Back Issue #113

July 2019

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

No.113 $8.95

™

30th ANNIVERSARY 1989: DC Comics’ Year of the Bat • DENNY O’NEIL & JERRY ORDWAY’s Batman Adaptation • MINDY NEWELL’s Catwoman • GRANT MORRISON & DAVE McKEAN’s Arkham Asylum • JOEY CAVALIERI & JOE STATON’S Huntress • MAX ALLAN COLLINS’ Batman Newspaper Strip

82658 00377

with special guests MICHAEL USLAN • SAM HAMM • BILLY DEE WILLIAMS

7

ISSUE

1

Batman TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Movie

Relive The Pop Culture You Grew Up With!

Remember when Saturday morning television was our domain, and ours alone? When tattoos came from bubble gum packs, Slurpees came in superhero cups, and TV heroes taught us to be nice to each other?

Those were the happy days of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties— our childhood—and that is the era of TwoMorrows’ new magazine RETROFAN!

#5: Interviews with MARK HAMILL and Greatest American Hero’s WILLIAM KATT! Blast off with JASON OF STAR COMMAND! Stop by the MUSEUM OF POPULAR CULTURE! Poke fun at a campy BATMAN COMIC BOOK! Plus: “The First Time I Met Tarzan,” MAJOR MATT MASON, Moon Landing Mania, SNUFFY SMITH at 100 with cartoonist JOHN ROSE, TV Dinners, Celebrity Crushes, and more fun, fab features!

NOW SHIPPING! #6: Interviews with crazy creepster SVENGOOLIE and Eddie Munster himself, BUTCH PATRICK! Call on the original Saturday Morning Ghost Busters, with BOB BURNS! Uncover the nutty Naugas!

Plus: “My Life in the Twilight Zone,” “I Was a Teenage James Bond,” “My Letters to Famous People,” the ARCHIEDOBIE GILLIS connection, the PINBALL Hall of Fame, Super Collector DAVID MANDEL’s comic art collection, Alien action figures, the RUBIK’S CUBE fad, and more fun, fab features!

SHIPS SEPTEMBER 2019!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazines) $8.95 (Digital Editions) $4.95 Edited by Back Issue’s MICHAEL EURY! Please add $1 per issue for shipping in the US.

RETROFAN #1

RETROFAN #2

RETROFAN #3

RETROFAN #4

THE CRAZY, COOL CULTURE WE GREW UP WITH! LOU FERRIGNO interview, The Phantom in Hollywood, Filmation’s Star Trek cartoon, “How I Met Lon Chaney, Jr.”, goofy comic Zody the Mod Rob, Mego’s rare Elastic Hulk toy, RetroTravel to Mount Airy, NC (the real-life Mayberry), interview with BETTY LYNN (“Thelma Lou” of The Andy Griffith Show), TOM STEWART’s eclectic House of Collectibles, and Mr. Microphone!

HALLOWEEN! Horror-hosts ZACHERLEY, VAMPIRA, SEYMOUR, MARVIN, and an interview with our cover-featured ELVIRA! THE GROOVIE GOOLIES, BEWITCHED, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, and THE MUNSTERS! The long-buried Dinosaur Land amusement park! History of BEN COOPER HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, character lunchboxes, superhero VIEW-MASTERS, SINDY (the British Barbie), and more!

40th Anniversary interview with SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE director RICHARD DONNER, IRWIN ALLEN’s sci-fi universe, Saturday morning’s undersea adventures of Aquaman, horror and sci-fi zines of the Sixties and Seventies, Spider-Man and Hulk toilet paper, RetroTravel to METROPOLIS, IL (home of the Superman Celebration), SEAMONKEYS®, FUNNY FACE beverages, Superman and Batman memorabilia, & more!

Interviews with the SHAZAM! TV show’s JOHN (Captain Marvel) DAVEY and MICHAEL (Billy Batson) Gray, the GREEN HORNET in Hollywood, remembering monster maker RAY HARRYHAUSEN, the wayout Santa Monica Pacific Ocean Amusement Park, a Star Trek Set Tour, SAM J. JONES on the Spirit movie pilot, British sci-fi TV classic THUNDERBIRDS, Casper & Richie Rich museum, the KING TUT fad, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

SUBSCRIBE NOW! Four issues: $41 Economy, $65 International, $16 Digital Only

TwoMorrows.

The Future of Pop History.

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

DON’T RISK A SOLD OUT ISSUE AT BARNES & NOBLE!

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

Volume 1, Number 113 July 2019 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

TM

PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST José Luis García-López COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek

IN MEMORIAM: Norm Breyfogle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

SPECIAL THANKS Karen Berger Arthur Nowrot Keith Birdsong Dennis O’Neil Brian Bolland Jerry Ordway Marc Buxton Jon Pinto Greg Carpenter Janina Scarlet Dewey Cassell Jim Starlin Michał Chudolinski Joe Staton Max Allan Collins Joe Stuber DC Comics John Trumbull Kevin Dooley Michael Uslan Mike Gold Warner Bros.

Grand Comics Steven Wilber Database Billy Dee Williams Alan Grant Marv Wolfman Glenn Greenberg Sam Hamm Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Heritage Comics Auctions Alexander Knox Michael Kronenberg Andy Mangels Dave McKean Mindy Newell Luigi Novi

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Don’t STEAL our Digital Editions!

INTERVIEW: Catwoman and Religion Through the Eyes of Mindy Newell . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Transitioning Selina Kyle from “Batman: Year One” to her own miniseries

C’mon citizen, DO THE RIGHT THING! A Mom & Pop publisher like us needs every sale just to survive! DON’T DOWNLOAD OR READ ILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE! Buy affordable, legal downloads only at

www.twomorrows.com or through our Apple and Google Apps!

& DON’T SHARE THEM WITH FRIENDS OR POST THEM ONLINE. Help us keep producing great publications like this one!

OFF MY CHEST: Guest column by Michael Uslan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 It’s the 40th anniversary of the Batman movie that’s turning 30?? Dr. Uslan explains INTERVIEW: Michael Uslan, The Boy Who Loved Batman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 A look back at Batman’s path to a multiplex near you INTERVIEW: Sam Hamm, The Man Who Made Bruce Wayne Sane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 A candid conversation with the Batman screenwriter-turned-comic scribe INTERVIEW: Billy Dee Williams, The Man Who Would be Two-Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Batman’s Harvey Dent remembers his (lamented) one-picture movie deal PRINCE STREET NEWS: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 A new cartoon by Karl Heitmueller, Jr. PRO2PRO: Dennis O’Neil and Jerry Ordway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Wait’ll you get a load of the dynamic duo who brought the movie to life as a comic book PINUP GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 FLASHBACK: Batman Rising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 DC Comics’ Year of the Bat, 1989 FLASHBACK: The Last Batman Newspaper Strip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 The scoop behind Batman’s 1989 return to the funnypapers

FLASHBACK: Bat-Legacy: The Huntress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Helena Bertinelli steps into a role originally created for an Earth-Two character BEYOND CAPES: Arkham Asylum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 An academic analysis of Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s 1989 Batman graphic novel BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Reader reactions BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com.

Eight-issue subscriptions: $76 Economy US, $125 International, $32 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by José Luis García-López. Batman TM & © DC Comics. Batman movie © Warner Bros. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies.

All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2019 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows, except Prince Street News © Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

TM & © DC Comics.

IN MEMORIAM

NORM BREYFOGLE (1960–2018)

One of Gotham’s finest.

2 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

by M

On June 23, 1989, I was doing the same thing that most of you were: standing in line… waiting to be among the first to see director Tim Burton’s Batman.

Like you, I was excited, having been whipped into a frenzy by video clips and publicity photos of the movie’s darker version of the Batman—one much closer to the comic books I was reading.

Jack Nicholson as the Joker? I would’ve preferred Willem Dafoe, whom I’d seen not long before in Streets of Fire, with his sinewy build and demonic, toothy goblin-grin (I’d still like to see him play the Joker), but Nicholson was A-list and captivating, a fine choice for the Clown Prince of Crime.

Now, I wasn’t convinced about Michael Keaton, an actor best known for film comedies, as Bruce Wayne and Batman. After the casting was announced, I penned a column in Amazing Heroes magazine decrying the choice of “Mr. Mom” as Batman, although I gave the actor the benefit of the doubt and was wooed by his range when he starred as a freefalling, manipulative addict in director Glenn Gordon Caron’s heady 1988 drama Clean and Sober.

Maybe Mr. Mom can pull off Batman, I hoped.

Then came the movie— no, the cultural phenomenon—that was Burton’s Batman, with its multimedia blitz, ubiquitous merchandising, and ultimate box-office success (although, as you’ll read elsewhere in this issue, many had low expectations for it).

The DC Comics Caped Crusader introduced by Kane and Finger and shaped over the decades by Robinson, Sprang, Fox, Infantino, O’Neil, Adams, Aparo, Englehart, Rogers, Miller, and so many other talented storytellers was presented on the big screen in a recognizable manner for comics fans, yet with the camera abruptly tilted… not into a ’60s Bat-angle, but instead into madness. Burton and production designer Anton Furst’s Gotham City was a corrupt Art Deco pressure cooker overpopulated by freak-show refugees, a dangerous crime alley where somebody dressed like a bat could indeed steal the limelight from a chalk-faced killer clown. Keaton’s quirky, obsessive Bruce Wayne, still sulking over his parents’ murder, seemed one flap of a scalloped cape away from being straitjacketed into an Arkham Asylum cell.

Keaton may have been slight in stature, especially when compared to the hulked-up Bale and Affleck who have donned the Bat-suit in recent years, but his eyes behind the Batcowl, piercing the midnight mist in Burton’s eerie staging, suggested, I’m Batman, and if you don’t believe me, I just might kill you. Forget what you know about Batman,

ichael Eury

John Q. Public—there were no Bat-poles or Boy Wonders to be found here! Burton’s Batman flirted more with gritty and gruesome ’80s icons like do-or-die Nakatomi Plaza-liberator John McClane and nightmare-assassin Freddy Krueger than the hopefully hued “friend” from Richard Donner’s Superman that rescued the cynical ’70s from ’Nam and Nixon. And when backed up by both the frightful melodies of Danny Elfman and the party-all-night funk of Prince, this version of Batman scaled demographics as easily as he did skyscraper walls.

Thirty years ago, no one associated with this film—including the boy who loved Batman and helped bring him to the screen, producer Michael Uslan, who jumpstarts this issue’s contents with his guest column, following—could have predicted that “Superhero” would now be a Hollywood movie and television genre. Batman picked up the ball fumbled by 1987’s misfire Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and hustled for a touchdown, becoming a blockbuster exceeding anyone’s expectations.

What immediately followed Batman was a smattering of comic-inspired films echoing Batman’s palette (Dick Tracy) and iconography (the ill-fated Captain America)—which we do not cover in this issue—and a caravan of Batman-related comic books that capitalized upon the character’s renaissance while elevating him to new artistic and literary levels—which we do cover in this issue.

Voices as diverse as Sam Hamm, Billy Dee Williams, Denny O’Neil, Jim Starlin, © Warner Bros. Batman TM & © DC Comics. Alan Grant, Marv Wolfman, Jerry Ordway, Mindy Newell, and Joe Staton join us to revisit the pivotal year of 1989. Where did they get their wonderful toys?

We’ll find out in these pages, Batfans… …but first, I’d like to take a moment to remember artist Norm Breyfogle, who left this world much too soon on September 24, 2018, while this issue was in production. When Norm was drawing Detective Comics in the late ’80s and early ’90s, I was a DC editor and became friends with him—and was a big fan of his stark rendition of Batman, which defined the character for his generation. As the editor of the looseleaf version of Who’s Who in the DC Universe, I teased readers in lettercols as to who the artist would be for the Batman entry, which would cap off the series as the cover of its 16th and final issue… but truth be told, I never considered anyone but Norm. Look at his Batman, from that issue of Who’s Who, on the opposite page, and you’ll see why he was my “Number One Guy.” We dedicate this edition of BACK ISSUE to the memory of the ultratalented Mr. Breyfogle.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 3

TM

by M i c h a e l

Uslan

CUT TO Every classic superhero must have a secret origin. The same is really true for every classic superhero movie. The secret origin of the 1989 Batman movie that not only changed Hollywood and the October 3rd, 1979: My new partner, legendary MGM comic-book industry, but changed the world as we know Executive Vice President Benjamin Melniker, and I completed it, thanks to the genius of Tim Burton and Anton Furst, both a six-month negotiation with DC Comics and as aided and abetted by Danny Elfman and so many six months of working to raise money privately, other brilliant, creative people, began on a cold and acquired the motion picture, allied, and ancillary night in January 1966. rights to “Batman.” I truly believed that when we I had been filled with unbridled anticipation for went out to Hollywood, the major studios would line up at our doorstep, recognizing not only the months leading up to this night. This was the premiere potential for sequels, animation, toys, and games, of the Batman TV series. When it finally unfurled, I was but also that my vision for bringing Batman to the simultaneously thrilled and horrified by what I was seeing. It was in color! The sets were extravagant! silver screen in a serious comic-book movie that The car was so cool! But then I slowly realized that they would show the world for the first time a truly dark were turning Batman into a joke. The whole world superhero, as Batman was created to be. was laughing at Batman, and that just killed me!

We were turned down cold by every single benjamin melniker To place this in historical context, it’s important studio in Hollywood, as well as what then were to understand that at this point in time there was called the mini-majors. I was repeatedly told I was © Warner Bros. no other version or image crazy because “You can’t of Batman in the mainstream make a serious comicmedia worldwide. This book movie,” “You can’t was the one and only way have dark superheroes,” that audiences around and “Nobody has ever the globe had ever and made a movie based on possibly would ever an old TV series!” Of course, there were the perceive Batman. one or two places that So that night, in the said that they would downstairs basement of make a Batman movie our family home in New Jersey, I made a vow… with us, but only if it was much like Bruce Wayne the pot-bellied, funny once made a vow… except Batman with all the “Pow!s” that my parents were “Zap!s” and “Wham!s” I safe upstairs in the kitchen. refused. I would go down I swore that one day, fighting, but I would somehow, someway, I never allow a different would show the world the vision for Batman to come true Batman as created in to the movie screen while 1939 by Bob Kane and I still had any definitive Bill Finger—a creature of say in the matter. the night who stalked Thanks to Ben’s friend, © DC Comics/Greenway Productions/20th Century Fox Television. fascinatingly disturbed Peter Guber, and his asbad guys from the shadows—and would erase from the collective sociates, Neil Bogart and Barry Beckerman, Casablanca Records consciousness of the world culture these three new words, “Pow!” and Filmworks, backed by the financial resources of PolyGram, agreed in 1979 to develop the movie based on my vision.

“Zap!” and “Wham!”

4 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

American Iconography No words were needed other than the date for this early Batman movie poster from 1989.

What we never ever anticipated was that from the time Ben and I acquired the rights to Batman until the first movie would be released, it would take ten long, long, long years, thus making 2019 the 40th anniversary of the 30th anniversary of our first Batman movie!

As we began the creative work with the amazing Tom Mankiewicz, who not only wrote some of the best James Bond movies, but also was the true script doctor who helped turn the first two Superman movies into successes, the financing and distribution of the movie-to-be drifted from Universal to Filmways to 20th Century Fox to Warner Bros. Potential directors drifted from Guy Hamilton to Richard Rush to Ivan Reitman to Joe Dante until a young genius entered the stage around 1986, Tim Burton. He had the groundbreaking vision as to how to make the world’s first-ever serious comic-book movie. Rule number one: Regarding world-building, from the opening frames of the movie, Gotham City had to be the third most important character in the film, because if audiences did not immediately believe in Gotham City, they would never believe in a guy getting dressed up as a bat and fighting a guy who looked like the Joker. Rule number two: This movie was not to be about Batman. It was all about Bruce Wayne. To me, that was the epiphany of a lifetime! In this regard, Tim was convinced that Michael Keaton was the right actor who could pull this off and make global audiences believe that Bruce Wayne was a man so driven, so possessed, to the point of being psychotic, that he was, indeed, a guy who would get dressed up as a bat. Tim felt that with any other actor, he would get unintentional laughs from the audience when they saw him getting into his bat suit. He was so utterly right!

When the screenplay by Sam Hamm (no Kevin Bacon jokes, please!) came in, there was only one line describing Gotham City… to the effect that it was “as if hell had erupted from underground.” suffer are story and character. Comic books have My dear friend, Anton Furst, our production given us some of the most inspiring, textured, layered designer who would go on to win the Oscar ® for characters—superheroes that have become our tom mankiewicz modern-day mythology. Cherish them. his work on this film, asked Tim what that meant.

Tim told Anton that he thought it meant [a] New Erik Hustad/Wikimedia Commons.

York City [where there] had there never been any planning and In closing, let’s also give all the accolades to the people who zoning. Now Anton got it! He went off and researched conflicting since the late 1930s have written, drawn, edited, published, colored, styles of architecture and ultimately came back with the entire and lettered the adventures of Batman that we keep coming back to plans for the building of five square city blocks of Gotham City read every Wednesday [at the comic shop] for 80 years! Let’s hail and on the back lot of Pinewood Studios outside London, the designs thank all the people who have contributed to Batman in animation, for the Batmobile, and for the entire look of the picture. It’s my where you can find some of the greatest Batman stories ever told any contention that Tim Burton’s vision, Anton’s designs, and Danny medium! And let’s pay tribute to the creative people who have brought Elfman’s music, to this very day, still influence every comic-book us not only the best Batman video games in the Arkham Asylum series, and genre movie released. but some of the best video games ever! And a special thanks to the When Batman came out in 1989, it not only broke box-office third genius I was privileged to meet in my, thus far, 42-year career in records, but that summer you could not walk 20 steps through Times the movie industry… the great Christopher Nolan, who restored the Square in New York City without seeing someone wearing a Batman darkness and dignity to our beloved Batman!

If in 2019 we are celebrating the 80th anniversary of Batman and T-shirt or a Batman hat. I believe it was the first time in movie history that billboards and posters did not initially have the name of the the 30th anniversary of our first Batman movie on it… just a gold oval with a black bat and the words “June 23.” movie, let us also celebrate every one of these But everyone on Earth seemed to know what this was! people who deserve all the credit and all our That movie was revolutionary in so many ways and opened the respect for getting us to this fantastic year floodgates to movies, TV, animation, and video games that would to celebrate the world’s greatest superhero… seriously and darkly treat the comic-book superheroes that I grew the superhero who has no superpowers except up loving so much. for his humanity… The Batman!

If there are any words of wisdom I have to offer filmmakers who now have the luxury of being able to play in this cinematic sandbox, DR. MICHAEL USLAN, a lifelong comics fan and the it is to remember that there are ten rules to making a successful movie: original driver of the DC Comicmobile, is, among his 1. Story 2. Story 3. Story 4. Story 5. Story 6. Story 7. Character 8. myriad accolades, the first instructor to teach an Character 9. Story 10. Story. When the focus moves to simply blowing accredited college course on comic books and an things up and showing off the latest special effects, the first things that executive producer of the Batman films.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 5

© Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

TM & © DC Comics.

In his 2011 memoir, The Boy Who Loved Batman, Michael Uslan recounted his incredible life story, much of it revolving around his desire to bring Batman—the definitive Dark Knight Detective—to the big screen.

Part Wonder Years, part comic-book adventure, this coming-of-age tale is an absolute must-read—whether you’re a Batfan or not.

I first met Michael in 2011 when his book tour made a stop at the Cincinnati Comic Expo. Full disclosure: Even though I was a rabid fan of the 1989 feature film, I was not completely aware of Michael’s role in the production. And I certainly wasn’t aware of his epic decade-long (and then some!) struggle to produce a Batman feature film.

His hour-long panel that day was an eye-opener. Michael’s tale of convincing the Hollywood studio machine to back his version of the Bat was truly inspirational. It reignited in me the passion to launch my podcast, Comic Book Central. One year into my show, I had the honor of welcoming Michael to celebrate the silver anniversary of his seminal comic-book film.

Here are some excerpts from our Bat-chat, and we started off by going back to the beginning of Michael’s love for comic-book characters.

– Joe Stuber JOE STUBER: What was your favorite Bat-toy or Bat-collectible as a kid?

MICHAEL USLAN: Well, you’ve got to understand… I’m ancient! Back then, it was so utterly rare to find any kind of toy item that had anything whatsoever to do with comic-book characters. When I was growing up, the only thing out of comic books that made it to TV was The Adventures of Superman with George Reeves and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. That was it, until the Batman TV series came on the air. It was a barren landscape.

The one comic-book toy I remember getting as a kid was a plastic “Superman in flight.” And it had a little dropdown notch. You would place it on a big giant slingshot, pull it back, and you could have Superman soaring through the air. That was the one and only superhero-related thing I found as a kid.

STUBER: Your book, The Boy Who Loved Batman, is a fantastic read.

In it, you tell the entire story of how you brought the Dark Knight to the screen. And it started when you were a little boy!

How old were you when you first became aware of Batman, and what was your fascination with the character?

USLAN: I was five when I first saw Batman [Detective Comics #236, Oct. 1956] in a candy store on the top of a rack. And to be honest, it scared me. I remember the cover. It had a picture of an armored assault tank version of the Batmobile. I wonder if that impression stuck in my mind for years!

STUBER: Yeah, that sounds familiar! [laughs] USLAN: At age five, I moved away from that and searched for Sugar and Spike, Richie Rich, Casper, then Archie, and finally I really graduated into Superman. And the main reason for that was that Superman was on TV, and the comic books were safe and friendly. And it wasn’t until I was a much more mature and sophisticated eight-years-old that I became a regular reader of Batman.

When I started reading every issue of Batman, beginning in 1959, that, for me, opened up a new universe. For mainly three reasons that I can recall.

Number one: Oh, my God, this guy has no superpowers, and he’s a superhero! I could do this. I could be this guy. The sense of identification was something I could never find in Superman, or the Hulk, or some of the other characters.

Number two: His origin story absolutely, totally creeped me out.

I mean, imagine being eight or ten and reading a story about your parents being murdered before your eyes, when you don’t even stop to really think that maybe one day your parents won’t be here. It was traumatizing! But, boy, did it hit me in the gut.

The third thing was—Batman had the greatest supervillains in the history of comics. And there’s no way you can base the popularity and longevity of a comic-book hero on anything but the quality of his villains.

And Batman shone in that. Maybe the added bonus was the car.

The Boy Who Loved Batman… …helped bring him to the big screen, time and time again. Photo courtesy of Michael Uslan.

6 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

conducted by J o e

Stuber

ral) (excerpted from Comic Book Cent

[Editor’s note: Next, Joe asks Michael about his original negative reaction to the Adam West Batman TV series, which premiered on January 12, 1966, during Michael’s childhood. As Uslan writes in his “Off My Chest” guest column in this issue, he objected that the show made Batman a laughing stock and vowed to “erase from the collective consciousness of the world culture” that over-the-top interpretation of the Dark Knight.

After retelling that story to Joe Stuber, he revealed that over the decades, his impression of the show changed…]

USLAN: Today, I absolutely embrace and welcome the show. Because now it is not the only cultural reference to Batman. Now, the world has seen the dark and serious Batman, they’ve seen the Batman animated show. It’s good to have other versions of Batman that are kid-friendly.

That can help bring children into the Batman world, so that as they grow older, they can then access the video games, the cartoons, and the movies. It’s a good thing.

It’s also a good thing when every once in a while there’s a pause on the dark Batman animated series and they do a Batman: The Brave and the Bold to appeal to kids.

[Author’s note: During the interview, we discuss Michael’s donation of 40,000 comic books from his personal collection to Indiana University’s Lilly Library. Uslan, at Indiana University, was the first instructor to teach an accredited college course on comic books.]

STUBER: Speaking of Indiana University, are you the coolest teacher ever?

USLAN: I am the most out-of-the-box weird teacher ever.

STUBER: That makes you the coolest teacher ever.

Let’s talk about one of the greatest college courses in history, at least as far as comic-book lovers go. This is in the early ’70s?

USLAN: Yeah, this was 1972. The College of Arts and Sciences had started an experimental curriculum department.

If you had an idea for a course that had never been taught anywhere, and had the backing of a department on campus for it, you then could appear before a panel of deans and professors to pitch your course. If they accepted it, then you could teach it on campus for up to three hours a credit. So I used that opportunity to design a course on comic books, what would be the first-ever accredited college course on comic books.

And I came at it several different ways. One, primarily that comics are an American art form, as indigenous to this country as jazz, and were deserving of that recognition.

Two, that comic-book superheroes were our contemporary mythology. It’s all modern-day folklore, my theory being that the ancient gods of Greece, Rome, and Egypt all still exist today, except now they wear spandex and capes.

The Folklore Department agreed with me wholeheartedly. I then appeared before this panel of deans and professors in my Spider-Man T-shirt with a pile of Superman books under my arm, and the dean let me speak for two minutes before he cut me off and said, “Mr. Uslan, stop. I don’t buy any of this. I read Superman comics when I was a kid. All they are is cheap entertainment for children. I don’t accept anything about art, mythology, and folklore.”

And in a life-changing moment where I could have bowed my head, picked up my comics, and turned around and walked out of the room, I looked at the dean and said, “May I ask you two questions?” He said, “Ask me anything you want.” I said, “Are you familiar with the story of Moses?” And he looked at me like I was nuts and goes, “Yeah.” I go, “Could you, very briefly, summarize for me the story of Moses?” And he folded his hands, sits back, and goes, “Mr. Uslan, I don’t know what game you’re playing here, but I can play this with you. Hebrew people were being persecuted. Their firstborn were being slain. A Hebrew couple placed their infant son in a little wicker basket and sent him down the river Nile. There he is discovered by an Egyptian family that raises him as their own son. When he grows up and learns of his true heritage, he becomes a great hero to the Hebrew people…”

I go, “Stop, dean. Thank you so much, that was great.

You mentioned before that you read Superman as a kid.

Do you remember the origin of Superman?” He said, “Of course! The planet Krypton was about to blow up.

A scientist and his wife placed their infant son in a little rocketship and sent him to earth. There, he’s discovered by the Kents, who raise him as their own son. When he grows up…” Then he stops, stares at me for what I will forever swear to you was an eternity, and says, “Your course is accredited.” And that’s how I became the world’s first-ever college professor of comic books.

STUBER: What impact, if any, did Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie have on the process of your bringing Batman to the big screen?

A Rolling Arsenal (left) Young Michael Uslan’s captivation with the Batmobile on artist Sheldon Moldoff’s cover to Detective Comics #236 (Oct. 1956) helped shape the design of Batman’s wheels in 1989’s Batman (right) and even more so in the movies that followed.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 7

The Movie Sensation of 1989 (top and middle) Materials from the Batman movie press kit.

Courtesy of Heritage. (bottom) Director Tim Burton (right) and stars Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, discussing the film’s climactic scene.

Batman TM & © DC Comics. Photo © Warner Bros.

USLAN: It was landmark. Dick’s work is spectacular and important for what happened. Hiring Marlon Brando to bring credibility to the concept of the comic-book superhero blockbuster. Critical. The vision for a re-imagining of Krypton in a new and exciting way. The seriousness of the Smallville sequences. Incredible. And in Superman II, the way the villains were handled so well. These were all great things that were contributed.

One thing that was different was, in the first movie, the second he puts on the costume and is in Metropolis, the tone changes. It’s very light. There’s a lot of funny stuff going on. But Dick blazed the path. [Editor’s note: In case you missed them late last year, ye ed’s BACK ISSUE #109 was a Superman: The Movie 40th anniversary special, and RetroFan #3 included an interview with Superman director Richard Donner, a dialogue conducted by the author of this issue’s “Batman Rising” article, Glenn Greenberg. You can order them at www.twomorrows.com.]

And then, in 1989, thanks to [director] Tim Burton and [production designer] Anton Furst in particular, we were able to then do the first truly dark and serious comic-book superhero movie. And that, in its tone, in its vision, in its design work, in its soundtrack, I believe continues to influence every single genre picture made even today.

And it not only was so important, and news at the box office, what’s more important—it was a game-changer in its cultural impact around the world.

Life was never quite the same again. It blazed the path for all kinds of new comic-book characters and graphic novels, ultimately, to come to the screen and be considered as “adult fare,” to be taken seriously. And that changed everything. It changed the comic-book industry, it changed the movie industry.

STUBER: It was around that time that [comic books] really did go from “funnybooks” to graphic novels, and being taken seriously.

USLAN: Because you have to add in what took place in 1986 in the comicbook world, specifically The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. When you add that to our Batman movie, everybody for the first time in terms of the general public around the world said, “Oh, my God, you mean these things are no longer for eight- to 12-year-old boys?” And that was one of the aspects that made it a game-changer.

STUBER: During that ten-year process, what were some of the challenges you faced, and how did you overcome them?

USLAN: Surviving. Eating. [laughs] These are some of those challenges I had in those ten years from the time we bought the rights to the time we got the first film made. Every studio in Hollywood said no. They told me I was crazy and it was the worst idea they ever heard. Every door was slammed in my face.

STUBER: Didn’t one executive throw Little Orphan Annie in your face?

USLAN: Oh, absolutely! Columbia. He said, “Michael, Batman will never succeed as a motion picture, because our movie, Annie, didn’t do well.” And I looked at him and said, “You mean the little red-headed girl who sings the song, ‘Tomorrow’?” He says, “Yeah.” I go, “Well, what does that have to do with Batman?” He said, “Oh, come on, Michael, they’re both out of the funny pages!”

And that was my rejection from Columbia. Topped only by my rejection from my alma mater, United Artists, where they guy there said, “Michael, you’re nuts!

Batman and Robin will never be successful because the movie Robin and Marian didn’t do well.” Now, you might remember that was a 1979 movie with Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn about an aging Robin Hood and Maid Marian.

STUBER: What kept you going? That had to be the most frustrating thing in the world!

USLAN: That’s an understatement!

What kept me going? I would say it comes down to two things in particular. Number one, my mom raised me in that, when you believe in something, you see it through to the end. And when you make a commitment, you see it through to the end.

Case in point—Pee Wee League. I was eight years old. Our coach used to scream at those of us who would strike out in a game. It was a nightmare for me, and I wanted to quit. My mother said, “Nope. You are going to see it through to the end. I’m sorry. We can talk to the coach and see what we 8 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

can do. But you made a commitment to your teammates and that’s that.” So that’s the way I was brought up.

Number two, I couldn’t have done it without the support of my wife and my family. Everybody was behind me. And that’s important, because when you go through ten years of virtually everyone telling you that you stink, that your work is bad, your ideas are lousy, you’ve got to really look deep inside yourself and go, “Okay, is the whole world right, and I’m wrong? Am I just being stubborn? Or do I absolutely, positively believe in this and believe in myself?” And I kept coming up with the second answer, and I kept finding ways to hold on by my fingertips. And, of course, in the process, as you know from the book, I did have a guardian angel in the form of my father-in-law, who helped me financially through the last five months before we were able to get to the finish line.

STUBER: He gave you a deadline, right? He said if it didn’t work, you had to go back to being a lawyer [Uslan’s field of study]?

USLAN: Yeah. He was the wisest man in the world.

STUBER: How close was it to the deadline?

USLAN: It was that day! And everybody in Hollywood I was dealing with knew of my deadline. They set it up so the FedEx truck pulled up with the signed contracts and the check for six figures whereby I was able to pay my father-in-law back and have enough money that got me through Batman.

STUBER: [Let’s talk about] Pittsburgh’s own Michael Keaton. I’m from that area. I loved when he was cast as Batman. I thought this would be the coolest thing. But you did not think so, correct?

USLAN: I was apoplectic. I really was.

STUBER: And for good reason. He was “Mr. Mom.” USLAN: Yeah, and that was my first impression.

You know, the fans went nuts. It was the first case of what has become a frequent thing now—fan outrage. There was no internet, no computers back then. This came over conventional press. I thought they were going to surround Warner Bros. with torches and pitchforks.

That’s really what it came down to.

But because I was a fanboy in the inner circle and had access, I could ask Tim [Batman director Tim Burton] about it, and he was able to explain his vision for it, which really is the root of his genius. He said to me, “Look. You’re worried about him just being a comedian. He’s a great actor.” And in order to prove that to me, they showed me a rough cut of [Keaton’s 1988 drama] Clean and Sober. I came back and said, “All right, he is a great actor. I take it back. But he’s my height. Where are the muscles? For God’s sake, where’s the square jaw that Batman has?”

And Tim said, “You know, going from one medium to another, it’s not a square jaw that makes a Batman. I can cheat the height. I can carve musculature into a costume. But in order to be the first truly dark and serious comic-book superhero movie, to have an audience accept it and not laugh at it, we need to do two things.

Number one, we’ve got to make Gotham City the third most important character in this movie from the opening frames. Number two, once they believe in Gotham City, they must believe in Bruce Wayne. This movie is not about Batman. This movie has got to be about Bruce Wayne.

And we need to show a Bruce Wayne so driven and so obsessed to the point of being psychotic, that audiences will buy it and say yes, that is a guy that will go put on a bat-suit and go out and fight a guy like the Joker.”

He said, “You’ve got to admit, since we hired Nicholson, we can’t go with an unknown actor. Nicholson would wipe the screen with the guy.” I agreed. The second point he made was that with Bruce Wayne, you had to really go to the nth degree of showing his quirkiness. Of showing the trauma that gave birth to this Batman persona.

That was critically important. And he did not know how

to show that using what you would call “a serious actor” circa 1987, ’88 He was afraid he would get unintentional laughs from the audience.

STUBER: Yeah, they were looking at who, like, Mel Gibson? Tom Selleck?

Kevin Costner?

USLAN: Costner, Dennis Quaid, Harrison Ford. Those were the stars of the day. But he knew he could do it with Keaton. And ultimately, he proved everybody else wrong, and he proved his vision was right, and he knew how to execute.

STUBER: Well, Keaton had the “crazy eyes.” And there’s the scene where, as Bruce Wayne, he’s going at Napier…

USLAN: “Let’s get nuts!”

STUBER: “Let’s get nuts!” And right then, you buy it. You’re all in.

USLAN: Right.

STUBER: You mentioned Nicholson. What was the casting process like with a star of that magnitude?

USLAN: Well, this is one of my favorite stories in The Boy Who Loved Batman because I save everything. And I saved the picture that I’m going to tell you about. It was Memorial [Day] weekend, 1980, and I get on a bus from New York City and I get the afternoon paper, The New York Post. And I open it up and it talks about two new movies opening up that weekend— The Empire Strikes Back and a horror film called The Shining. And there is that first shot that I get, the Jack Nicholson picture that has become so iconic—the “Here’s Johnny” shot, where he looks absolutely maniacal.

And I go, “Oh, my God, it’s the Joker!” and I tore it out. As soon as I got home, I ran to my desk and took Wite-Out and whited out Jack’s face. I took a red pen and did his lips and green magic marker and did his hair.

And I used that to show everybody associated with the picture from then on why Jack Nicholson was the only actor who could play the Joker.

When he was hired, it was one of the greatest days of my career.

STUBER: How important was it to give the Joker a backstory? He didn’t really have one in the comics at that point, or not much of one.

USLAN: Well, no, he did. He had the thing about falling into a vat of acid…

STUBER: But as far as his history, you gave him a name—Jack Napier.

