My top five Batman artists

At the end of the day this is an impossible list.

To cut the field down from the calibre of artists that have drawn the Batman over the years is just something I’m not up to.  I don’t know if anyone could, certainly not pleasing everyone (if anyone!).

These are five artists that I just love, I love their interpretations of the Batman and some of them are indeed the best Batman artists ever, but I ain’t saying anything!

1. Tim Sale - his work has caught the attention of the world thanks to Heroes but before that Sale was and still is doing amazing work on Batman (as well as extraordinary stuff with some of the Marvel characters).



2. Norm Breyfogle - I grew up on Breyfogle’s work on Batman, he has the most brilliant control over kinetic energy in his depictions of Batman, especially in the cape.



3. Frank Miller - Apart from being a great writer I love his artwork too, it has this great raw power to it, his Batman is a warrior.



4. Mike Mignola - One of my favourite Batman series is the Black and White series and part of that series was Mignola’s Batman (he’s done covers before).



5. Jim Lee - I’m really loving his work on the All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder.

So who are your favourite artists?

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DC’s Trinity dropped from comic book Thursday

Last week I wrote a post titled Trinity: Last chance.  I never got around to publishing it but the general gist was that I was giving the new DC series Trinity (which I’ve talked about in the past) one last shot at keeping me as a reader.

I was giving the issue, that at the time was still wrapped in its paper bag the chance to redeem the series, to fulfill the promise that the idea holds.

I really wanted to be convinced.

I wasn’t.

The problem with the book is that it promises to be about the DC holy trinity that is Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.  Three characters whose interaction with each other should be riveting.

The reality is that the current storyline does little to nothing to actually explore their interactions, is only half a comic long with the remainder of the book devoted to some behind the scenes story featuring none of the trio.

The book has actually become a very lame version of the JLA.

It does have great covers though, but great covers do not maketh the comic.

What would be interesting is to get some of your edgier or fresher writers to write one shots of the three heavyweights interacting.  Accessible stories that focus on the characters as people who share the distinction of being the three greatest heroes (except for Gnort) in the DC universe.

I’ve got to tighten my comic book Thursday budget anyway and this is the first of the dead wood to be removed.  Maybe I’ll take another look when the current storyline finishes, then again maybe I won’t.

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The Dark Knight - greatest film ever?

When the first Batman was coming out the ‘batmania’ was probably at its highest, people had bat symbols on everything, shirts, jackets even shaved into their hair.  For me it was a time when I was discovering comics in a big way, my local newsagent didn’t really carry too many so the couple of copies I could get my hands on were like treasure.

Then I got to see the film and it was unlike anything I had ever seen before.

This morning Tracey and I dragged ourselves into the cinema to see the Dark Knight, full of hope, I had said to someone that I wasn’t actually that interested in the film, that the hype was beginning to wear thin on me.

But the ads started their magic on me and I was beginning to be more and more hopeful that this indeed would be the best comic book movie ever.  The completely booked out cinema soon fell into darkness and the film started, it was 1989 all over again.

The Dark Knight is probably in my opinion the best film I’ve ever seen.

I know it’s a stupid thing to say, really it’s stupid to compare it to other films, Citizen Kane and Casablanca, brilliant films, but I find it hard comparing them to each other let alone movies made in my generation.  I used to say the Lord of the Rings was the best made film (different to best film), but I’d even reconsider this estimation in regards to The Dark Knight.

It has to be said straight away that Heath Ledger is brilliant, creepy and completely reviting.  A huge concern of mine was that he would steal the show, that it would become the Joker film with Batman as a supporting character.  This didn’t happen, and it is a credit to the editor and the director because Joker is simply brilliant and could easily have been the focus.  It isn’t Ledger up there on screen, he is the embodiment of the character and it is a tribute to the man.  His final performance is incredibly Oscar worthy, it will be an outrage and a clear example that the Academy is out of touch if they choose to ignore the performance based on the fact that it is a comic book film.

This is the real Batman that we are finally seeing on the screen, he moves and fights with fluidity rather than relying on the suit to create presence as he strides through a fight scene (he can now move his head which hampered Batmen of the past).  Bale has worked on his Batman voice and it never falters, he is a different man when he is wearing the cowl.  This is the warrior Batman that the comics have shown through the years.

When I first saw Gary Oldman as Gordon in Batman Begins it was like a page of Batman Year One had come to life, he so much looks like a young Jim Gordon as he appears in that comic.  But Oldman doesn’t just look the part he brings so much to the character, he is a sane good man in an insane bad Gotham.

The great thing about this film is that it is not the spectacle which delivers the impact, it’s the characters, especially the trinity of James Gordon, Harvey Dent and Batman as they struggle with how far is too far before you cross the line.

I’ve never seen Harvey Dent presented so well, no offence to Tommy Lee Jones or even Billy Dee Williams but Aaron Eckhart makes the role his own and puts in an equal performance to Ledger, Bale and Oldman.  The origin is an interesting twist on the Two-Face story and the effects are extraordinary in addition to being faithful to the character’s standard comic book appearance.

