Hi Everyone.

J.H. Williams III is my favourite comic book artist, and as I've collected and read a few of his works, I've noticed a few things that I find interesting that may have been overlooked. I'm making this blog as I posted a thread before pointing out a couple of my findings, and a couple of people found them interesting, so I'm doing this to expand upon that.

I don't own everything that J.H. Williams has drawn, so all of the pictures I'm using are from things that I own. If this blog proves popular, I may do a follow up when I buy more of his works. I'm also not necessarily claiming to be the first person to have spotted some of these things, it's just things that I've found interesting.

Anyway, let's get started.

This is what J.H. Williams looks like:

You may or may not have spotted him in Batwoman #2 in this picture:

I don't know if it's common for artists to draw themselves into their work, but it seems like a cool thing to do. I'm not totally sure, but I think the guy in the blue shirt may be co-writer Haden Blackman

Also in the same scene:

Does the guy standing behind Kate look familiar? That's because it's Michael Jones , from Desolation Jones , by Warren Ellis , which was drawn by Williams:

I think this is a bit more well known, but still interesting. Williams appeared in Promethea #30 , along with writer Alan Moore

This might be my imagination, but as I know Williams is a fellow Fields Of The Nephilim fan, I think his design for Felix Faust in Justice Riders may be inspired by singer Carl McCoy. What do you think?:

Fish seem to be a slightly recurring theme, appearing in Desolation Jones #3 on Nicoles' T-shirt:

In Detective Comics #821 on this sign:

And several times in Batwoman . I'll just put this one picture up, but there's quite a few fish appearances. Look out for them. :)

Remember the pool themed villians, Q-Ball And The Pool Hall Gang from Batwoman #1 and Batwoman #0 ?

Despite what the internet might tell you, this isn't the first appearance of their leader, Q-Ball. He actually appeared thirteen years earlier in Chase #6 (as in Cameron Chase from Batwoman) as an enemy of The Acro-Bat:

As far as I'm aware, these are his only appearances, so he seems to be exclusive to J.H. Williams' works.

Graffiti can be a good place to sneak things in, especially references to music. Let's look at some.

You'll notice in this picture the I 'heart' Wendy. A nice touch as Wendy is the name of Williams' wife. Trust Obey could be a reference to the band of the same name, formed by The Crow creator James O'Barr.

Another I 'heart' Wendy, plus, the number 242 is most likely a reference to Belgian EBM band, Front 242. March Of The Pigs is the name of a song by Nine Inch Nails.

Rock 'N' Roll Suicide is a song by David Bowie.

Another Front 242 tag.

'Sisters rule' is probably a reference to The Sisters Of Mercy, who Williams is a fan of. Plus, Front 242 and March Of The Pigs again.

This poster is the cover for Danzigs first album.

'A Slight Case Of Over Bombing' is the name of The Sisters Of Mercys' greatest hits album. Plus Front 242 again. He must really like them. They are pretty good I suppose.

The Nefilim was a metal band formed by Fields Of The Nephilim singer Carl McCoy(see above). I 'heart' Wendy again.

KMFDM are an industrial band. March Of The Pigs Again.

Bands that Williams likes also appear on T-Shirts on people in his work. Such as.

The 69 Eyes:

H.I.M.:

And of course:

And Kate Kane had Sisters Of Mercy and Blondie posters on her wall as a child:

The Sisters Of Mercy logo is seen on the left. It looks like this:

Speaking of bands, there's a fictional band worth mentioning.

In this picture from Detective Comics #854 Kate has a poster on her wall of a band called Darkseids Witch:

I thought I'd spotted their poster in Batwoman #3 , at a gig that her and Maggie Sawyer were supposed to attend:

Similar font, but why is there an 'F' instead of an 'S'?

Because they seem to have changed their name to:

I wonder why they changed it. Maybe Darkseid threatened to sue them. :P

This last section is just about things in Batwoman and doesn't cross into other series'. Some of this might count as spoilers if you don't know anything about Batwoman. If you've read Batwoman: Elegy , Batwoman: Hydrology or the second #0, you'll be alright.