USLAN: Well, yeah, they gave him a name. One of the big points of controversy that I had with Tim and some of the others was his shooting Batman’s parents. Because in the comics I was used to, it was Joe Chill, just a thug. There were two things we did to settle this issue.

One was—Tim wound up putting two guys in the scene. So, for the crazy fans like me, I could say, “Oh, there’s Joe Chill!”

I went to [Batman co-creator] Bob Kane and said, “Bob, what do you think of this? I need to know your opinion.” And Bob said, “If we had created the Joker at the inception of Batman, this would have been an even better idea to use for the origin. I’m all for it.” And that was good for me to hear.

He Took a Shining to Jack Jack Nicholson’s maniacal performance in 1980’s The Shining (left) convinced Uslan that the actor would be perfect as (right) Batman’s foe.

Autographed Joker still courtesy of Heritage. © 1980 and 1989 Warner Bros., respectively. Joker TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 9

“as if hell had erupted from underground”… …was how Batman screenwriter Sam Hamm described Gotham City. Anton Furst borrowed from various sources’ architecture (top) when visualizing Batman’s timeless and terrifying turf. (bottom) Two very different soundtrack albums, from Danny Elfman and Prince, contributed to Batman’s success.

Batman TM & © DC Comics.

STUBER: We haven’t talked about Anton Furst yet. He won the Academy Award.

USLAN: Yeah, we were with him that night! [laughs] The sets were amazing. [Batman co-executive producer] Ben Melniker and I walked the sets at Pinewood Studios together. And you have to understand that Ben, who started at MGM in 1939, one of the deals he put together was Ben Hur. And Ben said to me, “Michael, I never, ever thought in my life I would ever see sets more impressive than the sets of Ben Hur. But this does it. This is bigger and more spectacular than the sets we had for Ben Hur.” It was, like, five square city blocks!

And my kids, who were four and eight at the time, were taken for a ride in the Batmobile throughout Gotham City. They still talk about it!

It was incredible what Anton did. The man was one of the most creative geniuses that I have ever met, and I was proud to call him my friend.

the opening, over the credits. Where you’re going through this stone labyrinth, you have no idea what you’re seeing or what you’re doing until it pulls back and you realize you’ve gone through the logo. That was incredible!

The scene of the Batmobile, driving the Batmobile through the night, through the woods with Vicki Vale, and that music—chills! At the end, as the camera starts to pan up and he’s on top of the skyscraper looking out over the Bat-signal—I’m gettin’ the chills now just talking about it!

STUBER: I’m gettin’ the chills! I’m watchin’ it after we hang up here!

USLAN: And if you want to talk about signature scenes, when Michael Keaton first appears vampirically on the roof of that building, grabs the bad guy, and holds him over the ledge, and it’s two words—“I’m Batman!”

And then he jumps and disappears! All of those scenes give me the chills. This was my dream come true.

STUBER: And then, how cool was it to have Prince on the soundtrack?

[Author’s note: Sadly, Anton Furst took his own life USLAN: When you dealt with the studios back then and in 1991.] they owned the major record labels, they were always advocating that their top stars—or the STUBER: Danny Elfman, with the score… acts they were looking to break—be used.

Talk about the music a little bit.

So that was a common practice back then.

USLAN: We’ve been doing a number of And I love how Tim made it work.

STUBER: I think it all fits together, screenings of the first movie for the 25th anniversary and I hadn’t seen it in a long it’s like the perfect storm of everytime, actually. I saw it again recently a thing happening all at once. few times and you know what? I still get USLAN: Tim’s vision to make the movie the chills! The scenes that give me the in a way that was timeless—it’s not the chills, I’ve got to give credit to Danny present, it’s not the past, it’s not the Elfman. Because it’s the theme song for future, it’s an amalgam. As I’ve gone around the country and talked about it since then, I’ve asked audiences, anton furst “Do you think this was set in the past, © DC Comics. present, or future?” And you get a third, a third, and a third everywhere you go. And it was that combination of everything that gives a timeless quality to it. So when you look at it now, you don’t say this was a 1980s movie. The movie stands up very well. And that’s a cool part of it.

STUBER: Who is your favorite Batman and why?

USLAN: Wrong question. It’s all about who is your favorite Bruce Wayne. The Batmans are not all that different. There’s a range, but they’re not all that different. The Bruce Waynes are totally, totally different.

Michael Keaton—we wouldn’t have had success if he didn’t play Bruce Wayne the original out-of-the-box thinking way that he did under Tim’s guidance. I think Christian Bale nails Bruce Wayne for every generation of Batman fan no matter what you were exposed to. He is Bruce Wayne and you believe him as Bruce Wayne. So I think it has just been a terrific journey.

JOE STUBER is an Emmy® Award-winning writer/producer and lifelong comic-book fan. In 2013, Joe created the celebrity talk show podcast, Comic Book Central (www.comicbookcentral. net), the world’s first podcast exclusively devoted to in-depth interviews with the legendary talents who have brought comic-book properties to life on TV, Broadway, film, video games, live events, and beyond! To date, the show has been heard in nearly 160 countries, was mentioned on Kevin Smith’s show Hollywood Babble-On, and is now part of Blog Talk Radio. Joe resides in Ohio with his beautiful superheroloving wife, his hyperactive yellow Lab, and way more action figures than he could ever display.

10 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

Michael Kronenberg

© Warner Bros. Batman TM & © DC Comics.

conducted by

Countless comic-book junkies like me looked forward with great anticipation to the 1989 movie, Batman. We waited in long lines to watch it in the theater the day it came out.

If you’re a fan of the movie, then you know the name Sam Hamm.

He wrote the movie’s screenplay, and after the movie’s phenomenal success he became one of the most sought-after young screenwriters in Hollywood.

Sam also wrote the epic three-issue Detective Comics (#598–600) story that marked Batman’s 50th anniversary in 1989.

Thanks to our mutual love of film noir movies, Sam and I became friends several years ago. I’m the graphic designer for the Film Noir Foundation and Sam regularly attends our big annual film festival in San Francisco, where he lives.

Here’s our discussion about his experiences working on Batman and his stint writing for DC Comics and working with editor Denny O’Neil.

– Michael Kronenberg

THE BATMAN MOVIE

MICHAEL KRONENBERG: Tell me about the origins of getting hired to write the Batman script. Who specifically from the production hired you? Your previous screen credit had been working on the critically acclaimed movie Never Cry Wolf.

SAM HAMM: After Never Cry Wolf, I sat back and waited for the job offers to start rolling in, but oddly, they never did. Apparently the movie was not seen as a writer’s showcase, even though all the wolf howls were carefully scripted.

So I wrote a spec comedy called Pulitzer Prize. Pulitzer Prize became the object of a brief bidding war between Warner Bros. and Columbia.

Ultimately, Columbia bought the script, but in the course of the negotiations I became friends with a young Warners exec named Bonni Lee, and she somehow talked the studio into offering me a two-year overall deal.

One day, Bonni got stuck in a meeting that ran late. I was waiting in her anteroom with nothing much to do, so I began perusing the scripts on the projects-in-development shelf. Since I’d grown up a fanatical comic-book fan, the first title that caught my eye was Batman. The writer of that particular draft was Tom Mankiewicz, who had worked on several James Bonds and the Superman pictures, and as I pawed through the script I saw very quickly that Mankiewicz had used the first Superman as a template: opening with the hero as a child, taking us through his formative trauma, his years of practice and training, etc., until page 30, when the costume is finally unveiled. All very linear.

Which, of course, makes sense for Superman, because, let’s face it, a whole planet blowing up is a pretty flashy opening sequence, and without it you’ve got so much to explain: How can this guy fly?

Why do bullets bounce off him? Where did he get X-ray vision?— and so on.

Batman, on the other hand, is just a nut in a suit. You don’t really wonder how he does what he does. You wonder why.

By the time Bonni was ready to see me I had completely forgotten about whatever project we were supposed to discuss. I wanted to know how I could claw my way onto Batman. She patiently explained that the

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 11

Dances with Wolves Sam Hamm’s work on the film Never Cry Wolf opened Hollywood doors that led him to Warner Bros.’

Batman film. Poster courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com). © Walt Disney Productions.

project had been kicking around for a while, that the studio had already rejected various “takes” on the material (period Batman, comedy Batman, etc.), and that the Caped Crusader was pretty much stuck in development purgatory, if not quite in development hell. The only promising news was that another Bonni protégé had recently been attached as director: a young weird guy, Tim Burton, who had scored a surprise hit with Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.

For the next few months, whenever I met with a WB exec or anyone remotely involved with Guber-Peters [the production company], I would ask what was up with Batman. “I’ve got some ideas for that project,” I explained 30 or 40 times. It got to the point where I didn’t even have to ask the question. The moment I opened my mouth, some VP would pipe up: “Nothing new on Batman!”

All this time, although I didn’t know it, Bonni had been working diligently on my behalf. She had already introduced me to Burton and we’d hit it off immediately.

One day, after a meeting, she mentioned that Tim was hoping I might drop by his office before I left the lot.

So I did. And he asked me: “Would you have any interest in working on this Batman thing?”

“Sure,” I said, as nonchalantly as I could. I didn’t mention that I had spent the last six months crawling on my belly like a reptile to get the job. And as soon as we started talking about Batman, I could see we were going to get along. “The weird thing about Bruce Wayne is he’s this incredibly rich guy, but all he wants to do is put on a suit and beat up petty crooks,” Tim said. “Why is that?”

“That’s the picture,” I said. “That’s the mystery.”

You don’t start with Batman’s origin. You start with the Joker’s origin. Batman is a mysterious vigilante: a shadow, a monster, a rumor. He may or may not exist, but he has the Gotham underworld in a panic. Which happens to be exactly the way he was introduced in Detective Comics #27.

By the time I finally left the lot that day, we had our basic character arc worked out. Batman is a guy who has made an extremely questionable career choice.

What happens if he starts to go… sane?

KRONENBERG: In 1988, even though Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns had been released and made an impact, there was great concern among comic-book fans that a potential Batman movie would be close to the TV series in tone. Your script was quite dark. Was this something you alone decided or did the producers also want a darker Batman?

HAMM: As a kid, I was a religious viewer of the Batman TV series. Like the other kids in my neighborhood (average age: nine), I had no problem taking it seriously. I remember widespread consternation among my peers when the show was nominated for an Emmy as “Best Comedy.” Batman?

Comedy?!? All the magazines referred to the show as High Camp, but we were not up to speed on our [Camp essayist Susan] Sontag. We had no idea what they meant.

Of course, the show was downright dignified compared to the comics of the late ’50s and early ’60s. The first comic book I ever owned was a Mighty Mouse my uncle bought me when I was three, and the Batman stories I began reading a year or so later may have been a little “darker” than Mighty Mouse, but not by much.

This, remember, was the era of Batwoman, Bat-Girl, Bat-Mite, and Ace the Bat-Hound. Typical plots? Bat-Girl steals Batman’s thunder, or Robin ditches Batman to team up with the ominously named “Mr. Marvel.”

There were aliens and monsters everywhere. And weird transformations! In Batman #158, Ace becomes “The Super Bat-Hound!” (“Great Scott! Bat-Hound has acquired super-powers, and he’s using them against us!”), a mere eight months after Robin became “Robin, the Super Boy Wonder!” in Batman #150, with similar results. Batman himself metamorphoses into “The Bizarre Batman Genie!”

[Detective #322] and “The Colossus of Gotham City!”

[Detective #292] prior to the final indignity, which comes in “The Story of the Year!” from Batman #147: “Batman Becomes Bat-Baby!” And yes, in case you are wondering, he continues to terrorize the underworld—as a toddler.

In ’64, [editor] Julius Schwartz and [artist] Carmine Infantino took over the Batman titles and—largely, I imagine, as a reaction to what was happening over at Marvel— smartened them up considerably. But till then? S---. Was. Ludicrous. Looking back, I have a sneaking hunch that hardcore Batfans have always resented the TV show not because it lampooned the comics, but because it captured their inanity so accurately. [Editor’s note: For those wishing to further explore the evolution of Batman from his 1964 “New Look” through the 1970s, we humbly recommend the TwoMorrows book, The Batcave Companion, co-written by ye ed and ye interviewer.]

But I loved the series just as I loved those dumbass comics. I still love the late Lorenzo Semple, Jr., who created the series and who went on to write a handful

12 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

The Clown Prince of Comics Hamm consulted these classic Bat-tales in researching the Joker’s background.

Detective Comics #168 (Feb. 1951) cover by Lew Sayre Schwartz; Batman #251 (Sept. 1973) cover by Neal Adams.

TM & © DC Comics.

of terrific screenplays, including Pretty Poison and The Parallax View.

His “take” on Batman proved equally satisfying, albeit in different ways, to both kids and adults, and the result was a huge media phenomenon.

He caught the Zeitgeist.

So: Getting back to your question, Tim and I had not been given any special instructions re darkness of tone. It evolved naturally. The comicbook Batman had been really cool when I was five; the TV Batman had been really cool when I was ten. Now I was 30 and Tim was almost 30, and the task we set ourselves was to figure out a version of Batman that would still be just as cool to us, as adults. That meant we had to take the character seriously. We had to imagine what it would be like to be a masked vigilante out in the real world. We thought it would be hard.

We thought it would be dangerous. We thought it would mess up your social life. We wanted big stakes, and we wanted a genuinely nasty villain: no eccentric ninnies plotting thematically related bird crimes, or sending out riddles that would make them easier to catch.

When the script came in, the studio was very happy with the direction we had taken. Just before production started, there was a little front-office trepidation over the fact that our movie might be too violent for six-year-olds, or worse yet, their impressionable parents.

But in the end, the studio gambled—wisely, as it turned out— that 12-and-overs would make up the difference.

KRONENBERG: What kind of and how much research did you do before you wrote the script?

HAMM: I have a crusty B&W snapshot of myself at age four, in a cowboy hat, reading a copy of Batman #133, with “Batwoman’s Publicity Agent” on the cover. (Guest-stars: Bat-Mite, Ace the Bat-Hound.) I guess you could say that photo was taken in the early stages of my research.

But seriously, folks: I’m pretty sure I reread the Joker origin story, “The Man Behind the Red Hood,” from the early ’50s [Detective Comics #168, Feb. 1951]. And I reread “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge” [Batman #251, Sept. 1973] by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, which is generally considered to be the story that reinvented the Joker as an unpredictable psychopath, a “wild card,” as opposed to a clown. Mostly I was drawing on happy, vivid memories from my squandered youth.

KRONENBERG: While reading your script, it seems that Batman #1, the Detective Comics run by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers, Miller’s Dark Knight, and a little of “Batman: Year One” had some influence on you, primarily the integration of the Joker telecasting

on TV, the symbol of Martha Wayne’s pearls, Batman on horseback, and Batman’s use of bats.

HAMM: Dark Knight was, I think, two issues in (or halfway through) when we started work, but [DC Comics’ then-publisher] Jenette Kahn and the nice folks at DC sent us B&W Xeroxes of the upcoming issues.

I had gotten independently geeked up about [Dark Knight] thanks to a Rolling Stone article that had described the central conflict as a leftwing Batman versus a rightwing Superman, but, of course, the series ends disappointingly with Batman as a benevolent fascist. Still, there was a lot of beautiful stuff we wanted to appropriate, such as the visual of Batman on horseback (in the Robin intro I wrote that eventually got cut) and the notion that the Bat-insignia on our hero’s chest is a target designed to draw gunfire away from his head.

DC also sent us the Englehart/Rogers run of Detective, which they were quite taken with, but I don’t think we borrowed much from it beyond the notion that Gotham City was run by the mob. Batman’s “use of bats” came about because with my impeccable logic I figured that, if the hero was named Batman, the climactic action sequence should take place in a belfry. As I wrote it, Batman has in essence decided that he will commit suicide if that’s what it takes to stop the Joker. His totemic winged mammal shows him a different way out of the jam.

“Year One,” which is, to my mind, one of the best comics ever, did not appear until we were a few drafts in, so we did not have much opportunity to pinch from it.

KRONENBERG: So when you were hired, Tim Burton was already the director attached to the project…

HAMM: Yes, Tim B. was onboard. Ivan Reitman, who had been attached before Tim, liked my script and later courted me to work on a couple of other projects he was developing. Joe Dante had been attached before Ivan, and we eventually wound up becoming good friends and collaborating on two episodes of the Mick Garris Showtime series Masters of Horror.

KRONENBERG: We’re both big fans of film noir, so I have to ask this: Was the scene in which the surgeon reveals to Jack Napier his new “Joker face” influenced by 1947’s Dark Passage? Even the murder of Grissom has the feel of classic film noir.

HAMM: Aww, come on, you already know the answer to that question!

As I always say, my brain is a genre-blender, and I am not all that particular about which genres I plunder. There’s a scene in the script—

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 13

though not in the movie—which is inspired by, meaning pinched from, Preston Sturges’ screwball classic The Palm Beach Story. (I won’t tell you which scene because scholars love a challenge.) Sean Young, who was briefly cast as Vicki Vale, correctly identified her character as a knockoff of Rosalind Russell’s Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday. I just realized, in thinking about your question, that Jack Napier is probably based on Ray Danton in Boetticher’s The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond, an early-’60s WB cheapie made to cash in on the success of The Untouchables, which I saw many times as a kid. And my conception of Batman was very much influenced by samurai movies, and by the code of Bushido: “To strike when to strike is right, to die when to die is right.”

As I saw it, Batman goes into combat with the assumption that he is already dead, which makes him fearless.

KRONENBERG: The biggest differences between your script and the finished film: Jack Napier is not the Waynes’ killer, Alfred does not betray Batman’s secret identity, there’s a much higher body count in your script, Alexander Knox dies, and Dick Grayson is introduced and becomes a key part of the story. Too bad the final film did not follow your script when it came to Batman’s origin and Vicki Vale discovering Batman’s identity. What did you think of these changes?

HAMM: One of my mentors in the film business warned me not to argue with success, and so I guess it’s bad form to agree with you, but I do: The script was reworked by Diverse Hands, and it shows.

In the finished film there are a lot of setups without punchlines, and punchlines without setups. Most of the problems derive from the

decision to pin the murder of Bruce’s parents on the Joker—it changes the whole emotional dynamic between Bruce and Vicki.

The Case of the Disappearing Robin is high comedy. Tim and I had worked out a plotline that did not include the Boy Wonder, whom we both regarded as an unnecessary intrusion. Really: our hero was crazy to begin with. Did he have to prove it by enlisting a pimply adolescent to help him fight crime? Was Bat-Baby unavailable?

But the studio was insistent: There was no such thing as solo Batman, there was only Batman and Robin. So, after holding off the executives for as long as we could, Tim and I realized we had better try to accommodate them. He flew up to my house in San Francisco and we walked around in circles for two days, finally deciding that there was no way to shoehorn Robin into our story.

On Sunday morning at 11 a.m. we were supposed to call the studio and check in with the bad news. Fifteen minutes before that call, at the apex of our misery, we decided to try one last circuit of the carpet as a gesture of good faith. And presto! With a gun to our heads we improvised a pretty good intro for Robin. It was a self-contained sequence, building on plot elements we had already introduced, and it allowed us to shove the kid off to one side in short order. We figured that if we managed to squeeze him in, the lame hacks who were making the sequel could worry about what to do with him next.

The sequence we invented was big and expensive and, if I do say so, highly amusing. Bruce visits Vicki in her apartment to discuss his double life; the Joker shows up uninvited and abducts Vicki.

Bruce, sans costume, pulls a ski mask out of a dresser drawer and follows the Joker’s van by jumping from roof to roof. He eventually horse-jacks a mounted policeman’s ride and arranges a rendezvous with Alfred, who speeds up a side street in his yellow Volkswagen to deliver the Batsuit. A few moments later the Joker looks in his rearview mirror and sees, of all things, Batman charging toward him on horseback. So he panics. He swerves into Gotham Park and, in the course of making his escape, accidentally kills the Flying Graysons, a husband-and-wife high-wire act performing as part of the Gotham Bicentennial. But… their kid survives. And he’s mad.

You can fill in the rest.

When the film went into production in London, and ran seriously over budget, WB started looking for a sequence that could be cut to save money. And there was one obvious candidate: Intro Robin!

So Robin was cut from the movie and shoved back to Batman Returns— from which he was cut yet again and shoved back to Batman Forever.

The Knox character was supposed to get killed inventing the Bat-Signal, which is one of the scenes I really miss. You may recall that there is a completely extraneous scene at the end of the finished film, in which the grateful police introduce the Bat-Signal as a means of summoning the extra-legal badass who has made them look like a bunch of feckless incompetents. Really?

KRONENBERG: There’s more of an effort to get into the psyche of Bruce Wayne in your script. He carries great guilt over the existence of the Joker; he feels responsible for all the people the Joker has killed.

HAMM: As I said, we took the position that Bruce was a real character doing a crazy thing, and we had to figure out what that would be like. Number one, he’s lonely. His only confidant—and for that matter, the only visible authority figure in his life—is an employee: Alfred the family butler. Imagining their dinner conversations always cracked us up…

ALFRED: Sir, if I may say so, your plan is insane. Stop moping over your parents. Cut your losses. Move on. Be an adult!

BRUCE: Alfred? You’re fired.

ALFRED: Yes, sir. I’ll serve the pheasant.

Deplorable Health Care Acts Batman’s post-surgery scene featuring Jack Napier/ Joker (bottom) took a cue from the 1947 Humphrey Bogart film noir classic Dark Passage (top). © Warner Bros. Batman TM & © DC Comics.

14 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

So, owing to great wealth and a lack of guidance, Bruce sets off on a program of masked vigilantism. He thinks he can utilize the methods of evil to thwart evil, but of course he gets tripped up by the law of unintended consequences. Right off the bat (as it were) he unleashes an awful, destructive force upon the world: the Joker.

Which means he is suddenly forced to reexamine the whole enterprise. The mask and the cape allow Bruce to act irresponsibly; they unleash his id. And it works out very nicely until the Joker appears, and Bruce gets a look at himself in the mirror.

Because he is a novice superhero—the first and only superhero in the universe of the movie—he hits the occasional snag. Sometimes the snags are fundamentally comedic, as when he tries to airlift Vicki out of danger and realizes too late that the motorized reel on his utility belt can’t handle the extra weight. He has lots of ingenious gadgets, but they haven’t been properly field-tested.

Sometimes the snags cut a little deeper. We had one early scene where Bruce witnesses a group of mimes performing a mob-style execution in a public square, and there’s absolutely nothing he can do about it because he’s not in costume. When he can’t summon up his alter ego, the avenging angel, he’s just another bystander.

He has what amounts to a panic attack.

And of course, there’s the big snag: What happens if a masked vigilante falls in love? We always assumed that Bruce had a three-date maximum; he shows women the door before they have a chance to get curious—hence his reputation as a playboy.

But what if he meets a woman who’s… different? What if he starts to imagine a normal life for himself, one without gadgets and costumes and criminals? Returning to our original formulation: What if he starts to go sane?

KRONENBERG: In your script, Vicki Vale plays a bigger part and her character is much more realized, as opposed to her one-dimensional portrayal in the finished film.

Also, her relationship with Bruce Wayne is more fully explored and realistic.

HAMM: Vicki was, in my drafts, the viewpoint character of the film. We stay outside of Bruce’s perspective for as long as we can, and it’s through Vicki’s eyes that we begin to understand him, what he’s doing, what exactly sent him off the rails.

Originally Vicki and Knox were conducting parallel investigations. She’s trying to track down the masked vigilante, and Knox is trying to dig up some dirt, any dirt, on Bruce Wayne, the rich oddball who is his rival for Vicki’s affections. To Vicki’s surprise, and dismay, the two investigations unexpectedly converge.

When Knox goes digging he realizes that Bruce never allows his photo to be taken. The most recent photo on file is 25 years old: Commissioner Gordon hugging seven-year-old Bruce as he stands wailing over the corpses of his parents. See? says Knox.

It’s no wonder the guy’s a nut. Later on, Batman takes Vicki to the Batcave.

She’s already begun to suspect that the guy in the mask is, in actuality, her new boyfriend.

They have a strained conversation in which Batman explains to her how the Joker operates, in terms that could just as easily apply to him. Then he sprays her with knockout gas and takes her home.

Now Vicki has a dream in which she reimagines the murder of the Waynes. At the end, when little Bruce is wailing in the commissioner’s arms, a flashbulb goes off.

Some heartless photojournalist is taking the boy’s picture, violating his privacy. It’s Vicki.

That dream was the only “origin story” Batman got, in my drafts. Stumbling upon Bruce’s big secret, Vicki is suddenly filled with (as they say) pity and terror. She realizes that she is probably the only person who understands why he has set out on this weird, possibly suicidal path—and she also realizes that she is, perhaps, the only person who can rescue him from it. She’s his lifeline.

Most of this got lost when it turned out that the Joker had shot the Waynes. The expository flashback had to be presented as Bruce’s memory because, as the surviving witness, only he was in a position to recognize his parents’ murderer. There’s an ingenious symmetry to the plot twist, but it seriously changed the dynamic between Bruce and Vicki.

And it necessitated the famous scene in which Alfred ushers Vicki into the Batcave, which I have probably had to explain a hundred times to mystified fans that I did not write. In my book, that’s an “Alfred, you’re fired” moment.

KRONENBERG: What are your thoughts on the movie’s final casting?

HAMM: Michael Keaton: It’s weird now to remember that Keaton’s casting was so “controversial”—a year before the movie came out, the fans were already geeked up for a new, dark Batman, and went into a panic when Tim cast a… comedian in the lead. They forgot, if they’d ever known, that the guy from Night Shift and Beetlejuice was also the guy from Clean and Sober and Touch and Go. Nicholson had the flashier part, but Keaton anchors the movie. He got what we were doing immediately. One of his first comments upon reading the script was: “Bruce Wayne seems kind of depressed.” And he gave the character an elusive, preoccupied, antsy quality that I loved. His Bruce always seems to be elsewhere.

Jack Nicholson: Nicholson was the guy that everyone wanted from the get-go.

Even Bob Kane sent us a doctored photo from The Shining, in which he had painted Jack’s face white and given him a mop of green hair.

The thing is, we never thought for a moment that we could get Jack Nicholson, so it came as a shock to us when we discovered that he was seriously considering

Vicki Waiting Hamm’s earlier Batman drafts had a larger, and considerably different, role for Vicki Vale than the final film. Batman lobby cards featuring Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale, courtesy of Heritage. © Warner Bros. Batman TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 15

The Joke’s on You! As Sam reveals in this interview, Batman came close to casting Tim Curry as the movie’s chalk-faced villain.

Photo credit: G. P. Chicken.

the part. Here’s some inside baseball for you: It was late in the negotiations and Nicholson was still waffling, so the studio decided to bust a bold move. They offered Tim Curry, from Rocky Horror [Picture Show], a pretty fat pay-or-play deal to take the part, and Curry accepted. When WB informed Jack’s agents that they had a Joker and they were withdrawing their offer, Jack finally jumped. So he wound up playing the Joker, and Tim Curry pocketed a sizable paycheck for not playing the Joker.

Nicholson’s take on the character was great. He played the Joker as a narcissistic Vaudevillian, a demented Archie Leach, who has complete contempt for his audience. The only person he genuinely wants to please is himself, and he’s constantly improvising new shtick to keep himself amused. I am glad we got him, not least because he paid me one of the two nicest compliments I have ever received as a writer— which modesty forbids me from repeating here.

Kim Basinger/Robert Wuhl: Two good actors, both of whom did good work in the movie, but I have difficulty judging their performances because their characters were gutted, and I always find myself imagining what they might have brought to the parts as originally written.

KRONENBERG: I think my favorite piece of casting might be Jack Palance as Grissom.

HAMM: I love Palance, one of the few actors who could out-seethe Nicholson. But Pat Hingle was also a great avuncular Commissioner Gordon. And he had such a wild career: in ’57 he was playing a military school cadet in The Strange One, and four years later he was Warren Beatty’s dad in Splendor in the Grass. Michael Gough as Alfred!

Gough was the star of Konga, one of the movies I saw around the time I started reading Batman comics. Actually I only saw half of it; my mom had to escort me out of the theater when mad scientist Gough injects the eponymous chimpanzee with growth serum, turning him into a gorilla.

There’s a lot of film history in that cast. I loved the idea of Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent, and one of my big regrets is that he didn’t get the chance to play Two-Face.

KRONENBERG: Did the producers have you do any revisions to the script after you first submitted it?

HAMM: Oh, yeah. In the course of getting the picture ready to shoot, I probably did four or five drafts. But there were no major shifts in plot or tone. It was mostly just streamlining, cutting out extraneous scenes, tightening dialogue, etc.

KRONENBERG: Did you get to visit the set?

HAMM: Sadly, no. The WGA went on strike in 1988 just as the movie was going into production. I had a couple of offers to go over and watch the filming, but I refused because I did not want to create the impression that I was working on revisions during the strike.

A British writer was hired to do production rewrites, and then, when the strike ended, Warners brought Warren Skaaren in to make further changes.

KRONENBERG: What are your thoughts on the final movie?

HAMM: I am pleased that people remember it fondly (when they do).

Don’t argue with success! But I still wish the final product had hewed more closely to the script, which was structurally more daring, and in terms of character a bit less conventional. Who knows? Maybe if the movie had been deeper, darker, more dreamlike, it wouldn’t have done as well at the box office.

Then there are times when I tell myself none of it mattered: you could have released 120 minutes of Academy leader with the title Batman, and people would have gobbled it up. The character’s a perennial now, like Sherlock Holmes. Every generation gets its own version. So I’m delighted that my Batman was, however briefly, the Batman.

KRONENBERG: How did the movie’s success impact your career and life?

HAMM: Like Betty Grable, I became Very, Very Popular in the film industry. I got a lot of opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

I was able to be picky about which jobs I took. And my price shot up.

I was suddenly able to buy books in hardcover!

On the downside, I discovered that there are a lot of crazy Batman fans out there in the wilds. I had two (maybe three) stalkers.

One day, when I drove past a neighbor’s house in Noe Valley and saw that he had painted a 14-foot Bat-signal on the door of his garage, it occurred to me: This has gone too far. And I had always envisioned myself as a writer of small, snarky comedies, but after I did Batman and Watchmen in rapid succession, I became typecast as the big-budget comic-book guy.

True story: Once I was driving onto the lot at Universal, where I had a TV deal. The gate guard looked at my ID badge and grinned.

“Sam Hamm!” He turned to his friend in the next booth and said, “This man’s name is synonymous with comic-book adaptations!”

Now, that’s a jawbreaker line and I would never put it in a character’s mouth. But I know I am quoting the guard exactly because I memorized what he said. The moment I heard it, I thought: There’s my epitaph.

If it doesn’t quite fit on the tombstone, I’ll go with, “He needed more time.”

“BLIND JUSTICE” IN DETECTIVE COMICS

KRONENBERG: How did the Detective Comics gig come about? It was months before the release of the 1989 movie, so the movie’s success was still unknown. Also, these three issues (#598–600) marked the official recognition of Batman’s 50th year. That was a lofty and prestigious assignment for a first-time comic-book writer.

HAMM: The Warner Bros. PR machine was chugging away long before the actual release of the movie. I turned in the first draft of the script in October of 1986, and since DC was (and is) a subsidiary of Warners, they were following our progress pretty closely, giving us notes on revisions and such.

Meanwhile, the script had leaked, and the fan community was properly geeked because it was relatively “dark” and “gritty,” at least compared to, say, Super Friends. In late ’87 or early ’88 I did a Q&A with [the fanzine] Comics Scene, and the interviewer—I believe it was Carr D’Angelo—told me that Jenette Kahn and Denny O’Neil of DC had been very complimentary of the script. Denny had added that if I ever wanted to write for comics, I should give him a call. So of course I replied that I would love to write for comics. And the next thing I know, I’m on the phone with Denny O’Neil.

The timing was fortuitous, because the Writers’ Guild went on strike in the spring of 1988, and when Denny’s call came I was sitting around with lots of free time and no movie work to keep me out of trouble. He hit me with a big proposal: three issues, two 80-Page Giants sandwiched around a normal-sized issue, timed to coincide with Batman’s 50th. My reaction? I did a plotz. First of all, I was nervous about the size of the project: It was the equivalent of a seven-issue run. And I was definitely intimidated by the gravity of the occasion: DC was giving Batman’s 50th Anniversary story to… me?? “Denny,” I said, “I’m a tyro. What if I f--- this thing up?”

And he said, “Don’t worry, I’ll be your backstop.” Now, I would have said yes anyway, but Denny’s reassurances allowed me to say yes with less trepidation.

KRONENBERG: Any influences on your story? You avoided having the story be a battle with one or more of Batman’s rogues’ gallery of villains.

16 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

It’s a unique tale that avoids many of the typical Batman trappings, and it’s epic in length.

HAMM: The process of writing the screenplay had been all about introducing Bruce and his unusual hobby to an (adult) audience that sort of knew the character, and sort of didn’t.

That meant giving our beloved icon a whole new set of underpinnings. We wanted to see what would happen if you dropped a comic-book hero into a stylized, but nonetheless real-world, setting. It was all part of making Batman work—as a movie.

But when I got the chance to write a comic book, I decided that I wanted to write a comic book. That meant coming up with a story that would fit into, or at least not deviate too radically from, the regular continuity of the series. It also meant I would allow myself to get a little goofier than my regular gig, screenwriting, usually permitted.

I couldn’t help but think back to all the comics I’d cut my teeth on, in which Batman and Robin were possessed by aliens or transformed into freaks by science-gone-awry.

And I started to wonder whether you could take one of those wack-science plots and, by keeping a sufficiently straight face, make it appealing to the modern-day comicbook fan, who likes his funnies grim and brooding.

When I was but a lad one of my favorite comics was Batman Annual #3, an 80-Page Giant devoted to Batman’s Most Fantastic Foes, including the Joker, Two-Face, the Mad Hatter, et al. The centerpiece of the issue was a reprint from Batman #75, “The Gorilla Boss of Gotham City,” in which the brain of a freshly executed mobster (“Boss Dyke”) is transplanted into the body of an oversized gorilla.

The gorilla embarks on a crime spree to draw Batman’s attention, because his master plan is to switch brains yet again, this time with the Caped Crusader himself.

So I would have to say that the primary influence on my convoluted, remote-controlled, brain-swapping opus was Gorilla Boss. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

KRONENBERG: You got the chance to add to Batman’s origin. Was this something you discussed with Denny O’Neil (the book’s editor) when you pitched the story and before you started writing the script?

HAMM: Absolutely. We talked a lot about the sections of the Batman mythology no one had gotten around to exploring.

At one point I pitched Denny the idea of the Bruce Wayne Custody Battle: Here’s a newly orphaned kid who has come into an enormous fortune. Surely there was a horde of relatives, friends, charitable foundations, and other would-be parasites who wanted to glom onto all that cash. How exactly did little Bruce wind up in the care of the family butler?

We settled instead on a plot that was in some ways determined by the three-issue format. Detective #598, Chapters #1–3, would be a standard supervillain story with one small kink: the menace originates from within Bruce’s own company. (He’s been an absentee boss.) The resulting intrigues threaten to expose certain elements of Bruce’s unsavory past in Chapter #4, the standalone issue, and in issue #600, Chapters #5–7, the past recrudesces in the form of Bruce’s old mentor Henri Ducard, and s--- rains down from every corner of heaven.

