It’s kind of like Green Lantern artist central.
The studio in North Branch, Minn., where DC artists Doug Mahnke and Patrick Gleason work together has suddenly become a bastion of space battles and zombified superheroes as the two pencilers guide the Green Lantern universe through this summer’s Blackest Night event.
Although Gleason has been working on Green Lantern Corps for years, Mahnke came on board the Green Lantern title just in time for all the excitement to begin. As Blackest Night began to spill from the Green Lantern universe into the whole DCU, Mahnke took over Green Lanternfor regular series artist Ivan Reis, who is now drawing the main Blackest Night mini-series.
So far, Mahnke has drawn everything from the disturbingly dark history of Black Hand in his debut Issue #43, to the upcoming space battle between Sinestro and Mongul in Green Lantern #46. And along the way, he’s had his studio-mate to help him out with advice on how to draw the characters that Gleason already knows so well.
In the first part of our discussion with the two artists, Newsarama talked to Mahnke about drawing Green Lantern in the middle of Blackest Night and how he meets the tight deadlines of this year’s premier DC event.