Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Visionaries of Tomorrow first time post from chris batista

Side note:
Scott, I officially hate you. Those are freakin' beautiful pages!


Oh, and Chris, no question from me, but welcome to LW! Always great to have truly talented folks and fellow Legion fanatics join in the fun here! Really enjoyed your art from day 1 on the book! I was not always a big Olivier fan...he grew on me as he developed, but it was so sketchy and dark...I know it reflected the "time" of the book with the Blight and Lost, ...hmm Legion Lost 12 was pure magic though...crap I'm digressing again. Anyway, your work is brilliant and keep it up! I actually find myself smiling as I buy a book off the rack with your name on it because I know the quality and effort you put into your art. I've not been disappointed yet! Your Legion stuff, the Hawkman 3 parter leading into Rann-Thanagar, 52... wow! Again, just keep it up, and we'll keep buying it! See you around the outpost.

Greetings Chris! While I personally wasn't that impressed overall by DnA's writing on the Legion, your artwork was always first-rate, and I'm really enjoying your work on 52.

Welcome to the boards, Chris! I love the job you're doing on 52 and can't wait to see more work from you on it. I am considerably impressed by all the 52 pencillers who manage to keep a coherent look throughout a weekly series. No mean feat, that.

I have a thousand and one questions about 52 and a number of theories posted over in the official 52 discussion. It would be nice to see what someone on the other side of the fence thinks of them.

Jamie

On the topic of 52 I don't really have much in the way of teasing. In my upcoming issues look for JSA, Will Magnus, Lobo and the crew,Captain Comet and the usual regulars. One of whom will be getting his own series to which I am attached.I can't reveal who as I've been reading speculation about who lives or dies and that would ruin some of that and my boss would make me a eunuch. Now Spaceknights broke my heart. The printed version does not reflect what I put in in the original proposal. Since they would'nt let me write it they got Jim Starlin for me ( I wanted DnA ). He clearly did'nt get what I was going for. I wanted crazy Sci Fi concepts grounded in characters you could get attached to. I never wanted it to be so one dimensional and cliche.They were never meant to speak like that. The Arthurian touches were ment to be subtle not like a crowbr to your balls. I wanted to evoke Dan Simmons and Peter Hamilton. Oh well, I ws happy with the way they looked. Toy Biz was interested for a while but the while Rom issue held that up.

Favorite Legionaires (in no particular order )
Ultra Boy, Cosmic Boy, Timber Wolf, Monel, Saturn Girl, Wildfire, Shikari, Karate Kid, Collasal Boy(cockrum design). I love all the members of the Legion. Except Monstress, Projectra (snake), Thunder(should have been a far cooler character)

Thank you for noticing the effort I put into what I do OmniCraig. Your compliments are appreciated like you would'nt believe. Guys like you make us work hard. Thanks also for Stratum and Erik. If you take the time to post, the least I can do is say thank you.

Welcome Chris, I wasn't reading The Legion during your tenure but i'm happy to say i've really enjoyed your issues of JLA and 52 in the past year.

Hopefully those can lead you to some high profile assignments because work of your quality really deserves to be in the spotlight.

Hi Chris,

Gates was my favourite character in the reboot, and it really upset me that he was pretty much discarded very early on in DnA's run. Were there plans to bring him back to the front eventually, or was he just a character they didn't care for?

As far as I know DnA liked Gates. He did get to rip off one off Rhas Al Ghul's hands. I enjoyed drawing him as well. I think with the limited time left, he was one of the characters that would never get a shot at the spotlight. It's the curse of writing the Legion, very difficult to get around to everybody. One of my old faves was Sun Boy. I had convinced the editor that the team needed him. I thought the fans would agree as well. He was going to be updated to not just be a Jonhnny Storm knockoff with a slighly revised classic costume.

hey again Chris !!

i have some Olivier Coipel artwork !! i was a MASSIVE fan of his work on the book, and as you said he made the team ULTRA sexy !!

it's interesting to hear you say, you were intimidated [ but also inspired ] to come onto the book after him !!

looking forward to those upcoming '52' issues that you have mentioned !!

from

Matthew.

