Scott Snyder Speaks to Newsarama about Joker’s Return

 DCU, Interview, Joker, Preview  1 Response »
Jul 102012
 

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Scott Snyder was not shy to share his points of view with the staff at Newsarama regarding the Joker’s return.  Here is the full report as posted in their website:

Joker is not only returning to the pages of Batman. He’s targeting characters in several other DC comics later this year and into early 2013.

“Death of the Family,” the next major Batman storyline that starts in October, will also eventually bring the Joker into comics like Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Suicide Squad, Nightwing, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Catwoman, and Teen Titans.

Scott Snyder, the writer of DC’s best-selling title Batman, said that he and the other “Death of the Family” writers are working to make sure the stories are self-contained enough that readers don’t have to buy multiple comics to understand them. He said the tie-ins will be somewhat similar to the structure used for “Night of the Owls,” the Batman event that spilled into other comics in May.

Drawn by Greg Capullo, the Joker story in Batman will run for five issues beginning in October’s issue #13. The final issue, in Batman #17, will be oversized. Snyder will also write the back-up stories in Batmanas part of his Joker story.

The writer said “Death of the Family” will focus on Joker’s psychology, using symbolic themes like the idea of a court jester and a tarot card. Snyder called it his “love letter to the Joker,” stating that it’s one of the biggest stories ever done that featured the character in a lead role.

“Death of the Family” will bring back Joker after the character appeared briefly in Detective Comics #1 in September 2011. However, in that issue, the character had his face literally removed at the end of the issue, and has not been seen again in the New 52 universe.

What does his return mean for members of the Batman family? How well does Batman know the Joker in the New 52 anyway? And what makes this story different from other Batman vs. Joker stories? Newsarama talked with Snyder to find out more.

Newsarama: Scott, you’ve been hinting to me for months that you were doing your “favorite villain” in the next storyline. Is this something you’ve wanted to do for awhile?

Scott Snyder: I’ve been dying to do this, like, forever! This is my chance to do my favorite villain of all time in the biggest and craziest way I could possibly imagine. And it’s a story that I’ve had in mind for, I’d say, a good seven, eight or nine months. And it started forming before I even did the “Court of Owls.” So this is really my big exploration and love letter to the Joker overall.

Nrama: Did you coordinate with Tony Daniel the appearance in Detective Comics?

Snyder: Yeah, I did. What happened was, DC wanted to take the Joker away for a little while to give room to some new villains that they were creating in the New 52. And I had said that I had an idea for a Joker story down the line. Tony had a couple different ways that he was thinking of making it possible for the Joker to go away for a bit. And in doing so, we talked about his possibility as something we both liked. I thought this one would tail really, really well into this story. And whichever one Tony picked, I knew I could work with it. And this was the one he really wanted to go with. So I figured I’d tail off of that into this story.

But this story didn’t come from that ending. This story was sort of beginning to be built before that. And then there were a number of different endings in Detective that could have worked. But that one was the one Tony wanted to write. And I think it’s going to work really, really well here.

Nrama: It certainly gives Greg the freedom to play around with the way Joker looks. Can you tell us anything about what we’re going to see from the character?

Snyder: He really is going to, obviously, have a new look. At the same time, we want it to echo his iconic look. So it’s Joker in a much more horror movie fashion.

But, without giving too much away, you will see the iconic face and the grin, and he might look a little bit different and scarier. But you’ll find that he’s still himself at his core. And he’s really here in his blood-stained clothes going to work.

Nrama: So like the title sounds, this is the Joker wanting to really tear down the “Bat” and his family, with a plan behind what he’s doing?

Snyder: Yeah, this is the Joker having been away for a year planning all of this stuff, like planting traps and seeds and all kinds of stuff that are going to come to fruition in this thing.

A year ago, Joker decided, I’m going to walk away from Gotham, I’m going to plan my revenge, and I’m going to come back in a year and bring it all back. So this is what he’s been planning to do for a long time. And all of those things are set in motion.

Nrama: DC announced that the story would be felt throughout the Bat-family, so are we going to see this storyline spill into other titles at DC?

Snyder: Yeah, you’re going to see it in other comics. Batman is going to be 100 percent self-contained, like it was with “Night of the Owls.” You won’t have to read anything else to understand the story happening in Batman, at all. I promise you that.

But because the story is so big, and because Joker is attacking all those members of the Bat-family, essentially, to prove this point that he’s come back to Gotham to prove and to expose this secret that he has, you will see Joker attack Nightwing in Nightwing. And you’ll see him come after Batgirl in Batgirl. And you’ll see him go after Damian in Batman and Robin. And Tim, even, in Teen Titans. And Jason in Red Hood [and the Outlaws].

So there will be issues of those books that feature the Joker coming after him in ways that will be part of the moving parts of the bigger story. But they will all be self-contained, so you don’t need to read other books to follow the series that you love. They should be just completely individual still, in that way where you won’t have to read Nightwing to get a part of Batman.

I think that worked well for “Night of the Owls,” so it should work well here too.

But this story is much darker and much more personal.

Joker is coming after the Bat-family in ways where, it really is almost like when you think about it…. he hasn’t faced off with those characters, essentially, or directly, before.

People will say, “Oh, well, he came after Batgirl in The Killing Joke,” but he was really going after Commissioner Gordon. So when Batgirl realizes that here, too, it’s almost like the Joker is staring at her saying, “I’m coming after you this time. I’ll kill everyone and burn down everything in your life to do what I did to your father, but to you.” You know?

So in that way, he’s saying that to every member of the Bat-family. To Nightwing and everyone, saying, “You’ve never faced me before. I’ve never actually targeted you. I’ve only used you as pawns to get at Batman. So welcome to your worst nightmare.”

Nrama: How long are you planning the Batman story arc to be?

Snyder: In Batman, it’s going to go from #13 to #17. But #17 is going to be a giant issue, like an Annual-sized issue. And plus, it’s also going to be in the back-ups of Batman. So it’s going to probably be the equivalent, I would think, of about seven issues. But it will be those five.

Nrama: What’s the status of the relationship of Joker and Batman in the New 52? And how would you describe how this confrontation affects Batman?

Snyder: This storyline is predicated on the notion that the stuff that happened with the Joker in the past did happen. So Joker will be referencing things that happened in the past. That said, you won’t have to have read them to be able to follow this story at all. They will be explained or recounted in ways where this will be completely self-standing. I would never require you to go back and read stories from years ago to understand what was happening in mine.

But the history of their relationship, like the Joker being his greatest enemy and the terrible things he’s done to him and done to Jason and the other members of the Bat-family are all part of this. They fuel this storyline.

So in a way, he’s sort of saying, “You’ve created this false family around you. You’ve created this group of people. And I’m here to show you what’s wrong with that. And you’ve forgotten about me. And now I’m going to show you why that’s wrong. And I’m going to expose this secret. And in doing that, I’m going to tear you guys apart worse than you’ve ever seen.”

Nrama: I know that “Court of the Owls” was about Batman versus that group, but it had this kind of undercurrent of the story of Gotham, with the city almost being a member of the cast. Is there any theme like that within the Joker story?

Snyder: This one is really focused on the Joker’s psychology in a particular way, and his philosophy. And it’s something that I’ve been working on and tinkering with for months.

There’s a sort of symbolism to that that’s going to be thematic and explored when it comes to the idea of a court jester and a tarot card, and all of the other kinds of things that filter into the imagery of the Joker that he has kind of rattling around in his brain, and that he’s twisted into this very particular logic he follows.

So there will be a lot of things from, like — and I know this sounds crazy — but from Shakespearean imagery down to tarot card imagery, that will be a central theme of the whole thing.

This is really my exploration of who the Joker is, in terms of Batman, and who he thinks he is in relation to Batman.

This is my own sort of twisted love letter to the Joker.

Nrama: We have seen Bruce Wayne versus the Joker before. How is this different? Is it a matter of scale? Is it bigger in magnitude?

Snyder: Yeah, it’s definitely bigger in magnitude, in terms of the story. I mean, for better or worse, I feel so lucky to be able to write Batman all the time, and I feel like you get one chance to do it, so you’ve got to swing for the fence every time you get to work with your favorite material.

With this, Joker is my favorite villain, so I figure that if you’re going to use him, you’ve got to use him like you’ll never get a chance to use him again.

So it’s clearly bigger in magnitude than any story he’s had in awhile — maybe ever, honestly. I’d have to look back. But the fact that he’s in five big issues of Batman, and then he’s in the other Bat-books as he attacks those members of the family, all of it adds up to a massive, massive Joker story.

And in that way, it’s also a game-changer of a Joker story, you know? It really cuts to the core of who the Joker is, who Batman is in his mind and in relation to him, and really, who the Joker is to Batman too, in Bruce’s psychology.

So this is my exploration of those things in a way that’s meant to be as big and as broad and as deep as I could go. It’s not just a Joker story. This is really my big exploration of the Joker myself, in the way that I don’t know that I’d ever use him again after this, in the way that this is my huge Joker story, my personal Joker story to end all Joker stories, you know?

