15 Collections For Batman Day

Celebrate The Dark Knight Detective

Today 16 September is DC’s annual Batman day and here’s fifteen Batman collections that people should read…

Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli
Miller and Mazzuchelli’s retooling of the Dark Knight’s origin took a stripped-back and cinematic approach which streamlined his early days while not stinting on creating a compelling story. Still one of the finest Batman tales of the past thirty-five years.

Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
This Batman epic set in the character’s earlier part of his crimefighting career was arguably the Dark Knight’s most ambitious tale to date, offering a unique and cinematic tale with a killer pay-off. It was this series which cemented the late Sale’s reputation as a Batman artist par excellence.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson
Now it is seen as a seminal Batman tale but when it came out, it landed like a creative bomb in the comics industry with its muscular storytelling and portrayal of a Batman like we’d never seen before. Janson’s inks on Miller’s pencils add an extra layer of sophistication here too.

Batman Black And White: Volume One by various
Editor Mark Chiarello, who was DC’s VP of art direction and design but also the man who brought good taste to the company while he was there, assembled some of the greatest comic creators in the industry to tell pithy black and white tales. Figures including Joe Kubert, Howard Chaykin, Walt Simonson, Bill Sienkiewicz, Brian Bolland, Alex Toth, Moebius, Katsushiro Otomo and to name just a few, this book is like a who’s who of everyone who’s anyone in comics.

Batman: Dark Knight A True Story by Paul Dini and Eduardo Risso
Dini’s tale of a dark period in his life, after a physical attack in real life where he used Batman and The Joker to keep him going, is a bold and unflinching tale which uses an approach which is novel and refreshing at the same time.

Gotham Central Omnibus by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano
Rucka and Brubaker’s stories of Gotham’s police force offer an interesting counterpoint to the regular Batman tales and were certainly a huge influence on HBO’s Gotham TV show. Both Lark and Gaudiano are the  perfect artistic foil to their tightly wound scripting too.

Trinity by Matt Wagner
Trinity is a fairly simple tale of how Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman first teamed up in the DC Universe to take on Batman’s greatest adversary Ra’s Al Ghul who has freed Bizarro and plans to take over Wonder Woman’s home island of Themiscyra. But Wagner lends it his usual visual panache to lift it into an enjoyable adventure tale with great chemistry between the trio.

Legends Of The Dark Knight: Matt Wagner by Matt Wagner
Wagner again, this time showcasing his film noir and German expressionism sensibilities in his approach to the Dark Knight Detective. Wagner displays his versatility and virtuosity as a creator, able to shift from light to dark with accomplished ease. Faces, from Legends Of The Dark Knight, is still one of the more interesting takes on Two-Face as a Batman villain ever in Batman publishing history.

Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams Vol.2 by Denny O’Neil, Mike Friedrich, Frank Robbins, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman and Neal Adams & Dick Giordano
This collection features a selection of 1970s artistic juggernaut Adams’ most important work including The Secret of The Waiting Graves, the origin of Man-Bat and The House That Haunted Batman. Here he was at the peak of his powers and his impact at DC during his heyday cannot be underestimated. We also have some of the finest writers of the period penning these stories as well.

Batman: Year Two by Mike W Barr, Alan Davis & Mark Farmer and Todd McFarlane & Alfredo Alcala
Taking a very different tack from Year One, Barr, Davis and McFarlane created a pulpy but very entertaining tale that sees Batman pitted against the vigilante that protected Gotham before he did. Davis left after just one chapter but McFarlane brings a touch of art nouveau to proceedings here.

Tales Of The Batman: Archie Goodwin by Archie Goodwin and various
Goodwin was an exceptional writer as well as a great editor and this hardcover reminds us of this fact. We get his work on Manhunter with his friend Walt Simonson reprinted here as well as Ghost Of The Killer Skies, the short he wrote which was brilliantly illustrated by Alex Toth and his graphic novel Batman: Night Cries painted by Scott Hampton. This collection displays Goodwin’s range as a writer and he is much missed many years after his passing.

Batman: Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean
Morrison and McKean’s surreal journey into madness like Miller’s Dark Knight Returns offers the reader a very different take on the Dark Knight Detective. Morrison’s trippy dialogue is matched by McKean’s painterly storyline as the tale increases in its manic approach until it reaches its dramatic crescendo.

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight by Brian Augustyn, Mike Mignola & P Craig Russell, Eduardo Barreto
The two Gotham by Gaslight tales which were part of DC’s now defunct Elseworlds line, gave us Batman in a Victorian milieu with writer Augustyn managing to throw a familiar figure into an unfamiliar setting with real aplomb and style. Both artists here are the perfect match for his inventive concepts even though both are very different in terms of their visual approaches. Mignola gives us a truly gothic tale while Barreto is more of a traditional comic artist.

Batman: Son Of The Demon by Mike W Barr and Jerry Bingham
Barr, who already showed his credentials with Batman beforehand, took Batman’s most dangerous adversary Ra’s Al Ghul and put him in a globe spanning epic. Bingham’s art is wonderfully cinematic here and Son Of The Demon is a very pacey Batman story thanks to Barr’s innate understanding of what makes a great Batman tale.

Batman The Cult by Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson
This gothic horror tale which sets Batman against evil demagogue Deacon Blackfire showed that artist Bernie Wrightson had lost none of his visual flair even later in his career. Starlin’s seemingly simple morality tale is perfectly illustrated by Wrightson’s baroque renderings.