Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: Batman, chip zdarsky, dc comics, joe quesada, mike hawthorne

Mike Hawthorne Draws Batman Ongoing Series, With Joe Quesada On Covers

Batman! As revealed in the two most important places for comic book news, New York Comic Con and Chip Zdarsky's Newsletter, Joe Quesada will be doing covers for upcoming issues of Batman – new covers as well, not whatever they found in the bottom drawers from the Azrael days. And Mike Hawthorne will be drawing Batman from Batman #131 while Jorge Jimenez takes a break to draw a Netflix comic book.

At the Jim Lee & Friends panel at NYCC, Quesada revealed the new covers, his first work for DC Comics in decades, as he was inconveniently EIC and CCO of Marvel Comics for most of the twenty-first century and before. And his future plans as Amazing Stories are still some way off. So Batman #131 and #132 covers will do for now.

Batman writer Chip Zdarsky had his own version. "Joe called me, in a panic. "Chip, I know I've been incredibly unkind to you over the years, but I need to draw Batman. Captain America? Spider-Man? Daredevil? I hate those guys. Always have. But Batman? He's the dream." I agreed about Batman being the dream and hung up the phone, thinking that was the end of our conversation. But he called back right away. He wanted to draw my Batman series. "But that's impossible!" I shrieked. "You're the C…C…O? Of Marvel Comics! You're not allowed to draw Batman!" "What if I quit Marvel?" I said "okay" and hung up again. This time Joe didn't call back right away, and within a week I saw the news that he did indeed quit Marvel. The day of his announcement he called me again. "I did it! I'm free from the shackles of the world's most popular entertainment company! When can I start?" "I can get you doing a cover, maybe two, in the next month or so." I assumed just then that Joe had hung up on me for a change since the line went silent. But I soon heard his "New York breathing" (you know what I'm talking about) and realized he was still there. "I … I thought I was going to draw the book…" "Ha! Sorry, some crossed wires there. Jorge is still the artist of the Batman title! And we're just about to announce that the amazing Mike Hawthorne, from my Daredevil run, is drawing an arc!" "But I … I quit my job … I was CCO of Marvel Comics …" Joe was starting to sound sad and I just get really uncomfortable around sad people so I hung up and emailed my Assistant Editor to set up those cover gigs for Joe at whatever his Marvel rate was minus the 15% finders fee for myself. So today at NYCC they announced his covers for Batman 131 and 132 and I've got to say, we should have paid him more."

And yes, Mike Hawthorne will be drawing Batman from #131 as well. I choose to believe Chip Zdarsky's version of how it all went down.

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