Batman’s 50th Anniversary Batman group editor Denny O’Neil tapped Sam Hamm to pen the three-issue “Blind Justice,” which appeared in Detective Comics #598–600 (Mar.–May 1989). Cover art by Denys Cowan and Malcolm Jones III. TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 17

Dark Nightmares Demons old (left) and new (right, in the form of the menace, the Bonecrusher) plague the Gotham Guardian in Detective #598.

By Hamm and Cowan, with inks by Dick Giordano and Frank McLaughlin.

TM & © DC Comics.

Denys Cowan and I considered it a bit of a coup that You try to write roughly one page of text for every page we were able to crank out an entire issue of Detective of finished art.

Comics [#599] in which Batman appears only once—and But then someone at DC sent me Alan Moore’s script in a thought balloon, at that. Otherwise, it’s all Bruce. for The Killing Joke, which ran to 170+ pages of densely KRONENBERG: Can you compare writing a movie script packed text. Alan probably wrote closer to a page to writing a comic-book script? Which is harder? per panel, because he included every detail, every HAMM: Writing comics is much harder, angle, every bit of visual direction you could although I was probably doing it wrong. possibly imagine. He would not only There are, or there were at the time, describe the amount of stubble we should two approaches to the scripting of see on Batman’s chin; he would explain comics. One was called the Marvel exactly why it had to be there, and what Method, in which you basically wrote it signified.

I wound up splitting the difference. a loose plot outline: They land on the planet of doom, they fight the aliens, I tried to be concise, but I quickly the hero gets captured and taken to the discovered that I had to visualize the ice palace where he discovers the secret action in terms of shots, just as if I were crypt of the etc., etc. It is then up to the storyboarding a movie. The screenwriter artist’s discretion how all this should be can say, “The car swerves into a fire hydrant” and leave it at that, because rendered, how the action should be denys cowan the director will figure out how to broken down into individual panels, what details should be emphasized, shoot it. But now I found myself and so on. After the pages have been penciled, the writer having to break everything down into discrete units: comes back and drops in the dialogue as needed.

Car turning corner. Hands twisting wheel. Passenger I wound up doing what was called the full-script reacting in wide-eyed terror. Car striking hydrant (with method, in which the writer attempts to break down big sound effects). Driver crawling out of smashed car the action, describes the contents of each panel, and writes with geyser in background… and before you know it, the dialogue in advance. Denny had shown me a couple a seven-word sentence bloats up into a full page of of his Question scripts as examples of how to handle the description. There are lots of conceptual issues that format. The goal, he said, was not to overelaborate: influence your storytelling. You have to take into account

18 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

the physical act of reading a comic: the right-hand page should end on a mini-cliffhanger, so that the reader wants to flip over to the subsequent left-hand page, where his or her curiosity will be rewarded.

I would work all this stuff out and I’d feel very pleased with myself. Then, a few weeks later, Denys would send me the stats of his latest pencils, and I would inevitably gasp. Everything I had pre-imagined, he had re-imagined, with greater flow, greater energy, greater drama. He made it all look natural and effortless.

But then, Denys is a terrific artist—and, not surprisingly, a terrific director who went on to a distinguished career in animation, with credits including Static Shock and The Boondocks.

KRONENBERG: What was the evolution of Henri Ducard?

Obviously, the character made an impression on David Goyer and Chris Nolan, who wrote Batman Begins, which included Ducard.

HAMM: Ducard is Batman’s Jiminy Cricket. He supplies a sort of low-level, loitering menace, but he doesn’t really have that big a role in the plot of “Blind Justice.”

As the nightmare vision of what Bruce might ultimately become, his main function is to offer dry observations on our hero’s pathology—which are, of course, my observations.

As a writer, I am perversely drawn to scenarios in which the only voice of sanity is that of the villain.

I am not altogether sure that Messrs. Goyer and Nolan read “Blind Justice”; I suspect they encountered the character of Ducard in “The Man Who Falls,” a story Denny wrote (and Dick Giordano drew) for a Secret Origins trade paperback not long after “Blind Justice” appeared. “The Man Who Falls” became a sort of bible for WB executives when they were first contemplating a Batman reboot.

I remember laughing out loud when it turned out, in Batman Begins, that my villain Henri Ducard was actually the secret identity of Denny’s villain Ra’s al Ghul (whose periodic rejuvenations turn out to be a hoax).

But then it turns out in The Dark Knight Rises that Ra’s al Ghul is actually the secret identity of Henri Ducard.

Somebody help me out here!

KRONENBERG: What are your thoughts on Chris Nolan’s Batman movie trilogy?

HAMM: I liked Batman Begins; it was the structurally straightforward version of what we were attempting to do with Batman, and Nolan could go much darker than we did, since the audience was once again clamoring for a serious take on the character post[director Joel] Schumacher.

The Dark Knight is a well-built movie with an indisputably great performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker, and is highly enjoyable until you realize it is in essence a 152-minute apologia for George W. Bush’s war on terror: extraordinary rendition, enhanced interrogation, universal surveillance, the whole festering enchilada.

As a political document, it’s pernicious.

The Dark Knight Rises? See The Trip to Italy.

KRONENBERG: What did you think about working with Denny O’Neil?

HAMM: It was an honor and a pleasure! I first encountered Denny’s stuff when he was “Sergius O’Shaughnessy” over at Charlton Comics, and I’d read his short stories in Fantastic and Fantasy and Science Fiction in addition to his work for DC. Remember, I had grown up a comic-book fan and a failed cartoonist. Denny and Archie Goodwin and Gerry Conway and (needless to say) Stan Lee were idols to me.

As an editor, Denny was a dream. He didn’t intrude on the writing process, but he was always available if I needed to ask a question about the continuity (“Where the hell is Wayne Manor?”) or hash out a plot

point. The @#$%&! writers’ strike ended when I was only a third of the way through “Blind Justice,” and I suddenly had to get back to work on the Watchmen screenplay, so Denny graciously offered to finish the script from my outline if I couldn’t complete it. By that point, though, I was so deep in the story that I couldn’t bear to hand it off. I somehow got both projects done by working double shifts.

KRONENBERG: I loved Denys Cowan’s art in these issues.

Did you have any interaction with him when he was working on the pages?

HAMM: Yeah, we talked on the phone pretty regularly and he sent me stats [Photostats of the art]. I finally met him early in 1989 when he flew out to San Francisco, and we became instant pals.

It’s hard for me to believe now, but I didn’t know Denys’ work when I took the “Blind Justice” job.

Denny had several artists in mind, and he sent me samples of their work. I got through maybe four pages of the resuscitated Question and said, “That’s the guy.”

Checkered Past Bruce Wayne’s whereabouts during his youthful Bat-sojourn lead suspicious minds to make shocking accusations against him in “Blind Justice.” From Detective #599.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 19

Wild (Du)card (top) Hamm introduced Henri Ducard in the Bruce Wayne-centric issue #599 of Detective. (bottom) Ducard, with Liam Neeson in the role, took on a major—and duplicitous—role in director Chris Nolan’s Batman Begins.

TM & © DC Comics./© Warner Bros.

Back then you had a raft of artists who had learned to draw from copying Jim Starlin, and off to one side was a handful of oddballs who had plainly taken their inspiration from other sources, like Howard Chaykin, Kyle Baker, [David] Mazzucchelli, and Bill Sienkiewicz (I still haven’t met Bill Sienkiewicz). They were a little more illustrator-ish, if that’s a word. And Denys was plainly one of those guys. His stuff was jagged and harsh and he liked drawing faces and clothes. I’m not surprised to hear that you’re a fan, because the spirit of noir is strong in his work.

Thanks to “Blind Justice,” I got to hang out with Denys and the Milestone guys when that imprint was first coming together. I also dragooned him into doing the original character design for M.A.N.T.I.S., the ill-fated superhero series I cooked up with Sam Raimi. Now he’s one of my idols. I mean, jeez, the guy had a Dewar’s Profile on the back cover of The New Yorker—and he doesn’t even drink.

Denys Cowan is one of the best human beings I have ever met.

KRONENBERG: After this, did you have any desire to write more comics? Do you still have any interest in comics? Have you read Ed Brubaker’s Criminal?

HAMM: Denys and I talked from time to time about doing another comic. We had an idea for an Elseworlds story that we both really liked. It was called “Poor Batman,” and the basic premise was: What if Little Orphan Bruce, instead of inheriting his father’s millions, had been an ordinary slum kid? He still grows up to be the Bat Man. He’s a loan shark’s hired muscle, and if you don’t pay up on time he breaks your legs with a bat.

We figured out a lot of ingenious ways to work in the usual supporting cast, as seen from Gotham’s slimy underbelly (for example, Harvey Dent is Bruce’s public defender). Right about then, unfortunately, DC decided they didn’t want to do any more Elseworlds stories, so we let it slide.

I still read comics occasionally, but not in any systematic way. I was crazy in love with Darwyn Cooke’s Parker books until he upped and died on me. You are probably the sixth person who has recommended Criminal to me—Cowan is another—so I should probably toddle over to Amazon and see if I can snag an omnibus or two.

KRONENBERG: You wrote the first screenplay for Watchmen, wrote original story for Batman Returns, worked on the TV series M.A.N.T.I.S., wrote the movie Monkeybone, and wrote two terrific episodes for the anthology TV series Masters of Horror. Catch us up on what Sam Hamm has been up to lately.

HAMM: Shoot, you know me. I’m just snufflin’ around in hopes of finding some kind-hearted soul who might be willing to part with a paycheck. My producer Jason Hoffs and I are about to go out with a metaphysical horror script—on second thought, make that a plain old horror script—about a biological plague that enables its victims to communicate with the dead. And, with my old pal Miguel Tejada-Flores, I’m adapting the late William Hjortsberg’s next-to-last novel, Mañana, for director Alfredo de Villa.

Thanks for the great questions.

It has been a joy talking to you!

KRONENBERG: Thank you, Sam! MICHAEL KRONENBERG is an artist/ graphic designer for the Film Noir Foundation, Marvel Comics, and TwoMorrows, and is the creator/ designer of the boxing magazine Ringside Seat.

20 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

MONSTER MASH

MARK VOGER’s time-trip back to 1957-1972, to explore the CREEPY, KOOKY MONSTER CRAZE, when monsters stomped into America’s mainstream!

(192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $11.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-064-9

GROOVY

A psychedelic look at when Flower Power bloomed in Pop Culture. Revisits ‘60s era’s ROCK FESTIVALS, TV, MOVIES, ART, COMICS & CARTOONS! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $13.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-080-9

THE MLJ COMPANION

Documents the complete history of ARCHIE COMICS’ super-heroes known as the “Mighty Crusaders”, with in-depth examinations of each era of the characters’ history: The GOLDEN AGE (beginning with the Shield, the first patriotic super-hero), the SILVER AGE (spotlighting the campy Mighty Comics issues, and The Fly and Jaguar), the BRONZE AGE (the Red Circle line, and the !mpact imprint published by DC Comics), up to the MODERN AGE, with its Dark Circle imprint!

(288-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $34.95 (Digital Edition) $14.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-067-0

SWAMPMEN

LOU SCHEIMER

CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION Biography of the co-founder of Filmation Studios, which for over 25 years brought the Archies, Shazam, Isis, He-Man, and others to TV and film!

(288-page paperback with COLOR) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $14.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-044-1

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: 1950s-1990s 1940-44 & 1945-49 coming in 2019!

OR -COL FULLDCOVER HAR RIES SE nting me docu ecade of ! d each s history ic m o c

MUCK-MONSTERS OF THE COMICS

SWAMPMEN dredges up Swamp Thing, Man-Thing, Heap, and other creepy man-critters of the 1970s bayou, through the memories of the artists and writers who created them!

Features BERNIE WRIGHTSON, ALAN MOORE, MIKE PLOOG, FRANK BRUNNER, STEVE GERBER, STEVE BISSETTE, RICK VEITCH, and others, with a new FRANK CHO cover!

(272-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $36.95 (Digital Edition) $13.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-073-1

KIRBY & LEE: STUF’ SAID!

The creators of the Marvel Universe’s own words, in chronological order, from fanzine, magazine, radio, and TV interviews, painting a picture of JACK KIRBY and STAN LEE’s relationship—why it succeeded, where it deteriorated, and when it eventually failed. Includes a study of their solo careers after 1970, and recollections from STEVE DITKO, WALLACE WOOD, & JOHN ROMITA SR. (160-page trade paperback) $24.95 (Digital Edition) $11.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-086-1

MIKE GRELL:

LIFE IS DRAWING WITHOUT AN ERASER

A career-spanning tribute to the master storyteller, told in Grell’s own words, and those of colleagues PAUL LEVITZ, DAN JURGENS, DENNY O’NEIL, MIKE GOLD, and MARK RYAN. Full of illustrations from every facet of his long career, including SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, WARLORD, GREEN LANTERN, GREEN ARROW: THE LONGBOW HUNTERS, JON SABLE, STARSLAYER, SHAMAN’S TEARS, and more!

(160-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $27.95 (Digital Edition) $12.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-088-5

(192-page trade paperback with COLOR) $21.95 (Digital Edition) $9.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-057-1

(176-page LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER) $37.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-087-8

COMIC BOOK IMPLOSION

IT CREPT FROM THE TOMB

In 1978, DC Comics implemented its “DC Explosion” with many creative new titles, but just weeks after its launch, they pulled the plug, leaving stacks of completed comic book stories unpublished. This book marks the 40th Anniversary of “The DC Implosion”, one of the most notorious events in comics, with an exhaustive oral history from the creators involved (JENETTE KAHN, PAUL LEVITZ, LEN WEIN, MIKE GOLD, and others), plus detailed analysis of how it changed the landscape of comics forever!

(136-page trade paperback with COLOR) $21.95 (Digital Edition) $10.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-085-4

HERO-A-GO-GO!

MICHAEL EURY looks at comics’ 1960s CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, and TV’s Batman shook a mean cape!

Digs up the best of FROM THE TOMB (the UK’s top horror comics history magazine): RICHARD CORBEN, Good Girls of a bygone age, TOM SUTTON, DON HECK, LOU MORALES, AL EADEH, BRUCE JONES’ ALIEN WORLDS, HP LOVECRAFT in HEAVY METAL, & more!

NEW 1990s VOLUME NOW SHIPPING!

(192-page trade paperback with COLOR) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $10.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-081-6 TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

TwoMorrows.

The Future of Pop History.

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

interview by J o e

Stuber

ral) (excerpted from Comic Book Cent

From Lando to Lawman Crime-crushing D.A. Harvey Dent (Billy Dee Williams) is introduced to an adoring (and mob-weary) populace in Batman.

In the inset, Williams as photographed in December 2016 at the Paradise City Comic Con. Batman TM & © DC Comics.

Williams photo courtesy of Florida Supercon/Wikimedia.

There are so many cool things to love about was the fact that acclaimed actor Tommy Lee 1989’s Batman feature film. Growing up Jones was cast as Harvey Dent/Two-Face (alongside Jim Carrey’s Edward Nigma/ in western Pennsylvania, I was stoked Riddler) in 1995’s Batman Forever. when I found out Pittsburgh’s Michael billy dee williams Keaton was cast as Bruce Wayne. When So, what happened? Different director, the film premiered, we were all assaulted different direction. Batman Forever director with one cool moment after another: “I’m Batman,” the Joel Schumacher had directed Jones in The Client and live-action origin (finally!), the cool Bat-suit, the cool wanted to bring the actor in to the Bat-franchise. In an Batmobile, the cool Batsignal! But the coolest moment of interview published in Imagi-Movies magazine’s September the film just might be the appearance of the actor who, for a 1995 edition, Schumacher stated, “I always wanted quarter century at that point, proved he was always cooler Tommy Lee Jones. I didn’t consider Billy Dee Williams for than the other side of the pillow—Billy Dee Williams. the role, because I think that Billy Dee Williams is a hero.

From his Emmy-nominated performance in Brian’s Song I always see him like Clark Gable. I had just finished (1971), to standout roles in Lady Sings the Blues (1972) working with Tommy Lee Jones on The Client and I thought and Mahogany (1975), to the Administrator of Cloud City he would be a great Harvey/Two-Face.”

It didn’t hurt that Jones was coming off a string of box (and eventual Rebellion General) Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), office hits (including JFK and The Fugitive), so that probably Billy Dee was the screen’s coolest cat long before the world played into it as well. What we do know is that legendary heard of Samuel L. Jackson. actor Billy Dee Williams brought us the very first live-action In Batman, Williams was cast as District Attorney Harvey version of Harvey Dent, helping to set the feature film world Dent. And any Batfan worth their cape and cowl knew that of Batman on firm Gotham City ground.

I caught up with Billy Dee Williams last year for an meant one thing: Billy Dee Williams would eventually be episode of my podcast, Comic Book Central. While our flipping a coin as Harvey’s evil alter ego, Two-Face!

Alas, it was not to be. While rumors had the script for the chat focused mainly on his time in the Star Wars universe, Bat-sequel moving the character of Harvey Dent toward the I did have a chance to ask him about “suit”-ing up as dark side (much darker than the Dark Knight himself) for an District Attorney Harvey Dent in Batman, and that dialogue eventual battle with the Bat in Batman 3, Williams was nowhere is excerpted here for BACK ISSUE readers.

– Joe Stuber to be seen in 1992’s Batman Returns. Further flipping the script

22 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

JOE STUBER: What was your understanding at that time for [Batman], because we have Harvey Dent, but we don’t get you as Two-Face. Was it your understanding in taking that role that you were eventually going to become Two-Face?

BILLY DEE WILLIAMS: No. Unlike the deal I had with Star Wars—I had a two-picture deal with Star Wars; I only had a one-picture deal with Batman— but I was hoping that I would end up playing Two-Face. I think it would have been interesting.

But it didn’t work out.

STUBER: What would you have done with [the role]?

WILLIAMS: I can’t tell you now, because it was so long ago.

STUBER: Well, you did get to play him in Lego Batman!

You got to voice Two-Face.

WILLIAMS: Which I found really amusing.

STUBER: What was your knowledge of Batman coming into that movie? Did you read the comics as a kid?

WILLIAMS: Sure. Yeah, of course!

STUBER: There was nothing like this at the time. Even though you had been on [the sets of] The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, thinking back to the Batman, was this even bigger than the Star Wars productions?

WILLIAMS: Well, certainly it was a pretty huge production.

As a matter of fact, when I went to England, to London, to shoot the movie, I remember being awestruck by the set they created—Gotham City. And I remember looking at it and thinking, “My God, the guys that put this together are some of the most extraordinary and creative people imaginable!”

You know, we talk a lot about the actors, the people in front of the camera. But when you see what these people behind the scenes create, it’s pretty amazing.

STUBER: I’ve seen older interviews with you where you’re talking about, “Well, [Star Wars’] Cloud City, we’re kind of playing against a blue screen.” There are matte paintings and things like that. Then you see Anton Furst’s designs on Batman and you’re on these sets. What does that do for you as an actor to have these massive sets and vehicles to play off of?

WILLIAMS: Well, it wasn’t like CGI in those days. There was CGI, but not to the degree you see today. So you really had an opportunity to be a part of the set. And it certainly adds to whatever it is that you want to create.

STUBER: [Batman director] Tim Burton used to design all the characters. To your knowledge, did Tim Burton ever design a version of a Billy Dee Williams Two-Face?

WILLIAMS: If he did, I don’t know anything about it.

STUBER: When they had the sequel to the movie, Batman Returns, and they didn’t bring Two-Face in, then all of a sudden in the next movie they bring Two-Face in, were you involved in any discussions at all, or did you say, “Hey! What’s going on here? Why is Tommy Lee Jones [cast]?”

WILLIAMS: When I did Harvey Dent, I remember talking to [producer] Jon Peters, and he was the one who said he really wanted me to be in the movie.

STUBER: Did you ever see the movie [Batman Forever]?

Did you ever see Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face?

WILLIAMS: Yeah! He’s very good. But he’s one of my favorite actors.

STUBER: Did you ever meet him?

WILLIAMS: No, I never met him.

A Missed Opportunity (for fans, if you ask us)

STUBER: If you ever met him, would you ask him about Two-Face?

WILLIAMS: No, I don’t really spend much time with actors. I don’t really like actors. Actors are like little kids that need to be patted on the head and told how wonderful they are!

STUBER: If you had one bit of advice for all of us today on how to be the coolest cat in the room, what would it be?

WILLIAMS: Be yourself.

(top) Gotham’s gangbusters, Harvey Dent (Williams) and Commissioner Gordon (Pat Hingle). (bottom) D.A. Dent—who, famously, goes on to become the dangerous Bat-rogue Two-Face—was recast in Batman Forever, the franchise’s third film, with Tommy Lee Jones getting the role. (inset) Williams as Dent on a 1989 Batman trading card.

TM & © DC Comics/Warner Bros.

He might not have had a chance to reprise the iconic role in the Batman universe, but it appears we will see him again in the Star Wars universe as several media outlets are reporting that Billy Dee Williams will return to the galaxy far, far away as the smooth scoundrel Lando Calrissian in director J. J. Abrams’ yet-to-be-titled Star Wars Episode IX. In the ’80s, Billy Dee often touted the “power of Colt 45.” For comic-book and sci-fi fans, there’s no denying the power of Billy Dee Williams— the original Harvey Dent.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 23

24 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 25

Thirty years ago, Batman was the sensation of 1989. The movie was a surprise smash at the box office, accompanied by a merchandizing blitz not seen since the original Star Wars in 1977.

One of the most important tie-ins to Batman was its comic-book adaptation, written by classic Batman scribe Denny O’Neil and illustrated by DC stalwart Jerry Ordway. And while the comic’s origin is less mysterious than Bruce Wayne’s transformation into the Dark Knight, its journey to the shelves was almost as perilous.

“THE PEN IS TRULY MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD.”

The initial drafts of Batman were written by Sam Hamm, a screenwriter based in San Francisco. One of the first people to read the script was the then-new Batman editor Denny O’Neil, who says, “I don’t remember if they gave it to me for approval or as a potential adapter. I ended up reading all but the last two [Batman] movie scripts for one reason or another. That was the cork out of the bottle, the first thing of its kind.

I think that Mike Uslan ought to get credit for this big superhero boom, because he kept the idea of a serious Batman movie alive for about ten years, until the stars and planets aligned and he could get the thing made.”

O’Neil was pleased with Hamm’s screenplay, telling Comics Scene in 1987, “If Sam Hamm ever wants to write Batman comic books, he should give me a call. Parts of it are so well done that he almost makes me believe there could be a Batman and a Joker.” Today, O’Neil tells BACK ISSUE, “I remember being impressed with it. I didn’t think that we had anything to worry about in terms of quality.

You can never tell how something will be received, but I had no reason to think that it would not be received well.

“I got to know Sam Hamm pretty well afterwards.

I ended up giving him some work. [Author’s note: During the Writers Guild strike of 1988, Hamm wrote the three-issue storyline “Blind Justice” in Detective Comics #598–600, illustrated by Denys Cowan, as covered elsewhere in this issue.] He was one of the guys who really knew the material. I’m told later that the San Francisco comic guys would meet once a month or something similar, and that Sam made himself a part denny o’neil of that group, so he really had a pretty deep interest in comics, as well as Batman. He didn’t need much © Luigi Novi/ coaching from me or from anybody else. He really Wikimedia Commons. knew what the character was about.”

O’Neil’s professional relationship with Hamm eventually became a personal one, as well. “I probably didn’t have any contact with him until after he wrote the script,” O’Neil recalls. “Normally we did not have any contact with the movie guys. So he showed up with his lovely fiancée Trudy, and [my wife] Marifran and I went to dinner with them. A few months later, I was signing autographs in a San Francisco comic-book shop, and Sam and Trudy and their infant son at that point showed up. He got to be pretty close friends with Denys Cowan. So it was overall a pleasant experience.”

“…COULD YOU TELL ME WHICH OF THESE GUYS IS BRUCE WAYNE?”

The Batman movie was the talk of comics fandom in the year leading up to its release. The film, long planned by executive producer Michael Uslan as a serious treatment of the Darknight Detective to counteract the campy TV show of the 1960s, became controversial when

Picture Perfect Courtesy of Jerry Ordway, the artist’s uncannily accurate Keaton and Nicholson likenesses on the original cover art to 1989’s Batman movie adaptation from DC Comics.

TM & © DC Comics.

26 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

TM

by J o h n

Tr u m b u l l

Michael Keaton, an actor known mainly for comedies like Mr. Mom and Beetlejuice, was cast as Bruce Wayne/ Batman. Terrified that a comedic actor playing their hero meant that the movie would be a comedy, comics fans sent over 50,000 letters of protest to Warner Bros.

Although he had his initial doubts about Keaton, O’Neil tells BACK ISSUE, “I now know, from talking with Michael Uslan a time or three, what the logic of that casting was. It was not capricious. They had reasons for doing that, and almost everybody thought it was bad.

Around the comic-book companies, we were gossiping about it. Clint Eastwood, who would’ve been terrible in the role, was one of the people mentioned. According to O’Neil, another actor considered was Steven Seagal, who had just made his first movie. [laughter] It’s hard to imagine Seagal cashing his royalty checks for overacting.

He’s just extremely god-awful!”

Jerry Ordway, for his part, kept an open mind about Keaton. “Look, everyone in comics had a square-jawed actor in their perfect casting. I was totally cool with Keaton,” Ordway says today. “I have always been happy to see people prove themselves. You can’t be a good comedy actor without also being able to act, you know? Keaton was small and wiry, which is the perfect counterpoint to Christopher Reeve, who was the current Superman in people’s hearts and minds. Honestly, Tim Burton was a bigger puzzle when he was first attached to direct the movie. But again, [then-DC Comics publisher] Jenette Kahn had a screening of [the Burton-directed] Pee-wee’s Big Adventure for a lot of staff and freelancers, and it won most of us over. That also got me excited about Danny Elfman on the score.” On Burton getting the director’s job, O’Neil adds, “I think [Burton’s] Beetlejuice, with the slight horror angle, probably did it. That’s Hollywood think for you. The movies were very, very different, but, ‘Oh, they’re both about spooky stuff!’ ” Regarding Jack Nicholson as the Joker, O’Neil says, “I don’t think I had any problem with the Joker, and I still don’t. I don’t think he’s the best Joker, but I think he’s the second best. [My favorite was] Heath Ledger.

I thought that was, leaving the comic-book angle aside, a brilliant performance.”

“GOTHAM CITY... ALWAYS BRINGS A SMILE TO MY FACE.”

Batman was shot at England’s Pinewood Studios between October 1988 and January 1989. Production designer Anton Furst and his team built approximately five blocks of Gotham City for the film, containing such locations as the Monarch Theater, the Flugelheim Museum, and the Gotham City Cathedral. It was one of the largest film sets ever built, taking up most of Pinewood’s 95-acre backlot.

Naturally, the Batman sets became a destination for several comics professionals, Ordway and O’Neil among them.

Jerry Ordway recalls, “I was a guest at a London comic show in October of 1988, and arrived the day after Jenette Kahn organized a tour of the Pinewood sets.

Well, after the con, I spent a week in London, and Jenette got me an informal tour. It was pretty mindblowing to see the sets, and also visit the various departments, to see the costumes, props, and vehicles. That really made an impression.” The visit strengthened Ordway’s conviction to draw the DC movie adaptation, and he volunteered for the job when he returned to the states.

O’Neil visited Pinewood sometime later. “I had something to do in London, I think, the day they all went out there. But I went with Marv Wolfman and Marifran, and I went to that set, and I thought, ‘These guys are the real magicians, because I’d swear that this is a real city!’ ” In addition to touring Gotham City, O’Neil got to check out Batman’s ride. “I sat in the Batmobile,”

he says. “Since it was custom-made for a guy who was exactly my size, it was a real kind of trip to be in your car, because everything was the right size for you.”

“IT’S AN IMPORTANT JOB. I NEED SOMEONE I CAN TRUST.”

By 1989, O’Neil had been editor of DC’s Batman books for a couple of years, making him a logical choice to write the movie adaptation. “I think that had a lot to do with the fact that I got that job. I was considered to be the Batman expert in-house,” O’Neil recalls. “And also… This is no longer true, but they used our material [in the movie] and they didn’t pay us for it, and I think that some of the execs looked for ways to give us a little extra reward. One of the fanzines said that I used my influence as Batman editor to get this plum job, and no, I did not. I had never done that.

That would be so against my own concept of my own virtue. I got it because Dick [Giordano, executive editor] gave me the job. And if your boss tells you to do something, you tend to do it. Dick was always very easy to work with. It was in no way an unpleasant job. The deadline was a little tight, but that’s what they pay us for.”

Recalling the script deadline as “more than a month and less than three,” O’Neil explains, “That one had a very complicated marketing plan. My comic was supposed to come out at the same time as the novel and the same time as a BBC radio adaptation. So there was no wiggle room. All of those things had to come out the same day.”

Time was also tight for penciler Jerry Ordway, who was juggling his regular assignments in addition to the movie special. “I recall working on Adventures of Superman during

Gothic Architecture (top and middle) Panels from the adaptation showing Ordway’s adeptness with rendering the film’s elaborate sets… even when reference was limited. (bottom) It all started with production director Anton Furst’s set designs.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 27

the time on Batman, from roughly February through early April [of 1989]. “I’M A MAN OF FEW WORDS. BUT THOSE WORDS I did a few covers, and plotted a couple of issues, which Dan Jurgens drew WILL COUNT.” and dialogued. That was a crazy amount of work—64 pages of full art, Denny O’Neil had a very pragmatic approach to boiling the two-hour plus a pen-and-ink cover and a painted cover, for Batman. Once I was film down to a 64-page comic book: math. “The trick with doing this inking pages, I had to concentrate solely on that, page by page, to make kind of thing is you’ve got to figure out how much time you have,” the deadline. My mantra during the process was that I survived Crisis the writer says. “And then sit down and do long division and see what that works out to in days, and then you know how many pages you on Infinite Earths, and I would survive the Batman movie adaptation!”

To lessen the load, Ordway and editor Jonathan Peterson considered have to get done for a day. And that’s what I’ve always worked with this stuff, and it’s a good way, because it keeps you focused.” getting an inker for the book: Al Williamson. Williamson, a recent DC freelancer, was no stranger to comic-book movie adaptations, Illuminating his process further, O’Neil explains, “You’ve got having illustrated Western Publishing’s version of 1980’s 64 pages of comic book and about 120 pages of movie Flash Gordon, as well as Marvel’s adaptations of The script. So the first thing you do is you read the script Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. But despite and see what you can cut. Subplots almost always go. this pedigree, Williamson ultimately didn’t ink the The best scene in the Val Kilmer Batman [Batman Forever] book, with Jerry Ordway handling the entire job I cut, because it didn’t have any place in the story, but it broke my heart. ‘This is the only really good himself. “Williamson had recently had left DC for screenwriting in this thing, and I can’t use it!’ But you Marvel over insurance coverage,” Ordway explains.

“We thought he’d be terrific, and we were both huge cut subplots, you cut scenes that don’t stick to the fans, and hoped to lure him back to DC as well. spine of the story. If the scene does not have anything He called me and was very flattered to have been asked, to do with what the story is about, it goes. And you have but he was under a Marvel exclusive by then, I think. to be fairly tough about that stuff.

“So the first thing you do is you cut whole scenes Sadly, we never got to work together.” and whole pages of dialogue. Then you go through Thankfully, Ordway and Peterson’s choice of colorist, jerry ordway and you look at it scene by scene, and you see if you Steve Oliff, said yes. “I knew that Steve was going to can either cut any of the scenes or condense them. be perfect!” Ordway tells BACK ISSUE. “He has a great © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. color palette, and I was confident he’d capture the mood of the film. And then, finally, you go through it and you look at the dialogue, He was apparently a bit of a hard sell on DC, or at least that’s what balloon by balloon, see if any of it can be cut, any of it can be condensed.

Jonathan said. They were worried, production-wise, because Steve was And you go through that process with an intense awareness of time coloring on a computer and delivering files different from what DC passing, and you get it done. I would eat ground glass before I would normally used. I was 100 percent happy with what he brought to the take a job like that and not get it done, because I would feel I’m not being professional, and that’s mostly what I was selling in those days. book! One of my favorite coloring jobs!”

I said I would do the job, the job would get done.”

“YOU LOOK FINE.” “I DIDN’T ASK.”

He’s Batman Ordway character studies of Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight. Courtesy of Jerry Ordway.

TM & © DC Comics.

Getting the job done was also paramount to artist Ordway and editor Peterson, who had an idea to save some time. Ordway says, “Jonathan Peterson was and is a close friend, and he knew from working on the Star Trek comics that likeness approvals on an issueby-issue basis could derail shipping, since they happened at the end of the production process. He suggested, maybe in late January of 1989, that I draw character sheets for the three lead actors, to get a blanket approval for their likenesses. I would show that I could capture their look, and they’d trust me on the project. Trouble was, I had limited reference from the movie, which was still filming.

I managed with some clipped pictures from a Time magazine story on the movie, and supplemented a shot or two of Jack Nicholson from clipped photos from my art files. The reps for Michael Keaton and Kim Basinger approved, and signed off, but I got the Nicholson art back with notes, scribbled by Jack, such as ‘Nose isn’t right.’

‘Doesn’t look like me.’ So I redid them, and I recall having better reference that time out, and got the approval.”

Ordway also used other timesaving tricks to make the deadline.

“The way I worked on it allowed me to keep busy while waiting for that likeness approval, as well as certain reference,” Ordway says. “I took Denny’s script, and laid out the panel borders, [using] stick figures on the actual art boards, then marked where the captions and word balloons would go. I would do ten pages, then mail them to John Costanza, the letterer. By the time I made it through the breakdowns and placements, John had sent me my boards back with the lettering finished. This is how I worked on Superman when I was writing and drawing. You then don’t waste time drawing where dialogue is going to cover it up. This also bought time for Jonathan to request specific background shots, or how the various scenes looked when filmed.”

“I had a stack of 8x10 photos of many early scenes of the film, and would use heads over and over on many pages—Keaton 3/4 view, full face, side view, etc. For movies, you pay an actor, they want to show his face full-on. Maybe they don’t like being photographed from the left, but they rarely shoot two actors in the same way a comic needs them! We needed characters talking back and forth in the least amount of panels possible, so I prized the behind-the-ear angles of any of the actors, to do Bruce/Vicki Vale exposition panels. Funny, but comics

28 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

Wait’ll They Get a Load of Us Ordway character studies of Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne, Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale, and Jack Nicholson as Jack Napier and the Joker. Courtesy of Jerry Ordway.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 29

have certain limitations, the biggest being the multiple panels on a page. If you used the movie stills, the panels would all be the actors looking at the viewer, and it’d be boring.”

The incomplete reference forced Ordway to make some educated guesses for a few establishing shots. “We really had no production art on what the newspaper building looked like, as they never showed an exterior shot. But we didn’t know if that was going to be inserted into the film as a model shot. Same with the bell tower, and the stairs of the cathedral. [Jonathan] and I were committed to having the comic look and read exactly like the film, so it was a little scary not knowing, but satisfying when we saw that we guessed correctly.

I’m sure most artists would have not worried so much, and either not shown those bits, or made them up. I worried about it.” This worry didn’t stop Ordway from having some fun in the Gotham Globe scenes, however, as both J. Jonah Jameson and Jimmy Olsen show up as background cameos on page nine.

“MY FACE ON THE ONE-DOLLAR BILL.”

