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I mean now we have the cast out there all I want this film to be is Philomena Cunk interviewing Rogue

And miss out on Matt Berry as a biochip...? "This is Rogue — he's my best friend, he's my pal. He's my homeboy, my rotten soldier. He's my sweet cheese. My good-time boy."

Ha!

Cunk on Cursed Earth would be good all around

Oh that is GOLD!

I mean now we have the cast out there all I want this film to be is Philomena Cunk interviewing Rogue asking

"So you shot lots of Norts. That's just another word for blanks isn't it?"

Rebellion have sent out an email now - well its landed in my inbox so this is all very exciting.

Well this is going to set the board alight!

Did I miss something or is this the first time we've been told this is going to be animated?

Exciting that this one has sprung back to life.

Thanks, Colin, I had a great time at a fascinating festival and will be discussing it with Tony Esmond on a bonus episde next Sunday.

Oh looking forward to that one. Its always sounds like such an amazing event. I mean they even got Bill Watterson do come out of retirment once as I recall!

[Number 108 - Batman - Year One]

Number 108 - Batman - Year One

Keywords: Classic; Origin Story; Frank Miller; Gritty

Creators:
Writer - Frank Miller
Art - David Mazzucchelli
Colours - Richmond Lewis
Publisher: DC Comics

No. issues: 4
Date of Publication: 1987

Last read: 2010

Frank Miller's Batman - Year One is Frank Miller's best* Batman story. But it is neither the best Batman story, nor Miller's best work.


Copyright - DC Comics

*When I say 'best' here I clearly mean my favourite. It's almost impossible to get an objective opinion as to which of this and that is literally BEST.

Tantalising foreshadowing of what's to come on this list aside it's almost impossible to make that statement, or indeed talk about Year One without referencing Dark Knight Returns, but I'm going to try and talk about DKR next post and focus solely on Year One here. I'm going to try to detach it from Miller's Daredevil, Mazzucehelli's later works, or indeed his Daredevil. I'm going to try to ignore its influence and the endless inferior 'Year Ones' that have followed it. I'm going to try to drill down to why I think Batman - Year One is just a bloody good comic story.

Just in case let's get some basics out of the way. Year One appeared in 1987 in issues 404 - 407 of the ongoing Batman comic and was used to redefine Batman and his world in the post Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe. To start a shallow relaunch of the character in a way that was nowhere near as dramatic as other character's relaunch and reimaginings after that series reset the DCU. It retells Batman's origin, in large part through his interactions with Jim Gordon and Gotham City Police Department.


Copyright - DC Comics

One of the biggest factors in Year One being so good is David Mazzuchelli's astonishing art. Mazzuchelli's trajectory is quite something. We saw him grow in front of our eyes in the pages of a Daredevil run with Denny O'Neill. This reached a very notable peak with the classic DD story Born Again when he showed he was as capable 'traditional' mainstream artist as anyone, before getting tired of all that and spinning off into other styles of both art and storytelling. It's this ability to capture 'real' superheroes crafted from Daredevil that he took to Year One.

His Batman looks real, tangible, he's a man in a cloth suit punching things with his human fists. He's not a God or an icon. He's a gymnast and as vulnerable as you or I, well if we were super fit brawlers anyway! His motion and combat feel entirely plausible. It's by far the best art I've seen for realistic superheroes, if not my favourite Batman art, which we'll get to later in my list. But 'realistic' Batman, yeah it's Mazzucelli everytime.

Of course it's not just his Batman that shines here. He portrays all the stories characters with real humanity and inhumanity as appropriate. His villains are crooked and untrustworthy, or solid and titanic. He populates Gotham City with folks you will see as you walk through any town centre. Their fear and joy palpable, how life has beaten them shows in the weight on their shoulders.  Even the most minor of characters look like the everyday folks we all see surviving a major city. This is exemplified in his portrayal of Jim Gordon, the character we spend as much time with as Bruce Wayne. He's tired, almost broken, but under that is a strength to fight on

It's also exemplified in the City that he creates for these characters to inhabit. His Gotham City is... and can I get to this without saying dark, dirty and rain drenched as I have so often already i earlier entries ...gulp... in its shadows you understand why Batman lurks. Litter blows through the air broken by cracking neon lights. Buildings need care and attention after years of neglect. It's run down like so many places we see in everyday life, or in 70s or 80s cinema. It's a city that needs its heroes to rise up and protect it, to give it hope.


Copyright - DC Comics

The real magic Mazzuchelli pulls off though is while keeping everything so grounded he uses quite brilliant page design to make so many iconic images. The four covers to the series alone show that, such strong design and layout even if what is shown is relatively mundane for superhero comics, they standout as some of the best and most striking covers there has ever been. This ability to elevate the real to the iconic translates into this interior work as well. Page layouts and storytelling that is rarely matched mean that through the story there are moments, images that transcended the normal and risen to be those moments that grasp the comics consciousness and influence so much of what will come after. The art I've discussed already on this list in stories like Bendis' Daredevil, Gotham Central, Fatale all draw so much from these pages.