Have you noticed that Kate and Beth as children are presented in similar colours to what they wear when they grow up:

Pastel colours with swirly patterns for Beth, bold red and black for Kate:

Bold red and black for Kate, Batwoman.

Pastel colours with swirly patterns for Beth, Alice.

Also, as Alice Beth has coloured and styled her hair to match her mothers':

And finally. In the second #0 when Kate mentions that her being out of control gave Jake Kane a reason to look after her, this shot references Detective Comics #858 when Jacob took her from the scene of her mother and sisters murder, when he was the only one left to look after her:

Well that's all I've got for now, apart from a few tiny things that aren't really worth mentioning. Hope you enjoyed this blog, and found at least some of it informative or interesting. Any questions, feel free to ask. :)

My J.H. Williams collection consists of:

Batman: Conspiracy

Batwoman #0-17

Batwoman: Elegy

Chase

Desolation Jones: Made In England

Justice Riders

Promethea #5-7, #30

Seven Soldiers Of Victory #0-1

And I highly recommend them all. :)

Scarlotte

@Aiden Cross I know you wanted to see this. :)

@V_Scarlotte_Rose: Ohh this was a very very nice read! How you spotted some of these is amazing xD

Well done!

@Pyrogram said:

@V_Scarlotte_Rose: Ohh this was a very very nice read! How you spotted some of these is amazing xD

Well done!

Thanks very much. :D

Hah, cool! Nicely thought-out.

This is cool. I love seeing when artists put references to themselves, their friends, or their past works in the art of their newer stuff. It's fun to catch.

@Joygirl said:

Hah, cool! Nicely thought-out.

Thanks. :)

@The_Tree said:

This is cool. I love seeing when artists put references to themselves, their friends, or their past works in the art of their newer stuff. It's fun to catch.

Does it happen often? It'd be interesting to see more things like this from other artists.

It probably happens pretty often, I'm just not good at catching it. I remember seeing that Darick Robertson (artist of The Boys and Transmetropolitan) put the main character of Transmetropolitan, Spider Jerusalem, in the background of an issue of The Boys.

@The_Tree said:

It probably happens pretty often, I'm just not good at catching it. I remember seeing that Darick Robertson (artist of The Boys and Transmetropolitan) put the main character of Transmetropolitan, Spider Jerusalem, in the background of an issue of The Boys.

Cool. Sounds like a nice little easter egg for his fans. :)

I just realised I didn't include the Deathwish four issue mini-series in my list of what I have. It's great too. I'd recommend giving it a go if you can get a hold of it. It seems to be a little hard to find, and it hasn't been collected as a hardback or TPB. If you can find it, give it a go. :)

It looks like you did an early Easter egg hunt. I'm surprised I didn't catch any of those, especially the first one you pointed out.

@dngn4774 said:

It looks like you did an early Easter egg hunt. I'm surprised I didn't catch any of those, especially the first one you pointed out.

I think I missed a lot of them the first time I read though them too. Re-reading things made me spot things I'd overlooked first time round.

This is pretty interesting.

@TDK_1997 said:

This is pretty interesting.

Thanks. I hoped people would find it interesting. :)

Nice finds.
Easter eggs are pretty common though.
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/category/comic-book-easter-eggs/
BB

@Billy Batson said:

Nice finds.
Easter eggs are pretty common though.
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/category/comic-book-easter-eggs/
BB

Thanks. I'll be sure to have a look through some of them. :)

I see someone has been doing a little detective work of their own.

@longbowhunter said:

I see someone has been doing a little detective work of their own.

Yep. Looks like comic books have been a good influence on me. :)

I really liked how in-depth and detail oriented this blog post was. Excellent job. I look forward to reading a follow-up!

@impossibilly said:

I really liked how in-depth and detail oriented this blog post was. Excellent job. I look forward to reading a follow-up!