Hi Chris
Even though you never worked on the original Legion,Your still one of my favorite artists that drew the title, I could see your love for the characters in your artwork on the Legion just like I did with Dave Cockrum and Steve Lightle.
I would so love to see you draw the Legion in the costumes from the 70's and 80's.

Chris,
I loved your work on the Legion! Not only did you make the characters look attractive and exciting, your detail in backgrounds and tech and everything was excellent. That stuff really matters in the Legion comics.

I'm a major Dream Girl fan, so I'm fussy about how the artists draw her, and your version of Dreamer was lovely. Thank you for that.

I also enjoyed your JLA art a while ago. I was glad to see you there.

Hope you get to look around Legion World and have some fun. Since you've been a fan since the Bates/Grell era, I'm sure you can appreciate a lot of our humor here. The people of LW know a LOT about the Legion. We've made stars out of people like Sinde, the girl that Cos dated when he was mad at Lydda. We had a gallery exhibit (in the Bits of Legionnaire Business section) dedicated to the heroes memorializes at Shanghalla! We're INTO it around here!

Take care!

Hi Chris Really pleased to see you here at Legion world.

I love your work of 52, really helps me undertand the story with all the little nuances.

I have to admit I was not a great fan of Oliviers work on the legion (although I can see the effect he was going for to match the mood of the stories) it was just a matter of taste I guess. When you took over the legion i was much happier and for me the artwork was much better.

Like a lot of the guys have already said, please feel free to join in the various silly and serious threads all over the place, the people here at Legion World are a great bunch to hang around with.

I wish that all the great Legion artists could continue drawing the Legion forever. You gave us a lot of beautiful, memorable scenes, Chris, and it's great that you're working on 52.

Chris, I absolutely loved "Dream Crime"! The synergy of your art and DnA's writing really shined there and was a highlight of that series. "Foundations" was a little awkward on the writing side, bur your art was very bright and imaginative.

This was the first time I'd seen your art since you were the original artist on "Steel". I thought your work showed promise there, but your Legion work showed major improvement. Absolutely beautiful!

I'm not picking up "52", but when I find out what weeks you drew/are drawing, I'll definitely seek those out. Looks like I'll have to seek out your recent Marvel work, too!

And I'll definitely pick up the new title you alluded to. I hope "52" and the new title help give you the superstar artist status you deserve!

Anthony

BTW, Chris, do you know at what point DC pulled the plug on "The Legion" in favor of Waid's revamp? "Foundations" was so heavily promoted that I was shocked to see the announcement come. The whole point of that storyline appeared to lay the groundwork for the future. Did they make the decision before, during or after "Foundations" saw print?

Thanks,
Anthony

Wow, really?! I didn't know that!! I could've bombarded him with questions like so many other lucky DCers.

Anyway, it's great to have you here Chris. I love your work on 52, though I am dreadfully behind after being out of the country for 5.5 weeks, and will undoubtedly love your work on the DnA Legion when I finally find time to read it. (I've been slowly working my way through the reboot. ) So, yeah. Woo-hoo!!

Oh, and I second Scott's Legion back-up suggestion. 'Cause yeah. That'd be sweet. (It was me who asked about the Legion in 52 at SDCC, btw. Along with a million other things...)

Chris, I'm also a big fan of your Legion work - your reimagined Titan and "diner waitress" issue are some of my very favorites moments of the post-Zero Hour era, and I want to thank you for making the final year of The Legion a visual treat. Am I correct that you also redesigned Sensor? If so, good job. DnA's plans for fissioning Jarth make me shudder a bit, though.

I have to admit my reading of "52" has been pretty spotty lately, but I'm back into it with the current issue and I'll be sure to look out for your work. I wish you all the best with your new project and hope you have a long and successful career with DC.

My question is the same as Lardlad's. It seems the commercial success of 'Foundations' (or lack of it) must have been the final deciding factor in ending the previous continuity, and the decision had to have been made swiftly. Don't mean to put you on the spot, but we're all very curious about the inner workings of DC as it affects the Legion.

