DC Showcase ‘94 #1

I wasn’t really planning on doing much more than window shopping at OAX this year but after having a nice conversation with Kevin Nowlan I figured that was the time to ask about a cover he did 30 years ago for issue 1 of DC’s Showcase ‘94 series. He remembered doing the work but not where the original was so we ended up discussing doing a recreation and here is the result.

Having read it countless times, the cover image is seared into my memory. Depicting a man more or less, whose devilish grin needs no introduction but gets one anyways. Nowlan captures Jokers visage in a moment of fiendish thought, which is most of the time. Nowlan’s shadow and light work are industry renowned and shows us he hasn't lost a step having captured the original so well. Kevin joked that he feels he draws certain things better now than before, I replied that he was being hard on himself. Not to mention the hand-drawn “The Joker”, high quality draftsmanship! A few minor alterations aside, this piece is so close to the original that even if I never find it, I can still look at this fiendishly-well executed piece and smile!

The trade dress: Showcase, DC bullet and DC Universe logos are on an acetate overlay, then digitally applied to this image.