Exclusive: DC's Black Label Will Explore the Joker and the Question's Inner Workings in 2 New Series
Though DC’s Joker and the Question aren’t exactly the most similar characters personality-wise, they’re both shrouded in mystery and live for their own single-minded pursuits of what they perceive to be the truth. While we’ve learned plenty about them during their exploits over the years, there are still depths to their inner workings that’ve yet to be explored. And we’re about to find out more.
io9 can exclusively reveal that this fall, DC’s launching two new series under its Black Label imprint from writer Jeff Lemire and artists Andrea Sorrentino, Denys Cowan, and Bill Sienkiewicz that are squarely focused on Joker and the Question.
Joker: Killer Smile follows the Clown Prince of Crime as he has a fateful encounter with a mental health professional that radically alters the course of a number of lives, and while that premise sounds familiar, the story isn’t about Harley Quinn. At first, The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage comes across like a classic, hardboiled detective series, but the series opens with an existential twist: For reasons the Question doesn’t understand, he’s been living and dying in Hub City, seemingly trapped in a loop of reincarnation that spans from the Old West into the 1930s.
When I spoke with Lemire recently about what to expect from his new projects and his personal thoughts about the characters, he opened up about having mixed feelings about the chaotic clown and a deep respect for The Question comics that’s influenced a lot of his work. These books aren’t just passion projects, Lemire explained, they’re books meant to challenge readers to think a bit deeper about these characters.
io9: When we think about the characters in Batman’s orbit who really define the darkness that follows him, the Joker obviously comes to mind, and Killer Smile happens to come at a time when we’re having conversations about the Joker because there are so many incarnations of the character bouncing around in the spotlight right now-Jared Leto, Joaquin Phoenix, the Batman Who Laughs, you get what I’m talking about.
Lemire: Yeah, yeah.
io9: What is it that makes Killer Smile’s take on a Joker a story that needs to be told right now?
Jeff Lemire: Over the course of working together on things like Green Arrow and Old Man Logan over at Marvel, Andrea [Sorrentino] really developed a great chemistry and shared visual language. We’re always looking for new challenges, and Andrea was the one who suggested that we do a Joker project. I think he really tends to gravitate towards darker stories with a lot of psychological and dramatic underpinnings, so the Joker’s right up his alley.
Like with Batman, who’s such an icon, I think the Joker’s so open to interpretation and we’ve seen just how many different takes different artists and writers and actors have been able to put on these characters. What I got drawn into was the idea of a more grounded, real-world Joker, which is a terrifying concept on its own. He’s not as cartoonish and over-the-top as you’re used to seeing him here, but there’s still an insanity and desire for chaos in him that lashes out.
I wanted to tell an intimate story about how the Joker’s evil is something that can devastate a normal family or a relationship as much as it devastates society as a whole. That the idea that really grabbed me, that sense of terror that would come from letting something like the Joker into your family. As someone who has a family myself, that kind of chaos and darkness infecting my personal space is the scariest thing I can think of, and so I started there.
io9: It’s interesting that Killer Smile’s solicit text explicitly says that this isn’t a story about the Joker and Harley, but this is a story about the Joker seeing one of the people responsible for treating him at Arkham as his adversary. Can you go into who this new character is?
Lemire: Yeah, he’s a new character called Dr. Ben Arnell that Andrea and I created for the series, and he’s this bright, brilliant, young mental health professional who’s been tasked with trying to make some sense of the Joker. This is a trope we’ve seen in other Joker stories, with Harley being the most obvious example, but we wanted to take this trope and do something completely unexpected with it. Ben’s the reader’s gateway back into Arkham and to Gotham City and how we get to explore these new depths of the Joker’s mind.
io9: Arkham changes so drastically from one story to the next as different creative teams use it for their stories, and it takes on a life of its own. How much, if any, of Killer Smile’s story is going to explore the ways in which Arkham failed the Joker?
