DC Comics Sketch Cards Gallery

Page 1: Justice League .

When comic fans and sketch card collectors heard that there would be sketch cards for the 2002 'Justice League' animated show, there was great excitement anticipating for the first time, sketch cards for characters from the DC Comics Universe. However since they were being done by 5 of the animators from the show, they wound-up being black and white and similar to the images seen on the show.

But after seeing a few of them a couple of weeks after they were released, I decided to get one portrait-oriented sketch for each of the seven characters. Also it looked as though the SK1 artist, Sung-Man Huh, did the best job art-wise, and he also did many of them in portrait-orientation. So I got one each of his sketches for the 7 heroes.

In June 2008, I added this nice Huh-drawn full-body Superman (slot 3).

The promo with Superman on it, fills-out the 9-pocket.

Note: I no longer own this page !! I have left it here for "reference" and also so I don't have to renumber the subsequent pages .

Page 2: The Batman.

When these first came out in late 2005, I wasn't going to do these since a lot of the artwork wasn't "that impressive" to me. Only the ones by Min Ku and Brandon Vietti seemed to be "more detailed" and of higher quality. I did do a page because:

• I actually watched some of the episodes of the show such that I was familiar with this show's versions of the villains
• when I saw that the Ku colored Batman(s) looked a lot like the Silver-Age Bob Kane rendition I decided I wanted at least one of those
• most of these sketches are fairly common and thus cheap ... so doing a page wasn't that expensive

I got two Batman's ... the very common DeKraker has a Golden Age heavy-drawn look to it, and the Ku with white background and cape partially covering face reminds me of the symbol from the Silver-Age comics. The next four villains are new versions of the classic Silver-Age villains. The last row has newer villains Bane and Man-Bat. I think the Penguins Kabuki Assasins (slot 8) are new villains just for this Animated show ?

DC Legacy pages ...

Page 3: The First 9 Justice League of America members ...

The Justice League of America was first formed in issue #28 of 'The Brave and the Bold' (1960), and eventually getting their own title later that year. I emphasize the use of the term 'Justice League of America' rather than JLA, as the Silver-Age title, to distinguish it from various later relaunches of the Silver-Age team, esp. since 'JLA" was the title of the series started in 1997.

The original seven members (also referred to today as "the Big Seven"), as presented in B&B #28, are in slots 1 - 7. Green Arrow joined in Justice League of America #4, and the Atom joined in issue #14.

Page 4: Other Justice League of America members.

This page displays other DC characters who joined the Justice League of America, though only the first two on this page did so during my Silver-Age days. Hawkman (slot 1) joined in issue #31. Black Canary (slot 2), who crossed-over from the JSA universe, joined in issue #74. The sketch I have of her here is the modern version of Black Canary in her zip-up jumpsuit. Hawkwoman (slot 3) joined in issue #146.

The other six characters I am not really familiar with as members of any of the many "JL teams", since those were all post-Silver Age.

• Zatanna (slot 4) joined in Justice League of America #161;
• Firestorm (slot 5) joined in Justice League of America #179;
• The Ted Kord Blue Beetle (slot 4), I actually have comics from his Silver-Age pre-DC days, since he was created in Charlton Comics by Steve Ditko (the co-creator of Spider-Man, whom left Marvel in 1966). The Blue Beetle joined in the 1980's as a member of 'JLI';
• the Android Hourman (slot 7) joined in 'JLA' #12;
• the John Stewart Green Lantern (slot 8) joined in 'JLA' #76;
• I knew of Plastic Man (slot 9), since he was reintroduced to comics during the Silver-Age. PM didn't join until issue #16 of the 'JLA' series.

Page 5: Justice Society of America.

As a kid, my favorite Justice League stories were those involving the team from the Golden Age of comics (the early 1940's), the Justice Society of America (which it seems obvious that the Justice League of America concept was derived from). Supposedly these heroes from the 1940's still existed, but on a parallel Earth, referred to in these stories as 'Earth-2'. I was not aware of these JSA characters until I read those stories that involved them.

The original members that are drawn for the DCL sketches, as first appeared in All-Star Comics #3 (1940) are the Alan Scott Green Lantern (slot 1), the Jay Garrick Flash and Hourman (slot 2), The Spectre (slot 3), the Al Pratt Atom (slot 4), Carter Hall Hawkman (slot 5), and Dr. Fate (slot 6). Dr. Midnite (slot 7) joined in ASC #8, and Black Canary (slot 8) didn't join until ASC #41.

Note: the sketch in slot 5 is the only 'JLA Archives' sketch in my collection.

Page 6: Teen Titans.