This is a huge story that is told on a huge canvas, I won’t lie to you, it’s long, but you don’t care because you still want more.

Please start working on the sequel, now.

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Mushrooms and Kelley Jones

This week I’m picking up the second issue of Gotham After Midnight (on comic book Thursday), this is a good thing for a couple of reasons.  So far it has been an interesting enough stand alone story, which granted we’re only talking one issue so far.

The second reason is one that I’m really surprised that I’m saying( or writing as the case may be).

Kelley Jones

Let me give you some background on Kelley Jones and me first.  Jones started drawing the Batman title in 1995 (my last year in high school actually, for some reason I thought it was earlier than that, in fact he may have been doing covers earlier than that) and I hated his run.

The art was surreal, unrealistic and more suited I think to some messed up horror comic.  Arg - the ears! Jones drew the ears way too long!

I so disliked the comic at the time that I came very close to giving it up and in fact a year later (or even less) I believe I did just that.  On reflection though there was a lot more reasons than just artwork and it definitely had nothing to do with the quality.

And the mushrooms?

Did you ever have anything in your childhood that you hated or at least thought you did until you matured (older..?) and you realised that you are actually quite partial to it.  Well for me it was mushrooms and Kelley Jones.

When I saw that a Jones Batman limited series was coming I let go of my growing distaste for too many books coming out around the same character for a second and got very interested.  Instantly without even thinking about it I discovered that I am a Kelley Jones fan (I already discovered I like mushrooms some years ago in case you were wondering).

Those wonderful gothic lines, the sweeping impossibly long cape and yes, those ears.  Those unbelievably long demonic ears.  I caught myself actually grinning as I read through those pages in Batman Gotham After Midnight.  It felt like visiting an old house that you lived in as a child and hadn’t seen for years.

Yes it appears to be a good comic but better still it let me spend twenty minutes or so in the warm comfortable company of my childhood.

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Trinity: a little underwhelming

One of the comic book series that I was really looking forward to was DC’s Trinity series which promised to focus on the DC big three: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

How could one go wrong with these heavy hitters?

I don’t read any Superman titles and whilst I’ve been tempted to take a look at it I’ve just never been overly impressed with Wonder Woman.  I suppose for Wonder Woman it always feels like something complicated is going on and they’re right in the middle of it and it would be hard to pick up the title.

Superman I don’t get because there are so many titles already and Superman has a whole bunch of different series (at least it seems like that).  I may one day pick up an All Star Superman trade paperback.

So when I saw the ads for Trinity I thought that will be cool to have three icons in the same comic without having to make room for the rest of the JLA.

As you can probably tell by the title of the post I can’t say that I’ve been overly impressed with the first three issues.  The covers are cool and most of the art is cool if I had to conjure up an art complaint it might be that Wonder Woman comes up a little shabby occasionally and Superman a little generic but overall it is pleasing enough.

I noticed that they’ve already gathered the first three issues together and put them in a trade paperback and from a story point of view it makes sense, because as a three part comic series it hasn’t.  I found myself having to go back to the previous issues to work out what the hell was going on and I still am not convinced, though with the third I have a better idea.

I just don’t think the story is showcasing the best of the DC characters very well.  Maybe the storyline and the confusing out of the blue events are for effect… I’ll tell you what the effect is, it’s pissing me off.  Well it’s not really but I really wanted to use that line to keep the movie geeks awake whilst I write about comic book geek stuff.

I have a general idea of what they are doing and they are pointing to the epic grandness of the three characters but I think the Batman Superman series has worked a little more effectively.  I will point out that it’s not Wonder Woman’s fault either.

I won’t give the series up straight away, it can have at least four or so episodes to bring me around but I’ve already got a increasingly heavy schedule of comics and can’t hang on to the dead wood.

No I will not be buying the new Crisis series.

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Iron Man vs Batman

You know I’m a sucker for a good “I’m a Mac” parodies but this one was brought to my attention by Leechbabe and I nearly spat my coffee all over the keyboard and monitor.

Since I’m embedding youtube links I don’t think that the Wassup parodies will ever get old for me, this one is particularly good!

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One sleep to go and then it’s Iron Man time

I really can’t believe that in just over twelve hours I’ll be settling into my seat about to watch one of my favourite comic book characters of all time being brought to live on the big screen by pretty much the perfect cast and from all reports, director also.

Tracey and I had this conversation the other day:

Tracey: ‘What if the film is no good?’
Lee: ‘Won’t be.’
Tracey: ‘But you know, sometimes you really want a film to be really good and it isn’t.’
Lee: ‘Not going to happen.’
Tracey: ‘Would you marry Iron Man?’
Lee: …
Tracey: ‘You would!!!!’

Fortunately the reviews for Iron Man couldn’t be better - well they could, there are still a couple of party poopers who don’t get comic book films but you know… whatever.