And you know, as prevalent as the Joker is in other media, he really hasn’t had that many central stories in comics in the last 20 years. He played a big part in “No Man’s Land,” and you obviously can go back to The Killing Joke and stuff like that. And he plays a big part in Batman: R.I.P., and he plays a role in Batman and Robin with Grant [Morrison]’s stuff. But he’s not the villain, you know? In those things, he’s not the guy that is sort of pitted against Batman during those storylines.

And so in that way, if you look back, it’s hard to find a big story with the Joker in a long time, even though he’s in the movies, and the animated stuff, and other places.

I looked at that and though, you know what? If we’re going to bring him back, and he’s been away for at least a year here, but he’s also been away from having big, central stories about him for awhile, let’s do it in a way that’s really going to be a grand slam for all of us emotionally, psychologically with our characters.

That means, look, Kyle [Higgins], Gail [Simone] and Scott Lobdell and Pete Tomasi, this is your one chance, and my chance with Bruce, to pit the Joker against them in a way that no one has ever seen, you know? This is the biggest, most twisted Joker story we could do, in the way that he is trying to cut these characters as deep as he can, psychologically, emotionally and literally.

Nrama: I take it then that this is not going to be in Detective and The Dark Knight?

Snyder: We are several months out from when it’s going to tie into the other Bat-books, so the details of that are still being ironed out. But I can definitely tell you that it’s going to be in Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Suicide Squad with Harley, Nightwing, Red Hood and the Outlaws, and Teen Titans for Tim. And I can tell you that right now, it looks like he’s going to make an appearance in Catwoman also. I don’t want to say that other comics might not be a part of that, because we’re still talking about that stuff, and about when it’s all going to hit.

Nrama: Is the approach to this similar to how the you did “Night of the Owls,” in that you opened it up for whoever wanted to utilize the story in their books?

Snyder: It is, but it was a little more structured. What Joker has planned does culminate for all of them in a particular way. So this is different from “Night of the Owls” that way.

In the Joker story, there is a big, crazy ending that they need to work toward.

It was, “You know your character better than me. Gail, you know Batgirl better than I do. Kyle, you know Nightwing better than I do. Joker is here to break them. That means Joker is here to tear down their world the way he did to Jim Gordon in The Killing Joke. You know what I mean? He’ll do anything — rape, kill, anything. He’s the worst nightmare come to life. So whatever you think your character’s greatest weakness is, that’s what the Joker is coming for. So you can kill your whole supporting cast. You can do anything you want. If you ever get a chance to really tear apart the world of your character, this is it, with Joker.”

The stipulation was to do that level of story and nightmare, and of course, then there are some big surprises coming at the end of all of them.

So it was a little more structured. And the thing I loved about “Night of the Owls” was that it was so much about Gotham history, and for everyone to pick a particular moment in Gotham history to explore. But in this one, it’s deeply personal. This is like, the Joker is the guy who comes after you, looks you in the eyes and says, “I’m going to destroy everything you love. And laugh while I’m doing it.”

And that means very personal and impactful stories with a lot of ramifications, as opposed to what we were doing in “Night of the Owls,” which was more about Gotham and its history.

(original interview conducted by Vaneta Rogers for Newsarama)

More Scott Snyder and More Joker

 DCU, Interview, Joker, Preview  1 Response »
Jul 092012
 

Scott Snyder also had a chance to talk to the crew of Comic Vine about his art and Joker in General, Here is a transcript of the interview.

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This is the Joker bigger, badder and more twisted than you’ve ever seen him before.

 

Comic Vine: How will your Joker differ from past versions? Similar or different from his appearance in Black Mirror?

Scott Snyder: It will be similar to his appearance in Black Mirror in some ways. For me, that’s sort of the genesis of the Joker I consider most my own. In the way that he there, for example, doesn’t need his grin and have his iconic face in that issue to be who he is at his core. He’s just scary and sort of out of his mind.

More importantly I think that the Joker that really represents the kind of thing I love about the character is he like the demon on Batman’s shoulder. He really seems to know things about his enemies or the people that he’s going after and what unnerves them. It’s his job, as he sees it, to expose the darkest corners of Bruce’s heart. He feels he knows them better than anyone else. He serves him as almost a court jester to his king in that way. In that, he makes these horrifying nightmares to life to make Bruce stronger. He feels he has a very special bond and relationship with him that way. It’s something that only the two of them share.

That Joker, to me, is something that’s built on a lot of versions that have come before but is also important to me in a personal way. It’s my own take on the mythology of this event that we’ll explore in this event. It has to do with the symbolism of the court jester, the tarot card of the joker, Peter Pan and all kinds of stuff that I’m going to roll into it to make it something that’s different even if it’s built on the legacy of the character.

CV: What’s your favorite Joker story and why?

SS: My favorite Joker story is more of a constellation of things. THE KILLING JOKE is probably my favorite simple because when I first read it, it blew me away with its psychological complexity and the richness of the relationship between Batman and the Joker. The ending of that where they’re sort of laughing together is one of my favorite scenes in all of Batman. There’s an homage to the opening of THE KILLING JOKE in the opening of this story as well with the rain. That would have to be my favorite even though I’m not a humongous fan of the comedian part of it. I do think the brilliance of that is the ambiguity that’s introduced at the end. The Joker says he doesn’t quite remember if that’s how it happened. So the idea that that might not be his origin is something that really saves that part and makes it really brilliant.

Close behind would be Frank Miller’s THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS where the Joker was just catatonic until released was just genius. Similarly, Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker [animated movie] is another favorite and behind that is ARKHAM ASYLUM by Grant Morrison.

CV: What’s the most underrated Joker story?

SS: I think the Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker. Honestly I think a lot of the Denny O’Neill/Neil Adams stuff. I don’t know if it’s so much underrated but more that we don’t talk about it as much as we could. For the level of darkness and complexity of the Joker that was introduced there. Also in the animated stuff, again, I don’t know if it’s necessarily underrated but at the same time I feel, for me, it holds a lot more resonance than I expected it to when I first saw it. So I think I probably underrated it myself.

CV: If Joker did die, as he almost did in his first appearance in BATMAN #1 (1940), who would be Batman’s top villain? An existing one or a new one?

SS: I think no matter what, he’d come back. It’s impossible to think of Batman without the Joker. He’s sort of his dark twin. If I had to pick another villain…to me, Joker is the product of Gotham. Gotham is both the greatest ally and villain of Batman. There are others. I love Two-Face and so many of the rogues. Two-Face would probably be next on my list of interesting villains to explore.

CV: Should Joker be used sparingly in stories?

SS: Yes, definitely. Believe me, I really feel Joker is the greatest villain of all time. There’s no reason to touch him unless you’re really going to do something that you feel is a game changer of a story with him. Something that’s really relevant to who he is. I’ve tried to be very cautious about using him and setting it up over the past year and taking him away from the table so he could come back in this big way.

When you think about it, he is used very sparingly, that’s the irony of it. People seem to think he’s around a lot in other mediums but in comics. Before No Man’s Land, I think the biggest stories with him was in the 80s. I loved his role in BATMAN R.I.P. and I loved his role in GOTHAM CENTRAL but as the central villain of a story he’s not used that much. Here we wanted this to be his big giant return. This is the Joker bigger, badder and more twisted than you’ve ever seen him before.

CV: Speaking of R.I.P., it was mentioned in the announcement that Batman will be fighting to protect his secret identity in this story. Will there be any clarification over events in RIP? Did Joker become aware of Batman’s identity?

SS: It’s not going to reference R.I.P. at all, honestly.

CV: Do you feel Joker knows his identity…or maybe you can’t answer that right now…

SS: I loved the way Grant handled the Joker where he seems to know more than he lets on. There will be the question of how much the Joker knows.

You won’t have to have read R.I.P. to understand what he’s claiming to know or how he seems to know what he knows. It will all be completely contained in this story.

People should read R.I.P. because it’s fun and brilliant but if you’re out there and haven’t but there’s no connection and this isn’t predicated on that at all.

CV: Is there any other comics we should read first like DETECTIVE COMICS #1 where Joker’s face gets cut off or SUICIDE SQUAD #7 for more on Joker’s face and Harley?

SS: You don’t have to read anything. Of course I would say go read those. I love Tony [Daniel] and Adam [Glass] and you should pick up their series because they’re doing great stuff in them. I don’t want you to feel you have to read anything else to understand what’s happening in BATMAN ever. That’s what I meant with R.I.P. also. I would never write a story that was dependent on another story

CV: Will you be touching on Joker’s past or origin at all?

SS: Not really, no. It’s not really about that. I could tease the fans and say, “Oh wait and see, maybe we’re going to redo his origin.” Honestly it really isn’t about that. It’s much more about the Joker having a big mission and a really big point to prove and an axe to grind. He’s coming back and saying, “There’s a reason I got my face cut off. There’s a reason I’ve been away for a year. There’s a reason I’m setting the traps I am for you guys. There’s a reason I’m as violent and angry as I am coming back and how I’m different. Why I’m dressed the way I am, why my face looks the way it does, why all of this stuff is happening…” There’s a really big point he’s coming at Batman. It has to do with how he views himself in the Bat mythology and how he views Batman and the twisted logic that he has.

Part of the fun will also be to see how he’s going to burn down the whole house. That means he’s going to take on all of the other Bat-characters as well. Part of fun will be you’ll have something completely self-contained.