Besides the time pressures, adapting a movie to comics is difficult for another reason: It’s a constantly moving target. Rewrites and reshoots can radically change a film by the time the comics version is done. Denny O’Neil recalls, “Howard Chaykin and I worked on a James Bond movie [Author’s note: Marvel Comics’ adaptation of 1981’s For Your Eyes Only, penciled by Chaykin and edited by O’Neil] where that was a major problem—every morning, we’d come into work, and there would be pages and pages of rewrites done overnight. With the Batman stuff, they were pretty reasonable.

I think it helped that most of these guys grew up reading Batman and liked the basic idea of the story.”

A reflection of these rewrites can be seen in Batman’s first scene of the adaptation, as instead of the film’s simple “What are you?”/ ”I’m Batman” exchange, the Caped Crusader offers a more poetic “Tell your friends. Tell all your friends. I am the night.”

Variations on a Theme (top) Panel from the comic featuring newsroom cameos

by Jimmy Olsen and J. Jonah Jameson. (bottom) Original art (courtesy of Jerry Ordway) from the crowd-pleasing Batman’s rooftop rescue scene— with concluding Bat-dialogue unlike what we heard in theaters.

TM & © DC Comics.

30 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

On the changes he had to make, Jerry Ordway says, “I recall that we adjusted the layouts and dialogue early on, when the horseback riding sequence was cut. I think the scenes of Joker visiting Vicki Vale while Bruce is at her apartment were added. [Author’s note: Scenes of Bruce and Vicki horseback riding at Wayne Manor and of Batman pursuing the Joker on horseback after Vicki’s kidnapping were cut from the movie after original Vicki Vale actress Sean Young fractured her shoulder during rehearsals.] If I went through the art again now, I may find a few pasted-on dialogue balloons, or whited-out panel borders where a six-panel page became a nine-panel page, stuff like that.”

In another, somewhat baffling difference between the comic and the movie, O’Neil explains, “There was a scene in Sam’s script where the Joker is in a hot-air balloon over Gotham City and he starts throwing money over the side of the air balloon and I thought, ‘This is such an obviously visual scene, they won’t cut this. I’m safe to put this in the comic.’ They cut it.”

And so page 45 of the comic clarifies something that the movie itself foreshadowed but didn’t pay off: that the money the Joker was throwing into the crowd at the anniversary parade was counterfeit, with the Joker’s face in the place of George Washington’s. “In Sam’s script, it was the Joker’s face. It turns out to not be real money.

They decided to cut that,” O’Neil says. “That’s the other thing you do when you try and do an adaptation—you figure out what scenes are they going to cut. Even if a scene like that has nothing to do with the main story, is it really amusing in and of itself? Is that a reason for them keeping it in, and for me keeping it in?”

The task of keeping up with all these constant changes eventually fell to Jerry Ordway and editor Jonathan Peterson. “Denny O’Neil and I talked before he wrote the adaptation, and as he was editing the [regular] Batman books, we didn’t talk much after the

script was done,” Ordway says. “Jonathan asked him if he wanted to be involved with changes, such as when they veered from the screenplay, or just let us handle it. He seemed happy to not have to fiddle with the script as we went along. So Jonathan and I would study contact sheets, which are made from film negatives, and tiny, to see where the script and movie was veering from the screenplay. Then we’d adjust the dialogue and art to stay as close as possible to the film which would hit theaters!”

“I CAN’T EVEN GET HIM ON THE PHONE.”

Batman the movie ends with the Caped Crusader fighting off the Joker’s henchmen at the top of Gotham Cathedral, after the Clown Prince of Crime kidnaps Vicki Vale on impulse. Originally, this was just a faceoff between Batman and the Joker, with Vicki absent from the action.

As Denny O’Neil remembers, Vicki originally left the

Money and Memos (top) That’s editor Jonathan Peterson discovering the Joker phony money in the adaptation. (bottom) Peterson’s editorial memos denoting changes in the adaptation. Courtesy of Jerry Ordway.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 31

It’s a Hit! The movie… and Joker’s aim.

Ordway’s amazing original artwork to the beginning of the film’s climactic sequence. Courtesy of Jerry Ordway.

TM & © DC Comics.

story “about the beginning of the last reel, about 20 minutes before the movie actually ended. And then there is a fight in the steeple between Batman and God knows who. [But Kim Basinger] was the girlfriend of the producer, so she wasn’t going to get cut out of the movie before the big climatic ending.”

The final version of the movie’s climax, O’Neil explains, “did not exist as a scripted scene. They decided that they were going to make that change at the very last minute, and they didn’t have the time to script the scene. So what I got was, I’m going to talk to somebody on the phone from London who has seen the movie, and he’s going to tell me what’s in the scene. Ooo-kay. So I listen to this guy and then I was wondering, ‘Well, these guys who jump Batman, where did they come from?’ I mean, it’s established again and again that these are the Joker’s bad guys and they were avoiding that part of the action. And I thought, ‘Well, there’s probably a visual answer to that. It will be answered in the movie.’ It was not answered in the movie. They just came out of nowhere. The writer in me

grinds my teeth at that kind of thing. ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake!

I could write three lines of dialogue that would’ve covered that!’ And I gave one of the bad guys a line of dialogue that completely covered the problem. So it wasn’t like they had an insurmountable difficulty.”

Ordway, for his part, didn’t have to make many changes until he got to the end of the movie. “Jonathan and I worked out a lot of it at the layout stage, as by mid-February the movie’s principal scenes were done,” Ordway tells BACK ISSUE. “And I can’t recall me having to white-out panel borders too often, so the lettered pages must have been close to what was filmed by the time I got to the end of that stage. The major sequence that we had to guess at was the climax with the Joker and Batman in the cathedral bell tower. A lot of that was model work, and film composite stuff, so I made educated guesses to how it would look, using production art.”

“LIEUTENANT, IS THERE A SIX-FOOT BAT IN GOTHAM CITY?”

Although it compressed the film’s plotline, the Batman movie adaptation features a few moments that didn’t make it to the final cut, with one revealing how Batman makes his escape after the climax. At the base of the Gotham Cathedral, Commissioner Gordon and his men surround an unconscious cloaked figure, convinced that they’ve finally cornered the mysterious Batman. But when they turn over the body, it’s only a groggy Alexander Knox, covered in Batman’s cape and cowl. As the intrepid reporter asks if he can still make the late edition, an unmasked Bruce Wayne vanishes into the night. Ordway confirms, “That was in the script, and we assumed it would be in the film. It seemed an important element to show how Batman gets away from the crowd. We even clarified it, by showing Batman without his cape, slipping away. Another scene that was cut was the Joker in his helicopter, taunting Batman as they escape the chemical plant, before the parade sequence. They cut a long shot I guess because the helicopter was wobbling because it was suspended by a crane. That was in the version of the film we saw a week before it opened, then cut from the wide release.”

These adjustments to the film’s ending dictated changes to not only the comics adaptation, but also the prose novelization. As O’Neil remembers, “There was a lot of bustle at the last minute. I wasn’t going to have anything to do with the novelization. And then the guy who had been assigned the novelization finished it, and they wanted a rewrite. The last 40 pages or so were not in the original script.” When novelization writer Craig Shaw Gardner was unavailable to make the necessary changes on short notice, the editors of Grand Central Publishing turned to someone who’d already adapted the movie in another medium: Dennis O’Neil. As he explains, “They were looking around for somebody in New York who could write and who knew that script well enough to do the adaptation,” O’Neil says. “So I ended up spending a weekend doing it, and we got it done. I don’t think I would ever want to reread the prose, because I can’t imagine that it was exactly glistening with wit and color, but I got the damn job done.”

“…IT’S JUST A MOVIE, FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE.”

BACK ISSUE readers who were around in 1989 will recall just how wild the public went for the Dark Knight that summer.

Batman became the breakout hit of the year, with the Bat-symbol appearing on posters, hats, T-shirts, and even shaved into people’s heads. As Kim Basinger said before the film’s release, it became an event instead of just a movie.

The comic adaptation’s opening page subtly critiques all the hoopla of the Batman phenomenon. As panels in the shape of a film reel unspool in front of an excited 32 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

audience, the first caption of the book reads, “…It’s just a movie, for heaven’s sake,” a line not heard in the film itself.

When asked if the opening line of his adaptation was perhaps a bit of meta-commentary on the country’s Batmania, O’Neil admits, “I wouldn’t put it past me.

If you look at the printed version of the comic book, it is in the form of a film reel. And that was a way to tell the hardcore readers, ‘Yeah, I know this is not according to our continuity. This is something else. You have to judge this as a movie, and not as an adapted comic book.’ I tried to do something like that with all of [the Batman movie adaptations].”

Ironically enough, Warner Bros. was not expecting Batman to be a hit. “Everybody thought it was going to flop,” O’Neil remembers. “Walking out of the screening, a Time Warner executive told me it would flop because it was too dark for a summer movie. …Yeah. I think the backstory might have been that Blade Runner was a summer movie and was very dark and was a failure at the box office. But that’s Hollywood-think.”

Sadly, this conviction ended up costing DC Comics sales, as the Batman adaptation was not sold in movie theaters during its premiere weekend as initially planned.

Ordway explains, “A lot of effort was made by DC and their circulation guy, Matt Ragone, to basically purchase the ‘dump’ or comic display that was to sit on the theater ticket counters. It cost a few dollars per theater to get those there, in addition to the cost of making the comic holders. You have to remember that right until the film was a smash hit, the studio was worried that they were releasing a bomb! There were no advance ticket sales to predict an opening weekend box office. Superman IV bombed badly a few years before. So Warner prevented DC from selling the comic for the first week, because there was some possibility that it would embarrass the company.

Funny now, but it cost us some sales, from the 40 million people spent to see it that opening week.”

Contrary to expectations, Batman was an immediate hit, just as the Adam West TV show was in 1966. And the merchandising for the movie was omnipresent. As Denny O’Neil recalls, “It was almost impossible to walk down the street in Brooklyn without seeing Batman. I could not escape what I did for a living. I have an ear doctor who, when he told his boss what I did for a living, the boss came in and rolled up his pants leg. He had a Bat-signal on his calf. It was [in] a couple ways strange.”

Jerry Ordway agrees, stating, “Oh, it was big, the talk of that summer. The movie came out along with Indiana Jones 3, a Star Trek film, and a James Bond film, and was a cultural phenomenon. I went to comic-cons in Chicago, San Diego, and Atlanta that summer, and everyone heaped praise on the comic adaptation. It was such hard work, but the sales and response was gratifying.

What many don’t know, is that on a nontraditional project like that, the creative folks get an advance against royalties, which amounts to your page rate, except that potential royalties are calculated after the advance is earned back. Movie comics were not big sellers then, but that one sold somewhere around 350,000 copies.”

“LET’S SEE HOW WE DID.”

With their work complete, O’Neil and Ordway returned to their regular jobs, guiding the fates of the comics versions of Superman and Batman. For Ordway’s part, the Batman movie changed his visual approach to the Dark Knight. “When I returned to the Superman comics after that project, it was on the main Superman title.

A while after that, we did the multi-part storyline ‘Dark Knight over Metropolis,’ and I got to draw Batman again. I loved that Batman movie costume so much, especially the cowl, that it definitely became my template

for drawing the character. Of course, in the movie, it looked great, all molded rubber, but it offered Keaton little ability to turn his head! In comics, we don’t have to worry about that stuff!”

Despite all the tight deadlines, likeness approvals, and last-minute changes that came with the Batman movie adaptation, Jerry Ordway still has warm memories of a job well done. “Jonathan and I sat next to each other at the press screening a week before the official opening, and at the closing credits we gave each other a ‘thumbs-up’ because we knew we succeeded!”

School of Hard Knox

JOHN TRUMBULL wrote BACK ISSUE #99’s oral history of Batman: The Animated Series. In his spare time, he enjoys dancing with the devil by the pale moonlight. Thanks to Dennis O’Neil and Jerry Ordway for sharing their memories with BI.

TM & © DC Comics.

Although deleted from the film, this intriguing Bruce Wayne getaway scene found its way into the O’Neil/ Ordway one-shot.

The Ord-Way of Creating Comics Jerry O’s career is covered in-depth in TwoMorrows’ book Modern Masters Vol. 13, and he’s a regular columnist in Draw! magazine.

Shazam TM & © DC Comics.

Deadpool TM & © Marvel.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 33

TM

(this page) Star Trek novel cover painter extraordinaire Keith Birdsong illustrated this Batman movie-inspired ink-and-coloredpencil portrait as a licensing sample, according to Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (opposite) Jovial Jon Pinto, whose Superman: The Movie portrait concluded BACK ISSUE #109, kindly provided this gritty movie montage for our readers. Check out more of Jon’s work at www.jonpinto.com.

Batman & related characters TM & © DC Comics.

34 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 35

Advertise With Us! RetroFan & BrickJournal Ad Rates: Back cover or inside cover: $1000 ($900 for two or more) Full-page interior: $800 ($700 for two or more) Half-page interior: $500 ($425 for two or more) Quarter-page interior: $300 ($250 for two or more)

Alter Ego • Back Issue • Comic Book Creator • Draw • Jack Kirby Collector: Back cover or inside cover: $800 ($700 for two or more) Full-page interior: $600 ($500 for two or more) Half-page interior: $300 ($250 for two or more) Quarter-page interior: $150 ($125 for two or more) AD SIZES: COVERS & FULL-PAGE: 8.375” wide x 10.875” tall trim size, add 1/8” bleed. (7.625” x 10.125” live area.)

HALF-PAGE: 7.625” x 4.875” live area (no bleeds).

QUARTER-PAGE: 3.6875” x 4.875” live area (no bleeds).

Call or e-mail for frequency discounts!

Send ad copy and payment (US funds) to: TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 919-449-0344 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

We accept check, money order, and all major credit cards; include card number and expiration date.

These rates are for digital ads supplied (PDF, JPEG, TIF, EPS, InDesign, or Quark Xpress files acceptable). No agency discounts apply.

Art by John Romita.

Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

NEW BOOK BY BACK ISSUE EDITOR MICHAEL EURY!

HERO-A-GO-GO!

Welcome to the CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, good guys beat bad guys with a pun and a punch, and Batman shook a mean cape. HERO-A-GO-GO celebrates the camp craze of the Swinging Sixties, when just about everyone—the teens of Riverdale, an ant and a squirrel, even the President of the United States—was a super-hero or a secret agent. BACK ISSUE magazine and former DC Comics editor MICHAEL EURY takes you through that coolest cultural phenomenon with this all-new collection of nostalgic essays, histories, and theme song lyrics of classic 1960s characters like CAPTAIN ACTION, HERBIE THE FAT FURY, CAPTAIN NICE, ATOM ANT, SCOOTER, ACG’s NEMESIS, DELL’S SUPERFRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, the “Split!” CAPTAIN MARVEL, and others! Featuring interviews with BILL MUMY (Lost in Space), BOB HOLIDAY (It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman), RALPH BAKSHI (The Mighty Heroes, Spider-Man), DEAN TORRENCE (Jan and Dean Meet Batman), RAMONA FRADON (Metamorpho), DICK DeBARTOLO (Captain Klutz), TONY TALLARICO (The Great Society Comic Book), VINCE GARGIULO (Palisades Park historian), JOE SINNOTT (The Beatles comic book), JOSE DELBO (The Monkees comic book), and many more! By BACK ISSUE & RETROFAN editor MICHAEL EURY!

(272-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $36.95 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-073-1 • NOW SHIPPING!

TwoMorrows.

The Future of Pop History.

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

TM

For Batman fans, 1988 had left a lasting mark, with the Caped Crusader starring in several stories that brought the character renewed attention and appraisal. “Ten Nights of the Beast” (Batman #417–420, Mar.–June 1988),

by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo. Batman: The Cult #1–4 (Aug.–Nov. 1988), by Starlin and Bernie Wrightson.

Batman: The Killing Joke (May 1988), by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, which went on to achieve near-legendary status—and which stirred up a storm of controversy that persists to this day, given its crippling of Barbara (Batgirl) Gordon by the Joker and its somewhat ambiguous and disturbing ending. Just as controversial, if not more so, was “A Death in the Family” (Batman #426–429, Dec. 1988–Jan. 1989), by Starlin and Aparo, which ended the year with the death of Robin—not Dick Grayson, of course, but his successor, Jason Todd, his fate sealed by the Joker and readers calling a 1-900 telephone number.

With top creators producing high-profile projects that sold in big numbers (all of which have been reprinted numerous times in the years since their original publication), and in some cases generated real-world headlines—the death of Robin in particular received major coverage in the media—DC’s Batman line was inarguably on a major upswing, both creatively and financially. And the trend would only continue the following year—Batman’s 50th anniversary—with a new direction, new creative talents, new supporting characters, the return of some familiar faces, a new ongoing series… and a big boost from a certain movie directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson.

Entering his 50th year, Batman was flying high— though that flight initially hit some turbulence, which caused major course changes both in the books and behind the scenes.

BEYOND THE BOY WONDER

TM & © DC Comics.

by G

lenn Greenberg

With “A Death in the Family,” Starlin, who had been the regular writer on Batman since #414 (Dec. 1987), had managed to address and resolve an element of the Batman mythos that had bothered him for a long time, namely the very existence of Robin.

“I’ve always had trouble with [the idea of] Batman and Robin,” he tells BACK ISSUE. “Here’s this guy in gray and black who’s fighting crime and he takes along a kid in primary colors—he’s practically screaming out, ‘Shoot the kid!’ It just didn’t make any sense to me.

Maybe it made sense back in the 1930s, but in the 1980s, it was a different world. We knew about child abuse, and this was just plain child endangerment, as far as I was concerned.”

Starlin’s editor, Dennis O’Neil, was in full agreement with him on the matter of Batman’s young sidekick.

“I thought Dick Grayson was perfectly fine as Nightwing,” O’Neil says. “But I had always, as a reader, had problems with Robin, because it didn’t make story sense. I don’t expect these things to conform to real life. The Batmobile alone puts Batman in the realm of fantasy—you could not have that car in any modern city and not have people see where it goes every night. The idea of putting a child in terrible peril was not a good one. The idea of Batman in dark colors—that made sense, given who the character was. But putting his assistant in bright yellow and red and green didn’t make any sense at all.”

Starlin says that when he came on to Batman as the ongoing writer, he tried to leave Robin out of the stories as much as possible. “Denny eventually said, ‘Oh, you’ve got to do one with Robin here,’ and we did a couple

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 37

Secret Origins (left) Jim Starlin’s tale in Batman #430 (Feb. 1989) retold the Dark Knight’s origin. Art by Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo. (right) Marv Wolfman, with artists Pat Broderick and John Beatty, depicted the tragic tale of young Dick Grayson, the first Robin, in Batman #436’s “Batman: Year Three” opener.

TM & © DC Comics.

here and there before we did [‘A Death in the Family’],” He was a real pro. His craft and his ability to tell a he explains. “And Robin showed up in The Cult because story was first-rate. It was a different style from what I I needed somebody for Batman to play off of. But I was was going for in my drawings, of course, but I had a never particularly a big fan of Robin.” tremendous amount of respect for him.”

So when it came to killing off the Boy Wonder, neither But with Batman #431 (Mar. 1989), Starlin was gone, Starlin nor O’Neil had any real reluctance. “A Death in without warning—and he would never return. the Family” concluded with Robin dead and buried, the Joker missing at sea, and Batman grieving, bitter, FLYING AWAY and enraged. It was a fascinating moment in According to Starlin, the key reason for his the character’s history, a true turning point, abrupt departure was that Robin, while now signaling a new direction and a new tone. dead, was far from forgotten, and he would Starlin wrote the follow-up issue, Batman continue to haunt the Batman books in a variety of ways. #430 (Feb. 1989), which shows the Dark Knight, now alone, carrying on with “[DC’s] licensing department hit the his war on crime and facing off against a roof,” Starlin says, explaining that the deranged gunman. During this encounter, company’s licensing executives had Batman finds himself reminded of a apparently not been aware that Robin was painful incident that occurred the night going to be killed off for real. “Somehow his parents were killed—an incident that or another,” he continues, “Denny on all ultimately led to Thomas and Martha the morning talk shows [discussing the Wayne crossing paths with Joe Chill, story] got missed, and when the final book came out, they hit the roof and the man who murdered them. An incident jim starlin that still causes Bruce Wayne to feel said, ‘We’ve got all these pajamas and Kim Scarborough / Wikimedia Commons. profound guilt. lunchboxes [with Robin on them]!’

It was a powerful tale, and, presumably, a harbinger and immediately the blame game started getting played. of what future stories in Batman would be like in this I was the low man on the totem pole, so I took the hit new, Robin-less world. Starlin says he had every intention for the fact that we’d killed off Robin, and within a to stay on the series, and that he was fully enjoying his couple months all my work at DC dried up.” collaboration with Aparo, who passed away in 2005.

Starlin suggests that DC used another project he was “It was terrific,” he recalls. “Jim just did a bang-up job. working on for the company—a four-issue, Prestige

38 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

Format series called Gilgamesh II, which he was writing and drawing—as the excuse to drive him out. “The deal was that I would do Gilgamesh II at my own time while I was scripting other things,” he explains. “I had about an issue-and-a-half done at that point. Then when all this stuff came out with the [Robin] licensing, they said, ‘You’ve got to finish Gilgamesh II entirely.’ They put it on the schedule. It was made clear to me that I obviously wasn’t going to be able to do The New Gods [1989 relaunch] and Batman, both of which I was scripting at the time, and so they were assigned to [other people].”

In response to Starlin’s description of his departure from Batman, O’Neil says, “Let me be very charitable— that is not the way I remember it… I think he got mad at the company and quit.” O’Neil is quick to add, “Jim was a pretty good choice for [writing Batman].

When we run into each other now, we get along.”

Having completed Gilgamesh II, and with no other DC projects on the horizon, Starlin returned to Marvel.

“I started on The Silver Surfer and The Infinity Gauntlet, so in the long run, I didn’t get hurt terribly,” he says.

“But I still thought it was kind of a petty way to treat someone who had just done their bestselling book that year.”

Starlin says he had future Batman stories in mind for the post-Robin era, one of which would have reteamed him with Wrightson. “Bernie and I were going to do a sequel to The Cult, but DC didn’t want that right away,” he explains. “They wanted Bernie to do a Swamp Thing miniseries with Len Wein.” According to Starlin, Wrightson completed about half the first issue of the Swamp Thing project before he lost interest and bowed out. “We took the Cult sequel and changed it over to a Punisher story,” he says. That story, the four-issue Punisher: POV series, was published by Marvel in 1991.

SHARING THE SPOTLIGHT

While Batman was left without a regular writer, its sister title, Detective Comics, continued to plug along with its creative team of co-writers Alan Grant and John Wagner, and artist Norm Breyfogle. Editor O’Neil says he was determined to maintain a specific tone for each series that set them apart from one another.

“I tried to take my cue from the title of each series,” he explains. “Detective emphasized the quieter aspects of crimefighting, even though it did have at least three action scenes per story, and Batman was more the superhero book, with more emphasis on action and picaresque villains.”

Grant and Wagner had come on to Detective with #583 (Feb. 1988), joining Breyfogle, who had previously penciled #579 (Oct. 1987) and 582 (Jan. 1988). By the time 1989 rolled around, the team had established a track record of introducing new, completely original villains like the Ventriloquist and Scarface, Mortimer Kadaver, and Cornelius Stirk, rather than relying on Batman’s established enemies.

Breyfogle, who died on September 24, 2018, at the age of 58, told BACK ISSUE in an interview published in issue #22 (June 2007) that at first, he was disappointed that there was such an emphasis on new villains in Detective. “The only thing that bothered me a little bit was that I didn’t get to draw the classic Rogues’ Gallery,” he said. “Alan was creating all these new characters, and I was drawing them. But looking back on that, it was much better that Alan didn’t want to write the classic Rogues’ Gallery and wanted to create new characters. It set our place in Batman history and mythos more firmly.”

It might seem odd that Breyfogle mentioned only Grant as the writer of the stories he illustrated. But as Grant himself notes, Detective also had a shake-up in its

creative personnel around that time—though it was not publicly known back then. While John Wagner was still being credited on the stories published in 1989, Grant was actually writing the book solo.

“John actually left around Detective #594 (Dec. 1988),” Grant says. “But I kept both our names on the scripts because we’d signed a year-long contract. Once that was up, I felt free to use my own name. Basically, John left because of the money. We were being paid at least 50% more for writing Judge Dredd, and John had a wife/family/mortgage to support. So when we got our first royalty statement from our Detective stories—for zero dollars and zero cents—John said he couldn’t afford to work on it. The fact that he was never a lover of US comics, while I’d been a Batman fan since I was four years old, might have had some impact on it too.”

The last storyline to bear a Grant/Wagner writing credit was a two-parter in Detective #596–597 (Jan.–Feb. 1989) in which Batman confronts a criminal enterprise involving violent beatings that are captured on videotape, sold for a high price, and then shown to members of Gotham’s elite as a form of entertainment. With the

Fresh, Fearsome Faces From Ratcatcher to the Ventriloquist and Scarface, new villains were a hallmark of the Alan Grant/ Norm Breyfogle era of Detective Comics.

This pinup by Breyfogle was published in Detective #598.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 39

conclusion of that storyline, the regular team went on a break for several months, as O’Neil had lined up a special event that would take up the next few issues, guided by someone who helped bring Batman to the big screen.

HERE COMES HAMM

Young Sleuth Writers Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn resurrected Bruce Wayne’s mentor Harvey Harris, originally seen in (top) Detective Comics #226, for their (bottom) Val Semeiks/Michael Bair-drawn Detective Comics Annual #2.

TM & © DC Comics.

Detective Comics #598–600 (Mar.–May 1989) featured a three-part story, “Blind Justice,” written by Sam Hamm and illustrated by Denys Cowan and Dick Giordano.

Hamm was the primary screenwriter for the 1989 Batman movie, and as anticipation for the film grew in the months leading up to its June 23 release, audiences were given a taste of how he envisioned the character—the comicbook version, at least.

Hamm weaved a tale involving treachery inside Bruce Wayne’s tech company, a device that enables minds to be transferred to other bodies, Bruce being suspected of treason, and Batman having to investigate the men who trained him during his quest to become a master crimefighter. “Blind Justice” marked the first appearance of Bruce’s former mentor, the manhunter and assassin Henri Ducard, who would not only return years later in various comic-book stories, but would also be used as an alias by Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson) in the 2005 movie Batman Begins.

“I had not heard of Sam Hamm,” O’Neil says. “But I later became kind of friends with him… He had grown up reading Batman—that’s true of armies out in Hollywood now. He was a good writer. Everybody [who makes the jump from screenwriting to comic-book writing] says that comics are harder! But there was no problem working with him. He was first and foremost a pro. He understood the character, or had an understanding of the character that I could accept—it fell within my own guidelines. So I think he did a good job for his first comic-book work, better than other writers who had gained renown in other venues and then came in to do comics and didn’t realize that,

in terms of craft, it’s a pretty demanding medium.

You can’t just come in out of nowhere and write the way you’ve always written.”

Despite the high-profile status of #600, the significant bump in sales it generated, and the lucrative creator royalties that resulted, Alan Grant says there were no hard feelings on his part that he did not get to work on the anniversary issue.

“I didn’t really think much about it, though a couple of (nameless) friends did point out to me there were big bucks to be earned from #600,” he says. “But I write what and when my editor tells me, so I fully accepted the fact that Sam Hamm was coming onboard. I didn’t much care for his story, though… Ironically, John [Wagner] should have stuck with [me on Detective]—because of the #600 fuss, when I took over again with #601, sales had gone up from 75,000 a month to 675,000 a month.”

O’Neil says that he stayed in touch with Hamm for a while. “He wrote a screenplay for the second Batman movie which was killed, but they did use his story, so he did get a payday out of that,” he explains. “I don’t know what he’s doing now. I know he became pretty close friends with Denys Cowan.”

Hamm’s most recent writing credits, as per IMDB, are two episodes of the Showtime TV series Masters of Horror, in 2005 and 2006. Since receiving a story credit on 1992’s Batman Returns, he has had no further involvement with Batman on film or in the comics.

[Editor’s note: See our interview with Sam Hamm elsewhere in this issue for more about the writer.]

GUESTS IN THE BATCAVE

Over in Batman, O’Neil recruited a couple of fill-in writers to produce stories while he searched for a new regular scribe. Jim Owsley, who now writes under the name “Christopher Priest,” or just “Priest,” handled #431–432 (Mar.–Apr. 1989), both of which were illustrated by Aparo and Mike DeCarlo. In #431, Batman confronts another former mentor, a North Korean martial-arts master named Kirigi, whom the Dark Knight discovers has been training members of Ra’s al Ghul’s League of Assassins. In #432, Batman, driven by the loss of Jason Todd, works a case involving a boy who went missing seven years earlier. He finds himself collaborating with a woman private investigator named Maxine Kelly, and in conflict with FBI agents as he tries to obtain confidential information he needs to solve the mystery.

Owsley was also tapped to write 1989’s Batman Annual #13, illustrated by Michael Bair and Gray Morrow, in which Batman breaks Two-Face out of Arkham Asylum in an effort to save a man—a former member of Two-Face’s gang—from being executed for a crime he didn’t commit. The story featured a flashback sequence showing Jason Todd (wearing a unique, winterized Robin uniform seen only this one time) and Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), shortly before the Joker got to them both, helping Batman take down Two-Face and his underlings.

That year’s Detective Comics Annual #2, written by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn and illustrated by Val Semeiks and Michael Bair, filled in more of Batman’s post-Crisis backstory. Most notably, it restored to the mythos the character of Harvey Harris, a brilliant detective who mentored Bruce Wayne in his youth and was originally introduced in Detective Comics #226 (Dec. 1955).

Back on the main Batman series, John Byrne stepped in to write and provide the covers for #433–435 (May–July 1989), a three-parter titled “The Many Deaths of the Batman,” with Aparo and DeCarlo remaining as the art team. As suggested by the title, Batman appears to die in the story, multiple times, with only Commissioner

40 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

Gordon convinced that the Dark Knight is still alive. When the police determine that Bruce Wayne is on the killer’s target list, they set up shop in Wayne Manor to protect him—hampering Bruce’s efforts to find and stop the person responsible for these “Bat-murders.” The first chapter was particularly notable, having been done as a “silent issue,” with no dialogue whatsoever, except for two words uttered by Gordon.

With the next storyline, a new regular writer was installed.

He was no stranger to Batman, having chronicled his adventures earlier in the decade, and having already brought about major changes to the Dark Knight’s world—first and foremost, the dissolution of his partnership with Dick Grayson. Marv Wolfman, who dominated DC for much of the 1980s, primarily through his groundbreaking and bestselling work on The New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths, returned to Gotham City for an extended stay, one with major repercussions on Batman that would last for many years to come.

THE WOLF AND THE BAT

Wolfman had previously written Batman #328–335 (Oct. 1980–May 1981), and on rare occasions, Batman and/or Bruce Wayne would make a guest appearance in the Titans series, most notably during a crossover between The New Teen Titans #37 and Batman and the Outsiders #5 (Dec. 1983), and in Tales of the Teen Titans #50 (Feb. 1985), in which Bruce and Dick have a heartfelt—and heartwarming—conversation at Donna Troy’s wedding.

Wolfman reveals that as a writer, he “never really considered Batman to be in my wheelhouse, personally, whereas Superman is.” Nevertheless, he was quick to accept the offer when DC called him and asked if he would be interested in developing an idea for a new Robin.

“The idea of them asking me to come up with another teen-type character did not seem awkward,” Wolfman says, noting the great success he was having with the teen-dominated Titans. He also mentions the push he had made, in and around 1982, to gain full control of Dick Grayson and his destiny. This led to Dick giving up the identity of Robin altogether, and becoming Nightwing.

“The Batman editors (at the time, Dick Giordano, followed by Len Wein) wanted Robin back with Batman—and they wanted to make him younger again,” Wolfman explains. “They thought that Batman needed a younger Robin. Because Titans sold as well as it did, I was able to say, ‘I do not want to give up Dick Grayson at all—we’ve been developing him as a unique character and very different from the way you’ve seen Robin before.’ And I said to them, ‘Why not have [Titans] keep Dick Grayson and you come up with a new Robin? … They went for that, and it proved to be a success—despite what happened with Jason.”

When asked what he thinks went wrong with the Jason Todd character, Wolfman has no quick and easy answer. “I don’t know if anything went wrong with Jason,” he says. “You can see it generally in fandom today, as well as it was back then—people don’t like something brand new, something different. This was not a happy-go-lucky kid.”

Wolfman also notes that DC was inconsistent in the portrayal of Jason Todd. For the first few years of his existence, as created by Gerry Conway and developed by Doug Moench, Jason was more or less a clone of Dick Grayson—a level-headed, good-natured, loyal, and trustworthy assistant for Batman, with an almost identical background. But in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths and the arrival of Dennis O’Neil as editor of the Batman line, Jason’s origin was completely revised by writer Max Allan Collins, in Batman #408–409 (June–July 1987). To set him apart from Dick, Jason was turned into a bold, quick-tempered, rebellious, and sometimes-reckless kid who grew up on the mean streets of Gotham, and who first encountered Batman when Todd was trying to steal the tires off the Batmobile.

Die, Batman, Die! (top) Signed John Byrne cover art for Batman #433 (May 1989). Note the artist’s “shattered” signature in the bottom left corner. (inset) The art was flopped for publication. (bottom) Byrne’s script for Batman #433, launching his three-part “The Many Deaths of Batman,” featured almost no dialogue. Art by Aparo and DeCarlo.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 41

“I don’t think [DC] had a very strong viewpoint as to what the [second] Robin should be, and I don’t think the fans were interested in seeing Jason,” Wolfman says. “Remember, a new character coming in to assume the identity of another character had never really been done before. Doug and Gerry both are really good writers, so my assumption is you just occasionally have a character that people do not warm to. There’s no logical reason, it’s not that he’s better or worse than anybody else. It’s just that maybe the setup, the time, everything was wrong. With Jason, maybe it could’ve been done better—I don’t know for sure, I wasn’t following any of it because I was just so busy at the time.”

Given the sentiments expressed by Starlin and O’Neil about whether the concept of Robin made any sense, where did Wolfman come down on the matter?

“I don’t know if there needed to be another Robin after Jason, outside of the history of Batman always having Robin,” he answers. “But [DC] asked for it, so what I did was try to come up with a very different approach to [the Robin concept] and a very different characterization, and a character who would make Robin interesting.”

Despite O’Neil’s own feelings about Robin, he knew what had to be done when executives at the company made their position very clear to him.

“I was told, ‘We’ve got to have a Robin,’ ” he says.

“And my thought was, if we’ve got to do this, let’s try to do it right. Let’s figure out the best kind of Robin there could be.” [Editor’s note: Jason Todd’s history was explored in BACK ISSUE #48, our “Dead Heroes” issue.]

marv wolfman Photo by Noel Wolfman.

Robin the Cradle Condolences from Dick Grayson turn sour on this startling Marv Wolfman/George Pérez/Romeo Tanghal page from The New Titans #55 (June 1989).

TM & © DC Comics.

