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dan-sch β Zur en Arrh
Published: 2008-09-09 06:54:36 +0000 UTC; Views: 2290; Favourites: 43; Downloads: 16
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Description
The gauze cucoon unravels and the Harlequin of Hell spreads his toxic wings. Final stage, Joker Zero. The Clown at Midnight.Red and Black.
The Black Glove closes.
The Dark Knight is betrayed and laid low and defeated utterly. The Batcave is lost to his unseen greatest foes. From the shrapnel that's left of Bruce Wayne's sabotaged mind comes the emergency Bat-man of Zur En Arrh, and with him Bat-Might and the soul of Gotham and the sacred Bat-Radia.
Black and Red.
The oldest joke. The perfect joke.
The stage is set for the ultimate demise of the World's Greatest Detective!
Next month, in Grant Morrison's BATMAN: RIP.
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Comments: 31
I loved Batman RIP, almost as much as Batman Confidential. Tony Daniel's art & Morrison's writing were an epic combination for Joker fans (unless they were Joker/Harley supporters).
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Yup. I'll bet Mister Morrison has received his share of dead cats over that one.
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Apparently, the people who don't like it are less than 50% of the readers. The haters however are very vocal while the supportes are laid back. The villain fans are especialy supportive.
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I've actually not been buying Batman: RIP, as I can simply follow it on the internet, and buy other stuff instead. I will say however, that from previous experience, Grant Morrison is a man with a liberated mind. Doom Patrol anyone!?! Easily my favourite super group ever, when Morrison was writing it.
I love this, by the way. It's so surreal, I may go back and purchase some of RIP to see if they live up to the awesomeness of this.
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& miss Tony Daniel's art? Lemme give you a taste of what you're missing:
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Oh, you really do have to read it. The internet commentary doesn't begin to do it justice.
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i thought it was Hush for a moment!
great work, though i dont know whats going on - is this a published story or one thats being published?
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Three issues in, three to go. I highly suggest it if you like comic books and acid.
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I haven't had a chance to read the Batman R.I.P books yet. I was reading some of the responses to this drawing and it sounds like there are mixed emotions running rampant out there. Great drawing by the way Dan!
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If it ain't worth arguing about, chances are it ain't worth reading in the first place. Anyhow, thanks!
(Unless we're taking about, like, Calvin and Hobbes. I mean, everyone loves Calvin and Hobbes.)
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Wait, so is the Joker is actually Hush?
wtf Morrison....
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Wait, was that a joke? Sorry, my sense of humor seems a bit blunted of late...
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haha not really.
the whole "gauze-around-head"-thing kind of caused a LOLWAT-moment for me. sorry about that.
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Um, no, actually. Joker is simply joker.
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aghh crap. now I sound like an Eastern European immigrant.
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dunno anything 'bout Batman RIP, but at least the pic's awesome.
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You should read Zenith. Thats classic Morrison, back before he got his head jammed a little tight. Plus the artwork is fantastic (the original B&W, not recoloured) by Steve Yeowell. Morrison did a ton of great stuff back when he was writing for 2000ad.
Anything I bumped into of his since then has been stained by a touch of overindulgence. He should probably reign himself in a bit, but it's hard when everyones telling you you're a genius.
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Oh, I run into that problem all the TIME.
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I think a comic written by Grant Morrison is a lot like dining on quiche, which in itself is like the company of drunks: to enjoy it, one must be in the MOOD for it.
He has a certain style and sensibility that suits itself for the iconic/mythical nature of the DC universe (that's why his Animal Man, his JLA and now his Batman are so highly acclaimed). His shenanigans don't fly in the Marvel Universe, where details matter and canon has a much larger sense of importance (why his X-Men left much to be desired, IMHO.) Being able to understand that makes me able to say I'm with you on this one, brother Dan.
And incidentally...do you know just how much FUN it is to shout "ZUR EN ARRRH!!!" in a crowded street? As I said in my 24th column at Comics Nexus - someone put this on a t-shirt, stat!
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Ha! I'll have to try that. Perhaps at the bus terminal as I head up north...
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Excellent work as always, and I do not want to take away from that in any way, it is quite commendable. However, I must, since I have sworn a solemn vow, take this (and indeed, every) opportunity to come forward with my disgust and revulsion at the work of Grant Morrison. Everything he touches becomes a seething mass of iconoclastic tripe, and he's openly and honestly admitted that he hates superheroes and superhero comics. "So why are you writing their books?" I ask. Perhaps I'm bitter over his abysmal ruination of X-men, my favorite book for many years. Perhaps I'm missing something that millions of his fans seem to find hidden in some dark crevice of his work. But I find a story about Xavier's twin sister that he tried to strangle in the womb not only uninteresting, but just plain idiotic. He doesn't understand the characters he writes for and his Batman run is nothing but excellent proof of this. From his cavalier disregard of decades of continuity (admittedly, not DC's strong point anyway), to his blatant exposition in the form of character dialog (returning to the 60's camp feel that they've done so well to stray away from), it's easy to see how he gets his writing ideas from "space dolphins from the 8th dimension" that appear in his dreams, as he stated in the book "Writers on Comic Writing." I have given him every chance. I worked at a comic store for three years, and in my tenure, would read everything he put out, stretching my mind to fathom what it is his hordes of fans find compelling about what I still consider utter nonsense. But the moment I broke was on February 13th, 2007. Valentine's Day of this year would see the release of Batman #663, which you may be familiar with. Working at a store, I got to see the books a day early, and as I flipped through, it literally fell from my hand, my mouth agape in shock. For those unfamiliar, Batman #663 is a comic book that is 22 pages of text with sparsely distributed and poorly rendered CG illustrations. It is Grant Morrison's Batman novella, and while I can respect the will to do something of that nature, to place it in the forum of a regular graphic publication is arrogance at its worst. I read this issue, cover to cover. From the opening words of "clickety-clak-tak" to the Joker's blinking MORSE CODE to Batman reading "H.A.H.A.D.E.A.T.H.H.A.H.A." to the obscure Native American mirth god references, I read every last word. And I have never so badly wanted my time returned to me. In my entire 3-year tenure, I had never seen anyone return a comic because it was bad. It's an unwritten rule that if you buy it, you're stuck with it. Next time, don't read the X-men Movie Adaptation and you won't be disappointed. This particular issue of Batman, however, sparked no less than 30 returns and countless more subscribers to cancel their Batman subscription, which, to my manager's credit, he graciously bit the bullet and took the returns. Perhaps realizing this, Batman #663 was made fully refundable to retailers by DC, something that's nearly extinct in the comic world. I'm sorry to drone on about this, I just feel very strongly on this issue, God only knows why. It is a matter of taste and preference, and I'm sure people hate writers I love. But until the day I die, I must defame Mr. Morrison as a tin-hat iconoclast (credit to Paul Duncan for coining the term) and logically, calmly, and thoroughly prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that he is not qualified to handle the characters that influenced my formative years and caused in me a love that cannot be replaced. A love of justice and tights. Thank you.
