Every now and then an inker will get asked by editorial to make some modifications in the artwork for various reasons. Sometimes it's changing something in the pencils before it gets inked, or making the necessary adjustment even after the inks have been applied.

Some requested modifications are minor and relatively easy, such as "Please move the bomb in this panel further back," or "please add more smoke."

Other changes are more involved and time consuming, like "Please redraw this entire car into a spaceship instead," or "We need this building to be all brick."

Stranger still, some changes have absolutely no bearing on the finished product and the reading audience would not have noticed, making me sometimes scratching my head at the request ("Make this building a bit taller," or "Make the elbows pointier").

This past summer I was asked to make a modification that you nerds may find interesting. For the Grodd issue of DC's Villains Month (written by Brian Buccellato and pencilled by Chris Batista), there was a double page spread featuring a statue of the traditional Flash (non-New 52); of course, I inked it as such. After the inks were turned in, I was asked by editorial if I could add in the "New 52" costume design for the statue instead. Here is the result:

Before modification.  Pencils: Chris Batista Inks: Tom Nguyen — Before modification.
Pencils: Chris Batista
Inks: Tom Nguyen

After modification.Pencils: Chris Batista Inks: Tom Nguyen — After modification.
Pencils: Chris Batista
Inks: Tom Nguyen

For this particular instance, I drew the changes in Photoshop because I was thinking it'd be faster than whiting out sections on the paper, and then having to sketch and re-ink the design lines. Looking back, I now think that that I could have done this faster on the actual paper. It took me longer than I expected to do it in Photoshop. Or maybe I'm just not proficiently fast enough in it. Who cares. Anyway, I though some of you might find this behind-the-scenes look interesting.