Thanks. Hopefully I'll be able to find enough things for a follow-up. :)

Thank you for the heads up, i knew people would love this as do i :) These finds are truly amazing, you have a talent for spotting them because i surely would not have!

@Aiden Cross said:

Thank you for the heads up, i knew people would love this as do i :) These finds are truly amazing, you have a talent for spotting them because i surely would not have!

Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

I've realised that I missed some stuff I was going to put in, so I have a few bits and pieces ready for if I do a part two. I''ve got my eye on a few comics and TPBs, so hopefully I'll find some more interesting things to include next time.

Hey, this was crazy informative. Thanks for taking so much time on it -- I think most of your observations are spot-on.

I did assume the "Trust. Obey." thing was more just a nod to actual graffiti art (Shepard Fairey, anyone?) but it may also be what you said.

@Scarlotte: looking forward to it :)

@Aiden Cross said:

@Scarlotte: looking forward to it :)

:D

@akbogert said:

Hey, this was crazy informative. Thanks for taking so much time on it -- I think most of your observations are spot-on.

I did assume the "Trust. Obey." thing was more just a nod to actual graffiti art (Shepard Fairey, anyone?) but it may also be what you said.

Thanks, it did take a while. :)

You could well be right about that. I might have just seen the words and overthought it. I suppose we can both be considered correct until we found out the true meaning. :)

*find, not found.

This was really cool. Have to start looking at my comics closer.

@wildvine said:

This was really cool. Have to start looking at my comics closer.

Thanks. If you find some cool stuff, you could make a blog too. I'd be interested to see easter eggs from other creators. :)

Got complimented on this blog outside of this comments section. Does that deserve a bump?

If you read this blog as a result of this bump, hope you enjoy it. :)

@kfhrfdu_89_76k said:

The dude is awesome.

It`s very common for artists to slip themselves to their works. Also, that totally is Haden Blackman.

Do you know of any examples?

And do you have evidence that that is him, or do you just also think it might be?

@kfhrfdu_89_76k:Oh, I meant do you have links to any pictures.

I can look it up though. :)

@kfhrfdu_89_76k: No problem. Should be easy enough to find some. :)

How did I miss this?

You did a fantastic job -- a lot of "oh wow" moments.

Great blog. Sorry I am so late in showing my appreciation. Easter eggs like this are so cool -- like a wink from the creative team to not just us, but to each other and for each other. :)

This is really cool, exactly the kind of thing I would do in his situation. Thanks for sharing :)

@lykopis: Thanks. :)

Appreciation is appreciated any time. :)

@guttridgeb: Thanks, I'd probably do the same too. You're welcome. :)

That was amazing and so well researched. You really know your stuff. Thank you for sharing that with us. Really interesting.

@rollolinsky: Thanks very much. :)

Great read, you are one of those users who stand out for your excellent posts and I always remember your username. Keep it up! :)

Oh wow, you must be such a dedicated fan to notice all this, that is so cool :D Thank you for pointing it out, fascinating stuff ^__^

@bumpyboo: Quite dedicated. I think I have about half of all of the issues he's done interior art for, including a copy of his first published work, but there are obvious gaps in my collection(I own very little of Promethea). I'm hoping to do a part 2 of this if I can find enough things to use in any more issues I buy. You're welcome, glad you liked it. :)

@bruxae: Gosh, I didn't know I stood out. Thank you very much. :D

@v_scarlotte_rose: Very cool.

@razzatazz: Thanks. :)

I enjoyed this blog; I think Williams is the best cover and interior artist in the "New 52".

@gandalf2013: Thanks very much. :)

I don't read every New 52 title, but he's definitely the best of the ones I've seen.

Welcome to Comicvine by the way. :)

You have earned my respect friend for this thread

@queencorp15: Cool. Glad you like it. :)

Oh, hey. This was two years ago. Anyone interested in a follow-up if I can find enough content? :)

Wow! This is impressive cant believe I missed these.