Harleen appreciation topix (there will be spoilers)

[kjn]

Stjepan posted a bunch of concept art for Harleen volumes 2 and 3 over on Twitter.

He also posted this in answer to a question of future Harleen volumes:

not confirmed yet, but i have my outlines

Not sure why DC are dragging their heels here. The hardcover over on Amazon is currently #1 for superhero comics and #5 for all comics once Kindle editions are removed, and a lot of the heavy lifting for the contract ought to have been done when Harleen 1–3 were negotiated. Unless Sejic's proposal to do "Isley" before "Harley and Joker" is causing trouble here.

[kjn]

Sejic is working on a short tie-in piece to Harleen, with pictures over on twitter.

Thread #1

you know, sir... it's strange...

every passing day she reminds me more and more of him...

And on the question on if he worked on Harleen 2 or 3:

nope. but i'm doing something fun and in continuity atm

[Vakanai]

Sejic is working on a short tie-in piece to Harleen, with pictures over on twitter.

Thread #1



And on the question on if he worked on Harleen 2 or 3:

Sweet, thanks for the info. Definitely want to see more from him and this continuity. Harleen was one of the best books I read in the last year or two.

[kjn]

Sad news. Seems like we won't see a Harleen followup, apart from an (I believe) newly completed short tie-in story.

and so my work with the comic industry is completed. the remaining few decades if i got them in me, i'll be doing my own stuff and making a metric fuckton of webcomics.

you are all free to join me. they will all be printed eventually but as graphic novels only.

mind you' i will be leaving something really nice behind. a harleen short story that i'm feeling really good about

As for the reasons:

i'm almost 40, my health is dubious and i'd love to leave a legacy of some finished stories of my own.

it's a too long and complicated answer for twitter, honestly i'd suggest you drop by on one of my streams and ask me there. there are a lot of moving parts to this whole thing

On working with DC

amazing experience. not a single complaint on my end. my every single experience with DC has been an excellent one

[Vakanai]

Well, that sucks for me, I was so hyped for the other books he had planned in this continuity and it sucks now that I'll never get them - but I understand where he's coming from, we all have our own lives to lead. Best wishes for him, hope everything goes well, and glad I get at least one more small thing with this Harleen.

[Stryfe8]

Well, that sucks for me, I was so hyped for the other books he had planned in this continuity and it sucks now that I'll never get them - but I understand where he's coming from, we all have our own lives to lead. Best wishes for him, hope everything goes well, and glad I get at least one more small thing with this Harleen.

he s clarified this on twitter that it's not i'm done with DC, but a my health is such that i cant/wont do something with a fixed deadline until and unles it improves.
so there's hope, and we know it's a story he wants to tell

[kjn]

he s clarified this on twitter that it's not i'm done with DC, but a my health is such that i cant/wont do something with a fixed deadline until and unles it improves.
so there's hope, and we know it's a story he wants to tell

Good to hear. Well, he was (and is) exceedingly vaguebooking. And not about his health—which I'm cool with vaguebooking about—but about his creative plans.

If he were to take my advice, he and DC should develop a relationship similar to what—IIRC—LE Modesitt Jr has with his publisher. Modesitt writes one book and sells it to his publisher, who then publishes it. The publisher would readily give Modesitt a multi-book contract, but that's not how Modesitt rolls.

[nebezial]

exactly this. in my initial tweets i avoided talking about my health as i wanted to give my audience a positive thing. i was never one for well wishing be it good health or happy birthdays. i'm weird like that.


but then i started seeing articles on how i'm done with dc so i had to clarify the issue behind it all. i don't like talking about my health issues never did, but unfortunately this time i had to.

in any case the harleen arc and isley and selina and sirens stories that tie into it are very much something i want to do but at this point in time i can't commit to them as i just don't think ill reliably meet the deadlines

[kjn]

Good to hear that!

And your concerns about deadlines and scheduling shows that you are more professional than a lot of other creators in this business.

[Ascended]

Super sad news, as I was really looking forward to the next installments of Harleen (and harboring a hope we could someday get the guy on one of my favorite characters like Superman, Nightwing, or Cyborg), but I can't blame Sejic for prioritizing his own web content and health.

I wish him the best of luck; been a fan since I discovered him on....Witchblade, I guess it must've been. Easily one of the very best talents in the industry and he seems like a really nice guy too.

[Vakanai]

he s clarified this on twitter that it's not i'm done with DC, but a my health is such that i cant/wont do something with a fixed deadline until and unles it improves.
so there's hope, and we know it's a story he wants to tell

Well I certainly hope his health improves then! I mean I'd hope that anyways, I always want everyone's health to be good (except authoritarian leaders and such obviously), but I'd love if he could finish his vision for these characters.

Shame he couldn't do work for DC without a fixed deadline, but I get publishing kind of is a pretty scheduled thing.

[Vakanai]

exactly this. in my initial tweets i avoided talking about my health as i wanted to give my audience a positive thing. i was never one for well wishing be it good health or happy birthdays. i'm weird like that.


but then i started seeing articles on how i'm done with dc so i had to clarify the issue behind it all. i don't like talking about my health issues never did, but unfortunately this time i had to.

in any case the harleen arc and isley and selina and sirens stories that tie into it are very much something i want to do but at this point in time i can't commit to them as i just don't think ill reliably meet the deadlines

We understand, it's probably a tough balance wanting to keep health issues private but not wanting gossip to spread either. As well as understanding what your health will and won't allow on a professional level. You seem to be handling it well, and we all look forward to when you can continue in good health.

[kjn]

Stjepan posted about Harvey Dent's role in the story over on Twitter.

initial concept was that dent was already a patient in arkham and i wanted to focus the entirety of the story on harley and joker but it was on advice of my editor @andykhouri that i put harvey into a significantly more active role

This is one of the things a good editor does, and that is why they are so valued by many writers. A good editor takes a good story and makes it better. Andy Khouri noted the similar paths hat Harleen and Harvey were on, and that Harvey could be used to bring more nuance to Harleen as a character.

He also posted a concept dialogue between Harleen and Joker.

Ea_F4p9XYAcGEl0.jpg

Notice the shading of Harleen's face here. Isn't it reminiscent of Two-Face?

[Stryfe8]

exactly this. in my initial tweets i avoided talking about my health as i wanted to give my audience a positive thing. i was never one for well wishing be it good health or happy birthdays. i'm weird like that.


but then i started seeing articles on how i'm done with dc so i had to clarify the issue behind it all. i don't like talking about my health issues never did, but unfortunately this time i had to.

in any case the harleen arc and isley and selina and sirens stories that tie into it are very much something i want to do but at this point in time i can't commit to them as i just don't think ill reliably meet the deadlines

CBR manages to again say that youŕe done with DC, while art the same time giving us good news.
of course, this means iĺl have to get my first digital comic, in the hopes of enticing DC to let you do the rest of the story at your own pace, without deadlines

[kjn]

Sejic's Harley Quinn Black + White + Red #1 is short but excellent. It's a standalone followup to the published Harleen story, but set quite a bit into the future. Sejic continues to lean into Harley Quinn as a psychiatrist, never letting us forger her layers. It really is a showcase that as long as you make us care about the characters, everything else will follow. You don't need big action or big ideas for an engaging story—just the drama of two characters that you care about.