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I'm inclined to agree with you. My only real exposure to Morrison as a writer was when he killed X-Men for me. I woudn't touch an x-book again until Messiah Complex.
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Ah, well. Different strokes and all that.
I myself believe that Morrison's Batman run is the most complex and ambitious comic work of our young century, a brilliant pioneering of the limits of the graphic medium and a disturbing (yet oddly faithful) exhumation of the soul of 20th century four-color heroes. I haven't the slightest care who he is or what he does when he's not writing, nor have I any desire whatsoever to meet the man. I just know that his work has inspired me to see the whole superhero mythos differently, for the better. No matter what the man says, his comics betray a deep affection for the Whiz-Pow fun that rushes through the veins of any costumed hero. You look at βBatman and Sonβ and see irreverence. Me, I see reverence in itβs most elegant form; when all the trappings are stripped away and youβre left with only the essence of that which makes the thing last in the first place.
Perspective, methinks.
Meanwhile, Frank Miller is doing the same thing over in βAll Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder,β only heβs showing the stilted absurdity of the medium through ultraviolence and consciously overwrought dialogue instead of the allusion and symbolism Morrison uses β- a cartoon of a cartoon, if you will. It has this raw, over-the-top, balls-out FUN that I find lacking in many of todayβs comics. What do you think of that series, I wonder?
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By far the most intelligent response I've had to date. I'm positively scintillated now.
Frank Miller's All Star Batman and Robin is sort of hit-or-miss with me. I love the Batman of the animated series. While Batman is absolutely 100% insane if you objectify what he's doing, I personally believe you shouldn't be thinking that while he's doing what he does. Miller skirts the edge of that routinely, and sometimes crosses over, and it's at those times I sort of feel like I'm reading the Dark Knight sequel again. Batman is a beguilingly difficult character to write for. When you think of DC in general, you think simple, black and white, good is good, evil is evil. Batman's one of their only gray areas, and he has to be handled in a way that the black and white heroes still accept, which is directly not conveyed in All Star Batman. To sum that up, I really enjoy it half the time, the other half I crinkle my nose and push through to the next part that I'll enjoy.
I do apologize, because I forgot to mention something last time.
I liked Morrison's WildCATS. Erm, the one issue that came out. It was an enormous disappointment when we didn't see any more out of him on that, and he instead continued to pen what I consider the worst book published, All Star Superman. But that delves into my loathing of Frank Quitely as well, which further proves my outright bitterness at the fall of X-men. WildCATS was fun and exciting and had a feeling that it was the characters talking, not Morrison - something I didn't get from any of his other books. Say what I might about All Star Batman, each character has a dramatically different voice, and Miller has always been extremely good at that. In Morrison's writing, however, the only way you could tell who's saying something is by what they're saying, not how they're saying it. The Joker has the same stilted expository jib as Batman ("I've just killed Batman - and in front of a bunch of vulnerable disabled kids!"). This didn't come through in WildCATS, and the world is much the worse for the absence of that book.
Regardless of all that, if he's one of your influences, by no means stop using that, because you're getting something marvelous out of it. I've never been one to quash others opinions, I just tend to state mine a little strongly. And being that you have an ongoing series that's really quite excellent and I have a smattering of pages and pinups and a story in my mind, I think you're a little more qualified in this instance.
Keep it up, your work rocks.
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Thank you sir, both for the compliment and the well-thought out responses. I know my tastes in comics can run a little odd sometimes, so It's nice to hear such a thorough and stunningly un-petty treatise on one's opinions to the contrary instead of the usual "Club of Heroes sucked" of old. I feel a true sense of accomplishment that I can number an intellect such as yours amongst the Fowl's fans.
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Nice one Dan. I hate Bat-Mite.... just thought I'd share.
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If it makes you feel any better, Bat-Might is just a projection of Bruce Wayne's mind, a cartoonish symbol for his Batman training that gives him advice and insight while the Dark Knight's assaulted brain reboots. In short, he's not real.
Thanks!
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I know. I just never liked him. I think it goes back to an issue that I got as a kid. I think he just bugged me plus he just seems out of place in the Bat-mythos.
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I didn't really start to love R.I.P until Batman started talking about the powers of his bat radia, that and batman in red and purple with a baseball bat instantly wins. I guess I should just learn to trust Grant Morrison.
Oh yeah, the drawing. I like the scratchy blacks, and the splashes of red, adds a lot of mood. Your joker is pretty cool too.
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Always trust in Morrison. The man knows his stuff.
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