Gotham Academy Mia and Olive by Becky Cloonan 2017

      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. At the conference, I got my Gotham Academy book signed by all three. In March 2017, Becky was set up in Artist Alley at ECCC in Seattle when I made my request for Mia and Olive. She started the drawing in Seattle, but was running out of time. After some business travel and moving residences, this drawing and a nice note arrived in the mail.