Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

[cyberghostface]

"The original first draft of the script included the character of Robin as Batman's sidekick. Robin appeared in a few scenes at the beginning then remained at Police Headquarters for the bulk of the book, where he spent his time studying plans and histories of the house, in order to find a way in to help his mentor. Dave McKean, however, felt that he had already compromised his artistic integrity sufficiently by drawing Batman and refused point blank to bend over for the Boy Wonder — so after one brave but ridiculous attempt to put him in a trenchcoat, I wisely removed him from the script." - Grant Morrison

As an introduction I'd add that if this is your first time reading this and if you like it, you should definitely seek out the full version. There's an entire subplot involving the origins of Arkham Asylum and the recent editions include the script with commentary that explain all the psychological and religious symbolism and what the heck is going on.

The story begins with Gordon telling Batman that the inmates have taken over Arkham Asylum and are holding everyone hostage. Their final request is Batman.





Joker's face is referenced from a mask sculpted by McKean which you can view here. There are a few variations but it's why he has the same expression for most of the book.







An interesting aside: the original script had Joker dressed up like Madonna from the 'Open Your Heart' music video.

Comments

[lordultimus]

It's a good story, and reading the annotations and scripts are basically required, but I don't know how I feel about Morrison putting forth that Batman is a closet misogynist.