scans_daily

As has been noted many times, and by infinitely wiser heads than mine, Batman and the Joker have a truly fascinating dynamic... Committed crime buster versus repeatedly committed criminal, implacable order versus capricious chaos, life versus death. This Bob Kane lithograph is one of my favourite images, and it's not even from a comic!

And from the Joker's debut in Batman #1, Robin has been a very useful pawn (Yes, revisionist histories, most of Batman's foes debuted AFTER Robin, no matter how much you may like to rewrite the past!)

When I ask for commissions, I usually try to let the commissioner have first dibs on choosing the bad guy, and it's hardly surprising that the Joker is usually high on the list of characters they'd like to draw... He IS a classic after all.

As evinced by these samples, which co-incidentally have come in more or less at the same time.

This first one is from Vic Bridges, an artist and writer who hit the comics scene in the 1980's with his own creation "FAZE 1:Fazers" (Must post a sample of that sometime) and since has done work on the likes of "Savage Dragon" and "Freak Force".

So when I discovered he was back on the beam for commissions, I took the leap and offered the usual range of choices. This is the one he picked... I have to say that after about half a minute of "That looks weird", I LOVE this take on the Joker, it's very different, but I can just see the Joker going gangsta for a few days if the whim took him, and Vic's attention to detail is terrific!

I also love the little hint in the picture that whatever fate has befallen Robin here, that a certain someone is going to make sure he's not stuck in his prison for long!

This is another commission, this time from Tim Tyler, with a more classic take on the Joker (and a great, cartoony Penguin) as Robin sleeps off a lungful of knockout gas in the Joker's new playroom.

This one by Gary Shipman wasn't a commission, but a pic I saw on e-bay and loved, both for the theme, and the somewhat sketchy, scratchy art style, it comes over as unbalanced as the Joker himself.

And this is the grand finale, my latest Mitch Ballard commission, I don't have it in my hot little hands yet, but it's only a matter of time.

As has been noticed in the past, I have a fondness for those other peril-filled partners in criminal capturing (and being captured), those titanic teens of trouble, the Hardy Boys. And in particular the cover of "While the Clock Ticked", for some reason the acme of the concept of tied up heroic in my, admittedly somewhat warped, but purely fantastical, opinion.

I had originally asked Mitch to showcase the Winchester Brothers from Supernatural in the roles, but he pointed out that given the angles, it was almost impossible to draw them in such a way as to make them particularly recognisable as such, and would I mind if he substituted the Batboys in their place. Boy, does he know his customer or what? :)

I can just hear Mark Hamill's Joker voice here' "Now, you boys play quietly up here, whilst I pop downstairs to have a word with your Dad. No rough-housing now!"