The Cartooniness
Naturally, since Timm's character designs were developed to work best in animated form, that they have an emphatic cartooniness to them compared to much other comic book art is obvious. But beyond that, this style really works to bring the Joker to life. Using minimal lines and feature points to create expressive and ( Read more... )

The Believability
Of course, the key element of Ross’ style is it’s photo-realistic. It looks so true to life it causes a double-take - it could so very much almost be real! In truth I am not a big fan of photo-realism, but Ross takes a world of fictional characters and shows them to us as they might be were they real and for me, with ( Read more... )

Many thanks to silvercat17 for many of these scans!

The Prettiness
Nolan’s Joker is so goddamn pretty. I don’t know how he does it, but he makes him look like a preternaturally gorgeous playboy. That bone structure! That chin! Those eyes! The nose! Everything, it all just adds up to one stunning example of a pretty, pretty man but still with the ( Read more... )

The Realism
Remembering that Bolland's depiction came straight on the heels of the seventies when Joker was being portrayed in an intensely cartoonish fashion - goofy and whacky rather than threatening and wild (with the exception of a few notables such as Laughing Fish) makes his vividly realistic Joker all the more special ( Read more... )