Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

[cyberghostface]

“The first shock came when I was told that the book had been canceled. Eager to embrace influences from Cabaret to the Theater of Cruelty, the Joker was to have been dressed in the conical bra worn by Madonna for her ‘Open Your Heart’ video. Warner Bros. objected to my portrayal on the grounds that it would encourage the widespread belief that Jack Nicholson, the feted actor lined up to play the Joker in an upcoming $40 million Batman movie, was a transvestite.

I wrote a long, impassioned letter to Jenette Kahn, and after some tense negotiations, we managed to keep the Joker in high heels at least, and Arkham Asylum went back on the schedule. I was sure that Nicholson would have loved it even more if he could have played the Clown Prince of Crime in a dress, but in the end, it was Heath Ledger who immortalized the [transvestite] Joker in 2008’s The Dark Knight, vindicating my foresight.” — 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.

Comments

[numeronone]

Also, is that guy watching Psycho on two TVs simultaneously?

[icon_uk]

What makes you think that that there's two TV's?

I see only one TV with an indoor aerial on top of it, but I might be missing something.

[numeronone]

The shot is from the final moments of the movie but the lines "Mother! Oh god, mother! Blood...blood!" happen in the first 30 minutes, after the murder of Marion Crane.

[icon_uk]

Ooh, nice cinematic detective work there! :)

[lego_joker]

We could, of course, always chalk this up to Morrison having another Talia Moment. (Heck, I don't think Psycho was even on VHS back in '88 - it's not like anyone could've checked easily.)

[icon_uk]

I think it was, we weren't animals back then you know! :)

I think it's more likely Morrison wanted to use the quote, and that photo of Norman was readily available as reference for McKean and it didn't occur to either of them that there would be a disparity.

[scorntx]

It didn't occur to them, while writing a story which kind of requires in-depth scrutiny just to figure out what's going on at any given moment, in a medium whose fanbase tend to be overly analytical nitpickers anyhow, to not make a mistake which nerds would notice and jump upon like a pack of lions on a wounded gazelle?

Whoops.