GKO: MADHOUSE
Here you will find our rambalings on all area's of Batman, interviews and speical features!
Issue one:
Bruce Wayne was gone, but Batman could not die.
With Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne taking the lead roles, we wanted to make the new book instantly feel and look different from the Bruce Wayne/Tim Drake team we’d be replacing.
Since starting this run of Batman stories in 2006, I’ve been drawing inspiration from some of the most neglected areas of Batman’s long publishing and screen history - like the 1950s “sci-fi” Batman and the ’60s TV show. The color palette of the “Batman R.I.P.” storyline which preceded BATMAN AND ROBIN was built around red and black and was mostly grimly funereal and somber, so we chose brighter colors for BATMAN AND ROBIN to reflect the change in tone.
Looking at the 1950s covers in particular, there’s an obvious vogue for intense, clashing colors in the logos, so we were able to do something ostensibly un-Batman-like while quoting Batman’s graphic past - the vibrating contrast of purple and green, or blue and yellow, and the big, flat expanses of background color that were popular during that era of design all seemed ripe for a comeback. Unlike the flowing lines and paisley fronds of ’60s psychedelia, the ’50s brand of op/pop art in comics was straight, no frills, linear, modernist and, we felt, contemporary once more.
The idea was to intensify the trashy, pulpy energy of the book, but where “Batman R.I.P.” had been inspired by industrial music, the Tibetan Book of the Dead and pop psychology, the reborn BATMAN AND ROBIN would be fast-moving, twisty and physical, like paint flung around a room by chimps in a gabba gabba frenzy of violence without consequence - as garish, sensational and flippant as we could make it.
In publishing circles, the color yellow is considered taboo (according to market research, yellow covers sell less than any other color, while covers with a lot of red tend to sell the best), so right up until the last second the yellow background for the first issue’s cover was being debated, but it went out as originally intended and was one the best-selling comics of the decade, running to four printings (each of which used a different background color).
The image had to be simple and iconic - the modern equivalent of Batman holding up the ringmaster’s hoop on the cover of DETECTIVE COMICS #38 which introduced Robin as “The sensational character find of 1940!” - and, as this original sketch shows, the cover idea didn’t change much from conception to publication.
The original idea for this cover was to do a visual gag based on covers like these, which depict a huge, symbolic Batman towering over the scene of his latest adventure.
It seemed an interesting twist to make the “giant” Batman a normal-sized man looming over a model city - an architect’s presentation piece made of balsa wood. In the middle of Main Street, we would see a dead man’s arm and hand holding a domino, flattening buildings and crushing toy cars. Somehow I failed to convey any of this to Frank Quitely, but fortunately the finished cover was still a classic, which again went through several re-printings, each with its own different background color.
(Source: DC: The Source)
|
LISTEN TO THIS WEEKS PODCAST ONLINE COVERING NEWS, REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS WITH GUESTS FROM ALL BATMAN INDUSTRIES!
GKO: PODCAST #43
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. 4th to 17th Oct, including Batman: Knightfall Pt11.
GKO: PODCAST #42
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. 20th Sept to 3rd Oct, including Batman: Knightfall Pt10.
GKO: PODCAST #41
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. 13th to Sept 20th, including Batman: Knightfall Pt9.
GKO: PODCAST #40
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. Aug 30th to Sept 12th, including Batman: Knightfall Pt8.
GKO: PODCAST #39
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. Aug 23rd to Aug 29th, including Batman: Knightfall Pt7.
GKO: PODCAST #38
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. Aug 9th to Aug 22nd, including Batman: Knightfall Pt6.
GKO: PODCAST #37
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. Aug 2nd to Aug 8th, including Batman: Knightfall Pt5.
GKO: PODCAST #36
This week we have a new host and review Batman: Under the Red Hood along with all the news from the week.
GKO: PODCAST #35
This is our SDCC '10 coverage special covering all the news from July 19th to July 25th.
GKO: PODCAST #34
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. July 12th to July 18th, including Batman: Knightfall Pt2.
GKO: PODCAST #33
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. July 5th to July 11th, including Batman: Knightfall Pt1.
GKO: PODCAST #24
This week we interview with artist Lee Garbett to talk about his current run on Batgirl
NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH iTUNES. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE
