Maps is her best friend. I love the book in their hands. This happy, affectionate scene is my favorite SDCC acquisition.
I attended the American Library Association national conference in San Francisco in 2015. During a panel, Batman group editor Mark Doyle brought up the original Gotham Academy team of writers Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher and artist Karl Kerschl. Mark wanted a kid-friendly Batman title and called Becky. She gave a pitch over the phone and brought her studio mates Brenden and Karl into the project. Becky describes it as Harry Potter in the Batman universe with elements of Batman: the Animated Series, Scooby Doo, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Marvel posted this Silk #11 cover drawing video.
