Mark Millar reviews The Gotham Adventures

A pal just sent me a review of The Gotham Adventures from way back when. It's a really nice review, but what makes it truly noteworthy is that it was written by superstar writer Mark Millar, back when he was still pretty new himself, and well before his days on The Authority.

Again, one of the buried treasures since it started. It's almost a cliche, but the Adventures books really do tend to be better than the core titles and incredibly underrated. I thought this would take a dip after the departure of the brilliant Ty Templeton, but Scott Peterson has really made this book his own. It's a shame more people aren't reading this. Peterson's another guy who should get a crack at the core titles and they could do a lot worse than Burchett on the art.

I don't know what issue he was reviewing, but it seems to have been published around November 2001, which means it might have been Gotham Adventures #44.

I opened on something not at attention-grabbing:

Oh, Tim Levins. No matter what I asked for, you always made it look so much better than I dared could have dreamt. That last page is comic book storytelling perfection. And the weird worm's eye view of the first panel of the previous page? Fantastic.

Kelley Puckett once teased me for these kinds of really blatantly obviously heartstrings-tugging openings. I ignored him. And then turned him into a villain.

(And of course, Millar was right about Ty the Guy's brilliance—I really truly believe that Ty's on the shortlist for Most Talented Creator in the history of the medium. He once wrote and illustrated a one panel comic for DC's in-house magazine that showed what looting during a blackout would look like in Gotham, and it remains one of my very favorite Batman-related pieces ever ever ever.)

Batman Adventures #3

I saw part of this page posted on tumblr earlier today

and after I once again managed to (sorta) get over the utter brilliance of the great Ty Templeton, it reminded me of how that second panel came about, and how it's a small example of just how fantastic and different a writer Kelley Puckett is.

After the page was drawn, I sent it to Kelley and said I thought he should add dialogue to the hitherto silent second panel; he could just continue the song from the first panel. Easy-peasy!

Instead, Kelley has the Joker continue to sing the song for a bit, and then start to mumble words to fit the melody. Because he can't remember the words.

I remember the two of us laughing because who on earth is over the age of 5 and doesn't know the words to "I've Been Working on the Railroad"? Especially since it's just a repetition of the title!

On one level, it's simply really funny. On another, it illustrates just how very different from anyone else the Joker. And the fact that the nonsense syllable the Joker uses to fill time is the same as the Batman theme song is just an added bonus.

Batman & Robin Adventures #7

Saw this online:

Now that’s how you depict the Ventriloquist, someone to whom Scarface is very real, and not real at all, both at the same time, and doesn’t see anything odd about it.

and I really loved that analysis of the character. 

I own this page of original art. I won't say I stole the page from Rick Burchett....per se. But I will say it’s one of the finest examples of storytelling I’ve ever seen. 

It all starts with great writing from Ty Templeton, and without his wonderful script, of course, it's not likely we'd even be talking about it. But the thing that makes it work as staggeringly effectively as it does is that pan down, a pan created entirely by Rick’s judicious use of gutters. It forces the reader to slow down—something difficult to do in comics, and virtually unheard of these days—so the bloody hand, which is the key and obviously there the entire time, isn’t revealed until the third panel. Amazing. Simple yet simply brilliant. 

Also noteworthy is fantastic coloring from Linda Medley. Linda is, of course, the incredible writer/artist/creator of the magnificent Castle Waiting books, but despite that, she colored a number of comics for me in the 90s. (But not nearly enough—never nearly enough. Still and all, I'm grateful she agreed to color any.) 

Batman Adventures #1

My first full editing credit. The great Ty Templeton gave me the first page...and also no end of grief (entirely deservéd) for not catching the misspelling of Sam Agro's name, something for which I had precisely no defense. What can I say? I was young(er) and stupid(er).

The eagle-eyed will catch that wasn't the only mistake I made on this issue, but I'm surely not going to point out the other one, since it's really haunted me ever since. I like to think I got better. Or at least out of the editing game.