Comic Book Resources

H. R. Giger's Batmobile design

...would have looked something like this:

Batmobile by H.R. Geiger

The essential Super Punch has more images and information on Giger's rejected designs for the Batmobile from Batman Forever.

Daring to defend The Dark Knight Strikes Again

from Frank Miller & Lynn Varley's The Dark Knight Strikes Again

It started with a dare. Here at Robot 6 a week ago, I posted about how comics legend Frank Miller has been posting comments at the blog of neoconservative pundit Victor Davis Hanson. This inspired a comment by James B. Elkins II that casted skepticism on my bonafides as a Miller fan. Since Miller is in fact my all-time favorite comics creator, I responded by daring any and all comers to challenge me to defend what is, to many readers, Miller's most indefensible work: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Miller and colorist Lynn Varley's sequel to their seminal revisionist-superhero classic The Dark Knight Returns. I've always loved that book, but I'd never written about it at length. Well, David Brothers of The 4th Letter went ahead and took the dare and laid the challenge at my feet.

The result? I wrote a review of The Dark Knight Strikes Again for The Savage Critic(s), another one of my blog-homes away from blog-home. The piece, part of series of posts I'm doing on my all-time favorite comics, places Miller & Varley's much-maligned, much-misunderstood comic in the context of similarly bright and brash works by cartoonist Ben Jones, comedians Tim and Eric, the "glo-fi" subgenre of indie rock, and more. Do check it out--then swing by The 4th Letter for David Brothers's own two-part review of the book, which tackles it from a very different yet equally positive angle.

Batman's new villain says let's go crazy, let's get nuts!

Batman & Robin #6

DC's The Source blog shows us Frank Quitely's cover to Batman & Robin #6, which features Batman's "most dangerous, psychopathic, murderous foe," The Flamingo, according to editor Michael Marts.

Now all the motorcycle-riding killer needs is a string of one-word named "apprentices" of the female persuasion ...

'Wearing a dramatic eye and form-fitting outfits, Ali is ready to fight the crimes of fashion at any moment'

Ali Stephens by Thierry Le Gouès for French Revue de Modes

Hey look, more fashion/comic book action today ... the blog Fashion Gone Rogue has pictures from a photo shoot featuring model Ali Stephens and a guy in a Batman suit. The pictures are from the latest issue of French Revue de Modes (caution: their home page may cause a seizure and is potentially NSFW).

Via Super Punch

Straight for the art | Cliff Chiang's Baltimore sketches

Zatanna and Batman

One of the fun things about comic conventions is checking out all the sketches that artists drew and post on their blogs afterward -- such as Cliff Chiang, who posts not only this Batman and Zatanna sketch, but others featuring the Doom Patrol, Power Girl and more. Go check'em out.

Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

It's Wednesday again and here we are for another edition of Send Us Your Shelf Porn. Our guest this week is Batman devotee Julian Smoger, who has accumulated quite the caped crusader collection and wanted to share some of his more interesting finds with Robot 6 readers.

Once again, let me encourage any and all of you who'd like to submit your collection to please do so. Just send any pictures and commentary to cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet and I'll try to get it up on the site in a few weeks time.

In the meantime, I'll hand the virtual mic over to Julian ...

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Just say no Kal-el: A review of 'Superman/Batman: Public Enemies'

Seriously, look at those necks

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is a new direct-to-DVD film set in an alternate DC universe where everybody takes ungodly amounts of steroids.

Seriously, that's the only conclusion I can come to as to why every single character in this movie, even the civilians, has a neck -- when they have a neck at all -- that's wider than their goddamned skull. Seriously, their heads look like they've been bolted on. And that's to say nothing of the endless oceans of muscles that ripple across everyone's bodies. The entire planet is obviously juiced to the max.

But the display of over the top physiques really shouldn't surprise me. At it's heart, Public Enemies is your typical uber-macho buddy action movie, and just as dumb and sexist as most of them to boot. It's the comic nerd's version of Tango and Cash.