This is something that’s going to pit the Joker against the other members of the Bat Family in their books. This isn’t something I’ve really had a chance to talk about too much. You will see him go after Nightwing and Batgirl, Damian and Tim even in TEEN TITANS. Also Jason in RED HOOD. Even though those stories will be completely self-contained and you won’t need to read them to understand anything in BATMAN, Batman will also be 1000% self-contained.

You’ll get to see Joker square off with all the members of the Bat Family in ways you’ve never seen because part of the fun is in that even though he’s fought Barbara or went after her because of what he did in THE KILLING JOKE, he was actually going after Jim Gordon. He hasn’t actually squared off with her. He’s very happy to say that to them. To Nightwing he’ll say, “I’ve never really faced you. I’ve only used you as a pawn.”

He can say the same thing to Jason. “I only used you to get at him and now I’m looking at you. I’m coming for you and I’m going to burn your world down.”

None of them have really taken on the Joker in this way. The arc is called, “Return of the Joker: Death of the Family.”

Batman #13 on sale October 10, 2012

(Original interview posted by Tony “G-man”Guerrero in ComicVine HERE)

Scott Snyder gets Under the Joker’s Skin for “Death of the Family”

 DCU, Interview, Joker, Preview  No Responses »
Jul 092012
 

Our friends at CBR keep teasing us with more Joker as October comes closer…and they have my whole attention.  Today they posted an interview with Scott Snyder, who along with Greg Capullo’s art will bring the Clown Prince of Crime back into the stage starting with BATMAN #13:  I took the liberty of reprinting  the interview, and just take a look at that new teaser cover….

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Cover for Batman #13 by Greg Capullo

Snyder Gets Under Joker’s Skin In “Batman: Death Of The Family

“Batman” writer Scott Snyder finally takes his long-awaited shot at writing Gotham’s maniacal clown in a new October-launching story arc titled “Death Of The Family.”In the relaunched New 52 DC Universe, the Joker was first and last seen in writer/artist Tony Daniels'”Detective Comics” #1, getting a face lift from the villain the Dollmaker — quite literally, as Dollmaker peeled Joker’s entire face off and tacked it to the wall.

Mysteriously and noticably absent since that issue, Snyder’s “Death Of The Family,” drawn by regular “Batman” artist Greg Capullo, will be the first to touch on the character fully since last September as the Joker returns, gunning for Batman and all the Bat allies.

Amidst all the buzz surrounding the recently announced storyline, CBR spoke directly with Snyder about his new story, how Joker will look sans-face, and the Joker crossover brewing among the rest of the Bat books

CBR News: The last we saw of Joker in the New 52, he had literally gotten his face peeled off by Dollmaker, and the promo image for your storyline showcases his skinned face. Is the peeling off of the Joker’s face going to be touched on and explained in your story?\

Scott Snyder: That’s an element you’ll definitely see addressed and explained and built on in this story. When Tony [Daniel] was working on that, he brought it up to me and I knew there was a story that I wanted to tell with Joker that would trail out of that. So that’s something that will play a big part in terms of Joker’s look, but also his whole psychology.

Let’s talk about that psychology, because Joker’s been everything from an evil mastermind to someone who is absolutely, clinically insane. What’s your take on the Clown Prince of Crime?

For this story, we really wanted this to be Joker at his most unleashed and vengeful; this Joker has an axe to grind and a point to prove. He’s gone away for a year for a very deliberate reason. During that year, he sort of set all of his traps and sharpened his knives and he’s ready to come back to Gotham and make his point to Batman and the Batman family. He has a very strong mission in mind and he’s very passionate about what he wants to prove to Batman this time around, and it’s really twisted and dark and unpleasant.

The name of the arc is “Death Of The Family” — is that family the Bat family?

It is a reference to the Bat family. I mean, one of the things Joker will be doing here, and part of the fun of the story will be, is, Joker approaches the different members of the Bat family, because part of what he wants to prove to Batman has to do very directly with them and their role in Batman’s life. When you think about it, one of the exciting things is, we haven’t really had a story where Joker faces off with Nightwing or Joker faces off with Batgirl. Even something like “The Killing Joke” really is a Commissioner Gordon story where he’s gone after Commissioner Gordon and used Barbara as a way to drive him crazy. But he’s actually facing off with Batgirl where he’s doing a “Killing Joke” to her, where he’s trying to break her as opposed to break her father — it’s something we haven’t seen. It’s similar with almost every Bat character, so this really is the Joker with a blood mission in mind, where he’s coming after these characters in a way you’ve never seen him come after them before, and Batman as well. It’s really not for the faint of heart! [Laughs]

What can you tell us about the actual story? You’re a writer who really hits very big themes in all your stories — is there a specific theme you’re working through with Joker?

Very much. There’s a very specific theme that’s really my take on his psychology, where he has a very firm belief about his role for Batman and his role in Gotham and it has a kind of mythology that’s twisted and on its own that I’m really excited to explore, with a lot of symbolism as well, that he’s sort of built in his mind. It has a very rich and twisted and fun kind of design, the way he thinks in this one. There are a lot of themes, visual themes and also conceptual themes, that are going to run through the whole story. My favorite Joker stories, from “The Killing Joke” to “Arkham Asylum,” really get inside his head and his thinking and make him all the scarier for it and have those kinds of echoing, totemic elements. Visual things that come back over and over because he clings to them, and he subjects people to the terrifying visions of things that come back over and over. This really is my love letter to the Joker. That way, we can give him the biggest, baddest, craziest story we could.

Also, the shape of the story itself is going to run five to six months. It’s going to be in features and backups in “Batman” so it’s really, really big. Part of the idea was, I was thinking to myself about six to seven months ago when I started working on it, there really hasn’t been a giant Joker story in “Batman” in the comics of Batman in a really long time. If I asked you right now, what was the last big Joker story?

I mean, my immediate reaction would be to say “The Killing Joke.”

Exactly! That’s what everyone says, “The Killing Joke.” But that’s over twenty years ago! Which is sort of stunning, because he’s had these great roles in other stories; I love his role in “Batman R.I.P.” I love his role in “Gotham Central” and different ways he’s played into stories. An actual, central Joker story, one that focuses on Joker as the main villain, is something we haven’t seen in quite a long time in comics, even though he’s been so ubiquitous and such a potent and strong character in the medium, in the movies and the animated stuff. If we’re going to use the Joker, we’re going to use him big so people are almost afraid to use him for another twenty years! [Laughs] We wanted to give him a story where we swing for the fence and there’s going to be tremendous repercussions for the family, tremendous repercussions for Batman and his life going forward. This is everybody playing ball in the Bat family.

When I was talking to Scott Lobdell about Jason [Todd], for example, one of the things we were saying is this big story about Jason has been told, this “A Death In The Family” story, so how are we going to go back and do something? What I was saying to him, and what he realized, too, is that “Death In The Family” is still a Batman story. It’s about Joker using Jason to torture and to break Batman — similarly, like we were saying, “The Killing Joke” is more of a Jim Gordon story than a Barbara Gordon story, even though those repercussions have had tremendous effects on Barbara and on Jason.

So, what would happen if Joker looked at Barbara and said, “I was just going for your father last time.” Not that he knows who she is — I’m saying, metaphorically, if he goes for Batgirl and she realizes, “He was pursuing Jim Gordon last time, not me, what terrible things will he have in story for me now that he’s looking me directly with those crazy eyes?” He would kill everybody in your family to break you, he would burn down everything that you love to break you. That’s part of the fun of the story; you haven’t seen these characters face Joker directly, and now you’re about to see it in all its horrifying glory.

Speaking of horrifying glory, looking at the cover of issue #13 we’ve got Greg Capullo’s illustration of the Joker applying lipstick to his face, that’s obviously not attached to his head. I have to ask, what’s the story with the makeup?

[Laughs] Well, Joker had his face removed for a reason, and the way he’s re-approaching the family has a lot to do with the way he looks. Right there in the image, he has that face over his face and he’s sort of dressing up to go out and do terrible things. In that way, I think the new look of the Joker — I know there are people out there saying, “Oh no, how are you going to deal with him, he doesn’t have a face?” — don’t worry about it. He’s going to look really scary! [Laughs] We have a very particular look in mind for him for this storyline. It’s straight up horror movie-frightening. It’s going to be iconic in its own right, but also play with the core iconic imagery of Joker. We’re not trying to redesign the Joker; we’re playing with the pieces that were there from the beginning of the New 52 with “Detective” and build you a Joker that is completely based on all the stuff we love about him at his core. But now that he’s back for the first time in a long time and he’s working, he has a slightly different look and his face will play a very big part in that. How he looks from the neck up will be one of the best parts of the entire series.

You’re talking about how this involves everyone in the Bat family — so is this going to be similar to what you did with the Talons and the “Night Of The Owls” where we’re going to see other writers involved, or is this self-contained in “Batman” and you’ll be writing portions of these other characters?