I started out wanting to just do a page for the Silver-Age Teen Titans, what I referred to as "the sidekicks team" . As they first appeared in 'The Brave and the Bold' #54, the team consisted of Robin (slot 3), sidekick to Batman; Kid Flash (slot 1), sidekick to The Flash; and Aqualad (slot 4), sidekick to Aquaman. In it's next appearance in B&B #60, Wonder Girl (slot 2) was added to the team. Originally the Wonder Girl of that era was supposedly Wonder Woman as a teenager, thus the very similar costume, but many fans questioned how WW could be in Silver-Age stories as both a woman and a girl. Wonder Girl was never referred to by any other name until Teen Titans #22, when it was revealed that she was actually Donna Troy. She then changed to a sexier costume.

Speedy (slot 5) sidekick to Green Arrow, was never actually a member of the team, but made guest appearances during the Silver-Age.

Since I still had four slots left on this page, I decided to add sketches of the "newer" Teen Titans, as seen on the current animated TV series, Cyborg (slot 7), Raven (slot 8), Starfire (slot 9), and a Group sketch with the sexier-outfitted Donna Troy (slot 6).

Page 7: Batman and associated characters.

I wasn't planning on doing a Batman page !! Though I read him as a kid, I find Batman "overexposed" in DC comics, sort of the same way I think Spidey is for Marvel comics. But when I was able to trade for the Silver-Age-style Price Batman in slot 5, and thinking I could complete that 3-part panel, I decided to create a Batman page .

Row 1 has ...

• the original Kathy Kane Batwoman (my only Batman Archives sketch !!)
• the original Betty Kane (Kathy Kane's niece), Bat-Girl, who appeared only 7 times in Batman-related comics from 1961 - 1964. She had a red-green motif to complement Robin's outfit. This Bat-Girl was later replaced by the Barbara Gordon Batgirl in 1967 (see slots 3 & 6).

Note that the Reis in slots 1 & 3 are my only 'Batman Archives' sketches !! Reis seems to be one of the 2 or 3 artists that I like from 'Batman Archives'.

The rest of the page has six nice Andy Price sketches, done in the style that I like from him. I particularly like the five representing Silver-Age-era characters:

• in slot 4 is the Dick Grayson Robin
• in slot 5 is the middle portion of the 'Batman Family' panel
• in slot 6, Batgirl punching Killer Moth, is a scene from the first appearance of the Barbara Gordon Batgirl (Detective Comics #359).
• in slot 7, is the Silver-Age-era Riddler.
• in slot 8, Earth-2 Batman, his wife Catwoman (in Silver-Age purple-green outfit), and their daughter Huntress.
• in slot 9, is the post-Silver-Age era "sleek-and-sexy" Catwoman, with Batman.

Page 8: Superman and associated characters.

I wasn't planning on doing a Superman page !! Though I read him as a kid, I find Superman sort of "boring" because he was "so powerful". But when I picked-up the nice Perna Superman (slot 9), , I decided to make this page.

Slot 1 has the Kent's learning that their new-found baby has super-powers. The next two sketches shows the long-time "relationship" of Batman and Superman from their Silver-Age days in the 'Worlds Finest' title (sub-titled as The World's Greatest Heroes), to being members of JLA, etc. Slot 3 shows the two dogs, Ace the Bathound, and Krypto the Superdog, which were seen often, early-on in the Silver Age, but both were eventually phased-out as the Silver-Age wore-on.

Row 2 has three Silver-Age-era villains:

• an earlier Silver-Age-version of Brainiac (slot 4)
• the Andy Price sketch in slot 5, represents the story from the Silver-Age issue of Worlds's Finest #142 (1964), which introduces the villain, the Composite Superman
• Luthor (slot 6)

Row 3 are more modern Superman characters. I have this cute Price Supergirl (slot 7), but someday, I would like to replace it with a Silver-Age-version. I have a Doomsday (slot 8) and post eye-burn Superman in slot 9 .... perhaps he just gave Doomsday a lobotomy (as in the JL animated series) ?

Page 9: Villains.

I started-off just wanting to get the three Silver-Age villains in row 2, but when I picked-up some more villains, I decided to make a page for them.

Initially I only wanted a sketch for the two Flash villains Captain Cold (slot 4) and Reverse Flash (slot 5), and the Hal Jordan Green Lantern's nemesis, Sinestro (slot 6). Then I moved two Batman villain sketches, Joker (slot 9) and combo of Poison Ivy and Riddler (slot 8), from the Batman page to here. For the final slot, I was looking for a Silver-Age villain, but I settled for the Two-Face (slot 7).

When I saw the Dillon recreation of a scene from Aquaman #1 (1962), where he is fighting a Fire Troll, I decided to put that sketch here in slot 2. Though the Fire Troll was a one-time Aquaman villain, this was still a sketch that I could use here.

I added to the page, Hal Jordan as Spectre, post-Parallax (slot 3). I pulled this sketch so I decided to keep it, esp. after I realized that this is one of the few Hal Jordan as Spectre sketches in the set. This character was at the end of the on-and-off again, storyline in the mid-90's when DC "killed-off" the Hal Jordan Green Lantern, and replaced him with a younger, Kyle Rayner.