Lemire: You know there have been a lot of great Arkham stories, but that wasn’t really our goal. Obviously, Arkham is one of the main settings of the book just because of [the] conceit of the story, but Killer Smile’s really a story about the Joker as a person, not about Arkham’s influence on him or vice versa. If anything, the heart of the story takes place in the outskirts of Gotham in the suburbs with Ben’s family, and you see what pieces of Arkham he brings back with him.
io9: The Joker’s obviously a beloved character, but his popularity has lead to the character being picked apart and dissected from so many perspectives over the years, that there are times when you can’t help but wonder what new ground can broken with him.
Lemire: Yeah.
io9: Oftentimes when people are talking about new series, the conversations focus on how badly people on the creative teams have wanted to tell stories with particular characters that they’ve always loved. That’s interesting, but I’m curious to hear from you-aside from you and Andrea’s wanting to play around with the Joker, what potential do you think the character has to be the centerpiece in fascinating, riveting stories that haven’t been told before?
Lemire: To be honest, the Joker’s never been a character that I’ve exactly had a deep connection with or a longstanding craving to write a story about, but I love telling stories with Andrea that illustrate the psychological landscape of the character’s we’re focusing on. And so, when the Joker came out, the idea of exploring the metaphorical, surreal, and psychological landscape that a Joker story could exist in, that was the starting point that got me excited. I didn’t want to be too heavy-handed or one-to-one with what happens in our story being a reflection of the real world today, but there are elements of chaos and fear in Killer Smile that I think are running rampant right now in our society, politically and socially.
io9: Say more about what it is about the Joker that you think makes people project onto him.
Lemire: I think a lot of times people take a character like the Joker and, who’s already dark, and project a lot of their own darkness onto him and romanticize his actions, which has always bothered me. I want to use Ben, who has a light with him that shines on the Joker and exposes new things about him for readers to think about. The bigger idea of finding the balance between darkness and light in people was more interesting to me than something like trying to retell The Killing Joke.
io9: You said that Ben acts as a kind of proxy for the reader in this story, let’s say a diehard Joker fan picks up Killer Smile-is this story going to challenge that person’s conceptions of the character and their relationship with him?
Lemire: You know, I think so. The Joker isn’t inherently a hero or an antihero at all. He’s the incarnation of evil, and I’ve always had a bit of an issue with people who romanticize him even though that’s obviously the case. Killer Smile’s a story about just how dark the Joker really is and how inviting him into your life is dangerous and yeah, we want people to feel like none of their ideas about who he is really capture the full gravity of what he is.
[...]
Joker: Killer Smile from Lemire and Sorrentino hits store October 30, and The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage from Lemire, Cowan, and Sienkiewicz will be available on November 20.
Source: https://io9.gizmodo.com/exclusive-dcs-black-label-will-explore-the-joker-and-t-1836255597
---
DC INTRODUCES TWO NEW MINISERIES, JOKER: KILLER SMILE AND THE QUESTION: THE DEATHS OF VIC SAGE, THIS FALL UNDER DC BLACK LABEL
DC continues to add more thrilling stories to its lineup this fall with the introduction of two new miniseries-JOKER: KILLER SMILE from writer Jeff Lemire (GREEN ARROW, Gideon Falls, Essex County) and artist Andrea Sorrentino (GREEN ARROW, Gideon Falls) available October 30, followed by THE QUESTION: THE DEATHS OF VIC SAGE by Lemire and artists Denys Cowan (THE QUESTION , DETECTIVE COMICS, BLACK LIGHTNING/HONG KONG PHOOEY) and Bill Sienkiewicz (The New Mutants, Moon Knight) to be released November 20.
In JOKER: KILLER SMILE Lemire and Sorrentino will share their own interpretation of one of the darkest characters of the Batman mythos-the Joker. For years, the Joker has terrorized Gotham, facing off with Batman time and time again. But now he’s found a new adversary, one that can deliver him from the purgatory of Arkham Asylum and set his madness free once more-the very doctor tasked with treating him. As he gets his hooks deeper and deeper into the mind of his prey, Joker sets off a chain reaction of mayhem that will threaten to tear down not only Gotham City but the soul of this idealistic man, and his young family, too.
"Getting to work with my long-time collaborator Andrea Sorrentino on a Joker story is very exciting,” shares Lemire. “The Joker is an iconic character and we wanted to create something that challenges readers to look at him in a new and horrifying way."
