Batman (Vol. 1) 708 Original Cover Art & prelim

Batman #708 Original cover art (May 2011), for the story "Judgement on Gotham, Part One: One Good Man". The Judgement on Gotham crossover event was a continuation of the cancelled Azrael series and features Batman facing off with the Angels of Death (Azrael, The Crusader, Fireball). The series was bookended in Batman 708 & 709, with Part 2 in Red Robin 22 and Part 3 in Gotham Sirens 22. The cover for this first issue features Azrael front and center, with The Crusader to his right and Fireball to his left. A large and foreboding Batman head and neck float in the background, and boy does he look ticked off!

This is personally one of my favorite covers by Guillem March, and I feel like his capturing of each character is spot on. This is the first appearance of the Angels of Death, and they are a menacing and fearsome trio as they stare down Gotham City. The Dark Knight is not happy and looks like he is ready to wreak destruction in his path! Guillem used 2 boards to create this art, one for the foreground featuring the Angels of Death and Gotham, and a separate board for Batman. Both are accomplished on 11" X 17" art boards in pencil and ink, though the image size is a bit smaller on the first, with several inches of blank space on top of the Angels. The Batman image is large and full and practically solo cover quality in it's own right. Guillem also did more shading with marker on the Batman image, whereas the first board is straight pencil and ink.

Finally, there is also a prelim that shows the different ideas Guillem proposed to DC. The final cover is a bit of a blending of #2 and #3. The prelim itself is front and back, which makes the framing a bit more challenging (I will likely do a high end giclee print for one side of the prelim). Normally I only pick the prelim that translated to the final image, but the 2 contributing images are not on the same side, and I want to see both! I also plan on framing this with 709, which will make for a fun large piece!