PLAYING WITH THE PAST

Wolfman’s tenure began with the four-part “Batman: Year Three,” penciled by Pat Broderick and with covers by George Pérez, which ran from Batman #436–439 (Aug.–Sept. 1989). Unlike Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s “Batman: Year One” (Batman #404–407, Feb.–May 1987) and Mike W. Barr, Alan Davis, and Todd McFarlane’s “Batman: Year Two” (Detective Comics #575–578, June–Sept. 1987), both of which were set completely in the past, “Year Three” took place in both the past and the present. It served as a retelling and a major expansion of Dick Grayson’s origin as Robin, with an important retcon dropped in that would pay off soon after, as well as a contemporary story establishing that Anthony Zucco, the criminal responsible for the murder of Dick’s parents, was about to be released from prison on parole. The present-day scenes also dealt heavily with the aftermath of Jason Todd’s death, the toll that tragedy had been taking on Batman, and the heightened tension between Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. Wolfman picks up on a dramatic— and quite troubling—scene that he had written several months earlier, in The New Titans #55 (June 1989), in which Dick learns about Jason’s death and journeys to the Batcave to offer his condolences to Batman. But Batman greets him coldly, and implies that had Dick not ended their partnership, Jason would still be alive because he would never have become Robin. Dick then angrily accuses Batman of letting Jason become Robin before he was ready—and in response, Batman slugs him right in the jaw and orders him to leave the cave and not return. The scene seemed to mark the last time that these two men would ever speak to each other. But “Year Three” brought Batman and Nightwing back together, although they were mostly at odds with each other throughout the story, with an increasingly erratic and violent Batman refusing to accept his former ward’s help and insisting that he would never work with a partner again.

“Year Three” also added a new wrinkle to Robin’s past, establishing that a young couple, the Drakes, along with their little boy, Tim, were at Haly’s Circus the night the Flying Graysons fell to their deaths during a performance.

Not only had the Drakes met the Graysons—including young Dick— before the show, they watched the tragedy happen right in front of them. Readers did not have to wait long to find out why this bit of business was added to Robin’s backstory. Wolfman picked up on it in the very next storyline, a crossover with The New Titans.

42 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

Boy Wonder No More Original—and gorgeous, if we may say so!—cover art

by George Pérez for Batman #441, part of the “A Lonely Place of Dying” storyline. Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 43

From Batman #443 (top) An anxious Tim Drake gets a lesson in patience. (bottom) Lucius Fox returns.

TM & © DC Comics.

ROBIN REBORN

“A Lonely Place of Dying,” which ran in Batman #440–442 (Oct.–Dec. 1989) and The New Titans #60–61 (Nov.-Dec. 1989), was set firmly in the present and picked up on key plot threads from “Year Three”—namely Batman’s ongoing erratic and violent behavior, Alfred’s growing concerns about his employer, and the frayed relationship between Bruce and Dick.

And then there was the matter of young Tim Drake.

Wolfman reintroduced the character as a remarkably clever 13-year-old who has deduced Batman and Nightwing’s identities, and who tries to convince Dick to become Robin again because, without his partner

at his side, Batman is clearly falling apart. Meanwhile, Two-Face has returned with a new scheme to kill Batman once and for all, driven by a mysterious voice that may or may not be a product of his out-of-control insanity.

Batman, realizing that he actually needs help this time, reaches out to Nightwing, who gladly returns to his side.

But even the former Dynamic Duo working together again is not enough to stop Two-Face. The Batman family—such as it is—needs a new member, and it’s up to Tim Drake to decide whether he can accept the monumental responsibility of becoming the third Robin.

(SPOILER ALERT: He does.)

“I liked that one,” Wolfman recalls. He plotted the story with George Pérez, who once again provided all of the covers, and who illustrated the Titans issues with Tom Grummett and Bob McLeod. “George and I worked out the whole arc. I went on to write the issues on my own, but George contributed an awful lot so that I was able to then take off and make it all work as I broke down the material.”

For the Batman issues, Jim Aparo returned as artist, much to Wolfman’s delight. “I loved working with Jim,” he says. “He was so good. When I found out Jim was going to do my issues, I was thrilled.”

Wolfman says he was also happy to be using a Batman villain that had long been one of his favorites, one he had used prominently during his previous run on the series. “To me, one of the biggest differences between Two-Face and the Joker is that Two-Face is really intelligent— he was a district attorney, and he was supposed to be the best,” he explains. “So this is a really smart guy who had to analyze criminals, had to analyze people. In ‘A Lonely Place of Dying,’ I was able to get into the heads of Batman and Two-Face and how they operate and strategize and think against each other. I thought that was something we had never seen before.”

“A Lonely Place of Dying” also gave Wolfman a chance to delve deeper into the relationship between Bruce and Dick, and to get it back to at least a semblance of what it was before post-Crisis editorial needs put it in a state of seemingly permanent dysfunction.

“Bruce and Dick were, for all intents and purposes, father and son,” he says. “Where Dick was hurt was that he considered Bruce his father in many ways, but Bruce never adopted him as he quickly did Jason. But my view is that these were people who cared about each other deeply, and Dick was now grown up and he had different needs and different drives, and Batman in many ways wasn’t interested in Dick growing up. He just wanted the Robin that was, and of course that could never happen because we all change and we all grow. But they had total love for each other.”

By the end of the storyline, a new Robin was on the scene, though it would take a while for him to officially assume the role. Most interestingly, this was a Robin who, for the first time, was not an orphan, who was not driven by tragedy to take up a life of crimefighting.

Plus, he was something of a prodigy when it came to detective work and computers. Wolfman had accomplished his goal, with Tim Drake proving to be popular almost right from the start. “I think Marv did as good a job as I could have hoped for,” O’Neil says.

When it’s pointed out to Jim Starlin that, had he stayed on Batman, he most likely would have been the one assigned the task of introducing a new Boy Wonder, he replies, “I don’t know how I would have gone about handling that at that point. I definitely wouldn’t have put him in a red-and-yellow outfit again!” [Editor’s note: For more of Tim Drake’s story, see BACK ISSUE #22, featuring a Drake-Robin cover

by Norm Breyfogle.]

44 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

FEATS OF CLAY, ACTS OF ANARKY

Meanwhile, over in Detective Comics, the team of Grant and Breyfogle returned and would remain there for the rest of the year—and well into 1990.

They kicked off their renewed run with “Tulpa,” a three-parter that ran from #601–603 (June–Aug. 1989) and propelled Batman into the world of the supernatural, with the Dark Knight confronting dangerous, magically produced creatures called tulpas and turning to the Demon, Etrigan, for assistance.

“I was interested in Tibetan mythology and the making of a tulpa (body-double) is described in some book I read,” Grant explains. “It seemed a natural foe for the Batman, and I was able to bring the Demon into it as well. The Demon was my favorite character from The next storyline, a two-parter titled “Anarky in all those Jack Kirby created for DC.” Gotham City,” ran in Detective #608–609 (Nov.–Dec. Grant and Breyfogle followed this up with a 1989) and introduced a brand-new character to four-part storyline “The Mud Pack,” in #604– the Batman mythos, one with enough staying 607 (Sept.–Nov. 1989), which brought power that he would eventually be given together for the first time all four of the his own limited series in 1997, followed criminals who have operated under the by a short-lived ongoing monthly two name Clayface, including the female years later. Dressed in a crimson supervillain also known as Lady Clay. uniform with matching hat and cape, In facing this threat, Batman becomes his face covered by a golden mask, psychologically traumatized when he extraordinarily bright adolescent is confronted by the image of Robin, Lonnie Machin operated as a socially seemingly back from the dead, and his conscious vigilante whose methods of mind is scrambled by Lady Clay. He ends punishment were so harsh they gave even the Batman pause. Given his up working alongside Looker, from his former superhero team the Outsiders, portrayal as a masked anarchist, alan grant whom Lady Clay had confronted activist, and crusader for the oppressed previously in The Outsiders #21–22 and downtrodden, who spray-painted Comic Vine.

(July–Aug. 1987). his symbol wherever he committed “I don’t remember much about the Clayface storyline,” his acts of defiance, it was only natural that some Grant says. “Denny gave me the parameters within which observers would compare Anarky to V, the protagonist I had to work, and then left me to it. I had to do a lot of Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s classic V For more research than I’d intended! Looker was completely Vendetta. But according to Grant, V was not an unknown to me, for instance.” inspiration for Anarky.

Hot Wheels (right) The 1989 Batman movie made the Batmobile famous again… and the high-octane trio of Alan Grant, Norm Breyfogle, and Steve Mitchell put the pedal to the metal on this splash to Detective #601. (left) the isue’s cover.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 45

“Far as I recall, I hadn’t seen V for Vendetta when I came up with Anarky,” he says. “I was a member of the UK Anarchist Association at the time, and wondered if I could make a successful character using their ideals. I figured that I succeeded, but the guys at the Association thought otherwise. Their broadsheet newspaper Black Flag ran a front-page, full-page feature on the character—liberally utilizing Norm’s art—ripping me to metaphorical shreds for the heinous crime of ‘commercializing’ Anarchy. All I wanted to do was get US comic fans to think a little outside the normal comic box.”

Grant also reveals where he was hoping to take Anarky following the character’s debut— but explains that plans in the Batman office, which were unknown to him at the time, rendered that hope impossible to pursue.

“When I created the teenaged character Anarky, I was harboring faint hopes that he’d be chosen as the next Robin,” he says. “It was then I found out that Denny and Marv had been working on Tim Drake in secret—they didn’t want the news to get out.”

Breyfogle had great enthusiasm for Anarky, whom he described to BI norm breyfogle as “among the best, if not the best, of the characters that Alan created.

Caricature by Michael Netzer/ Alan really created him—along with Wikimedia Commons. the other characters—and I was just along for the ride and lucky to be there.” Further, Breyfogle said that Anarky “became—even more than Batman—a more synergistic element between Alan and me. It was the fruition of our professional relationship in that we were discussing (though faxes) a lot of the philosophical issues, day by day, that Alan was putting into the Anarky storyline. Anarky was created for Batman, and was a new character that I got to design. It was probably the biggest thing that came out of the death of Robin for us.”

Amusingly enough, despite his desire to introduce the third Robin, Grant admits, “I prefer Batman working alone.” But he adds, “I understand why many readers love Robin.”

Teen Titan (top) Norm Breyfogle was an adolescent when he contributed a proposed Robin costume that appeared on this fan page published in DC’s Batman Family #13 (Sept. 1977). (bottom) From the Heritage archives, a Breyfogle sketch done at the 1989 San Diego Comic-Con. Batman TM & © DC Comics.

46 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

Rhymin’ Simon The Demon, Batman’s teammate.

Extraordinary Norm Breyfogle original art, with inks by Steve Mitchell over an Alan Grant script, from Detective Comics #603 (Aug. 1989). Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 47

CLOSING OUT THE YEAR

Here’s Mud in Your Eye (left) A superbly staged Batman vs.

Clayface battle scene, from Detective #607 and the “Mud Pack” storyline,” by Grant/ Breyfogle/Mitchell. (right) The creative team introduced Anarky in the pages of Detective #608.

TM & © DC Comics.

Wolfman and Aparo wrapped up 1989 with Batman #443–444 (Jan.–Feb. 1990), which introduced a new villain, the Crimesmith, a mysterious criminal mastermind who, for a price, would sell detailed plans and technology to other criminals that could be used in their high-stakes thefts. As an added twist, if these clients ever became too much of a security risk, and there was a chance that they would reveal details of the secret enterprise to the authorities—or to the Batman—the Crimesmith would kill them gruesomely by remote control.

“I liked the Crimesmith,” Wolfman says. “I remember at the time thinking it was a little bit different.”

The story showed Batman beginning to oversee Tim Drake’s training to become his new partner—with the Dark Knight stressing that he’s going to take it very slow with this boy, that he’s not taking any chances, given what happened to Jason. Batman #443 also marked the return of Bruce Wayne’s friend and colleague, Wayne Enterprises executive Lucius Fox, who had not been seen in the Batman titles since before Doug Moench’s run ended with Batman #400 (Oct. 1986), and who Wolfman had used extensively during his previous stint as a Batman writer.

In Detective Comics, Grant and Breyfogle ended the year by bringing back one of Batman’s main villains, marking the first time that the duo would handle a classic Bat-foe. Detective #610–611 (Jan.–Feb. 1990) featured a two-part story, “Snow and Ice,” that began with the apparent death of the Penguin—emphasis on the word apparent. With an escaped Mortimer Kadaver

thrown into the mix as well, carrying out a plan he had worked out with the Penguin before the diminutive, pointy-nosed, monocle-wearing crimelord’s seemingly fatal heart attack, Batman had his hands full. In other words, business as usual for the Dark Knight.

“All Penguin needed [to be effective] was to be ruthless but have a great mind,” Grant says. “I liked him as a villain, even in that abortion of a second Batman movie…

I was happy to use all the established villains, but now and again I’d have an idea for something new. It didn’t matter to me if they were established or new—I was living a dream, writing a character I’d always loved.”

Grant’s love for Batman showed in his work, as far as his editor was concerned. “I thought for a while [Alan] was probably the best Batman writer in the world,” O’Neil says. “He was certainly a pro. A good guy to talk to and a good guy to hang out with.”

Undoubtedly, one of the main reasons that writing Batman was a dream for Grant was the artist with whom he worked. And the feeling was mutual.

AN ARTIST IS REMEMBERED

Norm Breyfogle would work with Alan Grant for the rest of his run on Detective Comics, and would remain his collaborator in the years that followed, on titles including Batman, Batman: Shadow of the Bat, and the Anarky limited and ongoing series.

“I loved Norm,” Grant says. “For the first several issues we did for Detective, [John and I] had no contact with Norm at all, apart from our scripts. Then I went to the big convention in San Diego and we met up for the first

48 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

time. From the moment we met, he contradicted almost everything I said. I was feeling quite amazed until, after about an hour of chatting, he suddenly burst out laughing and said, ‘I believe everything you said.

I was just playing Devil’s Advocate.’ That was Norm.”

Grant explains that he and Breyfogle became very close after that. “I often felt that Norm was reading my mind when he drew my scripts, his art was so close to what I was imagining when I wrote them,” he says.

“For my money, Norm is one of the three top Batman artists of all time—I won’t say who my other two are.

He always saw Batman the same way I did—a mysterious and sinister creature of the night—and Norm’s storytelling is near-perfect.”

As with Grant, working on Batman was a dream job for Breyfogle. “I’d always wanted to draw comics, and I’d always wanted to draw Batman,” he told BI in 2007.

“I’ve done a number of things since Batman that, in my opinion, I’ve executed better: I’ve become better at drawing faces than I generally was back then. If you look at all my Batman output, you can see an increase in quality. But since Batman was so visible, and since I loved drawing the character so much, and because I enjoyed Alan’s stories and the interaction between Alan and myself, I consider it the high point of my comics career to this day… it set my career in comics.”

Much of Breyfogle’s Batman work has been collected in a variety of books, including the hardcover series Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle and the trade paperback series Batman: The Dark Knight Detective and Batman: Shadow of the Bat, each having multiple volumes.

THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

Towards the end of the year, DC took advantage of the new wave of Batmania fueled by the movie to launch an additional title, one that the company billed as “The First New ‘Solo’ Batman Book Since 1940!”

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight was designed to be, essentially, an ongoing series of miniseries, featuring multi-part story arcs by different creative teams. The vast majority of the stories would be set in the past, during the early days of Batman’s career, and most would reflect the look, mood, and continuity established by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli in “Batman: Year One.” The status of these stories in the overall Batman canon was nebulous—some of them would be acknowledged in the two main “present-day” Batman titles, while others would be considered purely speculative, meant to be enjoyed as self-contained tales that were not necessarily part of the “official” tapestry.

The series began with “Shaman,” which ran in LOTDK #1–5 (Nov. 1989–Mar. 1990). Memorably, the first issue was published with four covers differentiated solely by color (blue, yellow, pink, and orange), with a second interior cover painted by George Pratt. The storyline was written by none other than Batman’s editor, Dennis O’Neil, marking his return to writing the Dark Knight for the first time since 1980. Illustrated by Ed Hannigan and John Beatty, the main story took place during and around the events of “Batman: Year One,” with Bruce Wayne, just starting out as Batman, investigating a series of murders in Gotham City that somehow connect to an incident from his past, when he was training and developing his skills in Alaska and his life was saved by a Native shaman wearing a bat-mask.

“According to one theory, that book was created to give me a Batman series to write,” O’Neil says. “The first story was going to be what eventually became ‘Venom,’ but the powers-that-be at the time intervened—in this case it was Jenette Kahn [then DC’s president and editorin-chief], and she was very reasonable.” In “Venom,”

which was eventually published in LOTDK #16–20 (Mar.–July 1991), Batman fails to save the life of a young girl because he is not strong enough to move a giant chunk of rock out of his way to reach her in time. As a result, he starts taking an experimental strength-enhancing drug, called Venom, to which he becomes addicted, causing his life to spiral out of control. Apparently Kahn was not comfortable with the idea of kicking off a major new Batman series with a storyline depicting the hero in the throes of drug addiction, though she obviously did not object to it being published later on. Incidentally, “Venom” was one of the stories in LOTDK considered to be part of the main Batman continuity, as it laid the foundation for the character of Bane and the “Knightfall” storyline that dominated the Batman titles from 1993 to 1994.

“I did ‘Shaman,’ the story that that we published in its place, kind of quickly, because I thought that first job was done,” O’Neil explains. “But it all worked out okay.”

Since company policy prohibited O’Neil from editing a book that he was writing, LOTDK was edited, initially,

by Andrew Helfer. According to O’Neil, there was some creative friction between the two men.

Above the Norm Signed original artwork for the cover of Detective Comics #609, courtesy of Heritage, showcasing Breyfogle’s startling depiction of anarchy on Gotham’s streets… and an Anarky vs. Batman confrontation.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 49

“I don’t think the editor was delighted with the idea of working with me,” O’Neil says. “I have not prided myself on my writing ability, but I have prided myself on my professionalism, and he was not in that bag. So on the last thing we were going to do together, I couldn’t get him to agree on a plot. I had long conversations with him, and he was always a great guy to talk to. But it was clear he was not in the business of agreeing on a plot with me, and so I finally said, ‘I’m going to bow out of this.’ Originally it was supposed to be that I would write half the issues [per year], and I ended up only writing a few of them—not entirely his fault.”

BACK ISSUE reached out to Andrew Helfer for comment, but did not receive a response by the time this issue went to press.

Later on, after Archie Goodwin took over as editor of LOTDK, O’Neil returned on occasion to write some key stories for the series, including #50 (Sept. 1993), which depicted the first encounter between Batman and the Joker, alluded to at the end of “Batman: Year One,” and #100 (Nov. 1997), which featured a new retelling of how Dick Grayson became the original Robin.

Overall, O’Neil says he enjoyed writing Batman in LOTDK while serving as the character’s editor on the “main” titles. He acknowledges that the Dark Knight he was now writing was heavily influenced by the contributions that Frank Miller had made to the mythos via “Year One,”

Color Me Dark Knight The four variant covers for the launch of 1989’s new solo Batman title, Legends of the Dark Knight #1.

TM & © DC Comics.

but as far as O’Neil was concerned, he was basically just doing Batman the way he had always approached the character. “[Frank] pushed it a lot further than I did,” he says, “but I was just doing ‘my’ Batman [in LOTDK]. The good part about doing Legends of the Dark Knight was that I didn’t have to worry about continuity. I could just tell a story. And it could be two issues, it could be five issues—preferably five, because that made it easy to reprint. We were always aware of that stuff.”

THE WORLD GOES BATTY

Batman was unquestionably in a different place at the end of 1989 from where he had been at the beginning of the year, with a new regular writer on his primary title, a new partner waiting in the wings (pun intended), a new monthly series, and massive exposure on a global scale, courtesy of a movie that became a bona fide pop-culture phenomenon even before its release—months earlier, people were reportedly going to theaters and paying to get in just to see the 90-second teaser trailer. Directed by Tim Burton, starring Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Jack Nicholson as the Joker, and Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale, and featuring songs by Prince, Batman earned more than $250 million at the box office in the US alone, making it the #1 movie of the year in terms of domestic grosses. The film received an enthusiastic reception from audiences and many critics, including the notorious Harlan Ellison, certainly no pushover, who wrote a glowing review in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

And it wasn’t just the movie that took the world by storm. Merchandising tied to the film generated $500 million that year.

O’Neil remembers following the development of the film with interest, though during its production, he and his editorial colleagues at DC didn’t know much more about it than the average fan at the time. “Nobody anticipated Michael Keaton in the title role,” he says.

“Clint Eastwood was mentioned—that would’ve been a bad idea. Steven Seagal’s first movie had just opened and at least he was physically okay—nobody knew that he had problems with his acting. We heard Keaton and I guess our reaction was pretty much the general reaction: ‘That’s terrible casting.’ But it wasn’t. I’ve known [Batman movie series executive producer] Michael Uslan for more than 50 years, and he said it was on Tim Burton’s part an intuition—it’s not about the muscles, that’s not what Batman is about. It’s about the character, and that actor looks like he might be crazy enough to put on a [batsuit] and hang out on rooftops.”

O’Neil adds without reservation that Keaton was “believable” in the role, particularly as Bruce Wayne.

“I think of all the Bruce Waynes there have been, and his was closest to my conception of what the character ought to be.”

He also recalls having the opportunity to see the movie about four days before it opened. “I was walking out with a Warner executive who shall remain nameless, and she was very pessimistic,” he says. “She said, ‘It’s such a dark movie. It’s not a good summer movie. It won’t do well.’

That’s movie-think for you. I thought that was an interesting observation and I didn’t really have any opinion on it—I guess I didn’t have an opinion about how well or how badly the movie would do as a commercial entity.

But it was obvious that it was a culture-bearing movie.

The world had a kind feeling towards Batman—it was ripe for the movie [to come out] at that time.”

Wolfman remembers meeting Tim Burton at San Diego Comic-Con before the film went into production.

“We had a dinner and Tim was brought in for it because he had just signed on to do [the movie]. This is before Beetlejuice came out. None of us knew who he was.

And for all the right reasons, he’s a little strange.

He’s brilliant. He is unique. And we talked about what Batman should be… I read the script, it was really interesting, but that was a little later on, when I was starting to get [more involved with Batman]. I did like the film.”

50 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

Bat-mask Batman group editor Denny O’Neil got the opportunity to write the Caped Crusader’s adventures again in 1989, with his “Shaman” five-parter in Legends of the Dark Knight #1–5.

Here, from our friends at Heritage, is an original art page from issue #4, by penciler Ed Hannigan and inker John Beatty.

TM & © DC Comics.

By the time the movie came out, Jim Starlin was gone from DC, but he did go to see the film. “I loved it,” he says. “I was so horrified by that old TV series.

The movie wasn’t Frank Miller’s Batman, but at the same time, it was such a leg up. It was beautifully shot and just a nice change of pace. Still a little campy, but nowhere near what was in the TV series.”

The natural question, then, is: What impact, if any, did the movie have on the comic books? Did O’Neil and his team decide to adjust the comics in any way to reflect the vision that Burton brought to the big screen? Or did they receive any directives from DC or its parent company (then Warner Communications, later Time Warner), to do so? Surprisingly, the comics were, for the most part, allowed to remain in their own little bubble, unaffected by goings-on in the real world—or at least Hollywood. “[The Warner executives] stayed out of my way and out of my face, and I think the reason is, we always showed a profit,” O’Neil says. “Giving Sam Hamm [three issues of Detective Comics to write] and riding on the tails of the movie, I thought correctly, was going to blacken the bottom line… I didn’t change a single aspect of how I did that job, and they didn’t ask for anything.”

Wolfman remembers it the same way. “Nobody told me what to do, that I can tell you,” he says. “I was never told ‘put in this character, you must put in that character because of the movie.’ ” Wolfman did eventually work Vicki Vale back into the cast, starting with Batman #445 (Mar. 1990), but notes that it was solely his call. “I don’t remember if it was because of the movie or because I just felt that Bruce should have a girlfriend,” he says. “But I’m an old Batman fan from the 1950s, and Vicki was the girlfriend then.”

Alan Grant also asserts that he received no suggestion to align the comics with the movie—and that suited him just fine, given his mixed feelings about the film.

“I thought Jack Nicholson was perfectly cast but Michael Keaton was hideously miscast. It might have worked better if they’d each played the other’s part,” he says.

“It didn’t really impact on the way I wrote my stories— I couldn’t bear to think of the Keaton Batman as an armored human tank with puffed-out cheeks.”

In his 2007 interview with BACK ISSUE, Breyfogle recalled, “The Batman movie mostly affected us by boosting sales a bit. It mostly affected me, maybe a year later, when word came from above (Denny related it, but I don’t think it was his decision) to make the comic books look a lot more like the movie. First of all, we started using [the Batman movie’s designer] Anton Furst’s Gotham City designs in the drawing and, shortly after that, started drawing an all-black suited Batman, as well.” Incidentally, the story in which Gotham City was changed visually to reflect Furst’s designs, “Destroyer,” ran in Batman #474, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #27, and Detective Comics #641 (all Feb. 1992), published several months before the June 19, 1992 release of Batman Returns.

Looking back, and taking everything into account— both in the comics and on the big screen—it can be said that after 1989, Batman was never the same again.

That statement may seem hyperbolic, but that doesn’t make it any less true. And many Batman fans wouldn’t have it any other way.

GLENN GREENBERG is an award-winning editor and writer, whose work has appeared in print and web publications including BACK ISSUE, RetroFan, TIME Magazine For Kids, TIME Edge, Scholastic News, Entertainment Weekly, People, Salute, SYFY.com, and Time Out New York. He has written for Simon and Schuster’s Star Trek line of fiction, as well as an X-Files novella that was nominated for a Scribe Award in 2017. Glenn has also written and/or edited for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, on such world-famous characters as Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, the Silver Surfer, Dracula, and Superman.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 51

TM

by D

Stop the Press!

Who’s That?

Vicki Vale.

And Catwoman.

They like… Batman.

And so do we, when drawn by Marshall Rogers. Rogers’ final Batman Sunday strip, publication date 1–21–90. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com), via Dewey Cassell.

TM & © DC Comics.

In our present era, 14 years after Christopher Nolan’s first Batman film and over ten years since the inception of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is hard to remember that there was a time when superhero films were the exception rather than the rule. Such was the case in 1989, when the groundbreaking film Batman appeared in theaters, directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton in the lead role. Gone was the campy Caped Crusader of the ’60s, replaced by a more serious interpretation, much like the character’s evolution in comics.

Naturally, publisher DC Comics wanted to capitalize on the success of the Batman film, so they turned to another medium that would allow them to reach a broad audience, the newspaper. The idea of a Batman newspaper strip was not new. In fact, as chronicled in the book, Batman: The Sunday Classics 1943–1946 (Sterling Publishing Co., 2007), the new Batman strip marked the fifth time the Darknight Detective has appeared in the funny pages.

The first newspaper strip series featuring Batman premiered in 1943, only a few years after the debut of the character in Detective Comics #27, and ran for three years in daily and Sunday papers, distributed by the McClure Syndicate. Writers for the first series,

ewey Cassell

titled Batman and Robin, included Bob Kane, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Jack Schiff, and Alvin Schwartz, with much of the dailies penciled by Kane and Sundays

by Jack Burnley, inked by Charles Paris.

The second series was a short-lived Sunday-only strip also titled Batman and Robin, which ran in Arrow, the Family Comic Weekly in 1953. It was written by Walter Gibson, creator of the Shadow.

The third series started in 1966, the same year the classic television series began, and was distributed by the Ledger Syndicate. Titled Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, the Sunday strips ran for three years and the dailies for eight years. Although credited to Kane, the strip was written by Whitney Ellsworth (and later E. Nelson Bridwell) and drawn successively by Sheldon Moldoff, Joe Giella, Carmine Infantino, and Al Plastino (with help from Nick Cardy.)

Strictly speaking, the fourth series was not a Batman strip, but rather one featuring the Justice League of America, under the title The World’s Greatest Superheroes.

Premiering in 1978, Batman appeared regularly in the early storylines, but less often over the next seven years as the focus shifted more toward Superman and his traditional supporting cast. George Tuska (and later

52 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

Jose Delbo) penciled the strip, which was inked by Vince Colletta (and later Sal Trapani). The strip was written by a series of comics veterans, including Martin Pasko, Gerry Conway, Paul Levitz, Mike W. Barr, and Paul Kupperberg. The Chicago Tribune/New York News (CTNYN) Syndicate distributed the strip.

The last in this long, distinguished line of Batman newspaper strips was named simply Batman. With the Batman movie a hit in theaters in 1989, the idea of a new comic strip in the same vein was not a hard sell.

Mike Gold, the DC Comics editor who helped bring Batman back to the newspapers, recalls, “It was a fairly short period from the birth of the idea to its actual publication. I pitched it to [editorial executives] Dick Giordano, Paul Levitz, and Jenette Kahn at DC, and they green-lighted it. I approached the syndicate, starting with Creators. I never had to go to my second choice.”

Often when pitching to a syndicate, a sample set of newspaper strips is produced to illustrate the planned look and feel of the new feature. But no such step was required for Creators Syndicate because, as Gold notes, “They knew who Batman was: he was the dude in the movie who couldn’t move his head but made hundreds of millions for nearly everybody except its executive producers (that’s a completely different story).”

The choice of Creators Syndicate to distribute the new Batman strip was mike gold somewhat unusual, though, given that the previous DC newspaper strip that included Batman, which ended just a few years earlier, was distributed by the Chicago Tribune/New York News Syndicate. Gold explains his rationale: “CTNYN would have been my second choice. Of course, there was nobody there any longer from the World’s Greatest Superheroes strip days. (I used to love hanging out at the Tribune Tower, which has got to be the world’s most audacious building.) I went to Creators first because they were very proactive and I thought their sales force would do the best of the syndicates at the time, and they had the best (by far) position on creators’ rights at that time.”

Other strips that have been distributed by Creators include B.C. by Johnny Hart and Liberty Meadows by Frank Cho. Gold continues, “The benefit of going to CTNYN Detective. [Editor’s note: We covered Dark Detective way would have been the possibility of getting the strip into back in BACK ISSUE #10.] Rogers also drew a story arc the New York Daily News, but by then the paper was in in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight and co-created the process of being sold to British media magnate the third iteration of the Batman villain Clayface. Rogers Robert Maxwell. At that time, Maxwell also owned 2000 studied architecture at Kent State University, and that AD and Judge Dredd.” training was evident in the realistic backgrounds for With the distribution deal in place, Gold recruited which he was well known. When it came to the Batman an exceptional creative duo to produce the new strip, the amount of detail Rogers put into the artwork, Batman strip, both of whom had previous experience especially the first couple of weeks, was extraordinary with the Caped Crusader: Max Allan Collins and Marshall but time-consuming and, of course, largely lost when Rogers. Gold elaborates on his decision: “Marshall was reduced and printed in the newspaper. on my very-short list of greatest Batman artists since Max Allan Collins is a prolific writer, perhaps best the days of Jerry Robinson and Dick Sprang, and I still known for his 1998 graphic novel, Road to Perdition, regard the Englehart/Rogers run as one of the high-water which was made into an Academy Award–winning marks for the character. Al Collins—well, he knew film starring Tom Hanks in 2002. By the late 1980s, Batman, he knew how to do newspaper strips and Collins was a veteran of newspaper strips, having taken the difference between that audience and the tightly over Dick Tracy from Chester Gould at the end of 1977. overwound circle of comic-book readers, and this was Collins was glad to get the Batman assignment, as he critical. The fact that both were good friends of mine notes, “I’d been a big fan all through the ’50s and ’60s, is completely irrelevant.” since early childhood. I loved the TV show.” He had also The late-1970s’ Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers run seen and liked the new movie “fairly well,” with one of Batman stories in Detective Comics #s 471–476 is fondly exception: “I liked Keaton but didn’t care for Nicholson. remembered by fans and critics alike and, ironically, It was on the verge of being too dark for my tastes.” is said to have influenced the depiction of the character He had previously written the Batman comic book, in the Batman movie. Englehart and Rogers teamed up which helped pave the way for the strip, as Collins notes. again in 2006 for a sequel miniseries called Batman: Dark “Though my work on the comic book didn’t please

No Pow!s or Zowie!s Allowed! (top) Color Batman strip ad from the New York Times, 1989, announcing the return of the Dark Knight to newspapers. From the collection of Dewey Cassell. (bottom) The strip begins. Courtesy of Andy Mangels.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 53

some fans, Paul [Levitz] liked it and thought I would do well with the the ways in which the strip varied from the comics (and the movie). newspaper-strip audience. Also, my work on Tracy was well-respected, Tonally, the Batman strip almost seemed to be a continuation of the which is how I landed the comic-book assignment.” film with a traditional supporting cast, but in the strip Vicki Vale does At the start of the new Batman strip, Collins received little not seem to know that Bruce Wayne is Batman and the Joker direction from DC, which was both an asset and a liability. survives the final encounter with his nemesis. In addition, On the one hand, Collins explains, he had nothing to the costumes worn by Batman and Catwoman are reminiscent start from. “I submitted a [series] bible—just a few of the comics rather than the movie, though Catwoman pages, if I recall—and nothing in it rubbed anybody has a peculiar “CW” logo on her cowl. the wrong way. I had been frustrated on the comic When asked if he made many editorial changes to book that such a document didn’t exist. There was either the scripts or the artwork for the Batman strip, nothing, for example, about the layout of Wayne Gold replies, “Very few. My editorial approach was, Manor, or its distance or location from the city, and is, to do as much of the heavy lifting as possible nor anything about the size or layout of the Batcave.” between the time I cast the talent and the time we enter On the other hand, DC gave Collins a lot of leeway in production. I work on the story with the talent, we agree on the approach, the story, and the artistic style, and if writing the Batman strip, including his choice of villain for the first storyline. Collins recalls, “I wanted to do we did all that correctly there’s usually little reason a Catwoman story. I loved the character, particularly to have to do a lot of changes. Of course, it happens max allan collins the way Dick Sprang handled her. My scripts went from time to time; people make mistakes (of course, to DC and from there to Marshall Rogers, who I was editors aren’t people) and sometimes something just thrilled to have as my artist.” doesn’t work. You know, like the third and fourth Batman movies.”

However, Collins was still writing Dick Tracy at the time the new The leeway afforded Collins by DC extended to a very different interpretation of Catwoman, as a vigilante who sought to pattern her Batman strip started, which proved to be problematic. As he explains, efforts after Batman, but often killed her victims. That was just one of “I was hired to write the strip by Paul Levitz, the top guy at DC at

marshall rogers Tom Oberlin / Batman Wikia.

Collins and Rogers, the New Dynamic Duo Original art scans for a trio of dated, signed Batman dailies by Max and Marshall, courtesy of Wally Harrington and Comics Revue: (top) The early Gordon/Batman relationship… and a rare Bat-smile! (center) A merciless Catwoman. (bottom) Sound advice from Alfred.

TM & © DC Comics.

54 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

the time. My contract with the Trib Syndicate, where I did Dick Tracy, did not forbid me to do another strip. But when the editor at the Tribune, a terrible human being in my opinion, discovered I was doing the Batman strip, I was told by him (backed by his bosses) that I would be fired and sued if I didn’t give the Batman strip up.

I was already working on the first story and had developed a bible for the strip. But I couldn’t risk losing Dick Tracy and couldn’t go up against the Trib’s big-gun lawyers. So I quit, despite Paul’s efforts to intercede. My story was used but my name removed. I loved

doing Batman in that format and was heartbroken and, frankly, pissed off to be forced out of it by the Trib.”

