scans_daily

The Joker was on Batman's mind - a false one, the latest imitator of a known Gotham City criminal, and his conversation in Arkham Asylum with the real one.

Elsewhere, the reporter Yuko Yagi was being driven to dinner with Bruce Wayne - dinner that'd been canceled, but then unexpectedly un-canceled.

On the Gotham waterfront, Batman watched for any suspicious activity, any hint of trafficking in the drug Fanatic - the drug found in the bodies of the previous fake Gotham rogues, all of whom'd died horrific deaths while in custody.

He heard laughter from a docked boat nearby, and went to investigate.

" Welcome aboard, Batman! "

The fake Joker, Yuko bound by his feet, smiled at him.

( Batman listened to him crow. )

Current Music: No Guardian Angel - T. Stebbins

thanekos

Two-Face had been foiled again in Gotham City by the Batman.

A news crew from Tokyo, who'd got themselves into the criminal's clutches in their pursuit of the Batman as story, was being criticized by Commissioner Gordon.

" Your conduct was inexcusable - comparable to our worst yellow journalism. "

He paused to take a phone call that shocked him.

" I have a.. strange ending for your story, Ms. Yagi, Mr. Nagai..

" The suspect died on the way to the county jail. "

( That threw them. )

Current Music: Nightmares - T. Stebbins/Mortimer/Odyssey & the DNA Team

thanekos

Batman: Child of Dreams was written and drawn by Kia Asamiya, and serialized in Kodansha's Magazine Z.

A couple years after its run there completed, it got an English-language release, with the dialogue tweaked by Max Allan Collins.

It opened on a news team from Japan, come to Gotham City for a story - Batman himself.

On the way to a Gotham crime scene (which they were tracking via police scanner), the team's producer turned to the on-camera reporter.

" What's this, Nagai? "

" Little good-luck charm.. Actually, it isn't from me.. It's a present from our generous sponsor.. Your loving uncle.. "

( She considered the little pendant. )

Current Music: One-Way Highway - A-One

history79

( Read more... )

lego_joker

For my tenth anniversary post, I waffled back and forth on what I was going to post. The greatest Joker story ever told (not written by Chuck Dixon)? The two most depressing pages to ever be shown in a My Little Pony comic? The pilot chapter of the gory-yet-intriguing manga known as Detective Conan (AKA Case Closed), one of my favorites to this day?

Eventually, I decided that old Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot ought to get a little more of the limelight lately. But even here, there were choices aplenty. Would I post his debut story? His first team-up with the Joker? The time he disguised himself a nun? The magnificent three issues that chronicled his transformation from outright supervillain to shady racketeer?

I was going to go for that last one, but then I remembered that part of that story happened to be written by That Guy Whose Name Rhymes With Schmeter Schmavid. And without that part, the rest of the story doesn't have quite as much punch to it. So instead, we'll turn to a much shorter Penguin story that came out in 1987, smack-dab in the middle of the post-Miller era.

(This story was printed in Batman Annual #11, alongside Alan Moore's much more famous Clayface III story. It was written by Max Allan Collins, drawn by Norm Breyfogle, and ran for fifteen pages.)

( Expecting tons of grim-n-grittiness behind the cut? Neither am I! )

icon_uk

In the past, I've posted from the original ending of Dick Grayson's Robin career, a long organic process of growth, told across both Batman titles, and primarily in the Teen Titans (Where Dick was a much more prominent character than in the Batverse at the time).

I've detailed telling the Titans, telling Bruce and Jason and putting on his Nightwing costume for the first time

And it struck me (and also following a post by

lego_joker that uses one of the panels herein) that in the interests of fairness and comparison, I should post from a couple of other iterations of the story. Starting with the first revamp... such as it was.

( From Batman #408 )

( World's Finest #6 )

lego_joker

To icon_uk, from his biggest fan...

Max Allan Collins' brief run on Batman from back in the day isn't really well-remembered. At most, a few Jason fans and writers draw from it as the primary source for Jason's post-Crisis origin, but that's about it.

And yet, said run contained some glorious, glorious scenes. Like this one.

Joker being tied up.

Just ignore the context, and pretend that one of the Robins (probably Dick) is paying the Joker back for all those years of being bound and gagged...

skjam

...There was "Action Comics Weekly", DC's first attempt at a weekly comic book. It was an anthology comic somewhat on the model of 2000 AD, several continuing stories each week, with seven page chapters (and a two-page Sunday comics spread for Superman.) There were several interesting projects done during this run--I especially liked the new Secret Six they had. Sadly, sales and logistics reasons meant that the experiment lasted less than a year.

Love that Kirby art, though I think this might have been an inventory piece DC had lying around. 2 1/3 pages from each of the seven-page storiesin Action Comics Weekly #638 (2/7/89), one double-page spread, and a special treat!

( Remember relevance? )

Your thoughts, questions and comments?
SKJAM!
(http://skjam.dreamwidth.org/19423.html --see my fiftieth birthday approaching!)

Current Mood: sore
Current Music: "From a Distance"--Bette Midler

thehefner

Five months after the smash hit release of the Tim Burton film, a new Batman comic strip ran in newspapers from 1989 to 1991. Following the film in spirit but set in an entirely new continuity, the first storyline was written by Max Allan Collins (Road to Perdition, creator of Post-Crisis Jason Todd) and illustrated by the late, great Marshall Rogers (Batman: Strange Apparitions, which still looks stellar today).

I've fallen head over heels in love with this comic strip. Naturally, my love doesn't really kick in until Harvey Dent becomes a major supporting character in the next storyline, which may be one of the most original and interesting takes on the character I've seen anywhere, in any medium. I actually suspect that it influenced the creators of Batman: The Animated Series.

But even from the start, I love how Collins (and his successor, William Messner-Loebs) didn't try to simply regurgitate the old stories for newspapers, but came up with distinctly different characterizations, origins, and plots, while the stories themselves feel completely divorced from comics of any era. They're fun, suspenseful, moving, and occasionally, even a bit on the cracky side.

( A rather different look at Gotham City behind the cut! )

Coming up next, the new creative team of Messner-Loebs, Infantino, and Nyberg bring us the Penguin, Batman's mysterious new British sidekick, and a refreshingly different take on Harvey Dent, D.A. (how do you like THOSE credentials, Rex Morgan?).

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Entries tagged with creator: max allan collins

Batman: Child of Dreams (3/?) - Whitefaced

Batman: Child of Dreams (2/?) - The False Faces

Batman: Child of Dreams (1/?) - The Man With Two Faces

Batman: Scar of the Bat

Ten Year Anniversary: Probably scans_daily's favorite Penguin story.

Dick Gives up the pixie boots V 2.0 (and 2. -1 sort of)

Because homicidal clowns need their daily dose of bondage, too...

Before there was 52....

The first round of incredibly rare Batman newspaper comics from 1989

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April 2025

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