Hey Chris, besides Sun Boy, were there any other Legionnaires from previous incarnations that you wanted to bring to the team?

My favorite era is the Cockrum era, followed by Keith Giffen's masterful run with Paul Levitz. I was actually planning on getting Timber Wolf back in the Cockrum costume. With just a slight revision to modernize it. I wanted to do the sme with Violet, I just loved that design. Cockrum's Element Lad actually looked tough. I would love to draw the Legion in those outfits, except Cosmic Boy. Looked too much like a space stripper. Keith Giffen's redesign was sweet. Thanks for the Dreamer notices, I based her on Carmen Electra. Carmen just has thoose big Blue eyes that worked really well for Dreamer.

A Sensor fan? I thought everybody hated her. DnA wanted her to resemble a lethal mermaid of sorts. I took some cues from Zahn on Farscape. I was planning on some new patterns because snakes shed their skins. I never liked the snake with the arms. Not much fun to draw. Then again, I think I would have prefered Sensor Girl.

And yes SketchLad....I'm relly into it as well. Big, big, big, legion geek. I'm well versed with every era. Big thanks to you all for posting!

Welcome Mr Batista! I'm really pleased to talk to you as i've begun in the Legion with your art.

I will explain so you can understand. I'm from France (i'm only in the USA since last december) and i started to have access to comics-shops regularly only around that time as i moved to Paris. So i started collecting the Legion at that time too, and i was astonished by your art in it.

The title was my favorite as i really like DnA as writers, i follow them on their new books too now.

So it's a particular feeling for me, as it was my beginning, and i'm a little emotional about it. These issues will always be special for me.

Just to say thank you for all these wonderful moments each time i was reading an issue, i couldn't wait for the next one.

I hope your actual work on 52 will lead to another run on another title that will give you the exposure you deserve, and where we will be able to enjoy your art again.
I would be happy to see you on a monthly book again.

As far as other Legionaires returning, I would have loved Blok, Colossal Boy (Gim Allon),Tellus (needs more aliens) and Quislet. I'm sure I had others in mind but I'm drawing a blank right now. The Legion is meant to be huge and damn the artist! They have to protect the whole universe.

Those issues were very special to me as well Querl Dox. They represented my finally drawing what I truly wanted to draw for years. Comics are hard work and it really helps me, as an artist, to love the characters I'm bringing to life. With DnA at the helm I was a happy camper. I was'nt always happy with how it all turned out. Constant deadlines mean that you can't always do everything you want, but with the Legion I was always trying. Being on this board has been wonderful for me and I want to express just how much everyone's words mean to me. It especially matters that it is the Legion. As far as being on a monthly, 52 is doing that right now. I will have a series from it's completion. It's a character that I love as well. He's been great to draw in 52. If I could pick what book I would want to draw it would be Captain Marvel or Mr Miracle.

The decision to relaunch the Legion was ,I think, a marketing decision. They could push Mark and Barry as the team that did Empire. They did get higher numbers than we did. Originally I was going to stick around with Mark coming aboard. I wrote down a whole bunch of notes for him that my editor asked me to put to paper. These were ideas that I was always pestering him about. Then the relaunch came about with Barry on board. The fresh start made more sense with Barry. It would have been hard on me to just throw everything away and start from scratch as I was very happy with were the book was. Besides Barry is a great chap as well as being a great artist on the book.

Who doesn't love Quislet?

Barry has been great to LegionWorld as well. You should check out some of his threads where he shares with us the various stages of his covers. They're pretty nifty!

I met Barry Kitson for the first time just over a week ago. We had dinner and drinks with Legion editor Steve Wacker. He told me that he was heading out to Baltimore for the Con. Other than the fact, that he punched out a nun for taking a sip out of his beer, he was a great guy. He's got a wicked left, that nun was out cold. She'll think twice next time.

A belated welcome from me, too... and thanks for putting Kent into the cadets!

I loved your run on the book! I'd have rather had that continue than the five fill-in issues that followed.