It’s going to be something where you are going to see them use Joker in their books. It’s going to cross over into a number of the Bat books as it goes forward, because I feel like it wouldn’t be fair for me to write Nightwing into “Batman” to show what I think Joker could do to him. I have too much respect for Kyle [Higgins] and what he does with “Nightwing,” and similar to Scott and “Red Hood” and Batgirl and Pete [Tomasi] with Damian. For us, it isn’t a matter of trying to build a story that then has all these moving parts. It’s similar to “Night Of The Owls” in that I wrote a Joker story, I’m working on this Joker story, and the way that Joker approaches the other members of the family is so dark and twisted that I basically called up the other members of the writing Bat family and said, “Do you guys want to play along?” [Editor] Mike Marts was really gracious about letting us do it and build something together.

So each one will be completely self-contained in the way that you will not have to pick up — and I cannot stress this enough — you will not have to pick up any book other than “Batman” to get the story in “Batman.” I would never do that to you as a reader! [Laughs] You will never have to read “Red Hood” or “Nightwing” or anything for the story in “Batman,” which is completely self-contained and completely individual.

That said, in those books, the way the writers are designing them, and they’re sort of each doing their own thing, is supposed to be completely self-contained as well. So it really will be something where when the Joker enters the book, it will be a storyline that continues and is part of what that writer has been doing with their character for a while. I really have too much respect for the other writers to try and shoehorn Joker in in a way that is completely predicated on how he needs to be in “Batman.” This is the Joker facing off with the family in particular ways in each book that really has to do with those characters and what they hold dear — and him basically tearing those things to shreds!

Remember….Batman #13 goes on sale October 10, 2012

(This is a reprint from an original article posted by CBR HERE)

HEYJOKERHOLICS! GUESS WHO’S BAAAAAACK!

 Comic Books, DCU, Interview, Joker, Preview  1 Response »
Jul 022012
 

batman_jokerpromo

NIFTY TEASER POSTER, HUH?

My friend Steffano brought up this link in his FB profile, and I squealed like a teenager at a Justin Beieber Concert….My HERO, is making his comeback to the comic media and it looks that it is going to be in a grand way. Here is the whole report from our friends at BIG SHINY ROBOT

The Joker Returns to the New 52 in October

 

 When it comes to Batman the stakes are never higher than when the Joker is involved. He is the ultimate bad guy! And It’s been a while since the Joker has been around, but that will soon change. The last time we saw him was in the first issue of Detective Comics almost one year ago in which he cut his face off and disappeared. We were left wondering where and when the Joker will pop up again. Will he have a new face? We have seen the cut off face once since Detective Comics #1 and that was in Suicide Squad in which Harley Quinn breaks into the Gotham police department and steals it because she thinks he’s dead. She then goes on to tie up Deadshot, put the face on him, and pour her feelings out as if she were talking to the Joker to get closure. It was a moment in comics that made me feel icky! I also wonder if Harley will show up in this story and what her reaction will be when she finds out her “Puddin” isn’t dead.

Now that the Joker is returning I’m sure he has some sort of master plan in the works and we’ll find out what that is in “Death of a Family” this October from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. DC’s blog gives us a couple of hints of where the story will be going:

“The Joker will come out of the dark in a horrifying, unnerving, and huge way. And the grave consequences of his reemergence will be felt by not only the Bat-family, but by all of Gotham City. He crippled Batgirl. He killed Robin. What will The Joker do next? And what must Batman do to protect his secret identity and that of those who fight alongside him?”

Both creators seem to be pumped to be working on this story, here are their thoughts that they shared with DC’s blog about the upcoming story.

Scott Snyder:

“Joker is my favorite villain of all time,” Snyder told THE SOURCE. “Not just in comics. In everything – film, books, TV. He’s the greatest, hands down. So this story is something extremely important and personal to me – something I’ve been building in my head ever since I started working in Gotham. Basically, this is my big exploration of the Joker, my ARKHAM ASYLUM or THE KILLING JOKE, only bigger in scope. Bottom line: it’s the biggest, baddest, most shocking Joker story I could tell. This is Joker completely unleashed. He has been away for a full year planning this revenge, watching, plotting, setting things up. And now he’s back. He has his traps set, his knives sharpened… And wait ’til you see him. Greg’s sketches literally gave me chills. Point blank: This is Joker like you’ve never seen him before. He has a mission. He has a secret. And he has a serious axe to grind with Batman. It isn’t going to be pretty, but it’s going to be a wild ride. Thanks for taking it with us.”

Greg Capullo:

“When Scott told me that he’d written a Joker story for our next arc, I couldn’t contain my excitement,” added Capullo. “Talk about a dream come true! For me, the Joker is the ultimate rogue and the villain I most wanted to draw. I gotta tell you, after hearing what the story is about, this isn’t a dream come true. It’s a nightmare! A macabre and bloody, flesh crawling nightmare. We hope you’ll have the nerve to face what’s coming. Warning: It ain’t for the faint of heart!”

 

Batman #13 On sale on October 10, 2012

I can’t wait to see what Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo have in storage for us.  Hopefully it will make the Joker shine with his own perverse sense of humor in a story well written, beautifully illustrated and with the correct characterization.  THREE MORE MONTHS FOLKS!

(Picture courtesy of BIG SHINY ROBOT and original link provided by Steffano Joseph Kerr. Release date provided by DC Blogs))

CBR Report: CHIP KIDD DISCUSSES “DEATH BY DESIGN”

 Comic Book Art, Comic Book Reviews, DCU, Interview, Preview  No Responses »
May 262012
 

CBR‘s Staff writer Jeffrey Renaud, has posted a very nice interview with CHIP KIDD discussing his new graphic novel DEATH BY DESIGN, out next week on comic book shops around the US.  Here is the interview along with a small preview.

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SPOILER WARNING: The following interview discusses specific events and plot points from “Batman: Death by Design”

With “Batman: Death By Design,” seminal graphic designer Chip Kidd lives out his childhood dream as the writer of his very own Batman story. Kidd, a life-long fan of Bob Kane’s creation, has worked extensively with DC Comics over the years, most recently designing covers for “All-Star Batman and Robin,” “All-Star Superman” and “Final Crisis.” 

It was his turn as interviewer, in 2009 at 92Y, when Kidd joined Neil Gaiman on stage for a 90-minute discussion about “Sandman” in celebration of the landmark series’ 20th anniversary that led Kidd to writing the 104-page original graphic novel, which arrives in comic book stores on May 30.   

Hearing Kidd’s unrestrained passion for Batman and comics in general during the candid conversation, DC Comics Co-Publisher, then DC Executive Editor, Dan DiDio offered him the project on the spot. Kidd, praying it wasn’t some kind of joke, agreed and started the process, in earnest, shortly thereafter.

Kidd, who is also credited as publication designer on “Death by Design,” joined forces with Mark Chiarello, DC’s award winning Vice President of Art Direction & Design, and British artist Dave Taylor (“Batman: Shadow of the Bat,” “Batman & Superman: World’s Finest”) to create a story Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon (“The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay”) says “unites fandoms — comics, classic B&W films, architecture, design — like a conqueror unifying thrones.”

Set in the 1930s, “Death by Design” explores Gotham as it undergoes one of the most expansive construction booms in the city’s history. Inspired by two real world events — the demolition of the original Pennsylvania Station in 1963 and the fatal construction crane collapses in midtown Manhattan of 2008 — Kidd asks what if, despite the years separating the incidents, they were somehow connected? And what if they happened in Gotham City, during a glorious golden age when a caped crusader protected its streets?

CBR News: I won’t reveal how or why this question appears in “Death by Design” but what are you doing here?

Chip Kidd: [Laughs] I have been using that as the opening line in my lectures recently. Look, it’s a basic philosophical question that we could all ask ourselves every single day. It’s really about, “What are you accomplishing?” And “What are you going to leave behind?” Basically, “Are you doing something constructive with your life?” I forget why it occurred to me to include it in the book, but like I said, I think it’s something that we should constantly be asking ourselves.

You’re credited as the writer of “Death By Design,” but obviously you played a role in the book artistically, as well, as the publication designer. Can you describe your collaborations with Mark Chiarello and Dave Taylor?

Technically, I was the art director. I very much had a vision about how I wanted the whole thing to look and the milieu that it was supposed to be set. Mark Chiarello was amazing. He really stepped back and just let me go. He would then give suggestions, and almost always they were good suggestions. Even with a couple of the plot lines, he really helped out a lot.

For Dave Taylor, I would find visual references for the way I wanted it to look and I would send them to him. And he would send drawings back. That was our process. The overall look and feel of it, as I hope is evident, is supposed to look like the great, old 1930s’ Batman movie that was never made. Certainly, it is part Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” part Elia Kazan’s “On the Waterfront” and part “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand.

The good thing about not really knowing what you are doing is figuring out how to do it. There are many different ways to write a comic book script. For me, as a visual person, I wanted to give him basic page layouts, where I would break down how many panels were on a page and their configuration. For the most part, he was really cool with that because it did some of the work for him. And there were times he would suggest different layouts for very specific reasons and he was always right.

The book is heavily shaded in pencils, no inks, with only splashes of color throughout it to highlight certain scenes or specific characters. How did you land on these types of decisions?

