A bit of Golden Age Joker...
Nov. 9th, 2011 08:48 am![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_daily I do find it somewhat amusing how people complain these days about how the Joker seems to murder everyone, as, really, that's pretty much all he did back in the day as well.
Here are some pages from his debut back in the early 1940s, which give a pretty good indication into his personality and method of crimes,
Yeah, he's pretty much even LESS joke themed than some of the modern interpretations, and is arguably just a really, really smart mass murdering jewel thief.
Also, he hadn't quite gotten the nack for banter than he later developed through his conflict with Batman,
These pages are from the Dark Knight Archives, Volume One, which includes a lot of Mr J's early capers, Catwoman's debut and her feud with the Joker, and Batman's plan to kidnap an injured Joker from a prison hospital and lobotomise him to make him a "valuable" citizens.
Comparision with the modern comicbook Joker? Well the original had more of a financial motive behind his crimes, and only really killed people to scare people or just out of personal spite, unlike the modern people who (depending on who is writing) has dead people as the end result of his capers instead of a means to an end.
Tonally which of the newer versions is he like? Well bits of Heath Ledger's Joker, the planning genius behind his crimes is very similar, whilst the Gotham Underworld's plan to first kill the Joker and later band together under his rule also seems to be echoed in the recent movie. The relatively recent idea of the Joker being a personification of chaos again isn't present though. Mark Hammil one GENERALLY is pretty similar, in that he also was one for plans and stealing things. To an extent. The Joker is named as such because he looks like the playing card, and as such doesn't really do anything else clown-related at this point.
In comparision, Catwoman is pretty much the same as she was in the beginning, albeit she no longer robs people whilst wearing an ankle length skirt and headscarf. Or a freaky giant cathead. Interestingly both the Joker and Catwoman were introduced as masters of disguise, with Selina pretending to be an old lady to carry off heists and the Joker doing things like pretending to be a cop that's meant to be protecting one of his victims from himself.
They have recently released a book about the Joker and how he changed over the years, I reccomend it, it's an interesting read. It also expresses amusement over a strip from the 1950s in which Bob Kane explains how he created Batman, the Joker etc. entirely by himself with no help from anyone... even though Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson (the actual creator of the Joker) pretty much did at least some of the work, especially as Bob Kane had a knack for hiring ghost artists after a certain point in his career.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Joker-Visual-H
Here are some pages from his debut back in the early 1940s, which give a pretty good indication into his personality and method of crimes,
Yeah, he's pretty much even LESS joke themed than some of the modern interpretations, and is arguably just a really, really smart mass murdering jewel thief.
Also, he hadn't quite gotten the nack for banter than he later developed through his conflict with Batman,
These pages are from the Dark Knight Archives, Volume One, which includes a lot of Mr J's early capers, Catwoman's debut and her feud with the Joker, and Batman's plan to kidnap an injured Joker from a prison hospital and lobotomise him to make him a "valuable" citizens.
Comparision with the modern comicbook Joker? Well the original had more of a financial motive behind his crimes, and only really killed people to scare people or just out of personal spite, unlike the modern people who (depending on who is writing) has dead people as the end result of his capers instead of a means to an end.
Tonally which of the newer versions is he like? Well bits of Heath Ledger's Joker, the planning genius behind his crimes is very similar, whilst the Gotham Underworld's plan to first kill the Joker and later band together under his rule also seems to be echoed in the recent movie. The relatively recent idea of the Joker being a personification of chaos again isn't present though. Mark Hammil one GENERALLY is pretty similar, in that he also was one for plans and stealing things. To an extent. The Joker is named as such because he looks like the playing card, and as such doesn't really do anything else clown-related at this point.
In comparision, Catwoman is pretty much the same as she was in the beginning, albeit she no longer robs people whilst wearing an ankle length skirt and headscarf. Or a freaky giant cathead. Interestingly both the Joker and Catwoman were introduced as masters of disguise, with Selina pretending to be an old lady to carry off heists and the Joker doing things like pretending to be a cop that's meant to be protecting one of his victims from himself.
They have recently released a book about the Joker and how he changed over the years, I reccomend it, it's an interesting read. It also expresses amusement over a strip from the 1950s in which Bob Kane explains how he created Batman, the Joker etc. entirely by himself with no help from anyone... even though Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson (the actual creator of the Joker) pretty much did at least some of the work, especially as Bob Kane had a knack for hiring ghost artists after a certain point in his career.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Joker-Visual-H
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Date: 2011-11-11 03:52 pm (UTC)