Join us on a journey through time to the year 1988, be sure to bring along $3.50 to pay for your copy of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's Batman: The Killing Joke. Promise it's well worth it. Arguably the greatest joker story ever told. The Joker, after recently escaping from Arkham Asylum, kidnaps Commissioner Gordon and argues with Batman that anyone can go mad after "one bad day".
"The Killing Joke" also goes through the Joker's origin story and tells one of the only stories from 1988 that's still held up in DC continuity. The story stands as a chilling profile of madness. The Killing Joke provoked fury among many readers who lamented the disposal of Barbara Gordon as a mere pawn to testosterone, yet Gordon reinvents herself later as super-info-hacker Oracle, poster girl for disability empowerment (see Birds of Prey, LJ 7/08).
We take a look at both versions of the book; the original 1988 version featuring John Higgin's coloring, as well as the 2008 re-issue of Brian Bolland's re-coloring. Bolland was very unhappy with the original version's colors and was never satisfied with the final product, despite much critical acclaim and fan praise.
Join us in this all new feature to the show and help us evaluate one of the most humanized Joker stories told to date. We also talk about some of the follow up stories that came out of this graphic novel, such as Geoff John's Booster Gold, Batgirl, Sam Kieth's Batman: Secrets and Dave Mckean's Arkham Asylum.
It's the best Joker-related story. I don't think there's a lot of great Joker-driven stories but this has to be the best one. It's very dark and the art is immaculate. Oddly, Alan Moore doesn't like this book much but he's not the target audience.
ReplyDeleteHa good point spidey, Henny does point out there is a this http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Joker-Stories-Ever-Comics/dp/0930289366 which I would argue are not actually the greatest joker stories ever told.
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