Wired.com: So how did you become the executor of Batman's estate, so to speak?

Neil Gaiman: The phone rang about a year ago, and it was Dan DiDio from DC Comics. He said, "Look we are going to do what we did to Superman 23 years ago, but with Batman. We are going to end his monthlies and then reboot and renumber them, so there isn't going to be a Batman comic for a while. How would you like to write the last issue of Batman and Detective Comics in the same way that Alan [Moore] did with the Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"

It was one of those strange combinations. I though that if I didn't do it, someone else would and [they would] mess it up. But also, I really love Batman. The platonic ideal of Batman, as well as the number of specific Batmans over the years. I thought it would be really interesting.

Wired.com: Did you know at the time that the title of the series would so literally resemble Moore's Superman sendoff and the Silver Age retrospectives that inspired it?

Gaiman: Well, it definitely wasn't going to be called Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? at that point. That was what some people at DC Comics started out calling it, and eventually it stuck, but the title did take me slightly by surprise. But I also wrote two homages to Alan's comic — one at the beginning and one at the end — but then cut one. I had a line on the first page where Batman asks if he is dreaming, and a voice says, "No it's not a dream and it's not an imaginary story."

For the entire interview click here...

(Source - Wired.com)