Gotham Adventures #23

So someone sent this to me, and it was a delightful surprise, since I was a fan of all seven days, but two of them were, well, mine. On the Wednesday entry, I was the editor for the pinup by the great Kelley Jones and how awesome is his shot? How dead on is his characterization of the Joker and Penguin, despite being rendered in a totally different style to his normal incredibly unique style?

Then there's Sunday. I wrote that issue, my first time (I think) writing the immortal Ra's al Ghul, fully aware of what huge shoes I had to fill. Fortunately, I had the great Tim Levins on art, so I knew I was at least well covered there. And how well covered indeed. I haven't read the entire issue in years, but I had to laugh, looking at the panels reprinted here. I clearly asked more of Tim than was seemly or kind, and even more clearly, Tim then went and delivered, and then some.

I mean, here're my shot descriptions for Pages Sixteen and Seventeen:

Page Sixteen
Panel One
Big ol’ shot of the Dark Knight doing his best Tarzan imitation as he swings towards the stronghold of Ra’s al Ghul. His line’s attached to either a tree near the castle, or has imbedded into the castle itself. If, for any reason, this wouldn’t work given the geography of the island, Tim, just let me know and I’ll change this all around.

Panel Two
He’s now let go of the line and is entering a window in one of the castle’s turrets feet first, knocking over several of the guards as he does so.

Panel Three
He turns to see a host of guards coming up the turret stairs. Batman’s in one of his ready crouches and is taking a sword off one of the unconscious guards whilst never taking his eyes off the approaching troops. It’s a scimitar, one of those big mamajama swords that’s curved and thicker near the tip than the handle.

Panel Four
Batman’s in the winding stone stairway, swordfighting his way down the stairs, conquering guards left and right, taking another sword off a vanquished foe. Roll over, Errol Flynn.

Page Seventeen
Panel One
Pull way back for a big shot. Batman is still carrying his swords, if it looks okay to have a sword in each hand; if it doesn’t, just give him one (and delete the second from last panel) and have Ra’s toss him one next page. Batman is sprinting out of the stairs and into an immense room as guards come swarming. If we still see the stairs, it’s piled with bodies. This is the anteroom of the throne room (and where else would Lord al Ghul be?); although we can’t see Ra’s yet, we can glimpse the room he’s in through the enormous doorway. The door itself is a huge wooden door inside the room, hanging by a pulley system--we won’t know this until next panel, but there you go. Almost done with guards, Tim.

Panel Two
Batman enters the throne room, walking now. As he does so he throws his sword backwards and up without looking. The sword cuts through the rope holding the door up, imbedding in the wall. Needless to say, with the rope thus severed, the door begins to plummet closed.

Panel Three
Twoshot of Batman and Ra’s. The hero and the villain. The Dark Knight and the Demon’s Head. Protagonist and antagonist. The door slams closed. There are no guards in the room, but there is an enormous and ornate tapestry that hangs on an otherwise blank section of wall. This tapestry hangs almost all the way to the floor; it doens’t matter which of the four walls, but it’d be nice to see it here. This is absolutely the only decoration in the entire room, which is quite large indeed, except for some torches on the walls, if you want, because torches are cool and Ghulish. I think Ra’s is sitting down here, but if standing works better, so be it.
      RA’S: Hello, Detective.

What I asked for was totally unreasonable. And yet here's what Tim delivered.

I am a very lucky man. (And I feel we've proven beyond a doubt that torches are Ghoulish.)