Like I said, I wanted it to feel like a great, old black and white film from the mid-to-late 1930s. At first, I really strictly wanted it black and white, but Dave sent me some color suggestions, which were subtle things we could do to enhance the mood. The street lights of Gotham have this sort of peachy glow to them. During the day, the sunlight is kind of blue. Dave totally convinced me that it was the right way to go. It just gives you enough to take you in and out of day and night. And more importantly, I think it’s very beautiful. And it helps the narrative. It evolved over time. The whole thing is pencil on paper. He scans it in and then puts in some lighting and coloring effects. For Dave, it really was his show. It’s not like we had a penciler and an inker and a colorist. It was all him.

Part of the appeal of this project must have been developing the concepts for the new architecture of 1930s’ Gotham City. Highlights for me included the humpback whale inspired railway station and the mini-maximalist nightclub, known as The Ceiling —

A lot of that is me just having fun and becoming a fantasy architect. There is no such thing as mini-maximalism or maxi-minimalism, or at least not that I am aware of. Early on, Cyndia Syl praises the Wayne Central Station because it’s “the single best example of patri-monumental modernism in America.” And that’s also gobbledygook, fake architectural speak. It’s patri-monumental modernism as in his father built it. But while it was all fun, I consulted with a lot of architects who have built skyscrapers in New York City to find out what it takes to get something built. There is a lot of real stuff here too.

The Ceiling was one of the few ideas that I have been harboring for years. And I really wanted to see it in a Batman story. Again, it is like something you might find in a Busby Berkeley movie that never happened because it’s just too literally over the top. The whale station, again, that was Dave pulling one of his miracles. I wrote all that into the script, “Thousands of commuters, each day transformed into Jonah himself, swallowed by the leviathan of mass transitional vortex. Only to emerge again, spat out onto the very sidewalk of their destinations, their faith in a mobile society restored.” But Dave’s the one that had to figure out what that was going to look like. It was completely up to him.

Batman is almost as famous for his gadgets as he is for his rogues. In this story, you were able to add a few new devices to the utility belt like the Grapple-Tron and the impact neutralizer. Does it get any better than that?

That was an incredible amount of fun. But I also wanted to invent a bunch of characters to put my personal stamp on the story, too. I loved this idea of a designer/villain who is not really a villain but more of a provocateur. He seems to come and go at will and how is he doing that? And why is he doing that? I think the best Batman villains work because you know why they are doing what they are doing. They have a reason for what they are doing.

Originally, my outline and proposal did not have The Joker in it. Chiarello said, “This is fine, but don’t you want to use any of the classic villains?” I said, “Am I allowed to?” Because one does not assume. And he said, “Sure.” I thought, “I may never get this opportunity again,” so I had to go for The Joker. And then I had to figure out a reason for him to be there with the other characters. And then I couldn’t resist a cameo of the classic Penguin at the end. Who knows, if I had more pages, I may have had The Riddler in there, too. [Laughs]

Speaking of The Riddler, when “Death By Design” was first announced, you said you were approaching the project as a problem-solving exercise? Is that how Batman would do it ,or is that all Chip Kidd?

Everything is a design problem to me. Getting up in the morning is a design problem. [Laughs] Certainly, I wanted the story to be that too. I wanted it to be a classic mystery. Why is this happening? Why are the cranes coming down? Who is this Exacto person? I love the device of a reporter that is also trying to figure out. He’s a reporter that was really not intending to be assigned this story in the first place. He’s an architectural critic not an investigative reporter so that becomes an interesting situation too.

But again, I really wanted this to be a detective story. Obviously, you have to have — if you want it to be a successful Batman story — some sort of fisticuffs going on. You have to have an action element. The destruction of the building does seem inevitable. And I wasn’t going to shy away from that. But it’s not an ultra-violent rage fest either. That’s really not what I am interested in. I wanted something that looked at some of the more nuanced aspects of living in a big, major city in the 1930s that would have this character living in it too.

I highly enjoyed your take on Bruce Wayne/Batman as opposed to the brooding/sometimes psychotic Frank Miller-inspired Dark Knight version of the character that we so often see. Is this version your preference ,or were you simply more comfortable writing him in this style?   

I was very conscious of that for several reasons. I love that in the very first original stories — from “Detective Comics” #27 up till #31 or #32, when Robin came on the scene — Batman was sort of like a gentleman adventurer. “My, my, you all seem very agitated that I’m here.” It was that sort of thing. I love the idea that Batman is to the manner born. He doesn’t hide the fact that he is a very well-born guy that, in his own weird way, has manners. In that way, Batman can look very elegant. In the penultimate scene at the end of the first half, he’s not this crazed, raged out guy, he is looking at getting to the bottom of what’s going on. At that point, it’s the union boss that completely freaks out and loses it. I also couldn’t resist the idea of getting caught in one’s own death trap. I think that’s a really fascinating concept.

I hope you or Dave Taylor don’t take offense to this either, but Batman is kind of pretty in this book, isn’t he?

I have no problem with that. He’s still masculine or what have you, but the Bruce Wayne look was based very much on classic Montgomery Clift in the films.

As we discuss the attractiveness of your leading men, Garnett Greenside is a pretty handsome guy, too, if not vaguely familiar —

Yes. [Laughs] But I don’t think he’s too handsome. I wrote myself into it. It’s that whole I may never get this kind of opportunity again, so therefore, I am going to put myself into it. And as the villain, no less.

Is Garnett Greenside the villain?

Not really. But he is willing to trick Bart Loar into basically killing himself. And if that’s going to take Batman and Richard Frank with him, then so be it. He’s very practical that way. I love the whole Batman I shall not kill. The moral code is great, and I think it creates many interesting instances of dramatic tension because you have all of these other characters that would just kill somebody if that’s what needs to happen. Actually, that’s the big problem that I have with a lot of the Marvel characters. With them, a moral code doesn’t seem to exist.

In that sense, it’s not that Exacto is really a villain, but he’ll do what needs to get done in order to arrive at the solution that he wants to arrive at.

I loved writing that scene where there is this back and forth between Batman and Exacto, where Batman ultimately says, “Think about what you are doing. It’s murder.” And Exacto says, “It’s not murder. It’s assisted suicide.” This guy set all this up and he’s trapped in it now. “I am just helping him kill himself.” Then Batman has the classic line: “He should be tried in a court of law.” And Exacto says, “No. They tried that already. He’d just buy his way out of it again. Or threaten to have the jurors’ children disappear or order the judge’s car blown up.”

To what extent does this vigilante thing go? I love that Batman/Bruce Wayne still believes that you can not willingly take a life in this way. You just don’t do that no matter what the other person did. In that sense, Batman sees Exacto as less of a villain and more as an adversary. But I think he would also be very intrigued by him.

I would like to think that if this story was to progress, you ultimately would get these Batman/Exacto team-ups where they would investigate various, different things. Exacto would get a little over his head, and Batman would have to save him. Or it would be the other way around.

That’s partly why Bruce Wayne hires him at the end. He thinks this guy is a really interesting mind and wants to pursue that.

“Death by Design” written by Chip Kidd with art by Dave Taylor, arrives May 30.

(article originally posted by Jeffrey Renaud at CBR HERE)

Could not get enough ARKHAM CITY? Check out ARKHAM UNHINGED

 Comic Books, DC Universe, Interview, Preview, Video Gaming  No Responses »
Nov 142011
 

DC has announced that due to the inmense success of the ARKHAM CITY game, they are preparing a new comic series designed to expand on that universe with ARKHAM CITY UNHINGED, “a new, weekly digital exclusive that aims to flesh out the story behind the game” and available only digitally through DC’s COMIXOLOGY store. It literally “takes the toys in the video game and gives readers a new perspective and better idea of the moving parts that the player doesn’t get to see.”

Following is an excerpt from an interview done by CBR’s  Steven Sunu to series writer Derek Fridolfs:

CBR News: Derek, tell us about “Arkham Unhinged.” What’s the general plot and how does it connect with the “Arkham City” video game?

Derek Fridolfs: For those unfamiliar with the game, the idea is that the new mayor, Mayor Sharp, in association with Hugo Strange, has sectioned off an old part of Gotham with walls in order to house-in criminals from Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison, following some major riots and destruction that happened in the first “Arkham Asylum” game. It’s a chance to contain all of the criminals in one specific area [allowing them] to run free, as long as they don’t try to escape. It keeps Gotham safer that way — at least, that’s their intent when explaining this to the public. Bruce Wayne thinks otherwise, and decides to see for himself from inside the walls. So it’s one long night inside Arkham City as Batman investigates what’s really going on while trying to stop various things from happening.

“Arkham Unhinged” is complimentary to the Arkham City game. Now that the game is up and running, this is an ongoing, weekly, digital title that will have stories that are about what is going on in the game as well as backstories, motivations and further exploits in the Arkhamverse. It’s a chance to flesh out things maybe hinted at or not covered in the game, as well as focus on brand new stories off the beaten path and follow these characters more closely.

Anyone that’s played the game knows there’s a main storyline being told as well as side missions with various characters. There’s a whole lot there to play with, and this ongoing is a chance to leave no stone unturned. To get in there and play with all the villains as well as tell what is up with Batman and his family of heroes as the game takes place.

Within the timeline of the game, when does the book take place?

