Released today is the eagerly anticipated graphic novel "Joker", from writer Brian Azzarello. Today Newsarama.com, posted an interview with artist Lee Bermejo about illustrating the novel, his influences, how it’s not related to The Dark Knight (seriously), and the scene that hit him like a punch in the gut.

Newsarama: Lee, what got you on to this project in the first place, and how was it described to you? Obviously, it's at the very least a thematic sequel to The Dark Knight, right?

Lee Bermejo: Actually, no, our project has nothing to do with The Dark Knight and was in production well before they began the film. Basically, after we finished Luthor, both Brian and I had decided to go our separate ways and do other projects. I believe Dan DiDio had spoken with Brian about the idea of following up Luthor and the obvious choice was Joker. Brian and I spoke about the possibility of doing it briefly in San Diego that year. At that point, it seemed like the project wasn't going to happen, we were just having fun talking about what we would do. I had done a couple drawings of the Joker at that point and we both agreed that we would prefer to do a more adult oriented Joker story.

When circumstances made the possibility of doing the project more of a reality, we decided to get over ourselves and just do it. I think it was just one of those situations where the character was too good to pass up.