Raleigh’s own Sandy Jarrell received a cov eted opportunity in the comic book world — to work on a Batman book. Jarrell is the artist for the third and fourth issues of “Bat man ’66,” a new comic book series that is done in the tongue-in-cheek style of the classic Batman television show, featuring Adam West.

Jarrell started the project at the end of June and said that it took some time to get the paperwork going due to conventions, Jarrell said it was well worth the hassle.

“I had the script in July for the second story [fourth issue] and the third story [third issue] was an emergency.” Jarrell said. “They had a hole and they needed something to hap pen. So we slapped together the other one, so I did those two stories in the time I should have done one.”

According to Jarrell, DC Comics contacted him to work on “Batman ‘66” because of his partner ship with Jeff Parker, the writer of “Batman ’66,” on a book called Meteor Men which will be coming out next October.

“This book still hasn’t seen the light of day because it’s a 120 page book,” Jarrell said. “We’ve been working on it for a very long time and only have eight pages left.”

Jarrell had sent pages from Meteor Men to his editor to showcase his talents as an artist while applying for the job.

“I was shocked that it worked out because they typically don’t throw the new guy on the Batman,” Jarrell said.

Jarrell said he has been inter ested in drawing since he was a child, which influenced him to obtain a painting degree from East Carolina University.

During his time at East Carolina Univer isty, Jarrell started a comics’ page in the East Carolinian — the Technician even featured his comic strip called “Man of Stick” back in the mid 1980’s. That comics’ page was where he first started working with Parker.

According to Jarrell, he was thrilled with the opportunity to work on a Batman comic book.

“I was honestly obsessed with this version of Batman since I was three years old,” Jarrell said. “It was my favorite thing in the world and if it weren’t for that I probably wouldn’t have gotten into com ics.”

However, Jarrell’s work with “Batman ’66” may not continue past the fourth issue.

“I would love to continue working on “Bat man ’66,” but that is up to the editor.” Jarrell said. “There are a lot of people out there scrapping for this gig because it is fine, and they keep finding other people that want to do it. If they call me, they call me.”

As the artist, Jarrell joins the comic book creative process once the script is completed.

“I get the script, read and reread the script, I doodle pages in margins of the print out of the script and in this case I did fairly finished layouts for the editor to see because I was an unknown quantity,” Jarrell said. “He had no idea what he was getting from me.”

After getting approval for the layout, Jar rell draws the pages, puts ink on the pictures, scans the pages and sends them to the editing office.

Because he was working on two projects in the time it usually takes to one, Jarrell drew two issues of “Batman ‘66” and only spent three and a half weeks on each issue. Jarrell said that he drew those issues while also working at Nice Price Books and taking care of two kids.

Jarrell said that he encouraged aspiring art ists to take advantage of the reprints of classic comics and to take in all the different styles of famous works, and said that hopeful comic artists and writers should attend conventions. Several great writers and artists attend con ventions every year and have a lot to offer art ist who are just starting out.

Most of all, however, he encouraged practice and dedication.

“Draw pages and draw more pages and draw more pages.” Jarrell said. “Look at old comics, not just new comics.”