Sorrentino adds, “This story has pushed me as a creator to aspire to new heights in storytelling. That little spark of madness in the Joker gives me an opportunity to play with the pacing, the layouts and the storytelling in a way that few other characters would allow.”
JOKER: KILLER SMILE is a three-part story that will debut October 30, 2019, releasing every other month following.
Source: https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2019/07/11/dc-introduces-two-new-miniseries-joker-killer-smile-and-the-question-the-deaths-of
---
Edit: AWW HOW GAY (LITERALLY BXJ LOL) CUTE IS THIS
Everyone knows that Batman and Joker are two sides of the same coin, and an upcoming bust is going to show us just how true that is.
Geek X, a new toy and collectibles company hailing from Australia, has unveiled its first DC collectible, the BXJ bust. This 16.5-inch bust will show us just how connected Batman and the Joker truly are.
BXJ 1:2SCALE BUST
- 42cm FROM BOTTOM OF BASE TO TOP OF COWL
- MADE FROM HIGH QUALITY POLYSTONE
- HAND PAINTED
- COMES WITH ACRYLIC CASE READY TO DISPLAY
- OFFICIALLY LICENSED BY DC/WB
‘You can’t kill me without becoming like me. I can’t kill you without losing the only human being who can keep up with me.’
Batman and Joker are foes on opposite ends of the spectrum in every way: appearance, morality and beliefs. Their storied history has seen much blood shed, tragedy and chaos; a volatile recipe that’s lead to an everlasting relationship and perhaps even friendship.
Geek X have sewn Batman and Joker together, to illustrate their chaotic bond, their animosity and their attachment to each other.
The half-bust symbolises their duality through the use of the stitches, keeping Batman and The Joker from separating. Their pain is shared equally, constant and fierce, and yet, they cannot survive without each other. On the base, Batman’s Batarang shadows The Joker’s calling card, completing the union of calamity.
Standing approximately 42 cm tall, the Joker/Batman 1:2 scale hybrid bust (BXJ) is made of polystone resin, hand painted and encased in a beautiful acrylic case.
Choose both sides with this splitting image in your collection!
Source: https://batman-news.com/2019/07/11/geek-x-bxj-bust/
io9 can exclusively reveal that this fall, DC’s launching two new series under its Black Label imprint from writer Jeff Lemire and artists Andrea Sorrentino, Denys Cowan, and Bill Sienkiewicz that are squarely focused on Joker and the Question.
Joker: Killer Smile follows the Clown Prince of Crime as he has a fateful encounter with a mental health professional that radically alters the course of a number of lives, and while that premise sounds familiar, the story isn’t about Harley Quinn. At first, The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage comes across like a classic, hardboiled detective series, but the series opens with an existential twist: For reasons the Question doesn’t understand, he’s been living and dying in Hub City, seemingly trapped in a loop of reincarnation that spans from the Old West into the 1930s.
When I spoke with Lemire recently about what to expect from his new projects and his personal thoughts about the characters, he opened up about having mixed feelings about the chaotic clown and a deep respect for The Question comics that’s influenced a lot of his work. These books aren’t just passion projects, Lemire explained, they’re books meant to challenge readers to think a bit deeper about these characters.
io9: When we think about the characters in Batman’s orbit who really define the darkness that follows him, the Joker obviously comes to mind, and Killer Smile happens to come at a time when we’re having conversations about the Joker because there are so many incarnations of the character bouncing around in the spotlight right now-Jared Leto, Joaquin Phoenix, the Batman Who Laughs, you get what I’m talking about.
Lemire: Yeah, yeah.
io9: What is it that makes Killer Smile’s take on a Joker a story that needs to be told right now?
Jeff Lemire: Over the course of working together on things like Green Arrow and Old Man Logan over at Marvel, Andrea [Sorrentino] really developed a great chemistry and shared visual language. We’re always looking for new challenges, and Andrea was the one who suggested that we do a Joker project. I think he really tends to gravitate towards darker stories with a lot of psychological and dramatic underpinnings, so the Joker’s right up his alley.