This is enhanced by an amazing colouring job by Richmond Lewis, who I learnt was (is) Mazzachelli's wife when reading up for this write up. That makes perfect sense as both line work and colour art come together in such perfect union. Each is elevated by the other. Lewis, who went on to be a painter after a brief stint in the comics industry, has coloured the series twice. Once for the original four colour comics and later using newly available techniques for better paper for various trades and other reprintings. The fact that neither is better, that both work with the resources available so well is testament to the talent of Lewis.

Each time I see images from one colouring job I think 'Yep that's the one they should stick with' and then flip the moment I see images from the other. One of the links below from Cartoonist Kayfabe really explores this as the Absolute edition presents both apparently. I could never justify having something like that just to explore the impact of the colouring... could I. I doubt there's a story that would make me so tempted!


Copyright - DC Comics

This masterful art needs a story to do it justice and Frank Miller doesn't miss a step in providing just that. It's often said that it's Jim Gordon's story as much as Batman's. For me it's neither as it's absolutely essentially and inescapably both's. The story of either character wouldn't work in isolation, the contrasts and connections in both their stories are what makes this work.

Both arrive in Gotham at the start of the Year and the contrast in those arrivals provides the perfect summation of the differences in the two men with a united mission. Both have the same motivation, to clean up Gotham City. They just choose to tackle that challenge in very different ways. Gordon will do it in a 'real' way, from the streets, in the real world restrictions of the police force. Bruce Wayne will tackle it from on high, with an almost impossible vantage point unimaginable to Gordon, or the reader.

Both are damaged by taking on the challenge. On the surface the harm of his commitment to the battle is more emotional for Gordon. He places his marriage, this family and so much of himself on the edge to stick to his task. Bruce Wayne's harm seems to come in a very physical way. Batman takes a real kicking in this comic as he learns his vigilante craft. He has never seemed quite so vulnerable. Not to the hyper-real shenanigans of costumed villains, but even to the switchblades of Gotham's downtrodden. The damage on his psyche is just as significant though. We learn more about Batman's psychological make-up in this story as we do in any other. His motives and reason for his frankly ridiculous methodology to clean up Gotham are examined to perfection here. This is as real as Batman gets and it's just to the comparison with Gordon that it works so well.


Copyright - DC Comics

Frank Miller uses a simple trick to get us as close as possible to these two lead characters. We get to see inside them by reading their personal journals. It's as efficient and effective as everything else in this tale. A simple short cut to mean that even though this story is less than 100 pages, in that tight lean package we get everything we need for a Batman story of this style.

It's not light on development of other characters as well. Just as I say that Mazzuchelli crafts a perfect cast, it's Miller that sets things up for him to be able to do this. As said about Mazzuchelli Miller makes villains sticky and sweaty, or brutal and hard. His work on Catwoman in a very short page count is as good as any I've seen. It's astonishing that both creators working in perfect harmony it would seem, at least in terms of their craft, achieve so much with so little.

As said this story was designed to reimagine Batman for the post Crisis world and it's entirely successful in doing that. It crafts a story that embraces the past of the character while ruthlessly shedding it to open up the new possibilities for others. The problem is few had the skill of these two to use that to maximum effect, though we will see a couple later in this list that do manage that. That's an impressive task in and of itself, but to do so while being an entirely satisfying story in its own right. By not being beholden to that daunting task at the sacrifice of the tale it tells is quite an astounding thing to pull off. By doing so they tell one of the single best mainstream comic book stories in just four issues.

That both these creators go on to use the craft they so perfect here, in such different ways in future works is a wonderfully apt outcome from this story. The way they both go on to tackle how to drive the American comics industry forward and do so with such different methods and impacts is the perfect take on the tale of the two men facing the same challenge in such different ways we get told here.

All that said if you never read another Batman comic either side of this it could well be said that you get all you would ever need in Batman Year One. Though it brilliantly tantalises the world it sets up.


Copyright - DC Comics

Where to find it

I mean it's not going to be hard to do this. It's one of those comics that's been perpetually in print since its first publication.

The Absolute Edition mentioned above is still readily available - move away from it Taylor!

Cheaper editions are of course available.

To be honest the original floppies are still at reasonable(ish) prices for a comic so significant in the aftermarket as well if you fancy those.

Learn more

Obligatory Wikipedia page

Matt Draper does a typically brilliant overview of the story.

Cartoonist Kayfabe take a pretty deep dive into the story and do a really good job of comparing the newsprint edition compared to the recoloured edition.

