This month in... 1991

Alan Grant was a way into his run on the title and it really shows here - Batman is pretty much a bystander, taking a back seat to Jim and Sarah's trip to the cinema.
Its a nice tale, if a bit naff with Bats telling the brat of a boy that he owes much to Mark Of Zorro, and it has an excellent, dramatic ending with Gordon having a heart attack.
But, the art.
Nothing wrong with Norm's pencilwork, the colouring is a complete mess. Muddy, incomprehensible, with jarring out of the place tones - light blue for the night sky??????
It ruins a nice tale and relegates it to:
Bat-mark - 5/10

The Joker - face nearly done.

Just got to tidy up the lip line then the best bits over. With paint on him now, its even more evident just who's version he's based on, yes?

What colour a Joker?

So here he is all assembled. Minds turned to what colour his clobber'll be. Its got to be purple of course for the suit, but i'm thinking of a real dark shade to really contrast with the whiteness of the face.
The trousers have a pinstripe cut in but there's no way i'm going with the palaver of picking them out.
Most build-ups i've seen have him with white gloves, but i'm going with purple.
And have decided to follow this example for colours of the shirt and waiscoat.

The Joker

Been building model kits from, i guess about 1970, and film and Tv one's from about the late 80's.
Oddly though, the Joker is a character i've never attempted in the past.
For me, if i'm choosing a kit of the fella, top of the list is this stunna produced by Horizon waaaay back.
Its clearly based on Brian Bolland's "Killing Joke" incarnation, which for me is about definitive.
So real chuffed to get one - but am even more chuffed to see in the raw vinyl what a stunning likeness there is on the face. You'll have to trust me on this for now as the whiteness of the material will make any close up a complete waste of time.
Here you can see the component parts. I'm going to do away with the rather clumsy flower, electing instead to pay the craft shop a visit for a substitute. First buy though is some Plaster Of Paris to fill those hollow legs.

The Batcave 1968

How i loved this image back when i were a nipper, pouring over the details endlessly. Highlights were/are the Batmobile so reminiscent of the TV shows one, the ramp up and out of the place and the curious cloudmaking machine to disguise the launch of the Batcopter/plane.
Brilliant stuff.

Lovely images - Neal Adams does a Bob Kane

Was having a browse today through the oddity that is "The Batman Gallery", a comic size collection of covers from 1992.
By far the best thing in it is this iconic image from Bob Kane of Detective 31 from 1939. Second best is Neal Adams' stunning recreation from Batman 227, 1970.

The history of the Batmobile

This stunning piece of work is doing the rounds on the Net, so thought i'd put it here.
Trouble is, its SO big an image it won't fit. So here's a taster and the rest can be found at:

http://m.jalopnik.com/5726457/this-is-every-batmobile-ever

Its a lovely idea handled brilliantly. What's a surprise is just how many versions there's been - some excellent, some duff.
Think i'll have a good look and try and come up with my favourite. And least.