Batman-uary 2026 - Batman #113 (1940) Cover Recreation

 BATMAN-UARY 2026:
Batman #113 (1940)

Batman-uary Returns!  This time it's a cover recreation of "Batman" #113 (1940)--a peculiarly significant issue in that it introduced the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh and his Bat-Radia.  It's a fun story with a goofy charm (the best charm there is, IMHO!).  Batman is compelled to go out on for a midnight fly in his Bat-Plane, only to be teleported by Tlano, the Batman of Zurr-En-Arrh.  On Zur-En-Arrh, Batman (our Earth Batman, that is) discovers he has the power of Superman on the alien world and uses them to help Tlano fight off an alien invasion and their giant robots.

I sorta wanted to do more with both Batman and the aliens on the cover, as they looked fun (and the fireballs from their lasers have an almost flower-like look to them which was intriguing) but, to be honest, the whole thing turned out better in my head than on the page.  Ah, well, that's the way it always goes, I'm sure.  Still, it wasn't a complete failure and is marginally OK.  Onward to the next one!

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Here is the original cover to "Batman" #113 (1940).

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STEP ONE:  Here's the briefly scribbled digital pencils, done on a 2,000px x 3,000px @ 300dip canvas in Clip Studio Paint.

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STEP TWO:  And the digital inks.

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STEP THREE: For the colors, the were mostly flat colors and for the building I used the Noise Filter to add some texture and the airbrush tool to add some shadows on a separate layer.  While it was modestly improved, I was mostly not too satisfied with the effect.  However, when I changed the shadow's Layer Property to "Hue", it resulted in an interesting, almost alien, color scheme that I wouldn't have chosen, but seemed fitting, methinks.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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