The previous “Arkham City” five-issue miniseries and the seven digital chapters [took place] in the months leading up to the opening of “Arkham City.” It helped lay the foundation for what happened following the Arkham Asylum breakout at the end of the first game, and show some of the characters who were involved leading up to the formation of a walled off section of Gotham called Arkham City. “Arkham Unhinged” takes place after that.

Judging by what we’ve seen so far, this book aims to really flesh out the conflict between Two-Face and Catwoman. Does it simply give a more detailed telling of the Arkham City story between the two characters that can be unlocked in the game, or is this something completely different?

[The “Arkham City”story] leads off the first storyline of “Unhinged.” The first few chapters actually give a bit of backstory about how Catwoman and Two-Face arrived in Arkham City, leading up to the confrontation that kicks off the opening scene in the game. From there, we’ll feature all sorts of other stories inside (and out) of Arkham City and what people are up to. Some might relate or tie-in to certain continuities of the game, but most are a chance to tell other stories and unique ideas and confrontations that don’t occur in the game.

Folks who have powered through the game know the motivation for Hugo Strange’s agenda. How does “Arkham Unhinged” help develop Strange’s character and further reveal the steps toward that motivation?

It’s a bit of a balancing act, working on this comic, as we’re trying not to spoil any major events that take place in the game — at least at first. You want to be able to allow game players and readers a chance to have some time to play the game and experience what is going on there without spoiling it in the comic. But in the months after the game has been out, we’ll be able to start delving deeper into the main story of the game and further flesh out Strange and what his main motivation is. You will find out he didn’t just come out of nowhere for “Arkham City,” that he’s been doing things behind-the-scenes since during the “Arkham Asylum” game and even before that.

One of the great things about “Arkham City” is the inclusion of so many characters from the Batman mythos. Can readers expect a similar cast of characters for “Unhinged?”

Oh, definitely. That really is one of the best things, that I get a full toybox to play with. Most of Batman’s rogues gallery are in the game, and we’re going to have a chance to go through and have stories that cover most, if not all of them. There’s a lot of crossover as well, with rivalries and vendettas. It’s no surprise that after Arkham City opens, most of the villains have splintered off into their own sections of town and their own gangs. Some are interested in acquiring more power and territory, some are just trying to survive, some want to break out and some are happier now that they’re inside and left alone. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on as many of them as possible, whether they were heavily featured in the game or not.

“Arkham Unhinged” is being released exclusively through the comiXology digital platform. Why do you think this is a good way to reach readers that might be interested in continuing the “Arkham City” storyline?

The game reaches a lot of fans, both in gaming and fans of Batman in general. These are people used to their entertainment being digital, so I think it only makes sense to tap into that market and maybe introduce those fans to comics by way of this game. The fans of the game have been anticipating “Arkham City’s” release for quite some time, and are really invested in it, eating up as much info as they can and chatting about it on message boards. The digital comics (as well as the hardcover release) have been very successful for that audience. “Unhinged” is a way to continue that, for people to read more about the Arkhamverse as they continue to play and discover the game. And for fans of comics, maybe even those that have yet to try digital, we hope this is enticing. 10 page chapters, released weekly, for 99 cents each. By today’s standards, it’s a real bargain, and we hope people will come back each week to get their fix.

The earlier Digital Exclusives were later collected into a single print issue offered as a preorder bonus for the game from Amazon.com. At present, are there plans for a similar collection for “Arkham Unhinged?”

Don’t forget, most of the digital exclusives were also collected into the hardcover of the “Arkham City” miniseries collection. As far as collecting “Unhinged,” at this point it’s digital. I leave it up to DC to decide where it goes from there. But with most of these things, if it’s popular enough, it’ll eventually get collected in some form or another.

Here is a preview:

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 (Original article “Fridolfs crafts Batman Unhinged” can be read HERE!!)

Joker to be in Chip Kidd’s “Batman: Death By Design”

 DC Universe, DCU, Interview, Preview  No Responses »
Oct 302011
 

More news for the Jokerholics: Joker is to make an appearance in the upcoming Graphic Novel.  DC has another Batman graphic novel on the burner, this time written by CHIP KIDD (The Cheese Monkey, multiple DC cover designer) and Dave Taylor.  CBR interviewed him this month and here is a reprint of the exchange:

CBR News: Chip, there may be some glaring gap in my knowledge of your work, but to my knowledge, we’ve seen you design books and logos about comics, we’ve seen you curate comics media and ephemera for projects, and we’ve seen you write your own novels — but this is the first time you’ve really written an actual comics project of this type, isn’t it?

Chip Kidd: I would say so, yes. I mean, I’ve had a little bit of a head start. I wrote those two stories for the “Bizarro” anthologies for Tony Millionaire years ago, but I think they were each six or eight-page stories. And I co-wrote a story with Alex Ross for the end of our “Mythology” book. But those aside, this is definitely a first — to be able to do a long form Batman graphic novel. And I have to say, it’s very exciting to finally be able to talk about it. I was frankly surprised [to hear it was being announced] because their policy has been to hold off on promoting this when it doesn’t yet exist.

Everyone knows that you’re a major Batman fan and collector of Batman memorabilia, but how long has that love of the character been percolating as a desire to write the comics themselves? Did you carry this story around a while, or is this a more recent development?

Well, it was really interesting. The short answer is that it is a recent development. It grew out, of all things, an interview I’d done with Neil Gaiman at the 92nd Street Y [here in New York.] I believe it was three years ago for the anniversary of “Sandman.” DC had asked me if I would consider interviewing him on stage, which of course I jumped at the chance to do. When I came backstage after we’d done it — and it went very well as Neil’s a friend — basically Dan Didio came up to me and said, “I didn’t realize you were such a Batman fan. Would you want to do a Batman story for us?” And I said, “Of course I would! But please don’t say that unless you really mean it.” That was the start.

It really was not as if this was some story I’d been dying to tell since I was eight years old or something like that. It actually became a case of “Be careful what you wish for” because all of the sudden I had permission to do this. And because I’m primarily a graphic designer, it then became a case of problem solving. I am more than fully well aware of the entire history of this character, so what could I do to bring something forward that hasn’t been brought before? That was very, very intimidating.

What was your draw into Batman in terms of this project? I’ve heard artists over the years talk about their love of the design element of the character — how he’s essentially composed of triangles rather than rounded shapes. Is that what you tap into on a primary level, or does it start with the character’s story for you?

chipkiddgn2Even though I would say I very much art directed the project, I’m not the artist. So this became an issue of working with somebody who had a like-minded vision of what I wanted to do and could really devote what turned out to be two-plus years of his time to it. I had a sensibility in mind, and I had a kind of milieu in mind. Then I started thinking about a plot and a beginning, middle and end and taking it from there. The artist on the book is a gentleman named Dave Taylor.

Although from your point of view, the name “Death By Design” certainly does conjure up a picture of something in your visual wheelhouse. How did you develop the hook for the story and then shape it to be handed to Dave?

I actually came up with the title first. I thought, “If it’s me and you know who I am and what I do, then I’m going to come at this whole thing from a design standpoint.” I’ve said for many years that Batman himself and especially the way he’s evolved is brilliant design. It’s problem solving. And we get into that in the story. Beyond that, it became about me going “What if?” What do I want that I haven’t seen? And really, the overall Art Direction for the book is “What if Fritz Land made a Batman movie in the late 1930s and had a huge budget? Go!” There’s the visual platform.

I also — and I’m certainly by no means the first to do this — drew on an architectural renderer from the ’20s and ’30s named Hugh Ferriss, who I know Bruce Timm also referred to quite a bit for the look of Gotham City [in “Batman: The Animated Series”]. And Ferriss did most of his things in pencil. They were [these] massive, monolithic buildings that were lit up from street level at night. They really are, to me, the ultimate Gotham City images. So that was something that I very much used as a reference to give to Dave. And he did an amazing job.

As the story started developing around those ideas, did you gravitate more toward the dark Batman side of the character, or did you look at Bruce Wayne’s high society world a bit more?

That’s a very good question. First of all, this is not a brooding, self-doiubting or otherwise mentally unbalanced version of the character. For me, this is very much an old-fashioned, movie serial kind of approach. He does not have a problem being this character and is not a tortured soul. It’s more of an adventure, and it’s much more about problem solving. What I’ve always liked very much is that there are certain things Batman can do that Bruce Wayne cannot. But there’s very much a flipside to that because there are things Bruce Wayne can do that Batman cannot. You need both of those things — or at least I do — to make things interesting. A good part of the story and the plot goes into the building and design trade of Gotham City — how that works or doesn’t work and how it’s corrupted. There is a good bit of history with Bruce Wayne’s father. It’s not any kind of twisted, huge revelation. It’s about the design legacy of the Wayne’s in Gotham City.

chipkiddgn3

The other side of the Batman equation is his great rogue’s gallery. How did you approach who or what to use in terms of threats to Gotham?

