My Scrapbook
Darwyn Cooke’s Color Model Sheet for Slam Bradley (March 2001)
Say what you will about Slam Bradley, arguably DC Comics‘ longest running detective character (first appearance: Detective Comics #1), but his revival in 2001 in a four-part backup that ran in issues #759-762 of that magazine may be the greatest and most sincere reboot in the history of comics.
No clones, no alternate-earths, no miraculously acquired super-powers, no dips in the Lazarus pit, no reprogramming by space aliens or the CIA.
That story, “Trail of the Catwoman,” written for by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Darwyn Cooke, portrays Slam as a clearly aging but still feisty hard-boiled dick, working the mean streets of Gotham City, who’s hired by Gotham’s mayor to track down the notorious Catwoman, despite the fact she’s supposed to be dead. Slam takes the case and finds Catwoman alive, but runs afoul of Bruce Wayne (and Batman) in the process. This is the model sheet Cooke sent out with instructions to the colorist in March 2001, just months before the first episode was published.
I lifted it from the great comicartfans.com site and plopped it here, just so you could check it out, and can appreciate the respect and care Cooke (and Brubaker) took in bringing Slam, originally created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel (yeah, the Superman guys), back to life.
