Extra Credit Assignment for my History of Comics Class
Although a lot of comics were covered I don’t think enough attention was paid to the improved writing in comics starting in the 80s and moving forward, partially as a result of the contributions of the wave of British writers that brought their dystopian visions of a Thatcherite future to American comics. In 2006 Comic Book Resources vote for the top three favorite comic writers were all British – Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and Neil Gaiman.
Alan Moore was the ‘first comics writer living in Britain to do work in America.’ Moore built a reputation for himself in the UK writing for Marvel UK, 2000AD and Warrior. While at Warrior, he was responsible for a number of titles including Marvelman, later changed to Miracleman for legal reasons and V for Vendetta; which has become one of his best known works. V for Vendetta was influenced by Moore’s pessimistic feelings about the Conservative government at the time. Moore’s work in 2000AD brought him to the attention of DC editor Len Wein who brought him onboard to revive the flagging Swamp Thing title. Moore’s run on Swamp Thing from 1984 to 1987 brought commercial and critical acclaim to the title, revived a number of other flagging supernatural DC characters including Deadman, the Demon, the Phantom Stranger and the Spectre as well as introducing John Constantine who would be spun off into his own Hellblazer comic as part of the Vertigo Imprint. This success brought on a second wave of British writers including Jamie Delano, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison.
Grant Morrison gained the attention DC with his deconstruction of the superhero genre in Zenith for 2000AD. Morrison proposed a reworking of marginal character Animal Man, which proved successful enough for him to be handed the reigns for Doom Patrol starting with issue 19. Morrison’s Doom Patrol was known for surreal elements including dadaism and the writings of Jorge Luis Borges. Morrison also continued writing for British indie titles including an anti-Thatcher comic called St. Swithin’s Day for Trident Comics. Morrison was instrumental in the launch of DC’s Vertigo Imprint by having several of his creator-owner projects as part of the launch.
Neil Gaiman was a friend of Alan Moore and started writing comics with Marvelman after Moore’s run was finished. Gaiman wrote three graphic novels with long-time friend Dave McKean that attracted the attention of DC comics. Gaiman’s first title for DC was Black Orchid, this impressed Vertigo comics head Karen Berger so much she offered him the job of rewriting an old character – The Sandman. Gaiman’s Sandman had a 75 issue run from 1988 – 1996 and featured work a number of artists. The Sandman run also included specials comprising of seven short stories and illustrated prose text.
The British influence on American comics continued in the 90s with Warren Ellis. His creator owned work Transmetropolitan is one of the most successful titles for Vertigo. He also brought British success in the 90’s to Image Comics Wildstorm imprint with writing stints on Stormwatch, The Authority and another creator owned series Planetary.
Final Essay for my History of Comics
Evolution of The Bat
Batman was a character created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger in early 1939 to meet the growing demand for more ‘superhero’ comics by then National Publications (which would later become DC Comics). Kane’s original drawing for “the Bat-Man” wore reddish tights, boots, no gloves or gauntlets and a domino mask.
Finger suggested changing the domino mask to a cowl and came up with the name of the character’s alter ego – Bruce Wayne. Kane and Finger drew on existing characterizations of aristocratic heroes with a double identity in sources like the Scarlet Pimpernel and Zorro. They also drew inspiration from contemporary pulp sleuths like Doc Savage, The Shadow and Sherlock Holmes. In his 1989 autobiography Bob Kane talked about Bill Finger’s contribution to the creation of the Batman:
“Bill said, ‘Why not make him look more like a bat and put a hood on him, and take the eyeballs out and just put slits for eyes to make him look more mysterious?’ At this point, the Bat-Man wore a red union suit; the wings, trunks, and mask were black. I thought that red and black would be a good combination. Bill said that the costume was too bright: ‘Color it dark gray to make it look more ominous’. The cape looked like two stiff bat wings attached to his arms. As Bill and I talked, we realized that these wings would get cumbersome when Bat-Man was in action, and changed them into a cape, scalloped to look like bat wings when he was fighting or swinging down on a rope. Also, he didn’t have any gloves on, and we added them so that he wouldn’t leave fing
erprints.”
