Okay, now I want to get this. The second part doesn't look so great, and I'm not too fond of stories where Two-Face is portrayed as trying to destroy the lives of the people he once cared about, but I'm a sucker for Mike Barr's Batman. His run with Alan Davis might just be my favorite. "Retro" is the key word. There were so many great bits; the Bowie-esque Joker,Jason actually being a likeable character, one of the very best Scarecrow stories, a fun Mad Hatter story, the team-up with all stars past and present of Detective Comics, and of course, "My beginning and my probable end". Those stories deserved to have been collected yesterday.
Also, good to see a reference to Two-Face's charity work. That's an unfortunately neglected facet of the character. In TLH, Loeb could have exploited this when he had Solomon Grundy (who was a walking symbol of poverty in his original Golden Age appearence) become Harvey's henchman, especially since he was trying to bring down the rich Falcone family.
>Dick Sprang still had the chops
Damn right, In fact, I think of all the Batman artists, his work succeeds at being the most disturbing, well at least his more modern work does. How so? Well, just look at it, there's something...off...about seeing his cartoony style applied to modern comics, his style has evolved but he's forcing himself to be cartoony, and it accentuates the "realistic" aspects (ie. with the extra detail given to Harvey's scarred side).
>no giggling at his name
Don't worry, you aren't on Politically Correct /co/ anymore.
"I'm a sucker for Mike Barr's Batman. His run with Alan Davis might just be my favorite. "Retro" is the key word. There were so many great bits; the Bowie-esque Joker,Jason actually being a likeable character, one of the very best Scarecrow stories, a fun Mad Hatter story, the team-up with all stars past and present of Detective Comics, and of course, "My beginning and my probable end". Those stories deserved to have been collected yesterday."
Glad to hear someone else loves that run! I think it might be my favorite as well. A friend of mine asked the other day if there was a trade of it and I had to sadly reply no. And good call on the Joker, that was the right way to do a Bowie/Joker synthesis (and it makes sense since they were trying to get him to do the movie at the time.)
... but I'm a sucker for Mike Barr's Batman. His run with Alan Davis might just be my favorite. "Retro" is the key word.
It really is a classic run, the kind which you'd think would be collected and celebrated ala Englehart and Rogers. The Catwoman story with Dr. Moon was my first exposure thanks to the Stacked Deck collection, but I always found the ending so sad that it was hard to enjoy it fully. Still a great story from a great run.
On the other hand, then there's Batman: Year Two. God, I hate that story. First off, it screws with the great Moxon/Chill Golden Age story, which I've come to really love after reading it condensed in The Untold Legend of Batman (which I'm tempted to post here in its entirety, all three parts), but I'm now especially fond of it after The Brave and the Bold adapted it so well. Secondly, it complete undercuts any tension of Bruce being tempted to kill Chill by having the choice ripped out of him at the last minute by the Reaper. And third, ugh, the Reaper. Do Not Care.
That said, I like what Alan Brennert did with the Reaper versus Alan Scott in that fantastic Black Canary issue, and how he returned to that story a bit in his Batman Black and White story with Alan and Batman. Basically, I just need to post the rest of Brennert's stories here too.
As for Sprang's work near the end of his life, I always go back to this:
I see Graham Nolan's signature there, and hope he was just the inker or something, because I really want to believe that the best Bane drawing I've ever seen would be by Dick Sprang.
Also, good to see a reference to Two-Face's charity work. That's an unfortunately neglected facet of the character. In TLH, Loeb could have exploited this when he had Solomon Grundy (who was a walking symbol of poverty in his original Golden Age appearence) become Harvey's henchman, especially since he was trying to bring down the rich Falcone family.
>Dick Sprang still had the chops
Damn right, In fact, I think of all the Batman artists, his work succeeds at being the most disturbing, well at least his more modern work does. How so? Well, just look at it, there's something...off...about seeing his cartoony style applied to modern comics, his style has evolved but he's forcing himself to be cartoony, and it accentuates the "realistic" aspects (ie. with the extra detail given to Harvey's scarred side).
>no giggling at his name
Don't worry, you aren't on Politically Correct /co/ anymore.
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Glad to hear someone else loves that run! I think it might be my favorite as well. A friend of mine asked the other day if there was a trade of it and I had to sadly reply no. And good call on the Joker, that was the right way to do a Bowie/Joker synthesis (and it makes sense since they were trying to get him to do the movie at the time.)
Reply
It really is a classic run, the kind which you'd think would be collected and celebrated ala Englehart and Rogers. The Catwoman story with Dr. Moon was my first exposure thanks to the Stacked Deck collection, but I always found the ending so sad that it was hard to enjoy it fully. Still a great story from a great run.
On the other hand, then there's Batman: Year Two. God, I hate that story. First off, it screws with the great Moxon/Chill Golden Age story, which I've come to really love after reading it condensed in The Untold Legend of Batman (which I'm tempted to post here in its entirety, all three parts), but I'm now especially fond of it after The Brave and the Bold adapted it so well. Secondly, it complete undercuts any tension of Bruce being tempted to kill Chill by having the choice ripped out of him at the last minute by the Reaper. And third, ugh, the Reaper. Do Not Care.
That said, I like what Alan Brennert did with the Reaper versus Alan Scott in that fantastic Black Canary issue, and how he returned to that story a bit in his Batman Black and White story with Alan and Batman. Basically, I just need to post the rest of Brennert's stories here too.
As for Sprang's work near the end of his life, I always go back to this:
I see Graham Nolan's signature there, and hope he was just the inker or something, because I really want to believe that the best Bane drawing I've ever seen would be by Dick Sprang.
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