Supergirl's Sophie Campbell Talks Lesla-Lar's Vuluptuous Reintroduction - On The Page

Sophie Campbell is the talented writer and artist behind Wet Moon, a lengthy run on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Mothra: Queen of the Monsters, and currently writes and draws Supergirl for DC Comics. In Supergirl #1, readers were introduced to a new voluptuous version of Supergirl (Silver Age villain Lesla-Lar in disguise) who immediately captured the attention of readers.

Supergirl #1 is the subject of the new On The Page series at Comic Frontier. The series is a conversation with artists/writers about how they made specific pages, panels, covers, scripts, and more with behind-the-scenes insight, photos, and more! Here’s how Campbell conceived and reintroduced this version Lesla-Lar. Check it out below.

How did you develop the idea of using Lesla-Lar and what did you want to accomplish with the design of the character?

Supergirl has a long history of other people trying to steal her identity and impersonate her in some way, which Lesla-Lar does in her first story back in the ‘60s, so it's mostly a riff on that classic trope. I really fell in love with Lesla when I read that story in Action Comics 279, and I knew instantly that I wanted to bring her back and do something similar.

The idea that Lesla would present herself as a sort of Silver Age Supergirl was there from the beginning, although she ended up being much more voluptuous in the final version, haha. See below for the first sketches I did! 

I wanted her to have a 1960s bombshell type look, which would contrast from her being a skinny, mousey wallflower in her normal guise, and everything sprang out of that initial idea of Lesla using the Supergirl persona to represent her ideal self, both what she wanted to be and what she thought the idea of Supergirl should be. Lesla's Supergirl hairstyle was based on singer Sylvie Vartan.

So once you have the character in mind and design, what was it like putting her into this specific page? What did you want to say/hope readers got from it? How did you decide to lay it out?

For the page layout, I knew even before I wrote the script that it would be a big reveal panel if not a splash page (although I don't really like full splash pages!). It all locked into place pretty easily and didn't change much from how I imagined it, an image of Lesla-as-Supergirl floating down in front of Kara (plus Lesla's superbunny Kandy of course) and looking both heroic but also kind of villainous.

Lesla does actual superheroics as Supergirl, she does help people, but even when trying to be a hero Lesla is tinged with self-importance which I tried to convey on this page. A normal superhero coming down from the sky in this pose would look perfectly heroic and impressive, but I wanted Lesla's expression to give it a slightly ominous air couched in the bright superheroic imagery.

What was it like to see people's reaction to the page and introduction? It felt like it had its own moment.

I'll be honest, I try to avoid people's reactions to my work, I don't really read reviews or search around for what people are saying. I'll read things people say to me on social media when they @ me or send me a message, but that's it! I have moments of weakness where I'll cave and read a positive review that a site tags me in, but I try really hard not to. So I guess I don't know what people's reaction was to that specific page or that moment, but I hope it was good, haha.

Thanks to Sophie for participating in this series! The next issue of Supergirl (#11) arrives in comic shops on March 11th, 2026.