These a LOAD of stuff written and indeed recorded about this story. I've just pulled a couple I like out as to do otherwise would mean I was here all day listing interesting takes on the story. Just do a search and you'll not struggle to find plenty of insightful and not so insightful reflections.

What is all this?

Conscious that this is becoming a long thread and if you're wondering what the heck you've just read and can't be arsed (quite sensibly) to search back to find out I'll link to my opening posts that try to explain all this.

What this all came from

And of course a nerd won't do a list like this without setting 'Rules' / guidelines

Some thoughts on what will not be on the list.

Oh its fantastic to hear the conversation about Hugo Pratt, one of my absolute favourites. Couple of things to add if I may be so cheeky while I have a moment. I have the last 5 minutes of the podcast still to listen to so if anything is covered there my apologise.

Clearly he is most famous for Corto Maltese as discussed. IDW under the imprint Euro Comics produced a full series English translations of the stories over a number of years from 2015 (I think it was) in quite beautiful volumes. They seem to be getting a little tricky to get hold of but the aftermarket is likely to be your friend there as you do see them come up from time to time. We discussed them as they came out on a thread here. If you are patient I'll be discussing these at some point in the future in some thread or other as they are absolute favourites of mine.

There are also 5 volumes of reprints from the Treasury, well there will be when the fifth you mention comes out in April. The one you missed has literally just landed at Taylor Towers The Crimson Sea which as I've mentioned elsewhere is a whooper of a collection of maritime tales and is out tomorrow as I type this.

There are also a few other translations of his work out there 'The man from the great north' also from IDW is about. Dark Horse (I think) also had a series called The Manara Library featuring the art of Milo Manara and the first volume of that has another of Pratt's most famous works in English 'Indian Summer' which he wrote, with another story written by him. Again alas these are starting to get a little tricky to track down, but with any luck.

Finally, I promise, there's a slight 2000ad link with Hugo Pratt as well. Carlos Ezquerra has always cited Pratt as one of his favourites and inflences. Pratt did a version of Treasure Island, incredibly popular on the continent and I've often speculated that Carlos' pen name 'Long John Silver' might have come from that. No evidence just a quiet desire.

Fantastic episode as ever and I'm so jealous you are going to Angouleme. I dream of going there one day. Hope you had a fantastic time!

Hold on, hold on Zac - don't be teasing me with dinosaurs in the keywords and then don't mention dinosaurs in the write up!

I was tempted to look into this as my manga reading is very slight and I'm always wondering what to try to break that - mind I've got a Manga humble bundle working its way up the reading list so we'll get there at some point... but not out until 2026 or 7... mind I might have chipped away at that reading list so maybe by then!

Nice work Zac! More please.

Ha! Its old news but this seemed like a good time. When I get the chance I'll dig out the 'other side' of the mix tape with less obvious tracks.
I'll see if I can find the mix-tape cover I made for it as well.

I created this a few years ago for the advent calendar

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4OmuQzVnFK5jeeT4L53Qgs?si=5PKyPbqdRe6ziAIjr-Z5BQ

Funt Solo you are the best of us!

I wonder if he was being sarcastic and taking the piss out the rumour mill in some parts.

Really don't know as hard to tell but possible.

Oh that would be a real shame. Mind it does seem like FCBD was making it harder and harder for Rebellion to put out the comics it wanted to. For a good few years they were by far the pick of the bunch in terms of original content.

Are you a Frank Miller fan, the classic stuff? That's stuff that I know is divisive that I rate high. Also, any manga on the list?

Thank you for the kind words. I do worry about folks buying stuff based on my blathering but I guess directing folks to stuff I like is part the idea here and we're all adults and can decide what we want to try - just hope folks enjoy the stuff!

To answer the specifics - in vague terms. I've written up two Frank Miller stories already so they will be appearing soon AND possibly more interestingly he features a 'Not on the list' entry which will be posted next week GULP!

As for his DD run. I like it but it ... drum roll... won't be on the list, though it is planned for an entry down the road as to why. There's a lot of DD on the list, so there are runs I really think built on what Miller did but do it better (see Bendis DD entry). That's not to say I don't like it. I just think its dated a little and others have built on what he and Janson did as I say.

Oh sorry just to be clear there is a specific storyline that he did after his main run on DD that appears ... I mean that's not leaving much to doubt is it! I think that will be my highest Miller entry.

As for Manga, my Manga reading is very limited - its an area I keep meaning to investigate more as its a real blind spot for me - just too many great comics. That said there are a couple and one is very high on the list.

Writing my list brought this home and I've got a list of things I want to read - but this bloody list have made that quite long when I've reflected on the gaps in my reading so as and when really. I have just bought a complete run of Mai the Psychic Girl as I saw it going for a great price and loved it growing up. Probably far from the best example but its a start. I'm also likely to buy some Shigeru Mizuki's History of Japan soon as that's a series I've always wanted to investigate.