To complete the page I recently added Black Adam (Capt. Marvel foe ?) in slot 1.

Page 10: Czop "Unique" sketches.

This page has what I consider "unique" sketches by Czop, i.e. he only drew each particular sketch once, without any "variations" (see pages below). Some could argue that there is a fine line between some of the Czop's being "unique" or a "variation".

• The first four are "cover tributes", that "pay homage" to Golden and Silver-Age DC comics. You can tell because of the cover price of 10 or 12 cents !!
  Batman (slot 1), late-60's because of the checkerboard at the top of the cover.
  Action Comics (slot 2) #1 introduced Superman in 1938.
  The Brave and the Bold (slots 3 & 4) often featured two-character team-ups, usually Batman and another DC hero, like the Atom, or Green Lantern, etc. As a kid, I liked to joke that Batman has teamed-up with every super-hero in the DC Universe in the pages of B&B.
• Slot 5 has Zatanna (with logo) and Raven is in slot 6.
• The big-headed Flash (slot 7) is from The Flash #177 (1968). I actually have this issue so I definitely wanted this sketch for this page !! Flash's arch-enemy Captain Cold is in slot 8. Black Canary and Green Arrow (slot 9) are on the same card. Czop did a few two-half sketches with that pair.

Page 11: Czop Batman sketches.

I started finding so many Batman-related Czop sketches, that I figured I may as well put them all together into a Batman-themed page .

Originally some of these were meant for the "unique" Czop page, since all of these are unique ones.

Page 12: Czop JLA sketches.

As I kept picking-up various Czop sketches that I liked ... some "unique" and most of them "variations", I had no idea how to put them into pages. When I realized I had enough of them for a JLA-themed page, I put nine of them here .

Row 1 is the "Big Three". Slots 4 - 7 has the other original 7 members, MM, GL, Flash and Aquaman. Slots 8 & 9 has two members who were added later.

All of these are unique ones except the Superman and Batman ones. It could be argued that this particular Batman is not a "variant".

Page 13: Czop JSA sketches.

The "unique" ones are in slots 1 thru 4, 6, and 9.

Page 14: Czop Miscellaneous sketches.

This page is for other "nicer"Czop's that I found, that don't seem to fit into any of the pages above. These are all considered "unique".

Row 1: I particularly liked this version of "The Big Three" (slot 1). Batman is peering out over Gotham in slot 2. The Shazam (slot 3) is the only Czop sketch from any card set that I can recall, that he forgot to sign .

Row 2: The "bloody mouth"Cheetah (slot 4), goes well with her nemesis, Wonder Woman (slot 5), and Hawkgirl (slot 6), rounds out the row.

Row 3: A close-up of Luthor (slot 7), a nice Blue Beetle (slot 8), and Plastic Man (slot 9) complete this page

Page 15: Czop Common sketches.

This page is mainly for some of the Czop's that I have found, which can be considered "common", in that there are variant versions of them. The Black Canary/GL pair (slot 4), Guy Gardner GL (slot 8), and Firestorm (slot 9) are not "as common" as the others. I could have used the Firestorm on the Czop JLA (page 12) but there wasn't room for him there.

Czop drew "multiples" of many of his sketches, often just changing background colors, etc. The one in slot 7 is an example of a "variation" of a similar sketch.

Page 16: More Czop Common and Darkseid sketches.

Row 1 has two of the Czop's that I have found, which can be considered to be among the "most common", in that there are many variant versions of these.

The recently-added Superman in slot 3, is "unique".

The remainder of this page seems to have turned-into a Darkseid page.
The two-halves Darkseid (slots 4 & 5) are not "as common" as the others. Czop did a lot of different and interesting backgrounds for the variant Darkseid's (slot 6). The Darkseid sending out his Parademon scouts (slot 7), and the exploding Apokolips (slot 8) could be considered "unique" since these are somewhat different from similar sketches. Metron in his Mobius Chair (slot 9) in front of the 'Source Wall' (with Darkseid embedded ?) rounds-out this page.

DC: The New 52 pages ...

Page 17: The New 52: JLA sketches.

The first 8 sketches represent the New 52 version of the JLA; where essentially Cyborg (slot 8) has replaced the Martian Manhunter from the original team. These sketches also shows some of the monior changes in costumes. Slot 9 filled the page with this nice Jeremy Treece Hawkman.

Page 18: The New 52: Green Lantern Corps sketches.

This was originally intended to be a Green Lantern Corps page, but I was only able to find 7 GL-related sketches that I like.

• Kyle Rayner GL
• Sinestro
• John Stewart & Guy Gardner
• Saint Walker (Blue), Kyle Rayner (Green), Fatality (Star Sapphire)
• Kilowog
• Atrocitus & Red Lantern Corps
• Larfleeze (Orange) (slot 9)