As DC’s Green Lantern series heads toward Blackest Night, it’s also heading toward a new regular penciler.

As Newsarama reported, Doug Mahnke will work with writer Geoff Johns on the Green Lantern title during and after this summer’s Blackest Night event.

Mahnke has been working in the comics industry several years, being one of the creators behind The Mask series for Dark Horse Comics in the ’90s. More recently, the artist has been working for DC Comics, providing pencils for projects like Batman and Black Adam: The Dark Age, and helping out with the last two issues of Final Crisis.

While the upcoming “Agent Orange” storyline in Green Lantern is being penciled by Philip Tan, the regular penciler on the series has been Ivan Reis since 2006. Once Blackest Night begins, Reis will become the artist on the eight-issue Blackest Night mini-series that is beginning in July as Mahnke takes over the regular title with issue #43 in July.

Newsarama talked to Mahnke about the new job as Green Lantern penciler and found out that somebody at DC should make sure North Branch, Minn., stays safe from harm.