It was funny. I really made this up as I went along since I’d never done anything with this kind of scope even though I’ve written two novels. So I wrote up an outline and some character sketches. I created some characters. I created a villain. And so I presented all of this to my editor, Mark Chiarello, and we went out to lunch to talk about it, and he said, “I like this, and I think it can work, but I’ll just throw this out there: don’t you want any of the classic villains?” And I said, “Well, I don’t know what I’m allowed to do or not do!” [Laughs] Maybe this isn’t very obvious, but the whole project is very much out of continuity. And as it turns out, thank God! Because at the time we started, the New 52 wasn’t really on the timeline at all. So after Mark said that, I went, “Can I have the Joker?” and they said sure. So I threw him into the mix, which turned out to work very well. It added to the story, and I got to do my version of it, or rather, our version of it.

Now that you’re personally at the end of the scripting process, what have you learned that even after knowing so much about the comics you didn’t expect going in? Did you feel in over your head at points as you went, or did it come naturally?

I think with something like this that if you don’t feel in over you’re head, you’re probably not trying hard enough. I think it is good to try and do something outside your comfort zone — not just for the sake of it but to challenge yourself. I think the big challenge for me was that the page count was finite, and I found myself wanting to squeeze in more stuff than I had room for. There were certain subplots that I wanted to work in that I simply wasn’t able to as it was breaking down. That was kind of a drag and hard to work around, although I think we did it well in the end. We’ve still got to do lettering and sound effects yet, but it is all drawn.

The pleasant surprises for me were when Dave would frankly not do what I was telling him to do and break it down a little differently. The one thing I did that he said he really liked was that — and I don’t know how else to do it — I didn’t do a script that looked like any normal comic book script I know of. In other words, it doesn’t look like a movie screenplay. I diagram all the pages out. It’s very specific with me showing “This is how big this panel is, and this is what’s happening in the panel, and this is the dialogue.” Dave said he liked that because it did a lot of his work for him, and that was the idea — to put as little guesswork in as possible. But where he pleasantly surprised me was where he would deviate from that. There’s actually one big huge deviation at the beginning of the book that just shocked me, and it didn’t make me angry, but I had to go “Hmm. Wow.” I can go into more detail about it once the book comes out, but he did some really amazing things.

His characters look great. There’s a new female character who’s not exactly a femme fatale, but she’s kind of a romantic foil for Bruce Wayne named Cyndia Sill, and she’s absolutely amazing. She’s sort of a cross between Jacqueline Kennedy and Grace Kelly. She’s really fantastic. It all looks great, and is colored minimally. It’s all pencil with no ink, so it has a really distinctive look.

I think it’s interesting to see you do so much in comics from designing logos for books like “All-Star Superman” to editing the art comics for Pantheon, but has this kicked off a new phase for you where more work could be in the offing?

I’m sure it’s boring and predictable to say it, but I would love to do more of this. We just haven’t really talked about it yet because we really wanted to make sure this would be finished in a way that everybody was happy with. I would love to do more. I love these characters obviously, and hopefully the book will do well and DC will want to do more. But I think right now, we want to concentrate on getting this done. It’s been very, very labor intensive, and I think it shows, and I hope people enjoy it.

I’m very, very lucky. I get to do the books at Pantheon where we have a massive, massive Chris Ware project that’s coming out in about a year, and we have “Habibi” by Craig Thompson out now. It’s great. There’s no real set game plan beyond the fact that I’d love to do another of these whether it’s with Batman or somebody else. It really is like magic when you write all that stuff on the page and the artist goes out and just does it. It was intimidating to do my own Batman thing, but of course, being the narcissist I am, I also made myself a character in the story. [Laughter] That was really fun to see.

Well, I suppose we’ll all be waiting with baited breath to see if you kill yourself off then.

[Laughs] I only killed myself off artistically!

Original interview made by Kiel Phiegly for CBR NYCC BAT SIGNAL

Bat Signal: The CBR Lee Bermejo Interview on BATMAN : NOEL

 DCU, Interview, News, Preview  No Responses »
Oct 262011
 

noel000Following the news on Bermejo’s new project, I found another interview done to LEE BERMEJO about his latest project.  After  bringing to you the interview done at NEWSARAMA that  you can read HERE, our friends at CBR were able to have a litte exchange with the writer/artists about his latest Batman project.   The article was originally posted at the CBR site (link below) and done by Kiel Phlegley, CBR’s news editor. Remember the preview of the story I posted HERE.  In the meantime, here is the CBR interview:

In 2008, artist Lee Bermejo saw the “Joker” graphic novel he drew for writer Brian Azzarello at DC Comics earn major sales during the zeitgeist surrounding Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance in “The Dark Knight.” Next week, three year’s after “Joker’s” release, Bermejo returns solo for another original graphic novel set in Batman’s world. And this time, he’s ready for the holiday rush.

Hitting stores on November 2, “Batman: Noel” loosely adapts Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol” in a form familiar to fans of Gotham City. The book presents a number of firsts for Bermejo. It’s his first work as writer-artist and his first time drawing an expansive Batman cast. However, from early pages previewed in DC’s recent new monthly comics, it’s also evident that the artist’s lush, detailed style remains well intact.

To help prepare the way for “Noel’s” arrival for the holiday season, CBR News spoke to Bermejo as part of THE BAT SIGNAL, our regular coverage of Batman’s world across comics and other media. Below, the artist opens up on the challenges and rewards of writing his own material, explains which members of the Dark Knights world will stand in for which character’s in the tale of Scrooge and company and shares an exclusive first look at a new page highlighting his first chance to draw Robin, the Boy Wonder

CBR News: Lee, a lot of fans have seen the preview pages for “Batman: Noel” running in the back of some of the New 52 books. Even that preview must be gratifying after so long in progress. What does it feel like to be on the verge of the book’s release after over a year working on it?

Lee Bermejo: I’ve been working on it two years, actually. [Laughs] Yeah, it’s been a long, long time. It feels great to have it done and have it finally coming out. With every book there’s a mixture of excitement and nervousness. But hey…it’s done!

You’ve spent a lot of time over the past few years working on more stand-alone projects. “Joker” with Brian Azzarello was an OGN, and even the “Luthor” series was added to and edited to work as a stand-alone story. When did that kind of work in collaboration turn towards you doing a book on your own? Did you want to tell this specific story or just write for yourself in general?

It was a combination of things. I think that I do graphic novels or these kind of one-shot projects for an obvious reason: I’m just not fast enough to do a monthly. That’s the reason why this particular format works for me. And I’ve always wanted to try my hand at writing. I’ve been very lucky with the writers I’ve been able to work with. But I think almost every artist I know has that desire to eventually do something of their own or at least be involved heavily in some of the writing decisions.

And this specific project came about as a direct response to “Joker.” That was so dark and violent and really just a ruthless book that I wanted to step back from that and try to do something different. I was concerned about how I do these dark, gritty projects and villain projects and so I don’t get to do as many major heroes like Batman and Superman. I thought, “Let’s go the other way. Let’s do something that can hopefully be an all-ages project and at the same time use the major characters I love so much.”

In comics, Christmas stories have been done before, but I can’t think of a lot of Batman Christmas stories, let alone one that mixes in Dickens. What’s the origin of this story for you? Are you a big “Christmas Carol” fan?

I’m certainly a Dickens fan. But I think the reason I went with this particular idea was a combination of factors. One, right after “Joker” came out, I thought I’d try my hand at a children’s book. I started tossing around ideas for that, and a French publisher contacted me at some point and said, “Would you be interested in translating into comic form some classic literature?” Both of those things converging kind of morphed into the idea of me doing “Batman: Noel.” I knew I wanted to do something that was a little bit more children’s booky in terms of format. I wanted to have traditional, panel-by-panel comic book storytelling, but I also knew I wanted to utilize some montage elements and open up the storytelling a bit.

The preview pages show that. The pages seem to be centered around one big image each time out, and the lettering floats around instead of being held in standard captions. Was that part of the conception of the whole book?

The whole time this was pitched as a storybook kind of project. It was pitched as a graphic novel that would definitely be less traditional in terms of its storytelling. And again, that was just something I wanted to do at the time – an avenue I wanted to explore. And this story felt like it was perfect with that look. I think everybody’s familiar with “A Christmas Carol” at this point, but the great thing about that – and I think the reason for that – is that thematically it’s got something universal. I thought that it would be interesting to play with those classic ideas but use DC characters.

And I think it’s important to note too that this isn’t an adaptation. You’re not going to see top hats and canes. [Laughter] It’s its own story that mirrors the structure of “A Christmas Carol,” and you have a narrator that’s telling you the story of “A Christmas Carol” almost as if he was telling it to someone else. There are elements where he leaves things up to interpretation. He forgets part of it. He moves through the story in a disjointed way. He lets himself go on tangents from time to time, but essentially the story you’re following in the book is the story of a father who tried his hand at the criminal profession because of desperation, but he quickly realizes it’s not for him. He gets a job working for the Joker, and Batman uses him as bait to try and capture the Joker.

And that’s our Bob Cratchit stand in. As you were layering the story together, did you pull in superheroes from the DCU to play the roles of the Dickens cast?

Definitely. I’m using Catwoman as the Ghost of Christmas Past and Superman as the Ghost of Christmas Present. Robin is a perfect character to play Marley. So certain characters just seemed to fit in for all the right reasons. And they’re not playing ghosts. The role that they play in the story is just analogous to a role in the Dickens.