At the same time Collins was having trouble with the Tribune Syndicate, Rogers was having trouble keeping up with the unforgiving deadlines of a daily (and Sunday) newspaper strip. They had to work six to eight weeks in advance of publication. As Gold recalls, “I told Marshall that the idea of a daily newspaper strip was to publish it every day. Marshall was having a miserable time making deadlines. He wasn’t happy about that, and he wasn’t happy about

Marshall’s Law Rogers set new standards for Batman art with his celebrated late-1970s Detective Comics run with writer Steve Englehart (inset, above). (top and middle) In living color, Rogers-drawn, Collins-written Batman Sunday strips from 1989 that pick up from the movie continuity and move forward. (bottom) A signed Catwoman daily.

Scans courtesy of Andy Mangels.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 55

A New Look Penciler Carmine Infantino, inked by John Nyberg with scripts by William Messner-Loebs, followed Collins and Rogers on the Batman comic strip.

Original art to the 4–1–90 Sunday strip, courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

having to constantly play catch-up.”

Carmine would not let me pay for the meal, As Collins comments, “It’s very as he didn’t want to eat off of DC’s dime. different, constructing a newspaper“If it sounds like Carmine was still strip continuity. It’s longer than a pissed about being fired as publisher one-issue story, and has a wholly about 15 years earlier, well, Carmine was still pissed about being fired as different pace.”

As it turns out, Mike Gold departed publisher about 15 years earlier,” Gold the strip at the same time. “For me, quips. “And my casting him, as underit was one of my start-up projects— standable as it was, was a controversial I was a DC group editor and director decision in the halls of DC Comics. of editorial development, so some A number of folks who worked for him carmine infantino of the projects I’d start I’d turn over did not like him one bit, feeling burned © DC Comics. to one of the editors in my group,” by him back then. These feelings had he explains. “Katie Main was the assistant editor on some justification, but, hey, out of sight, out of mind. the strip, and so she inherited it with the second That was not the Carmine Infantino I knew; he was a story. Third, actually, as we shared efforts on the great guy. Unless Neal Adams is in the room, nobody knew Batman better than Carmine. I enjoyed working second story.”

With the departure of Collins and Rogers, the Batman with him and we remained friends for pretty much torch passed to William Messner-Loebs and Carmine the rest of his life. He gave me the original for his first Infantino, with John Nyberg as inker. (Nyberg also inked Sunday strip.” the last few weeks of Rogers’ run.) As Gold explains, It was a significant and noticeable change, however, the choice was a logical one: “They were the best people from Collins and Rogers to Messner-Loebs and Infantino. available for the assignment. I asked Bill and plotted The tone of the writing was somewhat different, with his first story with him, and I asked Carmine if he was more humor, and the artwork was cartoonier, both of interested. He was, but at that point of time he was not which were probably more appropriate for the medium, interested in going back inside DC’s offices. So we met though less appealing to some traditional comic-book at his apartment on the East Side, where he regaled fans. However, Messner-Loebs and Infantino did have me with wacky stories about Alex Toth. I did my job and an opportunity to use a variety of classic Batman villains. did the negotiation, but much of the time I was there [See sidebar for ordered list.] As Gold says, “As far as my inner-fanboy was screaming at me, “Hey, you’re in the general public is concerned, Batman isn’t Batman Carmine Infantino’s living room!!!” After we finished, without the Joker, the Penguin, and Catwoman.” And the we went to lunch at a nearby Italian (of course) place. creators were afforded the same flexibility as their

56 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

predecessors—not bound by any continuity—which resulted in unique origins and new stories, ultimately including Robin. Arguably, the best part of the strip was the depiction of District Attorney Harvey Dent and his descent into the madness of Two-Face.

Collins had his own plans for the Batman strip, had he been allowed to continue. “I would have done traditional villains with some humor but not campy,” Collins reveals. “Batman has, in recent years, become almost ridiculously dark. Doing Batman in a ‘realistic’ way misunderstands the character and the concept. To me, Neal Adams and Denny O’Neil took the seriousness to where it still worked without going overboard.”

The Batman strip ran for 21 months. In the end, the strip succumbed to the same thing that decides the fate of most comics—books and strips—the almighty dollar. Gold elaborates on what led to the cancellation of the strip: “Profit/loss statements. The next Batman movie wasn’t going to come out soon enough to boost sales, and DC’s business director had a somewhat depressive view of our expenses. Towards the end, she told me how much money DC had lost on the strip.

I responded with a laugh, ‘That is more than we actually spent on the strip.’ I went over the page rates and presumed production costs with her to illustrate the point and then asked, ‘So, how much of my salary is somebody writing off on this project?’ She looked at me, smiled, got very angry—but not at me—and went to wherever the number crunchers were hiding. That end of the operation was none of my business unless they made it my business, but I could never understand why any company would willingly maintain a money-losing project unless it was a loss-leader, and I said as much.

It was just a matter of time, as I noted. I don’t often quote the Bible, but check out Psalm 49.”

Rogers died in 2007 at the age of 57. Infantino was 87 when he passed away in 2013. Collins continues to write prolifically. For the latest information on his work, visit his website at maxallancollins.com. As of the writing of this article, Messner-Loebs is homeless, living in Michigan with his wife, who is in need of medical care.

Fans are encouraged to consider donating to Bill’s GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/billmessnerloebs.

The first Batman storyline by Collins and Rogers remains the most highly regarded of the strips. Collins has fond memories of working with Rogers, but they never met in person. “No, and I regret that,” he admits.

“He left the strip when I did. We had talked on the phone and he seemed pleased to be working with me. [He did a] very nice job. Distinctive. I would like to see our continuity reprinted in full.”

To date, the Batman newspaper strip has only been reprinted in the pages of Comics Revue magazine, which while out of print, is available on the secondary market. With the ongoing decline in newspaper circulation, it is unlikely that Batman will ever appear in newsprint again. It seems the last Batman strip was in fact the last Batman strip.

Many thanks to Max Allan Collins and Mike Gold for the interviews and their insight into the Batman newspaper strip.

Thanks also to Heritage Comics Auctions, Andy Mangels, Wally Harrington, and Comics Revue for the images.

DEWEY CASSELL is author of over 40 articles and four books, including Mike Grell: Life Is Drawing Without An Eraser, available from TwoMorrows Publishing.

Bat-Rogues Penguin, Joker, Two-Face, Riddler, and Mad Hatter also made appearances in the Infantino-drawn Batman dailies.

Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

BATMAN NEWSPAPER STRIP (1989–1991) Complete List of Storylines (in order) • “Catwoman” • “The Penguin” • “The Joker” • “Two-Face” • “Robin” • “The Riddler” • “The Mad Hatter”

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 57

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

TM

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comics-based media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

Go to www.twomorrows.com for other issues, and an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE!

BACK ISSUE #104

BACK ISSUE #105

BACK ISSUE #101

BACK ISSUE #102

BACK ISSUE #103

ROCK ’N’ ROLL COMICS! Flash Gordon star SAM J. JONES interview, KISS in comics, Marvel’s ALICE COOPER, T. Rex’s MARC BOLAN interviews STAN LEE, PAUL McCARTNEY, Charlton’s Partridge Family, David Cassidy, and Bobby Sherman comics, Marvel’s Steeltown Rockers, Monkees comics, & Comic-Con band Seduction of the Innocent.

With AMY CHU, JACK KIRBY, BILL MUMY, ALAN WEISS, and others!

MERCS AND ANTIHEROES! Deadpool’s ROB LIEFELD and FABIAN NICIEZA interviewed!

Histories of Cable, Taskmaster, Deathstroke the Terminator, the Vigilante, and Wild Dog, plus… Archie meets the Punisher?? Featuring TERRY BEATTY, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, PAUL KUPPERBERG, BATTON LASH, JEPH LOEB, DAVID MICHELINIE, MARV WOLFMAN, KEITH POLLARD, and others!

Deadpool vs. Cable cover by LIEFELD!

ALL-STAR EDITORS ISSUE! Past and present editors reveal “How I Beat the Dreaded Deadline Doom”! Plus: ARCHIE GOODWIN and MARK GRUENWALD retrospectives, E. NELSON BRIDWELL interview, DIANA SCHUTZ interview, ALLAN ASHERMAN revisits DC’s ’70s editorial department, Marvel Assistant Editors’ Month, and a history of PERRY WHITE! With an unpublished 1981 Captain America cover by MIKE ZECK!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

BACK ISSUE #106

BACK ISSUE #107

BACK ISSUE #108

FOURTH WORLD AFTER KIRBY! Return(s) of the New Gods, Why Can’t Mister Miracle Escape Cancellation?, the Forever People, MIKE MIGNOLA’s unrealized New Gods animated movie, Fourth World in Hollywood, and an all-star lineup, including the work of JOHN BYRNE, PARIS CULLINS, J. M. DeMATTEIS, MARK EVANIER, MICHAEL GOLDEN, RICK HOBERG, WALTER SIMONSON, and more. STEVE RUDE cover!

DEADLY HANDS ISSUE! Histories of Iron Fist, Master of Kung Fu, Yang, the Bronze Tiger, Hands of the Dragon, NEAL ADAMS’ Armor, Marvel’s Deadly Hands of Kung Fu mag, & Hong Kong Phooey! Plus Muhammad Ali in toons and toys. Featuring JOHN BYRNE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, STEVE ENGLEHART, PAUL GULACY, LARRY HAMA, DOUG MOENCH, DENNY O’NEIL, JIM STARLIN, & others. Classic EARL NOREM cover!

GOLDEN AGE IN BRONZE! ’70s Justice Society revival with two Pro2Pro interviews: All-Star Squadron’s ROY THOMAS, JERRY ORDWAY, and ARVELL JONES (with a bonus RICK HOBERG interview), and The Spectre’s JOHN OSTRANDER and TOM MANDRAKE. Plus: Liberty Legion, Air Wave, Jonni Thunder, Crimson Avenger, and the Spectre revival of ’87! WOOD, COLAN, CONWAY, GIFFEN, GIORDANO, & more!

ARCHIE COMICS IN THE BRONZE AGE! STAN GOLDBERG and GEORGE GLADIR interviews, Archie knock-offs, Archie on TV, histories of Sabrina, That Wilkin Boy, Cheryl Blossom, and Red Circle Comics. With JACK ABEL, JON D’AGOSTINO, DAN DeCARLO, FRANK DOYLE, GRAY MORROW, DAN PARENT, HENRY SCARPELLI, ALEX SEGURA, LOU SCHEIMER, ALEX TOTH, and more!

DAN DeCARLO cover.

BRONZE AGE AQUAMAN! Team-ups and merchandise, post-Crisis Aquaman, Aqualad: From Titan to Tempest, Black Manta history, DAVID and MAROTO’s Atlantis Chronicles, the original unseen Aquaman #57, and the unproduced Aquaman animated movie. With APARO, CALAFIORE, MARTIN EGELAND, GIFFEN, GIORDANO, ROBERT LOREN FLEMING, CRAIG HAMILTON, JURGENS, SWAN, and more. ERIC SHANOWER cover!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

TwoMorrows.

The Future of Comics History.

BACK ISSUE #109

BACK ISSUE #110

BACK ISSUE #111

BACK ISSUE #112

SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE 40th ANNIVERSARY! CARY BATES’ plans for unfilmed Superman V, ELLIOT S. MAGGIN’s Superman novels, 1975 CARMINE INFANTINO interview about the movie, plus interviews: JACK O’HALLORAN (Non), AARON SMOLINSKI (baby Clark), JEFF EAST (young Clark), DIANE SHERRY CASE (teenage Lana Lang), and Superman Movie Contest winner ED FINNERAN. Chris Reeve Superman cover by GARY FRANK!

MAKE MINE MARVEL! ENGLEHART’s “lost” issues of West Coast Avengers, O’NEIL and INFANTINO’s Marvel work, a WAID/ NOCENTI Daredevil Pro2Pro interview, British Bronze Age Marvel fandom, Pizzazz Magazine, Speedball, Marvel Comics Presents, and backstage at Marvel Comicon ’75 and ’76! With DeFALCO, EDELMAN, KAVANAGH, McDONNELL, WOLFMAN, and cover by MILGROM and MACHLAN.

ALTERNATE REALITIES! Cover-featuring the 20th anniversary of ALEX ROSS and JIM KRUEGER’s Marvel Earth X! Plus: What If?, Bronze Age DC Imaginary Stories, Elseworlds, Marvel 2099, and PETER DAVID and GEORGE PÉREZ’s senses-shattering Hulk: Future Imperfect. Featuring TOM DeFALCO, CHUCK DIXON, PETER B. GILLIS, PAT MILLS, ROY THOMAS, and many more!

With an Earth X cover by ALEX ROSS.

NUCLEAR ISSUE! Firestorm, Dr. Manhattan, DAVE GIBBONS Marvel UK Hulk interview, villain histories of Radioactive Man and Microwave Man, Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy, and the one-shot Holo-Man! With PAT BRODERICK, GERRY CONWAY, JOE GIELLA, TOM GRINDBERG, RAFAEL KAYANAN, TOM MANDRAKE, BILL MORRISON, JOHN OSTRANDER, STEVE VANCE, and more! PAT BRODERICK cover!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA 919-449-0344 E-mail:

store@twomorrows.com

Order at twomorrows.com

TM

conducted by

Steven Wilber

The entire landscape of DC Comics changed following the company-wide event, Crisis on Infinite Earths. With it, iconic characters like Batman and Robin were forever altered. The Dark Knight’s regular romantic interest and long-time elusive nemesis, Catwoman, was no different.

In 1987, author Frank Miller retold Batman’s origin from the ground up in “Batman: Year One” [in Batman #404–407, Feb.–May 1987, illustrated by David Mazzucchelli]. The world of the Caped Crusader became even darker than it was before.

That meant plenty of changes for the Feline Femme Fatale. Now a former prostitute thanks to Miller’s reimagining, Selina Kyle would become inspired by Batman to don a mask and costume of her own and became a scourge to whomever she felt worthy of her ire.

Writer Mindy Newell took up the reigns of Ms. Kyle a year later (several years continuity-wise after “Batman: Year One”). She established Selina as the owner of a nightclub who still pursed her nocturnal activities as Catwoman.

Following “The Tin Roof Club,” Newell’s and penciler Barry Kitson’s four-part Catwoman “Showcase” story in August 1988’s Action Comics Weekly #611–614, Mindy would continue writing Selina’s exploits, but this time refocusing on her origin established in Frank Miller’s original tale in a four-issue Catwoman miniseries (Feb.–May 1989). After renegading from her pimp Stan, Selina’s sister Maggie, a nun in Gotham City, is kidnapped. Catwoman quickly finds her past colliding with her present to construct a future as a rogue for Batman.

Newell’s miniseries (with artists J. J. Birch and Michael Bair), collected as Catwoman: My Sister’s Keeper, became an instant classic and redefined Selina Kyle’s role in the DC Universe.

– Steven Wilber

mindy newell

STEVEN WILBER: Mindy, let’s go back to 1988… what was your involvement with DC Comics, and what was the environment of the publisher like at the time?

MINDY NEWELL: Well, let’s see… 1988 marked my fifth year working in the comics biz, having broken in through DC’s New Talent Showcase program in 1983. [Editor’s note: That program’s title for tyros, New Talent Showcase, was explored in BACK ISSUE #71.] Readers of my column at ComicMix.com will know that it was basically a “whim” that led me there— having read about the program in one of (the great, late) Dick Giordano’s “Meanwhile” columns in the pages of a Superman comic, and being bored one rainy Sunday afternoon in 1983 and looking for something to do, I pulled my dust-covered portable typewriter out from under my bed and wrote a little story about a young couple expecting their first child, there’s an accident involving chemicals and gene-splicing equipment at the research lab where they both work, and suddenly the woman has “powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.” But there’s price to pay: She loses the baby. A few weeks later [DC’s] Sal Amendola called me, and then a couple of weeks after that I was sitting at the desk of [DC editor] Karen Berger, starry-eyed and agog at what was happening.

Anyway, the five years since then hadn’t completely changed me.

I was (and am!) still “starry-eyed and agog” at everything that had (and has!) ensued since that rainy Sunday afternoon. So weird to think that I had not only met and worked with, but could call people like Karen and (the sorely missed) Len Wein and Mike Gold and Marv Wolfman and George Pérez and Neil Gaiman and John Wagner and Jill Thompson and Louise Simonson and Walter Simonson and Kim Yale and John Ostrander and so many other luminaries in the field my friends.

I had met Harlan Ellison and Isaac Asimov and Norman Spinrad.

Julie Schwartz, the editor who had taught a five-year-old girl that the sun was 93,000,000 miles from Earth through Superman stories and had opened up the possibility of parallel universes via “The Flash of Two Worlds” to a young dreamer, had assigned me a Superman story.

Whose Side is She On, Anyway?

Covers for Mindy Newell’s four-issue Catwoman miniseries. Cover art by J. J. Birch (Joe Brozowski) and Michael Bair. (BACK ISSUE readers should check out BI #40 for additional coverage of Catwoman.)

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 59

Up to Her Old Tricks… and More In Action Comics Weekly, Mindy Newell’s Catwoman arc—presented under the publisher’s venerable “Showcase” brand— transitioned Selina Kyle from Miller and Mazzucchelli’s “Batman: Year One” to Newell’s forthcoming harder-edged Catwoman miniseries. Shown here are the opening and closing pages to the first ACW chapter, from issue #611 (Aug. 2, 1988).

TM & © DC Comics.

To being asked to go to a convention and meeting people who were eager to meet me, who wanted my autograph.

WILBER: Sounds like a fun time to be working for DC Comics!

NEWELL: Sure! There was s--- going on, and at times I was frustrated and angry and ready to quit… but who hasn’t felt that way, no matter how they earn their money? But mostly I remember the mid-’80s at DC as being an amazing home to possibilities and new ideas about comics and what they could do. The “British Invasion,” led

by Alan Moore on Swamp Thing, allowed for a new creativity to blossom in everybody.

WILBER: You started writing Catwoman with a short story that ran through four issues of Action Comics Weekly. When (and how) did you become attached to Selina?

NEWELL: I’ve always been intrigued by those who don’t follow the rules of society; maybe it’s a quirk in my own personality; or (and?) because of my own life experiences, I’ve often felt somewhat like the outsider looking in—for instance, though nobody ever believes this, because these days they’d never get away with it, I got kicked out of my local Girl Scouts troop because I was Jewish. And having moved to a new town when I was 13—the worst possible time in a girl’s life to be the “new kid”—I was ostracized from high-school society for a very long time, so I was literally the outsider looking in; but though of course I didn’t realize it at the time, and spent many a miserable hour crying into my pillow, it has proven to be a fruitful and valuable lesson to learn.

You learn how to keep your thoughts to yourself, even when you’re standing in the middle of a crowd, in the middle of a party, and being toasted for your wit. You learn to see the reality behind the bulls---.

So, of course I was attracted to Selena when I first met her in the pages of Batman. She was independent, snarky, intelligent, and beautiful.

She went her own way. She made her own judgments. She made her own rules. “Eat s---,” she said to the world. “You f--- with me, I f--- with you.”

Yeah, okay, she was ostensibly a villain, one of the “bad guys,” but there is something kind of thrilling about that, isn’t there?

As to how I became attached to the actual project, Denny O’Neil, editor of the Batman line at DC, approached me about writing a Catwoman miniseries, although my memory is a little hazy on the particulars. I think he called me and said he wanted to have a meeting, and we met in Dick’s [Giordano] office. I believe the idea of “testing the waters” with a story arc in Action Weekly was brought up then.

Of course, I was thrilled. Like I said, still starry-eyed and agog.

WILBER: What was your knowledge of Catwoman prior? Had you read Frank Miller’s “Batman: Year One”? It came out a year before your Action Comics story; did it have any bearing on “The Tin Roof Club”?

NEWELL: Jewel thief. “Bad” girl. An impossible-to-consummate relationship between she and Batman, the ultimate unmanageable love affair.

Sure, I read it. Adored it. As I said before, the mid-80’s was an exciting time at DC, when not only was creativity encouraged, but creators were allowed to play with these iconic characters. Writers were able to write “outside the margins” and artists, thanks to new print technology, were able to paint their palettes with every shade imaginable.

WILBER: You introduced Detective George Flannery, alluding to a past he shared with Selina. Was it always your intention to address Catwoman’s origin following “Tin Roof”?

NEWELL: Yes, it was. It was one of the things we discussed at the meeting.

And since George—though he didn’t have a name yet—would be an important link in the development of Selina from prostitute to jewel thief, it was decided that we first meet him in “The Tin Roof Club” story arc.

As to his character… although he sure didn’t look it, in my head George Flannery was Law and Order’s Lenny Brisco (the late Jerry Orbach), a New York homicide detective who had seen it all and who, despite having more than a few of his own skeletons in the closet—alcoholism, a junkie daughter, an unsuccessful marriage or two or three, and a few affairs—still believed in the “rightness” of his job. And especially because of his own failure(s) with his daughter, George had a “soft spot” for Selina, an (almost) hidden paternal feeling for her—to maybe prevent what happened to his own kid from happening to her.

He gave her Ted Grant’s card as a defensive measure, so that Selina would be capable of protecting herself on the streets of Gotham.

Of course, it backfired, and became one more skeleton in his closet.

WILBER: Right. In “My Sister’s Keeper,” former Justice Society of America stalwart and heavyweight boxer, Ted Grant (a.k.a. Wildcat), has a cameo in and begins to train Selina. Whose idea was it to involve the character?

NEWELL: I wanted to have Selina decide to learn martial arts and other forms of self-defense, and Denny suggested we use Ted Grant to keep it in the DC Universe.

WILBER: In the final chapter of “Tin Roof,” Catwoman throws two would be assailants from a several-stories-high window. Was your Catwoman a murderer as well as a jewel thief?

NEWELL: Is Selina amoral? My Selina is, and always will be, a much darker character than the way she has been portrayed recently. I always

60 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

felt Selina was capable of murder, given the right circumstances.

And one of those circumstances was the death of Holly. “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” y’know? She was a dark avenger, eyes only on the target, and that target was the man who had killed her child (and Holly was her child), and anybody who got in the way was disposable. Unfortunately for them, those two security guards got in her way.

WILBER: Makes sense.

NEWELL: And I already knew that she would kill her pimp in the miniseries, and once you get past that first one, it’s a lot easier the next time.

But remember when I said that at times I became angry and frustrated? The miniseries was one of those times, because when it came down to it, I was told that the pimp’s death had to presented as an accident. Which really pissed me off. It didn’t make sense to me.

Stan was a pimp, for f---’s sake, someone who used and abused and, I’m sure, at least in my own head, killed. And following Frank’s lead, Selina was a prostitute and dominatrix; was it outside the realm of possibility that at least one of her johns had died following something like sexual asphyxiation? And suddenly we’re cleaning that up?

WILBER: Wow, that really changed the ending of the story, and ultimately, Selina herself.

NEWELL: And finally, the whole point of Selina killing Stan in cold blood was that it was her Rubicon. It was the point of no return, like Faith killing the mayor’s aide on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Maybe a john or two had died as a result of their “play,” but that was never on purpose. (Or was it? If I was writing the miniseries today, I would include a scene like the one in Buffy in which Faith tells the Slayer that “I don’t care,” probably to Holly, or maybe to George Flannery, or, even better, to Batman.)

To be perfectly frank, these days I would have fought harder to keep my original vision. (Sometimes the “starry-eyed and agog” got in the way.) Because I think, as presented, it weakened “My Sister’s Keeper” considerably.

One more thing: If Selina would kill for Holly in “The Tin Roof Club,” wouldn’t she also kill for her sister? And ultimately, for herself?

Is Selina amoral? Not in her mirror.

WILBER: What about Selina’s young protégé? How would you illustrate the relationship between Selina and roommate, Holly?

Why did you decide to kill Holly in “Tin Roof”?

NEWELL: While Selina and Maggie are the literal sisters of “My Sister’s Keeper,” Selina and Holly are the figurative sisters in both Frank’s “Year One” and “The Tin Roof Club.”

By turning Holly over to Maggie at the end of the miniseries, Selina was getting Holly out of “the life,” doing her best to ensure that the kid had a better chance at a good future than Selina believed she could ever give her. I would imagine that Holly hated Selina for a while because of it, but eventually forgave her and “sorta” understood why Selina did it—especially when she met and married Arthur, the rich guy with the mansion in “Joisey.”

I imagine she tried to send an invitation to Selina to the wedding, but either Selina never received it, or pretended that she didn’t, even after George Flannery or, better yet, Sister Elizabeth hand-delivered it to her. But I think she sent her a present. Unsigned, of course.

And after the wedding and honeymoon, and once Selina had established the Tin Roof Club, I wouldn’t be surprised if Arthur and Holly showed up there. How would Selina react? Not sure on that one—I’d have to think about it. But after that initial meeting, Selina would start visiting Holly at night, just once in a while, just often enough to make sure that Arthur was treating Holly right.

And I also think that she would leave little gifts for Holly to find.

As to why I decided to kill Holly… her story was over. There was no place else for her to go. And everybody dies eventually.

WILBER: How did you feel about Frank Miller’s revised origin of Selina Kyle?

NEWELL: I thought it was an inspired and dramatic choice. It sure inspired me!

WILBER: Okay, but where did the themes of Catholicism and sadomasochism come from in Catwoman: Her Sister’s Keeper?

NEWELL: The Catholicism came from Denny, who was raised Catholic, and the sadomasochism came from Frank.

Here, Kitty, Kitty (top) The Newell/ Birch/Bair Catwoman miniseries was promoted in this late 1988 DC Comics house ad. (bottom) Detective Flannery gives a beaten Selina the business card of pugilist and trainer Ted Grant in Catwoman #1 (Feb. 1989),

by Newell, Birch, and Bair.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 61

But, again, if I were writing it today, I would use my own Jewish background. Obviously and duh, I’m more invested in that. I mean, wouldn’t it be an interesting take on Selina’s background? Perhaps she was a Hasidic girl being raised within the strict orthodoxies of her particular sect, and she rebelled and ran away? Or even more horribly, perhaps she was raped by someone in that community whom she respected, and when she told her father (was he someone high up in the hierarchy of the Hasidic world?) he blamed her, or perhaps he was afraid to report the incident, and so kept quiet, and Selina had to face her rapist every single day at the yeshiva or see him on the streets. Or perhaps she already had a “reputation,” and so the rabbinical authorities exiled her?

And Stan found her outside the equivalent of New York’s Port Authority.

And instead of a Sister Magdalene, it was her mother, a “proper” Hasidic woman who ignored her husband and the dictates of her society to search for her, who went to the police and met George Flannery.

And by the way, I don’t think “Selina Kyle” is her real name. I think she changed it.

WILBER: That almost goes back to when Catwoman first appeared in Batman #1 and was an unnamed femme fatale who disguised her true identity. The Dark Knight never does find out who the would-be thief really is. This idea definitely gives a writer more room to play.

The Catwoman miniseries is as much about Selina as it is about sisters. Where did you find the inspiration for Magdalene? Who would you identify more with, Selina or Maggie?

NEWELL: As I said, if writing it today I would use my own Jewish background, so much of “my” Selina’s philosophy is very “Old Testament”: Leviticus 24:17–22 “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death.

Whoever takes an animal’s life shall make it good, life for life.

If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, and whoever kills a person shall be put to death. You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.” Of course, the Talmud, or “Oral Law,” does not condone this type of punishment. (The Talmud is the written record of rabbinic teachings that spans almost 1000 years, beginning in the first century of the Christian era, and ending sometime in the 600’s C.E.) The greatest thinkers and their interpretations of the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament, also called the Books of Moses) are found in its pages, explaining in rich detail and varied opinions on how the laws handed down to Moses (and there are actually 613 commandments, not just ten) are to be obeyed. For example, we are told that work is prohibited on the Sabbath. But there is no definitive definition

of “work” in the Torah. The Talmud devotes an entire chapter to the meaning of “work” and the various categories of prohibitions.

(And it’s a long chapter.)

WILBER: Right, and Catwoman — NEWELL: Getting back to “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” and according to the Union of Orthodox Congregations, the “Talmud explains, based upon the biblical verses, that the Bible mandates a sophisticated five-part monetary form of compensation, consisting of payment for ‘Damages, Pain, Medical Expenses, Incapacitation, and Mental Anguish’—which underlies many modern legal codes.

Some rabbinic literature explains, moreover, that the expression, ‘An eye for an eye, etc.’ suggests that the perpetrator deserves to lose his own eye, but that biblical law treats him leniently.” As opposed to the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament: Matthew 5:38–42 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil.

But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.”

Luke 6:27–31 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”

WILBER: That would pertain to Sister Magdalene’s outlook on life.

NEWELL: It’s impossible for me to truly identify with the nun Sister Magdalene in her role as a nun. To be honest, I don’t get the whole “bride of Christ” thing, not just because I’m Jewish, but, c’mon, theological patriarchy much? Did you know that locking up women in a convent was a convenient way to get rid of unwanted wives, sisters, daughters, mistresses, and other “problem women” for a very, very long time in history? (And not so long ago in Ireland.)

Granted, there have been women who believed they were “called” to a vocation, but I also know a few women who left the “sisterhood.”

But as a writer? I can get that.

WILBER: You definitely gave Sister Elizabeth, fellow nun in Maggie’s convent, story options to explore. She and Detective Flannery

Big Sis, Little Sis Selina keeping her eye on (left) Year One’s Holly, from Catwoman #1, and (right) her sister Maggie, from Catwoman #2.

TM & © DC Comics.

62 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

Truce We’ve seen a lot of lip-locking between the Bat and Cat in recent DC comics, but back in 1989, this scene in Newell, Birch, and Bair’s Catwoman #4 knocked readers’ socks off.

TM & © DC Comics.

became an unlikely duo as they searched for Maggie.

If the series had led to an ongoing, would readers have seen more of them?

NEWELL: Given what I just said, it’s hard for me to speculate about that, given that I am so far from that frame of mind. But I’d try my best…

I suppose that we would have seen both Sister Elizabeth and Sister Magdalene occasionally as we followed up with Holly’s story. I think Selina would have distanced herself from Maggie even more so, though I doubt that Maggie would give up so easily. Sister Elizabeth would be the one who would be the realist, of course, probably telling Maggie the only thing she could do for her sister would be to pray for her. But (and I just thought of this), maybe it would be Sister Elizabeth who secretly stayed on Selina’s trail, keeping Selina “in the know” about Holly’s progress. That would be interesting!

WILBER: With the relationships of the three women, that would make a lot of sense.

NEWELL: And I imagine that George Flannery would definitely have become a supporting player in an ongoing series. He could even have become Selina’s “de facto” accomplice, staying just this side of the law in helping her. He could also have become the “ways and means” by which Sister Elizabeth kept tabs on Selina.

Hmm… it seems that, in this fantasy ongoing series, Sister Magdalene would become the person out of the loop, until…

WILBER: Did you accomplish everything you set out to do with Catwoman? Were you ever approached to write the ongoing series that began in 1993?

NEWELL: Obviously not, to both questions.

I would love to get my hands on her, but that’s not going to happen—at least, not in the foreseeable future from where I’m sitting. And anyway, my vision of Selina is obviously so far from where her story is these days that the only way it could be told would be as an Elseworlds series or a separate graphic novel, set on another Earth.

Earth 07002?

Yes, that’s my zip code.

Alley Cat Original cover art

by J. J. Birch and Michael Bair to Catwoman #2 (Mar. 1989).

Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

STEVEN WILBER is an artist and educator based in Boston, inspired by his growing 30-years-plus collection of comic books. He appreciates being able to explore one of his favorite Catwoman stories with BACK ISSUE readers.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 63

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, fans of DC’s stalwart Earth-Two champions the Justice Society of America fell in love with a character by the name of the Huntress. A fantastic hero that expanded the Batman mythos in ways tales featuring the Earth-One Batman could never explore, the Huntress, real name Helena Wayne, was the daughter of the Earth-Two Batman and the Earth-Two Catwoman. First appearing in DC Super-Stars #17 (Nov.–Dec. 1977) and created by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton, Joe Orlando, and Bob Layton, the Huntress thrilled fans in the pages of All-Star Comics, Batman Family, and in a popular backup feature in Wonder Woman.

It’s safe to say that the Huntress was a true legacy character and a small but fascinating part of the firmament of the DC Multiverse.

But nothing lasts forever.

TM

THE LEGACY ENDS

Before DC’s continuity-altering event Crisis on Infinite Earths changed everything, Helena Wayne was enjoying some of her best stories ever in those aforementioned Wonder Woman backups. Written by Levitz with art by Staton, these dynamic short tales established a noir tone that would influence the Huntress for decades to come. Well, it would influence the Huntress legacy, but alas, it would not influence Helena Wayne, because the reality amalgamation that was the Crisis erased huge portions of the DC Universe—including the Daughter of the Cat and the Bat. Now, there was no more Earth-Two Batman, so there was also no more Helena Wayne. It seemed the legend of Helena Wayne had come to an end.

Enter: Helena Bertinelli.

A LEGACY BEGINS

With Earth-Two no longer part of the DC reality, there was no place for a Helena Wayne, so two creators familiar with the original Helena were tasked with bringing a new Huntress into the Bat-fold. Aforementioned Huntress co-creator and legendary artist Joe Staton recalls,” I was with the Earth-Two Huntress from the start in All-Star. Paul Levitz had written those stories and continued with the backups in Wonder Woman. The JSA Huntress had originally been created to be a confidante to Power Girl, so it was appropriate that they teamed up in the short stories… I remember that we had plans for a Huntress run in Showcase that would lead to a regular series, but that was all lost in the [DC] Implosion.”

Sadly, students of DC history will never know what a solo Helena Wayne series could have been—but ironically, a solo Huntress series was part of DC’s plans after Helena Wayne bid farewell to the mortal coil.

In a Feb. 2010 article entitled “The Huntress: The Daughter of the Bat and the Cat” published in BACK ISSUE #38 and written by Timothy Callahan, Staton revealed, “I think Paul [Levitz] realized that I felt my involvement with Helena had been abruptly cut short [by the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths], so I was always in line to be a part of any reworking of the character.” Kevin Dooley, who served as assistant editor to editor Andy Helfer during the 1989 post-Crisis launch of the new Huntress ongoing series, agrees with Staton’s recollections and tells BACK ISSUE that Staton’s involvement in any Huntress reimagining was an absolute no-brainer. “There was never any question that Joe Staton was going to be the penciler,” Dooley quips. “After all, he helped create the Helena Wayne incarnation with Paul Levitz, right? And who wouldn’t want to work with the great Joe Staton?!”

With Staton aboard as the Huntress expert and keeper of the flame, DC turned to writer Joey Cavalieri to recreate a Huntress that was familiar enough to please old readers (and creators) but fresh enough to fit into the new DCU. “From what I know, Joey came with the complete package,” Dooley tells BACK ISSUE. “An incredibly innovative

Huntress Cover Gallery Joe Staton’s often-gritty covers to the post-Crisis The Huntress series always delivered drama and dynamism.

TM & © DC Comics.

64 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

by M a r c

Buxton

and talented writer. I was in on some of the embryonic meetings between Andy Helfer and him. It was great to see the two shoot ideas back and forth to make the title even better.”

