Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean
Arkham Asylum
by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean
Whoa. I saw this book on the Juvie graphic novel shelf while I was volunteering and picked it up because: 1-I love Batman and 2-this book was adult fiction and did NOT belong on the little kids' shelf.
When I started reading it, I could absolutely confirm these two points: it's definitely Batman and it definitely shouldn't be read by little children! There's mentions of murder and abuse and mutilation and non-con and all sorts of dark psychological stuff that was delicious and extremely hard to read at the same time.
The pages themselves are very dark--done in a consistent but haunting style where sometimes it's hard to distinguish the character from the background of the asylum (intended, I'm sure). And the fonts chosen are sometimes hard to make out, making you squint and move closer to the page, for an intimate and terrifying experience at times.
The inmates are absolutely insane. But I get the feeling that everybody in Gotham is a bit insane. I also got the feeling by the end that maybe the inmates are MORE sane than everyone else. It's a perfect place to explore the Batman, and a place for him to explore himself.
I must admit, after one reading, it's like I've read a poem. I took in the images and words and I have a sense of what happens. But I think it took reading the script as well (provided at the end, with notes and annotations that are fascinating to read) for me to fully understand everything that went on.
This book is a great read if you want to explore the possibilities of the human psyche and the madness in some of the crazy but perfectly-understandable characters in the universe... Batman included.