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'Lil' Gotham' characters to invade Batman and Detective annuals

A panel from "Question & Answer," by Dustin Nguyen

As a big fan of Dustin Nguyen's chibi-esque renditions of Batman's friends and foes  -- they pop up regularly on the artist's DeviantArt account -- I'm thrilled to see this morning's announcement that the "Lil' Gotham" characters will appear in October's Batman Annual #27 and Detective Comics Annual #11.

The two-page backup stories, titled "Off Rogue Racing" and "Question & Answer," are written by Derek Fridolfs and Nguyen with art, of course, by Nguyen.

On DeviantArt, the artist writes that the characters began as a hobby when, "for the hell of it," he'd "draw a character every few days on my lunch break, after work, end of the night before I turn in and see how many I can fill up on this big paper."

That turned in to something more, though, as he sent posters -- this one, presumably -- "to almost everyone at the DC office. Taking my chances, walking the line of it to see how far I could push it. Doing the inside attack -- right?"

It seems to have paid off, though, as Nguyen hints the "Lil' Gotham" characters could see life beyond the two annuals.

"Baby steps," he writes. "And if it gets enough of a positive reaction from readers, fans, viewers, and internally -- we will be doing more. ... We already have bigger plans ready at the gate should they give us the okay. Now, it's all up to you guys, if you love it -- show your love. Pick up this year's Detective and Batman annuals for our two short stories in each. Raise hell and please let them know you want more."

Straight for the art | Three from Ben Templesmith

Batman by Ben Templesmith

Fell and Dead Space artist Ben Templesmith recently shared three "in process" sketch posts on his blog, featuring the Batman sketch shown above, Wolverine (which includes commentary along the way) and the 1940s Black Orchid, for a "Remake/Remodel" challenge on the Whitechapel forum. Go check'em out; that Whitechapel thread also includes remakes by Pia Guerra and Ryan Kelly.

Straight for the art: Awesome's grid paintings

Batman on the grid

German artist Andy Awesome has a series of acrylic paintings where he boils down the essence of a particular item of pop culture on a series of almost abstracted circles painted on a 2x2 grid. Click on the link to see his takes on Peanuts, the Smurfs, Homer Simpson and various Marvel superheroes.

(found via The Ephemerist)

Straight for the art | Sam Hiti's Dynamic Duo

Batman & Robin by Sam Hiti

Artist Sam Hiti, who also drew these kids books on ancient civilizations, shares a cool drawing of Batman and Robin.

Via Michael May

Your Mileage May Vary: Batgirl #1

All summer, we've been wondering about the identity of the new Batgirl. And now we know, thanks to Batgirl #1, which just came out. Naturally, everyone has something to say about the issue.

It probably goes without saying that the following links and excerpts contain spoilers.

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Straight for the art | Shadow of the ... Squid?

Once Upon a Dark Knight

deviantART user genesischant, whose The Phantasmal Four illustration I linked to before, has another cool one up that he's labeled "Once Upon a Dark Knight," which I guess imagines what would have happened if a squid had come flying through young Bruce Wayne's window on that fateful night. Ah, if only Thomas Wayne had been a fisherman ...

You either die a hero or live to breakdance

Here's a fun time-waster -- an interactive YouTube game where a click of the mouse lets you decide who busts the better move: The Joker or Batman? (via Topless Robot)

Everyone's A Critic: A round-up of comic book reviews and thinkpieces

• Andrew Rilstone's 60-page zine on Watchmen, Who Sent the Sentinels, has been garnering quite a bit of attention, mainly because of passages like this:

Who Sent the Sentinels

I've never stopped being surprised that something as geeky as Watchmen is so popular with people who are not geeks. How can a book which so full of superhero in-jokes be so much admired by people who have never read a superhero story -- by people who purport to dislike superhero stories -- by people who sometimes end up denying that Watchmen has got superheroes in it... Maybe Watchmen manages to generate its ironic double-vision internally: the text itself tells you both what superheroes are meant to be like, and what these superheroes are actually like, and it would do so even if there had never been another superhero comic in the world... Or maybe the people who were so enthusiastic about Watchmen were unaware of the idea of superheros, and read the story simply as a story - with an un-ironic single vision.

In which case they'd be reading a different comic to me and it wouldn't be surprising if they assessed it differently.

I've barely had a chance to do more than scrape the surface of this thing but I like what I've perused so far.

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