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For Sojourn's first trade paperback edition, penciler Greg Land drew up a thumbnail sketch, then worked out a layout with a montage of the characters from the series.
When he completed his work, he turned to Justin Ponsor to do the coloring. Here's Greg Land on Justin's contribution to Sojourn Volume 1: From the Ashes:
The trade cover was built around a fully rendered pencil drawing from me, as opposed to the hard-line work that I submit to an inker. So this was about using tonal values to create shape and form. Justin Ponsor then added computer painting techniques to enhance the tonal drawing. We talked a lot about overall color scheme and atmospheric effects, and then he went to town.
We were going more for an image you might see with a movie poster, with dramatic lighting, and I feel that Justin did a very good job of achieving that goal. Lighting creates a drama in itself, and Justin nailed it.
A villain with a skull for a head, two beautiful heroines, a troll with horns (As opposed to a horny troll), and an army heading into battle. Who wouldn't want to watch an epic fantasy movie like that?
Dragon Dave
In the fantasy series Sojourn, we meet the warlord Mordath. With his troll army (and his axe), he has nearly conquered the five lands of Quin. But in prequel issue 0, a rebellion occurs. Its leader, a man named Ayden (the figure in red in the upper right corner), shoots a fiery arrow that incinerates Mordath heart. Overjoyed, the people wish to make Ayden their leader. Instead, he declines this honor, and announces his intention to depart the five lands. But Ayden would not leave them without hope. So he pulls the magical arrow from Mordath's body, separates it into five pieces, and disperses it across the land. "If you ever need me again," he tells them, "locate the five pieces of this arrow, and I will come to your aid."
Many years later, Mordath resurfaces. Without a heart, he can no longer feel pain. Nor can he feel love, or take joy in any sensory pleasure. (He's even lost his hair!) So he does the only thing he can that will bring him satisfaction. He raises another troll army, and sets out to retake the five lands.
He looks quite different now: no longer dead, but not quite alive either.
When his armies destroy her town, and kill her husband and child, a woman named Arwyn vows to kill Mordath again. Accompanied by Kreeg, her loyal dog, she invades his castle. But using his magic, Mordath evades her attack, and casts her into the dungeon. There, she meets Gareth, a one-eyed swordsman with no ambitions beyond fleeing the castle. When Mordath visits their cell to announce that he will stage a public execution to make an example of her, Gareth picks a fight with his jailers. In the process, he steals a key from one of the troll guards. After unlocking their manacles, the Arwyn, Gareth, and Kreeg escape their cell.
Unfortunately for Gareth, Arwyn has no intention of fleeing. Driven by anguish, she has no desire to live beyond killing Mordath. But the trolls attack them, chasing them through the castle, until they reach the top of a tower. They are far too high up in the sky: what can they do but leap to their deaths?
A mysterious cloaked figure in blue (upper left) will come to their aid. She will convince Arwyn to see the bigger picture, and entrust her with the ancient bow of Ayden, preserved these many years. She will convince Gareth to see beyond his desire for a quiet life, and come to the aid of the land as well. She will tell them how Mordath was resurrected. Strangely, she doesn't need to convince Kreeg to join their quest: the loyal canine always knows the right action to take.
As for what happens after that, I don't know yet. That's where writer Ron Marz left me, with the trolls chasing after Arwyn, Gareth, Kreeg, and the mysterious cloaked woman. But already I'm hooked, and want to know more about the series. Thankfully, two more issues remain in From The Ashes, the first trade paperback volume in Sojourn, a series produced by CrossGen Comics between 2001 and 2004.
Already in his young career, Justin Ponsor was entrusted with coloring the covers for these issues. As you can see, there's a richness and depth to Greg Land's penciling, which Justin enhances with his coloring. They definitely say "Pick up this issue and check out this terrific high fantasy series!" But then, what else would you expect, from a colorist like Justin Ponsor?
Dragon Dave
Tony Stark's holographic Girl Friday, and Whitney Frost, or Madame Masque, make big entrances in Invincible Iron Man Issue 1. But Amara Perera, a brilliant biophysicist from Sri Lanka, really captures your heart. Right away, you can tell how hard Tony Stark is working to impress her, when he buys out the entire rooftop restaurant for their first date.
Yet she's not impressed by his extravagance, as this profile shot readily demonstrates.
While guarded, she's clearly intrigued by his interest. As the evening winds on, she softens toward him.
After dinner, she even confesses that she has conceived of a cure for the mutant gene. This is something she's never told anyone else, or even written down, for fear that the government might requisition her invention, develop it, and force all mutants to take it.
Later, they repair to the top of Tony Stark's headquarters. Atop the high-rise, as she enjoys the catered dessert, she pretends not to see Lady Thor arrive for a coincidental visit.
Instead, she warns him that should he have engineered such a chance meeting, she would leave immediately. She doesn't want him to impress her with his powerful resources and friends. She wants to see the real him.
I like how penciler Dave Marquez drew Dr. Amara Perera, and how the panels show the progress of her gradual softening toward Tony Stark. I also like how Justin Ponsor colored her, such as her luminous entrance, her shadowed face when she's pushing him back, and the highlights in her hair when she's confiding in him. I look forward to seeing how Tony Stark's relationship with Dr. Amara Perera develops in successive issues. I'm also interested in discovering how writer Brian Michael Bendis may make her conceptual cure into a reality all of Marvel's marvelous mutants must confront.
Most significant of all, perhaps, is how Bendis surrounds Tony Stark with three completely different women whose personalities pop off the pages of Invincible Iron Man Issue 1. They're all smart, beautiful, and powerful in their own way. Way to celebrate Girl Power, Brian Michael Bendis!
Dragon Dave
