batman the killing joke deluxe dc black label edition

Moore has pretty much disowned it and Bolland got to recolor it the way he originally intended in a 2008 deluxe edition re-release. Interesting to see a book loved by so many but looked down upon by its creators. Bolland was unhappy about its final color treatment by John Higgins and Moore (who generally likes bigger more far reaching ideas) felt a smaller story between the iconic Gotham characters didn’t lead to anywhere interesting. Both books brought a darker perspective on the superhero genre, which influenced Burton’s take on it and flooded the market with violent, gritty anti-heroes. When The Killing Joke came out the superhero revolution had happened a few years before with Frank Miller doing The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore on Watchmen. Thirty-seven of its forty-eight pages feature drawings the Joker. And as much (or as little) as that sounds it solidified Bolland as the definitive artist for the character. A few months later I saw The Killing Joke on the shelf, fully illustrated by Bolland and written by Alan Moore. But to my disappointment none of the art inside, which was all drawn by different cartoonists was as good as that cover.

My dad brought me to a comic shop he had found during a lunch break and bought me The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told (seen below). It had a cover by Brian Bolland, which looked great.

“ It’s probably well known that John’s choice of colors turned out to be startlingly at odds with what I had in mind” – Brian BollandĬontext: Tim Burton’s Batman came out in 1989 and got lots of kids picking up comic books for the first time, me included. It’s not saying anything very interesting.” – Alan Moore “ Brian Bolland did a wonderful job on the art but I don’t think it’s a very good book.

Batman the killing joke deluxe dc black label edition