Yet, even though DC was about to begin the legacy of the Huntress anew through the fresh lens being crafted by Cavalieri, Staton went into the new Huntress series with a longing for what was lost. “I was around when Len [Wein] and Marv [Wolfman] were talking about tidying up the continuity and even doing away with Earth-Two,” Staton recalls, “but I don’t think it ever really hit me that they would have to dispose of Helena. I was certainly horrified when she was finished off in just a couple of panels, with a wall falling on her. I’m still annoyed by that.” Indeed, Staton was angered by the fact his beloved creation was offed in a manner that made the multifaceted Helena Wayne a continuity afterthought—but ever the professionals, Staton and Cavalieri got to work to ensure that the new Huntress was as warmly received by the DC faithful as her lost Bat-predecessor.

A LEGACY DARKENS

In part, it was Staton’s persistence that moved the powers-that-be at DC Comics to give the concept of the Huntress another go, albeit in a very different fashion. Staton relates, “I was around the offices fairly often and would nudge Paul [Levitz] that we needed to bring back the Huntress. Of course, he was too busy to be involved himself. I don’t remember if Joey Cavalieri came in with the new concept or if he was selected, but he had good ideas.”

Those good ideas were on full display when the new Huntress debuted in Huntress #1 (Apr. 1989). This rebooted heroine took her visual cues from Helena Wayne, but that’s really where most of the similarities ended. The Huntress was still the daughter of influence, but instead of following the legacy of the World’s Greatest Detective from an alternate world, the newly minted Helena Bertinelli was the daughter of the city’s toughest mob boss.

The first issue of the new Huntress opens with a gorgeous four-page silent sequence that establishes the street noir tone that would go on to define the series and the character for decades to come. Those four pages of the new Huntress saving a woman from being attacked not only establishes the Huntress as DC’s newest street-level hero, it also joe staton establishes the urban blight that would be such a touchstone of the new Huntress series. © Luigi Novi / “I remember a meeting at Andy Helfer’s place, Wikimedia Commons. where we all went over the ideas,” Staton tells BACK ISSUE regarding the new series’ setting. “I don’t recall if I had any specific suggestions. There was mention of a ‘bridges and tunnels’ mentality. Joey knew the city and wanted to show that.” With the setting firmly in place, the other big initial change to the Huntress mythos was the name change to Bertinelli.

Replacing the Wayne name was a huge deal, and there were some misgivings about the new moniker. Staton reveals, “I do recall that I wasn’t pleased with Helena’s last name being Bertinelli because there was a silly TV show with Valerie Bertinelli [One Day at a Time—ye ed., TV junkie], and I was afraid that would make it seem less serious. But Joey was right,” jokes Staton.

“Helena Bertinelli has outlived [the name of] Valerie Bertinelli.”

After the alley rescue, Cavalieri and Staton begin to unfold Helena Bertinelli’s new origin. Readers learn that her father is Guido Bertinelli, the head of a vast criminal empire. Via flashback, readers see young Helena’s life as a mob princess. The creators do a great job crafting Helena as an innocent in the world of violence and crime. In comparing the original Huntress to the post-Crisis Huntress, Staton says, “Helena Wayne had the resonance of all the Earth-Two background, especially being the child of both Batman and Catwoman. Helena Bertinelli didn’t have that background, but she did have the really twisted mob family and the awareness of the different areas of the city. There were some pretty intense sequences, including Helena’s childhood abuse by one of the gangsters and the sequence of a gang murdering a mother and child.”

Vixen of Vengeance (top) The Earth-Two Huntress’ Secret Origin was revealed in DC Super-Stars #17 (Nov.–Dec. 1977).

Cover by Joe Staton and Bob Layton. (bottom) DC readers saw this Huntress house ad in titles published in late 1988.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 65

Evoking Eisner Spirit-esque layouts, stark realism, and penciler Joe Staton’s use of textured Duo-Shade artboard combined to make DC’s Huntress series unlike the publisher’s other ongoing superhero titles.

Note the uncorrected misspelling of editor Andy Helfer’s name on this original art page from issue #1.

Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

66 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

In college, Helena develops a sense of independence and self-efficacy. She refuses the protection of her father’s bodyguards and just wants to live a normal life. She is shy, and as evidenced by the gold cross forever hanging around Helena’s neck, a devout woman of deep religious beliefs. Almost as soon as readers meet the adult Helena, they witness the mob-ordered hit-style murder of her father at the hands of a masked assassin named Omerta.

At that moment, in an ironic twist to the Batman origin, the Huntress is born. Refusing to live in fear, Helena trains herself to peak physical perfection and dons the purpleand-blue garb of a very new and very modern Huntress.

Through narration, Helena informs the reader, “I am no longer their quarry. I am… the Huntress.”

In the text page of the first issue, assistant editor Kevin Dooley informs new readers that this new Huntress is “a cross between Dick Tracy and Wiseguy” and that Staton has “approached the book along the lines of Will Eisner’s Spirit.” Indeed, with fog-encrusted panels and noirish violence filling out the first issue, Huntress #1 was a fine Will Eisner tribute by way of Batman. One glance at the first issue of the new Huntress title highlights that Staton shifted his style to visually define the new take on the classic costumed heroine. The artists remembers, “I had always been drawn to detective stories, like with [gumshoe] Michael Mauser, [from the pages of Staton’s E-Man], and I had done a bunch of horror tales for Gladstone around that time, and had been using the duo-tone board. Joey’s stories just seemed to fit nicely in that look. We were going to be getting more into urban violence with gangs and organized crime, so a slick superhero look wouldn’t have been appropriate.”

Dooley echoes the praise for Staton’s unique style on The Huntress and adds some insight on why the art popped. “As many may know,” Dooley says, “Joe drew The Huntress on a special artboard where if you used one liquid a certain pattern came out, and another liquid brought out another pattern. He and Bob Smith used it such to great effect. I believe Andy Helfer first offered the paper as a challenge to the team—or it might’ve been Joe Staton himself—but it added a chiaroscuro atmosphere to the book that just triumphed.”

A LEGACY UNFOLDS

The Huntress #2 (May 1989) delves deeper into Helena Bertinelli’s methods and psyche as, now that the origin had been told, Cavalieri and Staton focus on the new Helena’s self-doubts, motivations, and skills. In this players into the tapestry of crime, corruption, second issue, the creative team introduces and justice that Staton and Cavalieri are two supporting cop characters named establishing in the pages of the new title. In this two-part story, the creative Fiorello and O’Shea, as well as a bevy of gunsels and Mafioso types. Helena team juggles Fiorello and O’Shea (who is caught in a multi-layered gang war begin to play a dual James Gordon role over her lost father’s territory and has to to the Huntress’ Batman); Helena’s everovercome her own self-doubts to ensure present confidant Angelo, Jr.; a new no innocents are caught in the crossfire.

Chinese gang known as the Jade Cavalieri also introduces the idea that Dragons; a brand-new neighborhood joey cavalieri Helena sees herself and the Huntress witch named La Bruja; and the returning as two separate entities, with Helena BleedingCool.com.

Omerta. The Huntress is the glue that as the helpless prey of corruption and her masked alter holds these myriad elements together as Cavalieri and ego as the Huntress. This takes readers back to that company take the reader on a journey through the urban disturbing panel in the first issue of a maniacally grinning, setting that has come to define the new Huntress. young Helena, newly freed from her captors. Is the Things get darker in The Huntress #5 (Aug. 1989), where Huntress the result of severe childhood trauma? This is it is revealed that Helena’s father has been found alive. heady stuff that probably couldn’t have been explored Helena confronts her returned father, who is now without if the Huntress was still the daughter of Batman. hands or eyes. To this point, there has been a mystery The Huntress #3 (June 1989) begins the process of revolving around Helena’s father’s preserved body parts. fleshing out the urban setting of the book into a Will It turns out that the seemingly resurrected Guido Bertinelli Eisner-like noir nightmare with Helena in the role of the was actually a robot double set by Omerta to lure Helena Spirit. Issues #3 and 4 (July 1989) introduce a number of into a trap. The issue also features the first reference to

On the Prowl From prey to predator, the Huntress’ mission is defined on this killer original art page concluding the first issue.

Courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 67

Mob Mentality While The Huntress at first sidestepped the DC mainstream, this Daily Planet headline in issue #5 was a rare reminder that the book was still connected to the publisher’s larger universe.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman as Omerta compares Helena’s non-lethal arsenal A LEGACY BLACKENS to the Dark Knight’s famed cache of ever-present weapons. As mentioned, the setting was just as much a part of the narrative as hero herself. According to Staton, But this mention of Batman is really the only this was done purposely in order to create a mention of the character as it was decided to separation between the two Helenas. let Huntress fly solo, so, as Dooley puts it, “We were throwing her more into the “…she could stand on her own. To be her own character. Without Batman, city,” Staton says. “She was a costumed the creative team could explore new character, but she didn’t really avenues of her personality and a different function in the superhero reality the way Batman did.” past, which they did so well. Perhaps DC saw The Huntress as another Batman book, With The Huntress #6 (Sept. 1989), but we didn’t approach it that way.” things got even grittier. This issue reveals And that fresh approach shows as the brutal reason that Helena’s father had reading The Huntress so many decades his eyes and hands removed upon his later allows an explorer into comicdeath. Guido Bertinelli’s rival, an oldschool gangster named Stefano Manbook history to find a narrative style that dragora, needed the hands and eyes would become vogue about a decade kevin dooley and a half later with such characters as to get past a fingerprint- and retinalMarvel’s Jessica Jones. Helena Bertinelli Facebook. scan built into a vault containing was truly a hero ahead of her time, a woman who had Guido’s fortune. Mandragora and Omerta team up to to swim in the corrupt filth in her city to find justice and bring Helena down, and things take an even more twisted purpose… and things would just get dimmer. turn as the man who killed Helena’s father demands that she become his concubine.

To Dooley, this disturbing offer was one of the many examples of daring plot directions that set the story apart from other superhero comics of the late 1980s. “I consider the audience for The Huntress slightly older than average because the storylines were deeper,” Dooley tells BACK ISSUE, “on a more mature level. Like in #6, where Mandragora wants to be with Helena and share her father’s wealth with her.

Remember her line, ‘You’re joking, of course. You killed my family… my father… and you picked over his remains like ghouls. Now you want a… a concubine?’ C’mon.

That ain’t kid stuff.”

Indeed, Mandragora’s offer is anything but suitable for children and triggers Helena’s latent memory of the sexual abuse she suffered as a child, allowing the new Huntress to find the strength to defeat the men who murdered her father. The Huntress of the pre-Crisis era had to find her way in the world after the death of Batman, but this new Huntress possessed a legacy crafted from abuse and brutality. With her mobster father avenged, this very different DC vigilante was free to forge her own legacy in a very different DC Universe.

A LEGACY DEEPENS

The first arc after the new Huntress brings down her father’s killers focuses on a puzzle-obsessed serial killer named Wyvern. On the surface, Wyvern has a great deal in common with the Riddler, but the diminutive spree, killer is a shockingly violent entry into Helena’s everdarkening world. The Huntress #8 (Nov. 1989) boasts a stunning Staton-drawn cover that features an eye-popping crossword puzzle design. This piece of comic-book art highlights on of the series’ most dynamic features—the gorgeous Staton covers. Each issue boasts a beautifully violent cover image that caused The Huntress to stand out among the crowded marketplace of late 1989.

“Joe’s covers alone stood out so much,” Dooley says.

“The Huntress #8 comes to mind as just freakin’ amazing—the crossword one. So was #12…

“Am I gushing too much? I don’t think so,” Dooley beams. “I remember showing the art to Joey when it came in. He often admitted that Joe gave him just what he wanted… and more. I got what he meant.”

Staton adds to Dooley’s assessment, “I was really pleased with the run of covers on most of the series.

Lots of different designs and concepts. I’m not generally that pleased with some of my covers, but there were some really nice ones in here.”

68 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

The art beneath the covers is just as experimental and potent as Staton visually defines Helena’s bleak world. With Wyvern aboard as Helena’s first real adversary after her father’s killers, Staton has a truly bleak world to define.

With issue #7 (Oct. 1989), The Huntress would pick up a “Suggested for Mature Readers Label,” a marker that would allow Cavalieri and Staton to travel some truly twisted roads as the Wyvern story unfolds. The puzzleobsessed madman gets ahold of Guido Bertinelli’s diary and sets out to murder anyone who also might know the ex-godfather’s secrets. Wyvern particularly likes to target women for his violent crimes, and the creative team does not pull any punches when it comes to the miniscule murderer’s depravity. It’s within the story that unfolds in The Huntress #9–11 (Dec. 1989–Feb. 1990) that casts Helena in the role of a protector of women as, with so many evildoers preying on women, the Huntress becomes the line in the sand between the victims and the killers.

Dooley is particularly proud of the idea of Huntress as a kind of feminist protector. “The Huntress under Joey Cavalieri took on an aspect rarely seen in comics that captivated me,” Dooley states. “Helena’s sixth sense to save women in need, which I don’t think some readers caught onto right away, foreshadowed a kind of internal #MeToo movement for Helena, an untapped personal conflict, a voice that should be heard. Brava!”

The Huntress #12 (Mar. 1990) sees Helena rescue a brilliant, young science protégé from the clutches of a crack gang that wants the young man to build them a portable nuke! During the rescue, the Huntress spouts a bit of dialogue that truly defines what Cavalieri and Staton were trying to create with the new Helena. As the Huntress is ready to swoop in and rescue the kid, she states, “I see my life differently as you do yours… My life is a means to an end. I have dedicated it to a real cause. I do not mind losing it… if I can achieve and end. The end of your tyranny.” With those words, Helena expresses her mission

statement. She sees herself as a warrior whose only goal is to crush any that would harm innocence.

Cavalieri and Staton have a bit of mob-related prescience when they introduce a psychiatrist character in The Huntress #13 as they debut the idea of someone connected to the mafia on an analyst’s couch long before The Sopranos took the cable TV world by storm. Helena Bertinelli, former mob princess, finds herself in therapy after she is plagued by nightmares. This issue also continues the idea of Huntress as protector of women as she rescues a young girl after a horrific sexual assault. Like they do with realistic violence, Cavalieri and Staton don’t pull punches when it comes to Helena’s mental illness. The heroine is clearly suffering from PTSD, depression, and acute anxiety as the creatives break new comic-book ground by not flinching from the consequences of mental illness in their hero. This kind of storytelling originality still impresses Dooley, who asks BACK ISSUE, “What other heroes have seen a shrink? Many villains have, and people seem to have endlessly analyzed heroes from their perspective, but Joey made Helena face herself, her past, her dual identity, what it meant to be a hero, in a powerful way.” [Editor’s note: For the record, ye ed was the associate editor of The Huntress #13–16, and Andy Helfer solo-edited the final three issues of the series.]

Street-Level Perspective Writer Joey Cavalieri took Huntress readers into the seedier corners of the DCU in 1989 and 1990. This captivating splash, opening issue #9 (cover at left), reveals how the heroine is perceived by those residing in the urban jungle.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 69

Analyze This In Huntress #13, (top) after our heroine encounters a psychoanalyst after rescuing a victimized girl, (bottom) Helena, adopting an alias, later visits her couch to discuss her tormenting dreams.

TM & © DC Comics.

The Huntress #14–16 (May–July 1990) sees Helena take a backseat to a new vigilante in New York City, a masked DIY luchador-looking street hero named the Waterfront Warrior. It turns out, the Warrior is none other than Helena’s own building super, the kindly Hector Ruiz, who dons the makeshift costume to clean out the neighborhood he grew up in. Once again, Cavalieri is thematically ahead of his time as he examines the abuses of media as the mob uses a wellknown talk-show host to slander the waterfront residents in an illegal hostile takeover of the area real estate.

THE BAT LEGACY RETURNS

The Waterfront Warrior arc is the last Huntress story disconnected from the DCU because, according to Dooley, due to low sales, the powers-that-be at DC Comics ordered a Batman appearance in the pages of The Huntress.

It’s ironic that Batman seemed like an alien, strangely narrative atonal presence in a book that essentially stars a character that began her legacy as his daughter. Of course, in the years to come, Helena Bertinelli would be deeply connected to Batman and his extended family, and that legacy bond begins with The Huntress #17 (Aug. 1990).

Staton informs BACK ISSUE that not having Helena run into Bruce Wayne was done “mostly so she could stand on her own. To be her own character.

Without that, the creative team could explore new avenues of her personality and a different past, which they did so well. Perhaps DC saw The Huntress as another Batman book, but we didn’t approach it that way.”

Until the Batman guest-spot, there was not a single outside character from of the mainstream DC Universe in The Huntress. Instead, the book featured a grim reflection of urban blight. It could be a stretch to have a character like Batman injected into a book so grounded in realism. Helena faced mostly real-world issues, not fantastic criminals. “The Batman crossover over was desperation, I suppose,” Staton says, but it is fascinating to see Batman return to a property in The Huntress that he once had a deep familial connection to.

In the final arc of The Huntress #17–19 (Aug.–Oct. 1990), entitled “Days of Rage,” Helena reluctantly teams up with a visiting Batman to take down the newly united street gangs of Helena’s ’hood. The story introduces a new gang leader named Rage who unites the drug cliques of NYC to stop a serial bomber that targets gangbangers. It turns out the bomber is none other than Jason Cooper, the young genius who was forced to build the nuke for drug gangs a few issues back. The Huntress and Batman see a great deal of themselves in this orphan boy and put their differences aside to take down Rage. Cavalieri and Staton forgo the usual “fight first, team up second” trope and have Helena and Batman argue out their differences before joining together to help Cooper.

The story could have existed without Batman, but it was fascinating to watch the embryonic stages of the Batman/Huntress team, a dynamic that many writers would pick up on in the years to come.

The end of “Days of Rage” was also the end of The Huntress. It was a grand experiment, but the whims of the comic-buying public spelled the end for the new Huntress. Dooley remembers that it was “that ole devil sales” that “undoubtedly had to do with the book’s demise,” asking, “Should the stories have been more involved with the DC Universe? Not merely to introduce more readers to this great title, but to see how Helena would react and how the creative team would’ve handled it? Maybe. Battling organized crime has its appeal—especially with the book’s noir traits, and it fit Helena’s new past, but was it… ‘colorful’ enough for fans? Batman did appear in the nice, three-part final story. Was it too late?

Addressing more controversial women’s issues? Who knows?”

It’s easy to play the what if game decades later, but in the 19 issues of The Huntress, the creative team was able to rekindle a legacy and craft a complex character that would remain a vital part of the DC Universe forevermore.

The book did not last, but the legacy of the Huntress did and gave fans a dynamic, challenging character to fill the void left by the afterthought loss of Helena Wayne during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

But our look into the early days of Helena Wayne does not end with the demise of her first series, as Helena’s legacy was to continue in a tonally unexpected place.

70 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

THE DC LEGACY RETURNS

During the days of Helena Wayne, it was not uncommon to see the Huntress pal around with the heroes of the DC Universe. That was just not the case with Helena Bertinelli, who initially existed in an urban bubble. Helena’s exile was to end when she joined forces with a super-team that was really the polar opposite of the direly serious Huntress, and it was with these heroes that the first chapter of the new Huntress was to come to a close.

In the pages of Justice League America #30 (Aug. 1989), the Huntress met up with the comedic heroes of the JLA and was mentally manipulated by Maxwell Lord to join the team. Never realizing she was under Lord’s psychic influence, Huntress became a reluctant member of the League but did not feature prominently in many of the team’s missions. Helena was a proverbial fish out of water as her real-world noir sensibilities just did not mesh with the light-hearted chaos of the “Bwah-ha-ha” era of the Justice League.

That’s why it is so ironic that the new Huntress’ initial run came to a close in a Justice League title. In Justice League International Special #2 featuring the Huntress (boy, that’s a mouthful), Helena returns to her old stomping grounds of New York to weed out a costumed cop killer named the Hunter. Since the events of Huntress #19, Helena ditched her gear in order to settle down away from her past vigilante life. When she is called back to New York, she pays a visit to her Justice League teammates to reequip and return to her life of noir crime-busting. Helena solves the mystery of the Hunter with some help from JLAers Blue Beetle and Ice, but it is very clear that the JL are shoehorned into the Huntress finale. The story ends with Huntress leaving the team and once again setting up shop in a destitute part of the city. She was back where she belonged, even if she no longer had her own comic.

As for her strange pairing with the League, Dooley remembers, “Well, it was the Justice League office, after all. Andy Helfer (and Keith Giffen and crew) had Justice League America, Justice League Europe, Justice League International, Justice League Antarctica, ad infinitum.

She had the Batman tinge, though Crisis had kind of wiped that away. Batman did want her in there, hoping the team dynamic would make her less brutal.

Eventually, Helena did become a more traditional vigilante/hero. A good thing? Perhaps.”

Despite her connection to the League, Cavalieri and Staton’s Huntress worked best on her own… but when other creators got their hands on Helena Bertinelli, that would all change.

THE LEGACY CONTINUES

After the initial Huntress story came to a close, Helena would pop up here and there, but it was her arrival in Gotham City that made Helena a major player. Beginning with the “No Man’s Land” crossover of 1999, Helena Bertinelli became a permanent resident of Batman’s city and a reluctant ally to the Dark Knight. Writers like Gail Simone further fleshed out the legend of the Huntress in the pages of Birds of Prey, and in the more recent days of DC’s New 52 and Rebirth, Helena remains a major player in the DCU. Helena Bertinelli/the Huntress, portrayed by Jessica DeGuow, has appeared on TV’s Arrow and is being played

by Mary Elizabeth Winstead in director Cathy Yan’s 2020 Birds of Prey feature film. The Huntress, voiced by Amy Acker, has also been a part of the Cartoon Network’s animated DC Universe.

Even though the DC Universe in comics and cinema has changed, the Huntress’ DNA as created by Cavalieri and Staton remains the foundation of the character.

She is still an unrelenting urban vigilante trying to leave the trauma of her past behind in order to help the helpless victims of crime, corruption, and violence.

All this success both in and out of comics is not a huge surprise considering what a daring and ahead-ofher-time character that Cavalieri and Staton created in an era where the Huntress could have become a forgotten footnote in DC history. “It was a privilege and a learning experience to work on The Huntress with Joey and Joe,” Kevin Dooley reflects. “To see the character grow via a point of view you don’t often see was something beyond remarkable.”

We couldn’t have said it better.

And the hunt continues…

Batter Up! This guy dropped by in the last three issues of The Huntress. Page 1 of issue #18.

TM & © DC Comics.

MARC BUXTON is a proud contributor to websites like Comic Book Resources and Den of Geek US. He is an English teacher, and Marc’s loving wife thinks he owns way to many comic books. Marc has been reading comics since the dawn of time and is still deeply in love with every era of the great medium.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 71

A painted shell masking pseudo-intellectual posturing or a masterpiece of comic-book art with psychotherapeutic potential? After three decades, what is the legacy of a graphic novel that proved instrumental in the creation of the Vertigo imprint and the introduction of postmodernism into popular culture?

The year 1986 was the heyday of comics’ British Invasion. Alan Moore and Frank Miller were deconstructing the superhero mythos, saving the stagnant and declining comic-book market. At the same time, the marketing term “graphic novel” allowed comics to catch a second wind that improved their sales. The possibilities seemed endless, with the editors open to even the most daring ideas. Anything could happen. As Jenette Kahn, then the president of DC Comics, said in conversation with Paul Levitz: “I did want us to be an innovator, but I wanted just as much that our creative talent got the rights that they deserved, and that they would have a financial stake in their creations. It’s the economic side and the artistic side, and they had to go, somehow, in lockstep together. […] I don’t think we start to see a second Golden Age in comics—or an Elizabethan Age—such fecund creativity without first making our creative talent believe they were stakeholders.”

MEET ING

IN

LONDON

In this prosperous atmosphere Karen Berger, a young, talented editor, received a special task from Kahn: to recruit new British creators, as talented as Moore, the author of Watchmen. To do that, she would often visit London with other, more experienced colleagues, including artist and editorial director Dick Giordano.

Their second excursion in particular proved significant, with two young men visiting their hotel suite for a meeting. One was Neil Gaiman, the future author of Sandman and bestselling fantasy novels. The other? A charmingly shy, though completely incomprehensible in speech, Scotsman.

“I’ll tell you a funny story,” said Berger, recalling her first meeting with Grant Morrison, in Greg Carpenter’s The British Invasion: Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, and the Invention of the Modern Comic Book Writer. “When I first met Grant, I was with Dick Giordano and Jenette Kahn. I had set up appointments pretty much every hour with different writers and artists in this suite that we had rented to meet people, and Grant was the last person we saw on one of the days, and Dick Giordano was very hard of hearing, actually.

He wore two hearing aids, and when Grant came in, Grant started talking and he [Giordano] just took off his hearing aids and left the room. [laughs] He couldn’t even read his lips. [laughs]” 72 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

Arkham Asylum TM & © 1989 DC Comics.

A

TM

At that moment, Morrison was considered a promising creator, largely due to his interpretation of the superhero as a pop star and celebrity in Zenith, a feature in the British anthology 2000 AD. Among the writers working in American comics, he was one of the most open to high-culture influences and new experiences.

As a playwright and member of a punk band, Morrison was aware of the significance of Beckett and other creators of the 20th Century canon at a time when many comic-book writers simply recycled ideas from the previous decades with little in the way of individual input. For those reasons, the editors were very surprised when to begin with, Morrison suggested bringing Animal Man back from obscurity and writing a psychological thriller set in a mental hospital and starring Batman.

TH E

TIME

OF

P RE P A RA TIO NS

It wasn’t easy for Morrison to convince the heads of DC Comics to accept his Batman idea or his artistic sensibilities, which were tinged with radical art and postmodernism. “They [veteran DC writers] had some fun, laughing at the pretentious writer,” Morrison wrote in his annotations to the original Arkham Asylum script. The reaction of the old guard was not out of place, because Morrison’s plans went completely against the trends the time. As Morrison wrote in his autobiographical book Supergods, he did not identify with at the grim superhero aesthetic popularized by Miller and Moore. Deeming it overrated, he decided to abandon the seriousness and brutality of demythologization in favor of a more oneiric aesthetic. The graphic novel’s subtitle (A Serious House on Serious Earth), which alludes to a poem by Phillip Larkin, was meant to underscore the provocative dimension and European sensibility of Morrison’s creation.

The book’s concept underwent numerous changes.

At the start, it was supposed to be 45 pages long and illustrated in a manner similar to The Killing Joke. In fact, Morrison wished for it to be drawn by Brian Bolland. In the end, however, nothing came of it. As Bolland admitted to me in an email in 2016, “I don’t have any memory of being offered Arkham Asylum. I’m very slow, though, and probably wouldn’t have been able to draw it in the allotted time.” It can also be suspected that the editors at DC Comics were not particularly interested in a hyperrealist thriller set in a mental hospital, as it could turn out to be too intense and depressing for the reader. Thus the work continued. The comic grew from 45 pages to 64, full of symbolism and allusions to mythology and Jungian psychoanalysis. To complete the script, Morrison would induce delirium. He would write for 50 hours non-stop, then, at 4:00 a.m., delve into his dream journals to bring up his worst childhood nightmares.

R O BI N

M UST

GO

At some point, DC Comics sent the script to Dave McKean, a close friend of Neil Gaiman’s, and offered him the position of the artist on the comic. Morrison wasn’t enthused about this at first. He thought that McKean wasn’t the right fit for this project, and the artist himself wasn’t a big fan of superheroes. As he said in a 2013 interview: “I liked the scenery, a weird, dark asylum, like something out of Alice in Wonderland. When I was making this comic, I was very excited; I really enjoyed the meeting with Grant Morrison.

I think Grant is a wonderful writer and personally I like him very much. I was very happy that he was ready to rewrite the script, and that he allowed me to change a lot of things to make this story much more symbolic than an ordinary tale of a man dressing up as a bat. It was my decision not to use Robin. I can barely understand the character of

Batman, but I am completely unable to understand the character of Robin [laughter]. I was more interested in turning the main character into a symbol, a mythical figure.

I was particularly interested in the idea of a spiritual connection between man and animal. There is a sort of primal energy in that, so I thought I should go that way.”

McKean indicated in many interviews throughout the years that Morrison had very detailed plans concerning the use of symbols such as a fish, a clock, or a bat. The artist said that “Grant is a very thorough writer. His stories, despite the escapist dimension, always have a fascinating psychological background. To that, I added a few things that were interesting to me. I always do that when I draw. You know what your goal is, but it’s those small, intriguing details that make the journey interesting and challenging.”

The creative partnership between Morrison and McKean is thus characterized by Greg Carpenter in a 2013 interview: “As the writer, Grant Morrison was full of ideas and seemed determined to cram as many as possible into one book—religious iconography, the Tarot, Gothic horror, sexual identity, literary allusions, and concepts of reality and madness. On the other hand, Dave McKean, who had been assigned the project by DC, didn’t have much

House of Misery The Len Weinwritten history of Arkham Asylum that appeared in 1985’s Who’s Who #1 laid the groundwork for (above) Grant Morrison’s journals of Amadeus Arkham in the graphic novel.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 73

Nice of You to Drop In Joker’s pleased as punch to welcome his Bat-playmate in this disturbing double-page spread.

TM & © DC Comics.

interest in superheroes and pushed back on many of the conventions of the story—rejecting Robin, refusing to draw Bruce Wayne, and obscuring the image of Batman throughout the book. Their collaboration created a strange and sometimes tense push-and-pull. And yet, in some scenes, such as when Batman takes the Rorschach test, Morrison and McKean are perfectly in sync and they create some of the most dramatic sequences ever to feature these characters. What both creators shared, in my view, was an interest in making the book something besides a Batman vs.

Joker story. Because Morrison threw so many disparate ideas onto the page, McKean was able to focus on things that seemed divorced from the usual Batman mythos, experimenting with layout, pacing, and iconography. So, it becomes a comic book about icons, about rituals, about fate, about reality, about religion.”

TH E

NEUROT I C

B A TM A N

McKean’s clear contribution to the visual aspect of the comic was a strong influence of the surrealists and animators, the Brothers Quay.

Inspired by them, he drew a neurotic atmosphere, which accompanies the reader on every page. A characteristic trait of neurotics is a mixing of desire with fantasy. As Todd McGowan wrote in 2008 in The Real Gaze: “Neurotics supplement their experience of desire with fantasy because they cannot endure the dissatisfaction that accompanies the experience of desire. They refuse to accept without question the sacrifice of enjoyment that the social law demands. Their illness is actually an attempt to find a way to enjoy while remaining within the confines of the social law. The problem with this strategy, however, stems from the specific way that it has recourse to fantasy. Neurosis allows subjects to continue to exist under the strictures of the social law while fantasizing that they are violating these strictures. Rather than acting to change their situation or even their society, neurotics content themselves with a fantasmatic revolt. Neurosis allows subjects to supplement the desiring world of the social reality with their private fantasmatic world.”

The above description is a good fit for the Dark Knight as described in Arkham Asylum: an absent, rigid, unsure hero, who doesn’t actively change the society through his crusade, but merely indulges in the dark subconscious whims of his ego. “This Batman is a frightened, threatened boy who has made himself terrible at the cost of his own

humanity… He has made himself hard and domineering in order that he might never be hurt or abandoned again,” according to Morrison.

As Greg Carpenter remarked in his great book The British Invasion, it had an autotherapeutic dimension for Morrison as a writer— apprentice rejected by his master, Alan Moore, in favor of Neil Gaiman.

A writer who was still to realize that he’s creating dense works, overloaded with allusions and pomposity. “For anyone put off by what Morrison later called the ‘high-falutin’’ nature of the script, it’s worth remembering that such overcompensation often comes from a writer’s insecurity. […] As the young man whom Karen Berger described as ‘terribly shy,’ the young man who had dreamed of art school only to be rejected, the young man who reveled at following Alan Moore on Marvelman only to be denied, Grant Morrison had a lot of motivation to ‘make himself hard,’ to become ‘domineering in order that he might never be hurt or abandoned again.’ His script frequently takes a ‘domineering’ approach.”

THE

FEAST

OF

FOOLS

B E GI N S

Arkham Asylum is composed of two timelines that mirror each other.

One presents the story of the Asylum founder, Amadeus Arkham, and is strongly inspired an entry written by Len Wein in DC’s Who’s Who. Here we learn of Amadeus’ childhood and his descent into madness after the deaths of his wife and daughter. The other focuses on Batman intervening when the Joker starts a mutiny in the asylum. The prospect of a confrontation frightens the Dark Knight, who says to Commissioner Gordon: “I’m afraid that the Joker may be right about me. Sometimes I… question the rationality of my actions. And I’m afraid that when I walk through those asylum gates… when I walk into Arkham and the doors close behind me… it’ll be just like coming home.” The story is a rite of passage for Batman, designed to transform him. Morrison was motivated by the change in the Dark Knight’s status quo, brought about by The Dark Knight, The Killing Joke, and A Death in the Family (for years, Arkham Asylum was thought to take place after that story). After so many failures and tragedies, Morrison—who wished to preserve Batman’s humanity— was worried that the Caped Crusader could become just another version of the Punisher. He decided to have Batman work through some of his traumas in Arkham Asylum, so that his nobility could be saved.

74 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

TH E

SHADOW

In order to do that, Morrison has the hero confront his shadow.

In Jungian terms, the shadow archetype is part of the individual’s unconscious and takes the form of a complex that has previously been repressed due to lack of acceptance for this aspect from the person’s surroundings. And the Dark Knight carries a lot of resentment and guilt due to his parents’ deaths.

Batman faces his enemies, who tempt him with Nietzschean power, admitting his weakness, or repressed sexual impulses. The culmination of his struggle against the shadow is his fight with Killer Croc. When Croc falls off a building, however, he assumes the pose of the crucified Christ.

It seems that Batman has made a mistake. As representations of the shadow, which is simply a baser, more primitive aspect of personality, none of Batman’s rogues personify absolute evil. Rather, they represent his own faults, which they try to cope with in their own imperfect ways.

Despite his doubts, however, Batman does not admit that. For him, evil is always in the other, never in himself.

Batman’s struggles are mirrored by Amadeus Arkham’s failure to confront his demon. The guilt induced by killing his mother became overpowering. He ran from it, only to be declared insane and end up in a cell. Seeing what he had done, maybe there was no other way.

His shadow was too deep, too close to absolute evil, to be assimilated by the ego.

In contrast to Arkham, Batman receives another chance to avoid falling into madness. Although he did not manage to integrate the shadow with his ego, he also wasn’t overtaken by it. We are not sure, then, whether he won’t end up like Arkham, but stepping into the asylum and facing his demons put him on a path to self-knowledge, the integration of the conscious and the unconscious, as well as healing his soul—even if this is only a partial, temporary defusing, and the nature of the ritual is cyclical. The first step in this existential journey was the realization that, because the world is ruled by powers stronger than us, we don’t have to take responsibility for randomness that could affect anyone. As Batman says: “Sometimes it’s only madness that makes us what we are. Or destiny perhaps.”

BATMAN

AND

or people insensitive to the dimensions of life, concentrated on the narcotic climb to the top, however terrible the cost. As Jung wrote some 40 years earlier: “No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.” Only through this knowledge, marked by suffering and pain, can we reach enlightenment, learn who we are, and what is our place in the world.

RETURN

TO

THE

A S YL U M

In 2015, Morrison commented for Forbes Magazine on the prospect of a movie adaptation of Arkham Asylum: “I don’t think I’d want to be involved in it, in the sense that I’ve already done it.”