There was also an interview over at USA today with the three leading ladies from Iron Man, Hulk and Batman.

There were some fairly condescending questions such as:

But let’s face it: Aren’t these movies, by their very nature, a little silly and hokey?
Maggie: Ours is not like that. We had a good script.
Gwyneth: Ours, too! It wasn’t embarrassing in any way. Although there were lines that were a little bit like (screams dramatically), “No, no, press the button! Press the button!!!” Sometimes I’d go, “This line belongs in the book called ‘What You Cannot Say in a Movie.’” But I suppose if you’re going to blow somebody up, there’s a limited number of responses you can have for that.

Read the rest of the interview.

Also if you follow the Friday Five lists you know that Friday is going to be Top Five Comic Book Movies, if Iron Man is even half as good as I hope then it will hit the number one spot easily!!!

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Robin’s first miniseries

As part of my reading challenge (to read three books in as many weeks) I realised that I haven’t been indulging in much comic book reading of late and I have a huge backlog thanks to digital comics.

One of the series I am interested in catching up on from day one is Robin. I was reading and collecting Batman at the time when Tim Drake became Robin and have always been interested in his career, if only for this fact (eighteen years or something now - wow).

Tim was actually the very first Robin to have his own mini series.

So I went back and grabbed the first mini-series which took place immediately after Tim was given the mantle of Robin. The storyline is simply that after being confirmed by Batman as Robin Tim feels like he hasn’t earned the right to be Robin and goes away to Paris to train with a master martial artist, sort of like how Bruce Wayne did in his early years.

It was a five part mini series and if you haven’t read it before it really fills in some blanks for some of the storyline showing up later in the Batman mythology. Especially Lynx who was still an ongoing character up until 2006 and King Snake who I thought was killed but apparently survived several encounters.

We also discover why Robin chose a Bo staff as his weapon of choice.

The story and art holds up today, if you can get past Tim getting his arse handed to him for pretty much the entire first issue as he trains at the dojo and then by some ex CIA or FBI guy and then later on by Shiva. Apparently taking a beating makes the Robin.

I don’t know though if it was worth five whole issues though, I would have possibly wrapped up the main story in possibly three and maybe have him finish the training he actually sought out in the first place.

Of course it must be said that my reading the early Robins is simply leading me up to a post titled: how much do I hate Robin’s current costume?

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X-Files 2 comes out this year too?

Um OK I knew this was being made but didn’t realise that it would be coming out so soon. I mean come on I’m pretty bloody happy that it is but is this year not already being kind enough already!?

Iron Man, Batman, Hulk, Hellboy… and now X-Files 2 which has one of my favourite tag lines for a film ever: Believe again.

Now first I had my sulk about Iron Man and new people getting on board later in the game, well the X-Files is another one of those for me. I was quite into the paranormal and stuff and then when I first read about a new series called the X-Files I was mad excited about it. Then there was a brilliant first season of this amazing show and of course people got into it but then they all bloody become experts in the paranormal. Arrrrrg. End of sulk.

How awesome is that poster? I’m a sucker for a cool poster and of course for a well done trailer - it’s blurry and may take a while to load but check out the leaked X-Files 2 trailer:

Ok damn they removed it - it looked cool. You have to take my word for it. Here’s a pic of our favourite FBI Agents from the upcoming film instead, as soon as they officially release the trailer I’ll post it:

Please don’t tell me there are more awesome films coming this year! At least Star Trek isn’t until next year!!

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Bittersweet feelings over Iron Man

I liked him long before you people!

Before you guys start waving various protestations at me, when I say you people I don’t mean YOU people, I’m talking about the general public.

I know people say this all the time, I liked “blah blah” before everyone else made it popular but I really stuck with the Iron Man character for years. Almost as long as I collected Batman comics (Batman being my first love in the comic book world).

So seeing people jumping on the bandwagon now and being big experts on Tony Stark and on the various Iron Man armours really tears me down the middle. Where were you people three years ago? Five years? Ten..? (you get the idea).

Just take a look at that footage above to see that they’ve done the character justice - I read that the director was adamant about making it believable and I can honestly say I never imagined what it would be like trying to fly as Iron Man the first couple of times but that really captures it!

It’s fantastic to see the character treated as I’ve always known he should be and it doesn’t get better than seeing him on the big screen in all of his Shell-head glory! Shell-head; that’s his nickname in the Marvel universe you know, Golden Avenger is another name (someone suggested he was also known as the Crimson Avenger but I doubt this as this is a DC character and I don’t recall him ever being called this).

So I want the film to do really really really well (I can’t wait to see War Machine in the sequel - yes I’m talking sequels already!) but I do wish to hang on to my snobbery at the same time.

Ahhhh what do I care as long as they continue to bring out kick ass toys (which I may add I put pretty much all of them on lay-by the other day thank you very much)!

Oh and I can’t wait to get my hands on the Iron Man game either:

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