Like with Batman, who’s such an icon, I think the Joker’s so open to interpretation and we’ve seen just how many different takes different artists and writers and actors have been able to put on these characters. What I got drawn into was the idea of a more grounded, real-world Joker, which is a terrifying concept on its own. He’s not as cartoonish and over-the-top as you’re used to seeing him here, but there’s still an insanity and desire for chaos in him that lashes out.
I wanted to tell an intimate story about how the Joker’s evil is something that can devastate a normal family or a relationship as much as it devastates society as a whole. That the idea that really grabbed me, that sense of terror that would come from letting something like the Joker into your family. As someone who has a family myself, that kind of chaos and darkness infecting my personal space is the scariest thing I can think of, and so I started there.
io9: It’s interesting that Killer Smile’s solicit text explicitly says that this isn’t a story about the Joker and Harley, but this is a story about the Joker seeing one of the people responsible for treating him at Arkham as his adversary. Can you go into who this new character is?
Lemire: Yeah, he’s a new character called Dr. Ben Arnell that Andrea and I created for the series, and he’s this bright, brilliant, young mental health professional who’s been tasked with trying to make some sense of the Joker. This is a trope we’ve seen in other Joker stories, with Harley being the most obvious example, but we wanted to take this trope and do something completely unexpected with it. Ben’s the reader’s gateway back into Arkham and to Gotham City and how we get to explore these new depths of the Joker’s mind.
io9: Arkham changes so drastically from one story to the next as different creative teams use it for their stories, and it takes on a life of its own. How much, if any, of Killer Smile’s story is going to explore the ways in which Arkham failed the Joker?
Lemire: You know there have been a lot of great Arkham stories, but that wasn’t really our goal. Obviously, Arkham is one of the main settings of the book just because of [the] conceit of the story, but Killer Smile’s really a story about the Joker as a person, not about Arkham’s influence on him or vice versa. If anything, the heart of the story takes place in the outskirts of Gotham in the suburbs with Ben’s family, and you see what pieces of Arkham he brings back with him.
io9: The Joker’s obviously a beloved character, but his popularity has lead to the character being picked apart and dissected from so many perspectives over the years, that there are times when you can’t help but wonder what new ground can broken with him.
Lemire: Yeah.
io9: Oftentimes when people are talking about new series, the conversations focus on how badly people on the creative teams have wanted to tell stories with particular characters that they’ve always loved. That’s interesting, but I’m curious to hear from you-aside from you and Andrea’s wanting to play around with the Joker, what potential do you think the character has to be the centerpiece in fascinating, riveting stories that haven’t been told before?
Lemire: To be honest, the Joker’s never been a character that I’ve exactly had a deep connection with or a longstanding craving to write a story about, but I love telling stories with Andrea that illustrate the psychological landscape of the character’s we’re focusing on. And so, when the Joker came out, the idea of exploring the metaphorical, surreal, and psychological landscape that a Joker story could exist in, that was the starting point that got me excited. I didn’t want to be too heavy-handed or one-to-one with what happens in our story being a reflection of the real world today, but there are elements of chaos and fear in Killer Smile that I think are running rampant right now in our society, politically and socially.
io9: Say more about what it is about the Joker that you think makes people project onto him.
Lemire: I think a lot of times people take a character like the Joker and, who’s already dark, and project a lot of their own darkness onto him and romanticize his actions, which has always bothered me. I want to use Ben, who has a light with him that shines on the Joker and exposes new things about him for readers to think about. The bigger idea of finding the balance between darkness and light in people was more interesting to me than something like trying to retell The Killing Joke.
io9: You said that Ben acts as a kind of proxy for the reader in this story, let’s say a diehard Joker fan picks up Killer Smile-is this story going to challenge that person’s conceptions of the character and their relationship with him?
Lemire: You know, I think so. The Joker isn’t inherently a hero or an antihero at all. He’s the incarnation of evil, and I’ve always had a bit of an issue with people who romanticize him even though that’s obviously the case. Killer Smile’s a story about just how dark the Joker really is and how inviting him into your life is dangerous and yeah, we want people to feel like none of their ideas about who he is really capture the full gravity of what he is.