Two years later, at San Diego Comic-Con, he announced, however, that together with Chris Burnham he’s working on a sequel to the graphic novel, summing up all his Batman work, including the run starring Damian Wayne and Talia al Ghul. “Let’s take that ‘jump the shark’ idea and do the best Batman book there’s ever been,” he said.

He described the project as an “over-the-top, Luc Besson-esque thriller that will take place in the future timeline where Batman’s son Damian has grown up to become an adult Batman of his own.” The work is ongoing and no publication date has been announced. Knowing DC Comics’ love of releasing sequels on anniversaries of publication, it should be expected soon.

A sequel to Arkham Asylum would mark the completion of a cycle for Morrison. Its commercial success 30 years ago elevated him to bestselling superstar status in American pop culture, but also showed him what he lacked in terms of craft. “The moon mirror of Arkham Asylum, held up to me, revealed the grotesque mask of snide contempt I’d constructed to mask my uncertainty,” Morrison wrote in Supergods.

“The obsession with art and fashion, myths, and popular music with

P E RSE P HO NE

Batman’s experience in the asylum brings to mind the abduction of Persephone, as interpreted by psychologist James Hillman.

For Hillman, the abduction of Persephone is a mythological representation of the initiation into the psyche—similar to how the Joker invites Batman into the asylum. The soul and the underground are the same—entering the realm of psychology means entering the experience of death, or rather, constant dying, the death of hope. Batman fits this myth perfectly, because his war on crime is a child’s fantasy—no one has ever managed to defeat evil completely. Any failure or disappointment makes him bitter, leads him to doubt the righteousness and the results of his mission. That’s when a psychological awareness begins to take shape—a turn inwards, into the darkness at the heart of things.

A stable sense of self disappears, replaced by an acute awareness of the artifice of the ego, its demands, desires, and judgments.

Like Persephone, Batman despairs and longs for his lost innocence.

It’s impossible, however, to reconstruct the consciousness from before the abduction. When Hades agrees to Persephone’s return to Earth, he puts pomegranate seeds into her mouth. Once she had tasted it, Persephone will always live in two worlds simultaneously, spending a part of the year with people, and another at Hades’ side, and her original innocence and naïveté are irretrievably lost.

Like Hades, Joker marks Batman after the initiation is complete.

As Hillman noted in 1992 in Re-Visioning Psychology: “Hades’ rape of the innocent soul is a central necessity for psychic change.” Without it, we remain ignorant children looking for the next adrenaline fix,

Wicked Wonderland Batman encounters the Mad Hatter in Arkham.

Note here and throughout how Todd Klein’s lettering provides a unique voice for each character.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 75

Good Knight A flip of Harvey Dent’s coin allows Batman to exit… or does it?

TM & © DC Comics.

which I’d separated myself from my roots now seemed as false as Granny’s teeth.” Confronting that harsh truth led the writer to shave his head and start developing an artistic philosophy seen in The Invisibles or Multiversity.

It seems that the current Morrison—an optimist who sees superheroes as myths and role models—wants to face the hard, domineering Morrison who didn’t have any illusions regarding the brutality of the world.

Like Persephone, he wants to descend into Hades again so that he can deal—perhaps for the last time—with the unresolved issue of the shadow and, by doing that, work through what he failed to work through earlier.

TH E

LEGACY

Despite being 30 years old, Arkham Asylum is still one of the most eagerly bought comics in the world. This is partly due to the readers’ fascination with its innovative form and better quality of paper. That interest was definitely helped by Tim Burton’s Batman, which premiered two months before the graphic novel’s publication.

Although the first, negative reviews accused the comic of being pretentious and overly intellectual, Arkham Asylum is the most popular Batman comic when it comes to academic analyses.

Although it’s rarely mentioned, Arkham Asylum contributed to the popularization of superheroes and their antagonists as personality archetypes. Without it, it’s hard to imagine such unique stories as Paul Dini’s autobiographical Dark Night: A True Batman Story or the implementation of pop culture in psychotherapy, promoted by Dr. Travis Langley or Dr. Janina Scarlet. In therapeutic work Arkham Asylum may, somewhat surprisingly, turn out to be a healing text. “I think that sometimes it can be helpful to see some of the heroes and villains as archetypes, whether it is Jungian traditional archetypes, or other,” Dr. Scarlet tells BACK ISSUE. “In some ways, the comic-book characters can become archetypes themselves to help readers have a better understanding of what individuals might go through. Batman himself could be his own archetype of someone who has experienced a terrible loss and is then extremely triggered when hearing about others being hurt. For example, when Batman thought that Joker had injured Pearl, he was overwhelmed and devastated. He fought to protect her, Dr. Adams, and others at the asylum because his archetype, the Batman archetype, is one who protects others at any cost.

Other villains, such as the Joker, can also be thought of as their own archetypes. The Joker has no sense of empathy and appears to enjoy hurting and torturing others. Using the Joker archetype, survivors of trauma, torture, or assault may be able to better explain the horror that they felt during their traumatic experience.”

Apart from the historical and literary context, Arkham Asylum will, in my opinion, be remembered as a comic that teaches how to move on from existential traumas and accept them as something that happens and is a part of us. It fits with what David R. Hawkins wrote in his book Letting Go: “One benefit from a life crisis is greater self-awareness. The situation is overwhelming, and we are forced to stop all of our diversionary games, take a good look at our life situation, and re-evaluate our beliefs, goals, values, and life direction. It is an opportunity to re-evaluate and let go of guilt. It is also an opportunity for a total shift in attitude.”

Even if Batman didn’t completely triumph over his demons, he knows that he can choose between staying with what’s hurting him, or letting go. Dr. Janina Scarlet: “When being inside the asylum is too overwhelming, Batman cuts his own hand with a piece of glass. In the next panel, he is seen clenching his teeth from pain, only here his mouth looks like the Joker’s. It is as if Batman and Joker are two sides of one person, similar to Two-Face’s coins. However, regardless of the darkness of one’s mind, it is their choices that determine whether they become a hero or a villain.”

MICHAŁ CHUDOLINSKI is a comics and film critic, providing lectures on American mass culture, specializing in comic-book culture (Batman Mythology and Criminology) at Collegium Civitas, as well as the founder and editor of the Gotham in the Rain blog. He contributed to magazines like Polityka, 2+3D, Nowa Fantastyka, Czas Fantastyki, Charaktery, and to Polish radio. He is currently working for Polish Television TVP and TVP Magazine, and is a Ph. D. student of the Graduate School for Social Research (GSSR) of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

76 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

Find BACK ISSUE on

TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

THE FIRST ARCHIE COLLECTED EDITION

Hey, guys! You forgot to discuss in this issue about Archie in the ’70s/’80s [BACK ISSUE #107] The Best of Archie, my hardback/trade paperback that was the first book history and collection of classic Archie comic stories!

– Michael Uslan Michael, our faces are as red as Archie’s jalopy over the omission. Thanks for the reminder.

A GOOD “WOID” ABOUT JERRY BOYD

This was a heck of an issue. Kudos to all involved, but extra chapeaus to Jerry Boyd—those interviews with Gladir and Goldberg were fantastic.

I had no idea how much there was to learn about the [Archie Comics] company. Great stuff.

– Bryan McMillan

RIVERDALE DISCOVERIES

This is my favorite type of BACK ISSUE: I was never really an Archie reader, but it was always somewhere on the edge of my radar. I look forward to reading and learning all about the backstory and then tracking down a few choice issues.

– Simeon Smith

THE BOTTOM LINE ON TOP-LINING

Every BACK ISSUE contains memories both good and bad (“Mercs and Anti-Heroes” was no treat for me—I’m the guy who wrote the version of the Punisher who was rational and reasonable and patted little kids on the head!). The “Groovy Archie Issue” triggered so many memories on both sides of that divide that I thought I’d share a few of them.

Starting with the wonderful cover by Dan DeCarlo: Dan was one of the superb cartoonists whose work I enjoyed as a kid and rediscovered as an adult after laboring for many years toiling in the fields of superhero-dom. One fine day I received a call from Richard Howell, whose friend had written a short job for Marvel Comics starring the 1950s character Venus, which had been penciled by Dan. Both were concerned that it wouldn’t be accorded the respect in the inking that it deserved, so he encouraged me to call the editor and ask for the assignment. What a lucky phone call that turned out to be, as it reignited my appreciation for Dan’s work and led me to track down his work in several hundred back issues (!), and soon I dove wholeheartedly into the deep pool of pleasurable legacies of other infinitely skilled cartoonists from our comic-book past such as Owen Fitzgerald, Samm

© 2009 Abrams ComicArts.

Send your comments to: Email: euryman@gmail.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief • BACK ISSUE 112 Fairmount Way * New Bern, NC 28562

Schwartz, Bob Oksner, Sheldon Mayer, Basil Wolverton, Jack Cole, Dan Noonan, Stan Goldberg, Milt Gross, Dick Briefer, Milt Stein, Walt Kelly, Harry Lucey, Dan Gordon, Al Wiseman, Irving Spector, and too many others for my peanut-sized brain to instantly recall! (A fine starting point to sampling the wares of many of those gentlemen might be the fat hardcover collection The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics, edited by Spiegelman and Mouly. I collected all their stuff the manly, pre-internet way by breaking my fingernails searching through packed long boxes at comic-book conventions and ruining my eyesight squinting at long lines of typewritten lists in retailers’ paper catalogs! And it was worth it!!!)

The other happy benefit that came from inking Dan’s penciled job was that I became one of Dan and his wife Josie’s close friends for the last several years of both of their lives. I acquired Dan’s phone number from Marvel and phoned him to ask if I could possibly buy his share of the pages from our Venus team-up and how much he might want for them. He was quick to answer in the affirmative and quoted me a price of $10 a page. I told him that I couldn’t possibly think of paying him less than $100 a page for an effort from two such top-flight legends in the field such as ourselves and, after a rather pregnant pause while Dan was obviously trying to decide if I was putting him on or just insane, I can still hear Dan’s gruff voice replying, “Y’know something—I think I LIKE you!” In short order, I was invited to the longtime Scarsdale home of the DeCarlos, and when I showed up at the front door with a peach pie it was only the first of many pleasant Sunday afternoons that I spent sitting at the kitchen table with Dan and/or Josie, sharing the studio with Dan as he applied his magic pencil (and even more magical intellect) to the latest daffy doings of the Riverdale High gang or sifting through the shelves of Dan’s original artwork in the garage while Dan dozed in front of some televised golf match upstairs. I’m proud to say that I still own more original art by Dan than I do by anyone else! I even sold stories of his for Dan to such present-day cartooning legends running the gamut from Jamie Hernandez to Chris Eliopolis!

Dan and I would go on to collaborate on jobs at DC and the aforementioned Richard Howell’s Claypool Comics (but never at Archie Comics, darn it!). Shortly before Dan’s unfortunate passing, I was talking to him on the telephone as we did several times a week and he was uncharacteristically subdued. When I pressed him to account for his dour mood, he related that he had no current job on the drawing table and none lined up for the future, wondering aloud if he was washed up in the business. I was quick to assure him that this wasn’t so, and I was sure that once word got out that he was open for assignments that his current situation would quickly change! After we hung up, I immediately called Richard Howell and asked him if he might have an Elvira script that Dan could pencil.

Richard said that he had one that he wouldn’t have a chance to read for a few days and would call Dan about it later in the week.

I explained the situation and told him, “Richard, Dan needs to hear that he’s wanted TODAY!” and good ol’ Richard, bless him, grabbed the ball and ran with it. Ten minutes later the phone rang and it was the an elated, exuberant Dan DeCarlo, who laughingly told me that I had been right after all, excitedly telling me about the phone call out of the blue from Richard Howell and the script that would be arriving in a few days time.

It was the unfinished splash page art of that script that was on Dan’s drawing table when he died a short while later. In retrospect, I suppose that’s all any of us can hope for who choose to attempt a living in this fugitive profession, that we go out feeling good that someone believes that we still have something of value to contribute and maybe leave with a job on the drawing table…

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 77

After Dan’s passing, I spent many more splendid Sundays at ink for an issue of Red Circle Sorcery. I don’t remember much about that Scarsdale home, taking Josie (sometimes accompanied by her it except that it concerned a group of guys who dressed in monk’s visiting sister from Belgium) out for dinner and once, staying up all robes with hoods, and I was worried about finding a way to make night organizing and punchily listing every piece of Dan’s original a bunch of identically dressed characters interesting visually, art in the house for an inventory quickly especially since you wouldn’t be able to needed for his estate. I was also able tell them apart to figure out who was to intercede on Josie’s behalf with the speaking unless you could clearly see people responsible for returning artwork their faces. Fortunately, I got no further up at Marvel so that she was able to than attempting to draw a couple of the acquire the originals for an entire issue characters in my sketchbook before Gray of Dan’s Millie the Model (significant called to say, STOP—the line had been because it was the only existing Millie cancelled. Still, I had previously inked art by Dan that has ever surfaced). the backgrounds on the unpublished Once when my dad came to visit, I took Adams and Giordano Black Hood story him to meet Josie. The last photograph (that eventually turned up in one of the that I have of Josie and I together was Archie digests), so the Red Circle Comics taken by my dad, and the last photo that Group wasn’t totally without a teeny I have of my dad and I together was contribution from yours truly. taken by Josie. When Josie decided to Finally, concerning the Sabrina the move to Florida, I spent a week living Teenage Witch article/history. Rather than in that house, helping her go through recommending the current Chilling decades of their life together; during that Adventures for those who enjoyed her week, I became so very familiar with the innocent (non-Satan-worshiping) hijinks Scarsdale Dump that I’m convinced my of yore, I would suggest her turn in last car drove itself from Anderson Street to year’s terrifically entertaining Jughead the dump and back a few times when I series by storytelling wizards Chip was too sleepy to steer it there myself.

Zdarsky, Mark Waid, and Derek Charm.

That was also when I discovered that Dan These guys knocked it clear out of the and Josie’s late sons (Jim and Dan, Jr., park (and broke Pop Tate’s front window who had both followed their dad into in the process)! I think I can safely say the comic-artwork business at Archie that Dan would have approved!

Lastly, I was anxious to see that rare Comics) had been big comic-book fans who had collected many DC and Marvel Harry Lucey Sabrina story mentioned on comics that I had worked on (isn’t life page 20, so I rushed to eBay and bought both wondrous and strange)! I was able a copy of the issue cited only to find that to organize the comics containing work that story isn’t anywhere in that issue.

by Dan, Dan, Jr., and Jim for Josie to take Dan DeCarlo-drawn original cover art to Everything’s Archie #110 (Mar. 1984). Whoever top-lined the original art page Courtesy of Heritage. TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. that was shown owes me $15! (I did a to Florida, and arranged for her sons’ comic collection to be sold and not little and found a different Harry Lucey thrown away as was Josie’s first thought (honestly, I don’t think the Sabrina story in Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #6, so my curiosity is somewhat Scarsdale Dump would have had enough room left for them). sated, but will be happy to waste more of my rapidly dwindling Josie and I kept in touch by phone after that, and by the time savings if anyone chimes in with the location of that other story!)

– Terry Austin that she left us, I was working for Archie Comics myself and was able to break the news of her passing to my one-time editor, Mike Pellerito (by then president of the company), so that he and Victor Gorelick Terry, your letters are always a joy to receive and read, as they’re and some other longtime Archie staffers could come to the funeral delightful oral histories that are just too good not to share. home and meet Dan and Josie’s grandchildren and tell them how And if anyone can correctly identify the publication containing much they appreciated their grandparents. the Lucey Sabrina story cited on page 20 of BI #107, please give ye ed I was similarly privileged to get to know Stan Goldberg through a shout and I’ll pass the info on to Mr. Austin. attending the annual Christmas dinners that the Archie Comics owners used to organize. I used to look forward to riding from the AN APPRECIATED THROWBACK Archie offices over to the restaurant in Jon D’Agostino’s big old I just finished reading BACK ISSUE #107. Wow, did that bring on the Cadillac and getting to hear the stories that Stan would tell of the nostalgia for me!

I was a big collector of Archie comics starting in the mid-1990s good, old days at Archie and Marvel over our meal. Although his life had been touched by deep personal tragedy, Stan usually through around 2000–2001. I don’t remember the exact dates or managed to keep smiling and was always unfailingly proud of his issue numbers I started with, but it all began for me when my brother latest job. I was lucky to ink him on a really terrific story that had brought home an issue of the flagship Archie title on one of his the old Madhouse character Ronald the Rubber Boy (whom Dan weekly comic runs that featured Archie and his Mustang on the had co-created) joining Riverdale High as a student, much to Mr. cover… I think a photo cover, but I have not seen it in so long I can’t Weatherbee’s consternation. I never told Stan for fear that it might be sure now. I had never read any Archie before that one, but I read embarrass him, but on his cover for that story (similar to a famous it and enjoyed it immensely. Soon we were hunting back issues, and splash page of Mr. Fantastic by Jack Kirby in an issue of The Fantastic all the titles being produced were added to my pull list in short order.

Four) he had drawn the wildly flailing long-limbed Ronald with two Over the next few years I collected over 1000 Archie comics, ranging left hands, which I was quietly able to fix… “If you’ve gotta make from the 1940s to the then-present day. I eventually drifted away, though… a mistake, make sure it’s one that Jack Kirby made” became my I read so many in such a short time that the stories began to seem new philosophy in art—and life! repetitive to me. I didn’t enjoy them anymore, and eventually, I stopped Then there was the nice article on Gray Morrow and his nifty reading, with Archie #511 being the last number present in my collection.

Red Circle line. When I first came to New York City in the early I last had my collection out in 2002, so it’s been since then at ’70s I worked up at Neal Adams and Dick Giordano’s Continuity least since I read any of them… but reading this issue sure brought Associates, where Gray was a frequent visitor. To my surprise, one day back those good times in my life, and makes me want to get them Gray presented me with a script that he wanted me to pencil and out and read some of them again!

78 • BACK ISSUE • Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue

I learned something cool in this issue as well: the 1980s Mighty Crusaders line kept the continuity of previous stories! As I’ve commented in the Facebook group, continuity means everything to me. It’s what makes a comic series really “real” to me, like I’m looking into a world that really exists somewhere, more than on a printed page. The first comic I ever actually owned was Mighty Crusaders #12, from 1984. I was born in October of that year, and my brother, who bought me my first (and probably all) issues of Archie in my collection, read me my first comic (DC Special #29) at five-days-old, and I’ve been in the hobby ever since. He picked up that issue of Mighty Crusaders because it was the most colorful comic on the rack in his first visit to the comic store after I was born.

It’s still the only issue of the series in my collection, but after reading the article, I know now that I will be chasing the rest of the Red Circle books of the ’80s at any future comic shows I attend!

And even though I am not a fan of horror comics, I’m going to be looking for a copy of Sorcery #9 to see how that text piece ends!

This issue hit the nostalgia factor for me more than any other issue I’ve read—DC Comics, my main collecting focus, is ever present.

I’ve never known a time in my life without DC Comics. But Archie… that brings me back to when I was younger, before health issues negatively impacted my life, a great time. I thank you!

– Billy Kingsley

TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

WANTED: STAND-IN SUPERHEROES!

Two for the price of one from me, as I picked up BI #107 and 108 at the same time.

I don’t think Archie (BACK ISSUE #107), or any of his associated titles have ever gained much traction on this side of the pond.

So this was one of those issues that at first glance held limited appeal for me.

Then I saw the Red Circle articles.

I can remember picking up the occasional Red Circle comic secondhand, back in the late 1970s, and being knocked out by the Gray Morrow art.

I subsequently tried to hunt down any comic that he illustrated, but Gray Morrow was a frustrating artist in that he never seemed to enjoy a consistent run on any title. To my mind, he is one of the unsung greats—just as good as any of his more lauded artistic contemporaries, and up there, for me, alongside Adams, Wrightson, De Zuniga, and Kaluta.

It took me quite a while to collect the handful of Red Circle Comics, back in those pre-internet days. Issues of Madhouse were especially difficult to come by—about as rare as hens’ teeth. It was terrific to have a light shone on this long-forgotten corner of the comics world, but that, of course, is one of the many delights of BACK ISSUE. I always liked Aquaman (BACK ISSUE #108), but I wouldn’t put it any stronger than that.

I expect that’s been the problem for the Sea King over the years, and why he’s struggled to keep his numerous eponymous titles afloat.

The fact that he is 77 years young, and yet still hasn’t had one of his own titles reaching the 100-issue mark probably tells its own story.

It was only reading John Trumbull’s splendidly comprehensive article on the post-Crisis Aquaman that I realized how complicated his history has been, and how much I had lost touch with the character.

How many different mothers (and indeed Luke Cage TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. BACK ISSUE TM & © TwoMorrows. All Rights Reserved.

fathers) has he had in the last 30-something years? Not quite Hawkman levels of retconning, but confusing nonetheless, and something which can make it difficult for a lapsed reader to know quite where they are.

I have to say I loved Erik Larsen’s “We’re underwater” reminder, and made me think it’s high time I checked out some old Aquaman issues, just to see if there are any panels of Atlanteans drinking and enjoying candlelit dinners!

For a future issue, how about a “Stand-In Superheroes”-themed one? I’m thinking here of the Azrael Batman years, Wally West as the main Flash, the Hal Jordan Spectre (Did that really happen?), Artemis as Wonder Woman, Beta Ray Bill Thor, and James Rhodes as Iron Man. If you’ve covered some or all of these before and I’ve forgotten, I can only apologize.

– Simon Bullivant Simon, I purposely slotted the two Red Circle articles into the Archie issue to stretch beyond the traditional Archie audience and attract horror and superhero comic readers. I’ll occasionally insert superhero material into non-superhero-themed issues—as examples, the Invaders and WWII Wonder Woman articles back in #37, our “Comics Go to War” issue—to keep our mainstream-loving anchor audience interested… while hopefully introducing superhero and horror fans to other material in the process.

Actually, a “Superhero Stand-Ins” issue will be happening later this year, in BI #117. Early last fall, Rich Fitter suggested essentially the same idea, which he called “Knock-Offs,” on BI’s Facebook page, proposing candidates such as US Agent, Thunderstrike, and Reign of the Supermen along with a few from your list. This is a great idea, and it will be a fun issue. Thanks to both you and Rich Fitter for your brainstorm!

GOOD TO SEE SEADRAGON

I just wanted to drop you a line to tell you how much I enjoyed and appreciated the article on “Seadragon” which appeared in BACK ISSUE #108!

It was great reliving the good old days, even if only briefly.

I recall that for some time even after Elite Comics went the way of all pulp that Tom Floyd and I each received occasional queries from fans wondering if there was any chance Seadragon might reappear. I still smile at the memory of seeing one of our Seadragon promotional posters hanging on the wall of one of New York City’s many fine comic shops!

And there was some life after Elite. John Wooley and Terry Tidwell continued on with Twilight Avenger and their other co-creation, Miracle Squad. And artist/co-creator Butch Burcham and I produced several issues of Night Wolf (after it was renamed Dark Wolf) for the then-newly bloomed Malibu Comics.

Good times. Thanks for sharing them with your readers!

– R. A. Jones You’re welcome, R. A. And it’s always nice to hear from one of comicdom’s finest historians and writers!

Next issue: Black Superheroes of the 1970s, featuring the Bronze Age history of Luke Cage, Hero for Hire! Plus: a retrospective of artist BILLY GRAHAM, Black Panther censorship in the UK, Black Goliath, a TONY ISABELLA interview, Black Lightning After Isabella, the Teen Titans’ Mal Duncan, DON McGREGOR and PAUL GULACY’s Sabre, and… Black Bomber (who?).

Featuring CHRIS CLAREMONT, J. M. DeMATTEIS, STEVE ENGLEHART, DENNY O’NEIL, BOB ROZAKIS, ROY THOMAS, TREVOR VON EEDEN, and more, under a classic Luke Cage cover by the Irreverent Billy Graham. Don’t ask—just BI it!

See you in thirty!

Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor-in-chief

Batman Movie 30th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 79

GET A FREE COPY! Help us find a few missing pages, and better scans of others. Anonymity will be respected.

JACK KIRBY’S DINGBAT LOVE

In cooperation with DC COMICS, TwoMorrows compiles a tempestuous trio of never-seen 1970s Kirby projects! These are the final complete, unpublished Jack Kirby stories in existence, presented here for the first time! Included are: Two unused DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET tales (Kirby’s final Kid Gang group, inked by MIKE ROYER and D. BRUCE BERRY, and newly colored for this book)! TRUE-LIFE DIVORCE, the abandoned newsstand magazine that was too hot for its time (reproduced from Jack’s pencil art—and as a bonus, we’ve commissioned MIKE ROYER to ink one of the stories)! And SOUL LOVE, the unseen ’70s romance book so funky, even a jive turkey will dig the unretouched inks by VINCE COLLETTA and TONY DeZUNIGA. PLUS: There’s Kirby historian JOHN MORROW’s in-depth examination of why these projects got left back, concept art and uninked pencils from DINGBATS, and a Foreword by former 1970s Kirby assistant MARK EVANIER! SHIPS OCT. 2019!

(160-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $14.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-091-5

rs. ctive owne their respe All characte

In the latest volume, KURT MITCHELL and ROY THOMAS document the 1940-44 “Golden Age” of comics, a period that featured the earliest adventures of BATMAN, CAPTAIN MARVEL, SUPERMAN, and WONDER WOMAN. It was a time when America’s entry into World War II was presaged Look for the 1945-49 volume by the arrival of such patriotic do-gooders as WILL EISNER’s Uncle Sam, HARRY SHORTEN and in early 2020!

IRV NOVICK’s The Shield, and JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY’s Captain America—and teenage culture found expression in a fumbling red-haired high school student named Archie Andrews. But most of all, it was the age of “packagers” like HARRY A CHESLER, and EISNER and JERRY IGER, who churned out material for the entire gamut of genres, from funny animal stories and crime tales, to jungle sagas and science-fiction adventures. Watch the history of comics begin! SHIPS JUNE 2019!

rs TM & ©

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: 1940-44

OR -COL FULLDCOVER HAR RIES SE nting me docu ecade of ! d each s history ic m co

(288-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $45.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-089-2

MAC RABOY Master of the Comics

Beginning with his WPA etchings during the 1930s, MAC RABOY struggled to survive the Great Depression and eventually found his way into the comic book sweatshops of America. In that world of four-color panels, he perfected his art style on such creations as DR. VOODOO, ZORO the MYSTERY MAN, BULLETMAN, SPY SMASHER, GREEN LAMA, and his crowning achievement, CAPTAIN MARVEL JR. Raboy went on to illustrate the FLASH GORDON Sunday newspaper strip, and left behind a legacy of meticulous perfection.

Through extensive research and interviews with son DAVID RABOY, and assistants who worked with the artist during the Golden Age of Comics, author ROGER HILL brings Mac Raboy, the man and the artist, into focus for historians to savor and enjoy. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER includes never-before-seen photos, a wealth of rare and unpublished artwork, and the first definitive biography of a true Master of the Comics! Introduction by ROY THOMAS! ISBN: 978-1-60549-090-8 • SHIPS AUG. 2019!

(160-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $14.95 Roger Hill’s 2017 biography of REED CRANDALL sold out just months after its release—don’t let this one pass you by!Pre-order now!

Silver ary ers Anniv -2019 1994 ears 25 Y

TwoMorrows.

The Future of Comics History.

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com Don’t miss exclusive sales, limited editions, and new releases! Sign up for our mailing list: http:// groups.yahoo.com/group/twomorrows

!

NEW

BACK ISSUE #114

BACK ISSUE #115

BACK ISSUE #116

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK COMIC BOOK IMPLOSION ORAL HISTORY OF DC COMICS CHRONICLES: The 1990s AN CIRCA 1978! Marking the 40th anniver-

BLACK SUPERHEROES OF THE 1970s!

History of Luke Cage, Hero for Hire! A retrospective of artist BILLY GRAHAM, a TONY ISABELLA interview, Black Lightning, Black Panther in the UK, Black Goliath, the Teen Titans’ Mal and Bumblebee, DON McGREGOR and PAUL GULACY’s Sabre, and… Black Bomber (who?). Featuring TREVOR VON EEDEN, STEVE ENGLEHART, ROY THOMAS, & a BILLY GRAHAM cover!

SCI-FI SUPERHEROES! In-depth looks at JIM STARLIN’s Dreadstar and Company, and the dystopian lawman Judge Dredd. Also: Nova, GERRY CONWAY & MIKE VOSBURG’s Starman, PAUL LEVITZ & STEVE DITKO’s Starman, WALTER SIMONSON’s Justice Peace (from the pages of Thor), and GREG POTTER & GENE COLAN’s Jemm, Son of Saturn! With a Dreadstar and Company cover by STARLIN and ALAN WEISS!

SUPERHEROES VS. MONSTERS! Monsters in Metropolis, Batman and the Horror Genre, DOUG MOENCH and KELLEY JONES’ Batman: Vampire, Marvel Scream-Up, Dracula and Godzilla vs. Marvel, DC/Dark Horse Hero/Monster crossovers, and a Baron Blood villain history. With CLAREMONT, CONWAY, DIXON, GIBBONS, GRELL, GULACY, JURGENS, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, and a cover by MICHAEL GOLDEN.

Year-by-year account of the decade when X-MEN #1 sold 8.1 million copies, IMAGE COMICS was formed, Superman died, Batman had his back broken, and Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN led to the VERTIGO line of adult comic books. Go behind-thescenes in that era of gimmicky covers, skimpy costumes, and mega-crossovers. By KEITH DALLAS and JASON SACKS.

sary of the “DC Implosion”, one of the most notorious events in comics (which left stacks of completed comic book stories unpublished and spawned Cancelled Comics Cavalcade). Featuring JENETTE KAHN, PAUL LEVITZ, LEN WEIN, MIKE GOLD, and others, plus detailed analysis of how it changed the landscape of comics!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships July 2019

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Aug. 2019

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Sept. 2019

(288-pg. FULL-COLOR Hardcover) $44.95 (Digital Edition) $15.95 • Now shipping!

(136-page paperback w/ COLOR) $21.95 (Digital Edition) $10.95 • Now shipping!

ALTER EGO #158

ALTER EGO #159

ALTER EGO #160

DRAW #36

FCA SPECIAL! Golden Age writer WILLIAM WOOLFOLK interview, and his scripting records! Art by BECK, SCHAFFENBERGER, BORING, BOB KANE, CRANDALL, KRIGSTEIN, ANDRU, JACK COLE, FINE, PETER, HEATH, PLASTINO, MOLDOFF, GRANDENETTI, and more! Plus JOHN BROOME, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and the 2017 STAR WARS PANEL with CHAYKIN, LIPPINCOTT, and THOMAS!

Peter Cannon–Thunderbolt writer/artist PETE MORISI talks about the creative process! Plus, his correspondence with JACK KIRBY, JOE SIMON, AL WILLIAMSON, CHARLES BIRO, JOE GILL, GEORGE TUSKA, ROCKY MASTROSERIO, PAT MASULLI, SAL GENTILE, DICK GIORDANO, and others! Also: JOHN BROOME’s bio, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and BILL SCHELLY!

REMEMBERING STEVE DITKO! Sturdy Steve at Marvel, DC, Warren, Charlton, and elsewhere! A rare late-1960s Ditko interview by RICHARD HOWELL— biographical notes by NICK CAPUTO— tributes by MICHAEL T. GILBERT, PAUL LEVITZ, BERNIE BUBNIS, BARRY PEARL, ROY THOMAS, et al. Plus FCA, JOHN BROOME, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

Spider-Man cover by DITKO!

MIKE HAWTHORNE (Deadpool, Infinity Countdown) interview, YANICK PAQUETTE (Wonder Woman: Earth One, Batman Inc., Swamp Thing) how-to demo, JERRY ORDWAY’s “Ord-Way” of creating comics, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews the latest art supplies, plus Comic Art Bootcamp by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY! May contain nudity for figure-drawing instruction; for Mature Readers Only.

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 • Now shipping!

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 • Ships June 2019

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 • Ships August 2019

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Summer 2019

BRICKJOURNAL #56

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #19 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #20

KIRBY COLLECTOR #75

MIKE GRELL

LIFE IS DRAWING WITHOUT AN ERASER

Career-spanning tribute covering Legion of Super-Heroes, Warlord, & Green Arrow at DC Comics, and Grell’s own properties Jon Sable, Starslayer, and Shaman’s Tears. Told in Grell’s own words, with PAUL LEVITZ, DAN JURGENS, DENNY O’NEIL, MARK RYAN, & MIKE GOLD. Heavily illustrated!

(160-page FULL-COLOR TPB) $27.95 (176-page LTD. ED. HARDCOVER) $37.95 (Digital Edition) $12.95 • Now shipping!

KIRBY COLLECTOR #76

LIFE-SIZE LEGO and what it takes to build them (besides a ton of LEGO brick)! HELEN SHAM’s sculptures of giant everyday items, MAGNUS LAUGHLO’s GI Joe®-inspired models, military builds by ERIC ONG, plus “Bricks In The Middle” comic by KEVIN HINKLE, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifig Customization by JARED K. BURKS, & more!

Celebrating the greatest fantasy artist of all time, FRANK FRAZETTA! From THUN’DA and EC COMICS to CREEPY, EERIE, and VAMPIRELLA, STEVE RINGGENBERG and CBC’s editor present an historical retrospective, including insights by current creators and associates, and memories of the man himself. PLUS: Frazetta-inspired artists JOE JUSKO, and TOM GRINDBERG, who contributes our Death Dealer cover painting!

NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOES! Interview with JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER (CRY FOR DAWN, VAMPIRELLA), a chat with JOE SINNOTT about his Marvel years inking Jack Kirby and work at TREASURE CHEST, JOE JUSKO discusses the Marvel Age of Comics and his fabulous “Corner Box Collection,” plus the artists behind the Topps bubble gum BAZOOKA JOE comic strips, CRAIG YOE, and more!

KIRBY & LEE: STUF’ SAID! The creators of the Marvel Universe’s own words, in chronological order, from fanzine, magazine, radio, and TV interviews, painting a picture of JACK KIRBY and STAN LEE’s relationship—why it succeeded, where it deteriorated, and when it eventually failed.

Includes a study of their solo careers after 1970, and recollections from STEVE DITKO, WALLACE WOOD, & JOHN ROMITA SR.

FATHERS & SONS! Odin/Thor, Zeus/ Hercules, Darkseid/Orion, Captain America/ Bucky, and other dysfunctional relationships, unpublished 1994 interview with GIL KANE eulogizing Kirby, tributes from Jack’s creative “sons” in comics (MUMY, PALMIOTTI, QUESADA, VALENTINO, McFARLANE, GAIMAN, & MILLER), MARK EVANIER, 2018 Kirby Tribute Panel, Kirby pencil art gallery, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 • Now shipping!

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 • Summer 2019

(160-page trade paperback) $24.95 (Digital Edition) $11.95 • Now shipping!

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 • Now shipping!

DVD & BLU-RAY DISCS

THE OTHER AQUATIC SUPERHERO

YOUR FAVORITE MADEFOR-TV MOVIES NOW ON BLU-RAY! BLU-R

WARNERARCHIVE.COM

THOUSANDS OF FILMS & TV SERIES DIRECT FROM THE STUDIO VAULT ©2019 Turner Entertainment Co. and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

PRINTED IN CHINA

MAN FROM ATLANTIS (1977)