The first Batman story was called The Case of the Chemical Syndicate and was published in Detective Comics #27, May 1939 and featured a remorseless and vengeful Batman killing and maiming criminals. According to Bill Finger this characterizations was driven by the influence of the pulp comics popular at the time. Continuing in 1939 many elements of the Batman mythos were established – the Utility Belt (Detective Comics #29), Batarang and Batplane (Detective Comics #31). The origin of Batman was written in Detective Comics #33 by Bill Finger and depicts a young Bruce Wayne after seeing his parents gunned down by a mugger vowing “by the spirits of my parents [I will] avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life warring on all criminals.”
1940 saw Batman’s introduction as a solo title and it saw a softening of the pulp characterization, primarily with the introduction of a kid sidekick, Robin. Robin was introduced at the suggestion of Bill Finger as a “Watson” type character with whom Batman could converse. Additionally Batman #1 introduced two nemeses in Catwoman and The Joker, the issue also included a storyline in which Batman shoots and kills some giants. That story prompted then editor Whitney Ellsworth to decree that in future Batman would no longer kill or use a gun. This along with DC Comics post-World War II editorial direction removed the “bleak and menacing world” of the early strips and changed the portrayal to a more respectable citizen and father figure that inhabited a “bright and colorful” environment.
From Batman’s first appearance in 1939 until 1943, Batman was written almost exclusively by Bill Finger, illustrated by Bob Kane and inked by Sheldon Moldoff. In 1941 editor Whitney Ellsworth, anticipating Kane’s inevitable draft, assigned Dick Sprang to work on Batman stories, which DC then inventoried to safeguard against delays. Following the war Sprang along with Sheldon Moldoff and Win Mortimer became ghost artists in the Kane’s style under his supervision.
In 1964 with DC was, according to Bob Kane, “planning to kill Batman off altogether.”
Julius Schwartz took over the flagging Batman titles. Bogged down by a number of characters and themes that had been introduced in the Silver Age comics like Bat-Mite and Ace the Bathound. Schwartz planned to bring Batman back to more detective oriented stories and brought in Carmine Infantino to help with the overhaul. The ‘New Look’ Batman premiered in Detective Comics #327 (May 1964) with Infantino redesigning the Batmobile and modifying the costume to include a yellow oval behind the insignia. Schwartz, was asked to, and introduced some of the camp and characters from the popular television series. However in 1968 the camp aspect had worn thin and the show was cancelled once again causing flagging sales of the comic. Schwartz later noted: “When the television show was a success, I was asked to be campy, and of course when the show faded, so did the comic books.”
In Detective Comics #395 (January) Dennis O’ Neil and Neal Adams came onboard and attempted to according to O’Neil “simply to take it back to where it started. I went to the DC library and read some of the early stories. I tried to get a sense of what Kane and Finger were after.”
This return to ‘roots’ would form the building blocks for the iconic characterizations that have cemented the Batman’s popularity. According to comic historian Daniels “O’Neil’s interpretation of Batman as a vengeful obsessive-compulsive, which he modestly describes as a return to the roots, was actually an act of creative imagination that has influenced every subsequent version of the Dark Knight.”
With this building block the next major benchmark in cementing the resurgence of Batman was Frank Miller’s limited series The Dark Night Returns (February – June 1986) which covers the story of a 55-year old Batman coming out of retirement. This story reinvigorated interest in the character and was financial success. 1986 was also the year Dennis O’Neil took over as editor for all Batman titles. Under O’Neil’s stewardship, Batman #400-407 (February–May 1987), the ‘Year One’ storyline written by Frank Miller and art by David Mazzucchelli, recounts the beginning of both Batman and Jim Gordon’s careers. Batman: Year One has been ranked number one on IGN Comics list of the 25 greatest Batman graphic novels stating “no other book before or since has quite captured the realism, the grit and the humanity of Gordon and Batman so perfectly.”
Batman has been one of the enduring characters in comic for almost 80 years. He is a cultural icon that has managed to endure and evolve. Even though the mythos has remained the same great writing, particularly in the last 25 years, has managed to keep the character fresh and readers interested. There have been slight changes to the costume, a location change and body hair change in the 70s but overall this has been consistently the story of a human character trying bring justice to a dark place.