[...]
Joker: Killer Smile from Lemire and Sorrentino hits store October 30, and The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage from Lemire, Cowan, and Sienkiewicz will be available on November 20.
Source: https://io9.gizmodo.com/exclusive-dcs-black-label-will-explore-the-joker-and-t-1836255597
---
DC INTRODUCES TWO NEW MINISERIES, JOKER: KILLER SMILE AND THE QUESTION: THE DEATHS OF VIC SAGE, THIS FALL UNDER DC BLACK LABEL
DC continues to add more thrilling stories to its lineup this fall with the introduction of two new miniseries-JOKER: KILLER SMILE from writer Jeff Lemire (GREEN ARROW, Gideon Falls, Essex County) and artist Andrea Sorrentino (GREEN ARROW, Gideon Falls) available October 30, followed by THE QUESTION: THE DEATHS OF VIC SAGE by Lemire and artists Denys Cowan (THE QUESTION , DETECTIVE COMICS, BLACK LIGHTNING/HONG KONG PHOOEY) and Bill Sienkiewicz (The New Mutants, Moon Knight) to be released November 20.
In JOKER: KILLER SMILE Lemire and Sorrentino will share their own interpretation of one of the darkest characters of the Batman mythos-the Joker. For years, the Joker has terrorized Gotham, facing off with Batman time and time again. But now he’s found a new adversary, one that can deliver him from the purgatory of Arkham Asylum and set his madness free once more-the very doctor tasked with treating him. As he gets his hooks deeper and deeper into the mind of his prey, Joker sets off a chain reaction of mayhem that will threaten to tear down not only Gotham City but the soul of this idealistic man, and his young family, too.
"Getting to work with my long-time collaborator Andrea Sorrentino on a Joker story is very exciting,” shares Lemire. “The Joker is an iconic character and we wanted to create something that challenges readers to look at him in a new and horrifying way."
Sorrentino adds, “This story has pushed me as a creator to aspire to new heights in storytelling. That little spark of madness in the Joker gives me an opportunity to play with the pacing, the layouts and the storytelling in a way that few other characters would allow.”
JOKER: KILLER SMILE is a three-part story that will debut October 30, 2019, releasing every other month following.
Source: https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2019/07/11/dc-introduces-two-new-miniseries-joker-killer-smile-and-the-question-the-deaths-of
---
Edit: AWW HOW GAY (LITERALLY BXJ LOL) CUTE IS THIS
Click to viewEveryone knows that Batman and Joker are two sides of the same coin, and an upcoming bust is going to show us just how true that is.
Geek X, a new toy and collectibles company hailing from Australia, has unveiled its first DC collectible, the BXJ bust. This 16.5-inch bust will show us just how connected Batman and the Joker truly are.
BXJ 1:2SCALE BUST
- 42cm FROM BOTTOM OF BASE TO TOP OF COWL
- MADE FROM HIGH QUALITY POLYSTONE
- HAND PAINTED
- COMES WITH ACRYLIC CASE READY TO DISPLAY
- OFFICIALLY LICENSED BY DC/WB
‘You can’t kill me without becoming like me. I can’t kill you without losing the only human being who can keep up with me.’
Batman and Joker are foes on opposite ends of the spectrum in every way: appearance, morality and beliefs. Their storied history has seen much blood shed, tragedy and chaos; a volatile recipe that’s lead to an everlasting relationship and perhaps even friendship.
Geek X have sewn Batman and Joker together, to illustrate their chaotic bond, their animosity and their attachment to each other.
The half-bust symbolises their duality through the use of the stitches, keeping Batman and The Joker from separating. Their pain is shared equally, constant and fierce, and yet, they cannot survive without each other. On the base, Batman’s Batarang shadows The Joker’s calling card, completing the union of calamity.
Standing approximately 42 cm tall, the Joker/Batman 1:2 scale hybrid bust (BXJ) is made of polystone resin, hand painted and encased in a beautiful acrylic case.
Choose both sides with this splitting image in your collection!
Source: https://batman-news.com/2019/07/11/geek-x-bxj-bust/