Just the Facs(imile)

DC has announced a facsimile edition of Green Lantern #49, the second part of the “Emerald Twilight” storyline that kicked off my run on the title. The issue is scheduled to hit stores on July 8 with a standard edition, a foil cover edition, and a blank/sketch cover edition.

The cover image, penciled by Darryl Banks and inked by Romeo Tanghal (I’m not positive who colored the cover, but perhaps it was interior colorist Steve Mattsson), is obviously a landmark DC image, homaged over and over. A few years ago, I asked Darryl whatever happened to the original art. He said, a little glumly, he’d sold it for a few hundred bucks shortly after the issue came out. That piece of art is worth a very hefty sum now, but little did we know.

The interior artist for issue #49 was Fred Haynes, necessitated by the fact that the three Emerald Twilight issues needed to be drawn at the same time due to editorial’s decision to go in a new direction (and new team) for the storyline. So rather than Darryl drawing all three issues, as had been planned, he started on issue #50, and Bill Willingham and Fred Haynes were assigned to #48 and #49 respectively. All three issues needed to be written at once, which led me to writing pages in interesting places, including an Amtrak train into Manhattan and between sets at a Peter Gabriel concert.

I think issue #49 was the first and last time I ever worked with Fred, and as far as I can remember, we didn’t really have much contact in the process. I wrote the issue, he drew it, and that was it. I’m not sure if Fred is still working in the business.

Here’s a more detailed account of the facsimile from 13^th Dimension, including an expected reprint of issue #50 as well:

https://13thdimension.com/green-lantern-49-hal-jordan-goes-mad-in-facsimile-edition-classic/