{"id":29819,"date":"2024-05-14T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T08:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=29819"},"modified":"2024-05-14T08:01:59","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T08:01:59","slug":"batman-black-and-white-volume-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/05\/14\/batman-black-and-white-volume-1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Batman: Black and White volume 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Ted McKeever<\/strong>, Bruce Timm<\/strong>, Klaus Janson<\/strong>, Archie Goodwin & Gary Gianni<\/strong>, Katsuhiro Otomo<\/strong>, Joe Kubert<\/strong>, Howard Chaykin<\/strong>, Walter Simonson<\/strong>, Jos\u00e9 Mu\u00f1oz<\/strong>, Jan Strnad & Richard Corben<\/strong>, Kent Williams<\/strong>, Chuck Dixon & Jorge Zaffino<\/strong>, Neil Gaiman & Simon Bisley<\/strong>, Andrew Helfer & Liberatore<\/strong>, Bill Sienkiewicz<\/strong>, Matt Wagner<\/strong>, Dennis O\u2019Neil & Teddy Kristiansen<\/strong>, Brian Bolland<\/strong>, Kevin Nowlan<\/strong>, Brian Stelfreeze<\/strong>, Michael Allred<\/strong>, Moebius<\/strong>, Michael Kaluta<\/strong>, Tony Salmons<\/strong>, P. Craig Russell<\/strong>, Marc Silvestri<\/strong>, Alex Ross<\/strong>, Neal Adams<\/strong> & various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-4012-1589-7 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Batman<\/strong> is a creature of the night. Batman is the world\u2019s greatest detective, escapologist and master of disguise. Batman fights criminals, mad men and bad women, aliens and monsters. Batman is all this and more. In a world of fabulous eerily distorted hues and constantly shifting blinding colour (mostly red) he sees in black and white… and now so will you\u2026<\/p>\n

As recapped in a sagacious Introduction, in the early 1990s Batman: Black and White<\/strong> was originally envisioned as an experimental limited series, with editors Marl Chiarello & Scott Peterson inviting the world\u2019s greatest comics creators – whether new to the character or long-time veterans – to tell \u201ctheir\u201d story of the Gotham Gangbuster. They would be free of all continuity constraints but operating under the sole proviso that the result should be designed to work in stark monochrome.<\/p>\n

Results were astounding, challenging and inevitably, multi-award winning. If you are any sort of Bat-fan or aficionado of the art form there will be something in this wonderful tome to blow your socks off. Just don\u2019t read it in front of your Nan – she spent hours knitting them.<\/p>\n

Here is a spectacular showing from some of our world\u2019s greatest talents, producing short complete tales without benefit or hindrance of colour. Moreover, the experiment was such a success that despite some company resistance to its very concept, the miniseries won much acclaim and many awards. Its success led to a regular black-&-white \u201cout-continuity\u201d slot in monthly anthology comic Gotham Knights<\/strong>. Those stories were collected in two subsequent B:BAW <\/strong>volumes. The experiment even evolved a subgenre of monochrome books starring many four-colour superstars from different companies: most of them exploiting the cultural label of \u201cNoir\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

The groundbreaking enigmatic variations open with Ted McKeever\u2019s \u2018Perpetual Mourning\u2019<\/em> wherein a quiet visit to the morgue opens a small dark window into the hero\u2019s mind after which a panoply of assorted treats unfold, ranging from Archie Goodwin & Gary Gianni\u2019s period piece \u2018Heroes\u2019 to <\/em>poignant \u2018<\/em>Good Evening, Midnight\u2019<\/em> written & illustrated by Klaus Janson with the hero scrutinised by the one who knows him best.<\/p>\n

Steeped in the animated show\u2019s trappings, Bruce Timm\u2019s tragic \u2018Two of a Kind\u2019<\/em> interrogates Harvey Dent<\/em> and Two Face<\/em>\u2019s life whereas just plain wild and weird declamatory epics \u2018<\/em>The Third Mask\u2019<\/em> (by Katsuhiro Otomo) and Joe Kubert\u2019s deeply symbolic \u2018The Hunt\u2019<\/em> are highly personal takes from major league creators showing why The Batman continues to grip public consciousness in almost any permutation or milieu.<\/p>\n

