By various (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-85286-987-9
This is a frankly spectacular showing from some of the comics world’s greatest talents producing short complete tales without benefit or hindrance of colour. Ranging from poignant (‘Good Evening, Midnight’ written and illustrated by Klaus Janson and ‘Heroes’ by Archie Goodwin and Gary Gianni), to tragic (Bruce Timm’s ‘Two of a Kind’) and the just plain weird (‘The Third Mask’ by Katsuhiro Otomo) these highly personal takes from major league creators show why the Batman continues to grip the public consciousness.
As much a thematic metaphor as an artistic exercise, the stories were not restricted to current DC continuity, but explored the character in impressionistic terms. Originally produced as a four-issue miniseries the book also features ‘Perpetual Mourning’ by Ted McKeever, ‘The Hunt’ by Joe Kubert, ‘Petty Crimes’ by Howard Chaykin, and Archie Goodwin also scripted the eerily memorable Jazz thriller ‘The Devil’s Trumpet’ illustrated by the incredible José Muñoz.
Walter Simonson crafts the science myth ‘Legend’ whilst Jan Strnad and Richard Corben reunite for ‘Monster Maker’, as urbanly bleak as Kent William’s ‘Dead Boys Eyes’, whilst Chuck Dixon and the much-missed Jorge Zaffino’s ‘The Devil’s Children’ examines the police’s unique attitude to the Gotham Guardian.
Neil Gaiman and Simon Bisley’s ‘A Black and White World’ is probably the weakest entry in the book, relying on clichéd “Fourth Wall cleverness†rather than any actual plot, but Andrew Helfer and Liberatore’s insightful kidnap tale ‘In Dreams’ delivers a punch, as does Matt Wagner’s stylish romp ‘Heist’. ‘Bent Twig’ is an intense whimsy from Bill Sienkiewicz with a seasonal theme, as is ‘A Slaying Song Tonight’ by Dennis O’Neil and Teddy Kristiansen.
Brian Bolland produces the beautifully disturbed ‘An Innocent Guy’ and Strnad returns to script ‘Monsters in the Closet’ for the brilliant Kevin Nowlan, as does Denny O’Neil for Brian Stelfreeze with ‘Leavetaking’, and the book is well supplemented with pin-ups and sketch pages from the likes of Michael Allred, Moebius, Mikchal Kaluta, Tony Salmons, P. Craig Russell, Marc Silvestri, Alex Ross and Neal Adams.
The miniseries won numerous awards and its success led to a regular black-and-white slot in the monthly anthology comic Gotham Knights the contents of which are collected in two subsequent volumes.
© 2000 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.