Now that you’re on the other end of the book, what was it like to do it all yourself? Was it an easy transition, or did you find yourself calling folks for advice in the scripting process here and there?

I definitely called up some friends. I mean, I’m not arrogant enough to pretend I can nail something like that right off the bat. There’s a learning curve to all of this stuff too. What I did in this particular case is that I wrote the story on spec not even knowing if it would ever get made. I just wrote it for myself to see if I could do it. I sent the script to a few people and had them check it out, and then I wound up pitching the finished script here at DC.

And obviously, the great thing about writing and drawing it is that it frees you up to make decisions as you’re working on it that are more difficult to make when you’re working with a writer. If you feel like the rhythm or the pacing of a certain sequence isn’t working on the page, you just change it. The biggest thing that I found doing this book in particular is that when you write, you’re thinking of things visually, but I didn’t actually lay out the book beforehand. I wanted to try and just write it as a writer and not fall back on the “What do I want to draw today?” impulse. I wanted to make sure the story stood by itself as opposed to having the art get in the way. Later on, I realized that a lot of my visual instincts as a storyteller I could trust a little more than I thought I could…probably from years of working with other writers.

Having the structure of the story based on Dickens really gives you some nice rules too, and you know you need to play within those boundaries. That made it easier. You know what each scene has to do, and you know the master it needs to serve at the end of the day. It’s not as easy to go off in directions that don’t necessarily serve your story.

“Joker” got a lot of press as a book that sold big in bookstores around the time “The Dark Knight” came out as a comic that non-Wednesday readers could come in and pick right up. With this hitting during the holiday shopping season, do you have similar hopes for “Noel” being a comic that a lot of people who know the characters from film or TV might want to give a try?

I want anyone to buy it at any time of the year. I think that it’s obvious that this is the right time to put it out. But the thing I found with “Joker” that steered me in the direction I’ve been going in professionally is that I’m amazed at how many people who have at least come up to me and said they liked “Joker” and they weren’t regular comic readers. These are people who are maybe casual comic book readers. They don’t follow the continuity as strictly. I see it as my responsibility to maybe try and get those people who don’t read comics on a monthly basis to pick up these books. It’s a lofty goal. [Laughter] But at the same time, these stand-alone graphic novels tend to work well for that audience who don’t need to know a bunch of continuity to get into it.

 What was the most enjoyable part of physically putting the art for the book together? So much of what your Batman work has played with is atmosphere, and that seems a strong mesh with a wintery Christmas story. What was your best visual draw to the book?

I just enjoy drawing atmosphere in general, and I like things with texture – buildings and snow. These things all have terrific texture that when I sit down, they’re fun to draw. But I certainly wanted in this book to do something I haven’t done before, and that is play with an element of the history of Batman. I have a pretty specific way that I draw the character, and it’s the same with the Joker and other characters. But I wanted to make a reference to the fact that I think the darker Gotham City and armored Batman is a product of this moment in the character’s history. That fits with what’s been done with the character in recent years, but at the same time, you can juxtapose that with more traditional interpretations. In this book, I did some pages and scenes with an Adam Westy looking Batman. Robin was a character I’d never drawn before, and I played around with some more ridiculous interpretations of the characters.

 

Thanks for such a wonderful interview Kiel!  Original Interview can be read HERE!

Lee Bermejo talks about BATMAN: NOEL

 DC Universe, Interview, News, Preview  No Responses »
Oct 222011
 

Hey guys,

noel000

 

The magnificent team at NEWSARAMA has nailed a fascinating interview with LEE BERMEJO (Joker GN) that highlights his latest project BATMAN: NOËL. I took the liberty of transcribing part of the whole interview done by Vanetta Rogers.  A link at the end will take you to the whole interview:

NOTE:  I posted the preview of BATMAN: NOËL that appeared on the back of some of DC’s issues this month.  SEE THE PREVIEW HERE!

 

For many comic fans, it’s good to know there are more creative ideas coming out of DC Comics than just the much-hyped monthly “New 52.”

One of those creative ideas is Batman: Noël, a new graphic novel that has an outside-continuity story, yet features a compelling artistic style. Set to be released on November 2nd, the book was created by Lee Bermejo, the artist who won notoriety for his hauntingly detailed work on the Brian Azzarello-penned book Joker and his ground-breaking Superman stories in Wednesday Comics.

After the success of Joker, DC gave Bermejo the creative license to write and draw his own graphic novel — something rare for artists in the age of superstar writers.

What resulted was Batman: Noël a story that borrows its structure from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but gives the classic story the dark edge that’s inherent in anything set in Gotham City. The “ghosts” that Batman encounters on his journey (Catwoman, Superman and Joker) may echo those from the familiar Dickens tale, but Bermejo twists the story to fit the haunted world of Gotham.

When DC revealed a few previews for the book earlier this month, it was clear that Batman: Noël was a labor of love for Bermejo, with stunning artwork that is jaw-droppingly detailed.

Newsarama talked with Bermejo — and got an exclusive Batman: Noël page from DC. And as we talked to the writer artist, we found out the artist wanted to use a more childlike theme for Batman: Noël but his artistic approach is meant to give the book its markedly grown-up depth.

Newsarama: Lee, you’d mentioned in New York original idea for Batman: Noel came out of your desire to theme a graphic novel like a kids’ book. Why?

Lee Bermejo: I just wanted to do something different than what I’d been doing. I had just come off two villain books, and even before that, I did a book called Batman Deathblow. And all these projects were very dark and serious and kind of gritty. I just wanted to try something a bit different. To do something that thematically was different too.

Nrama: But looking at the pages, this clearly isn’t a kid’s book.

Bermejo: No, no. My wife makes fun of me when I mention kids, because she says, “If you think this Batman story is for kids, you clearly don’t know kids, and it’s pretty obvious we don’t have children.”

I don’t think it’s a children’sbook. But it has visual qualities and a narrative quality that mirrors that, purposefully so.

I think there’s also something very interesting about that juxtaposition. It’s hard to imagine Batman in a children’s book. I like contrast, and I like juxtaposing things like that.

When I was a kid, like four or five years old, I was obsessed with the Batman TV show in the ’60s. And I took it totally seriously. At that age, I took it completely seriously. I didn’t get the fact that it was kind of played for laughs. I didn’t understand why my mom was rolling her eyes or chuckling.

I think there’s something kind of interesting there — to play the book seriously, but kind of wink and nod sometimes.

Nrama: And this is a play on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. So is that where there’s a bit of a wink and a nod?

Bermejo: Sure. It’s not an adaptation; it follows its own story. It follows the structure of A Christmas Carol. And you have a narrator who’s telling you the story of A Christmas Carol and it’s open to interpretation, and he gets some parts of it wrong. But the actual story you’re following visually is its own thing.

It’s about a desperate father who has fallen on hard times, and he gets a job working for the Joker. And he quickly realizes that that’s not for him.

But Batman actually ends up using him as bait to catch the Joker. That’s how the story begins.

Nrama: Are there actually three ghosts?

Bermejo: No, none of these characters are playing the actual Dickens characters.

But you’ll see characters in the story who are analogous to the ghosts. There are characters who fit in with the roles that those ghosts play in Dickens. The “Ghost of Christmas Past” is a sequence with Catwoman. The “Ghost of Christmas Present” is a sequence with Superman, and the “Ghost of Christmas Future” is Joker.

The roles these characters play at that moment in the story help serve the same purpose that the ghosts serve in A Christmas Carol.

Nrama: Does it take place at any certain point in continuity? Like between two certain issues?

Bermejo: It doesn’t necessarily fit into any particular continuity. It’s hopefully something that any reader can pick up without having to know a ton about Batman.

I think the neat thing about these characters now is that everyone knows who Batman is. They’re familiar with the fact that he’s Bruce Wayne, and that the Joker is his arch-nemesis. They even know about Robin.

So this is a story that even someone who doesn’t know anymore than that about Batman can pick up and understand and enjoy.

For the rest of the interview, please VISIT THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE!  

Tony Daniels Talks Detective Comics #1, Joker and More…

 Comic Books, DCU, Interview, Joker, Preview  No Responses »
Sep 172011
 

I was playing around on the net and found this nifty discussion from Tony Daniels on his involvement with DETECTIVE COMICS series and his take on Joker plus some more goodies.  This was posted originally by Josh Wilding at COMICBOOKMOVIE.COM. Here is the scoop!

 Talking to IGN Comics writer and artist Tony Daniel has discussed his upcoming work on Detective Comics #1, dropping some revealing new details and finally shedding some light on the Joker of the DCnU. Below are some brief excerpts from the interview, but be sure to click on the link below to head on over to the site where you can find much, much more.

On What Will Single Out Detective Comics From The Other Batman Titles:

I knew pretty quickly how I wanted to tackle the book and what my take would be. Whereas in my Batman run, I had to keep in mind Dick Grayson’s lighter character when working on fight sequences and character beats, I have a sense of freedom on Detective that allows me to write the Batman that I’ve always wanted to write. The tone will be more serious, darker. And deeper. We’ll be seeing Batman facing challenges and new foes (as well as old) that will test his limits as both a detective, and a man. I think Detective gives me the chance to do something different than what I was doing on Batman, so I think that’s a good thing.

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