As much thematic metaphor as artistic exercise, stories were not restricted to current DC continuity, but encouraged exploration of the character via impressionistic, personal forays such as \u2018Petty Crimes\u2019<\/em> by Howard Chaykin, with Archie Goodwin returning to script eerily memorable Jazz thriller \u2018The Devil\u2019s Trumpet\u2019<\/em> for the astounding stylist Jos\u00e9 Mu\u00f1oz.<\/p>\n

Walter Simonson crafts future science myth \u2018Legend\u2019<\/em> whilst Jan Strnad & Richard Corben collaborate on bleak urban fable \u2018Monster Maker\u2019<\/em>, even as Kent Williams revisits the night the Waynes died in \u2018Dead Boys Eyes\u2019<\/em>, whilst Chuck Dixon & Jorge Zaffino\u2019s \u2018The Devil\u2019s Children\u2019<\/em> examines GCPD\u2019s unique attitude to the Gotham Guardian…<\/p>\n

Neil Gaiman & Simon Bisley\u2019s \u2018A Black and White World\u2019<\/em> is arguably the weakest entry in the book, relying on \u201cFourth Wall cleverness\u201d rather than actual plot, whereas Andrew Helfer & Liberatore\u2019s insightful kidnap tale \u2018In Dreams\u2019<\/em> delivers a powerful punch, as does Matt Wagner\u2019s fabulously stylish action romp \u2018Heist\u2019<\/em>, before \u2018Bent Twig\u2019<\/em> delivers intense whimsy and deep, challenging philosophical questioning from Bill Sienkiewicz – and all shrouded under an ostensibly seasonal theme.<\/p>\n

The same setting plays \u2018A Slaying Song Tonight\u2019<\/em> by Dennis O\u2019Neil & Teddy Kristiansen, whilst Brian Bolland produces the beautifully disturbing \u2018An Innocent Guy\u2019<\/em>. Strnad encores by scripting \u2018Monsters in the Closet\u2019<\/em> for forensically brilliant Kevin Nowlan, as does O\u2019Neil for Brian Stelfreeze in chilling y introspective \u2018Leavetaking\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Chiarello\u2019s Introduction explains how the project began and acknowledges its conceptual debt to Archie Goodwin\u2019s tenure as writer\/editor of Eerie <\/strong>and Warren Publication\u2019s other groundbreaking monochrome magazines, but the collection is also superbly supplemented with background and developmental material, pin-ups and sketch pages from the likes of Michael Allred, Moebius, Michael Kaluta, Tony Salmons, P. Craig Russell, Marc Silvestri, Alex Ross and Neal Adams.
\n\"\"
\nThese are uncompromising visions of The Dark Knight that reshaped the medium, returning noir style and themes by offering mayhem in moody monochrome. They are Batman at his most primal and should be on every fan\u2019s radar…
\n\u00a9 2000 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ted McKeever, Bruce Timm, Klaus Janson, Archie Goodwin & Gary Gianni, Katsuhiro Otomo, Joe Kubert, Howard Chaykin, Walter Simonson, Jos\u00e9 Mu\u00f1oz, Jan Strnad & Richard Corben, Kent Williams, Chuck Dixon & Jorge Zaffino, Neil Gaiman & Simon Bisley, Andrew Helfer & Liberatore, Bill Sienkiewicz, Matt Wagner, Dennis O\u2019Neil & Teddy Kristiansen, Brian Bolland, Kevin … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Batman: Black and White volume 1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[81,10,75,76,66,125,225,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-books","category-batman","category-crime-comics","category-dc-superhero","category-horror-stories","category-humour","category-mystery","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7KX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29823,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29819\/revisions\/29823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}