A Batman Fan Story

Acrylic on Arches
11" x 17"

I’ve been inspired to make a few sample pages like a couple of friends and acquaintances, but then it took me a while to realize, this project isn’t canon. A friend of mine showed me John Byrne’s unofficial Phoenix story and that gave me an idea. It can create a story and it doesn’t have to be the real thing. People make fan movies all the time too. What’s different. Don’t sue me, please. Also, there wouldn’t be a Comics Code Authority to worry about, no censorship, and I don’t have to stick to a sample script. I can come up with whatever I want. I’m not selling this thing, and it’s all for fun so let’s see if I can push my skills and see if I was given a Batman gig, would I be good enough? You’re your own worst critic so I say, no. Lots of things to improve on but after finishing these 9 pages I can say that… I found a ton of other things that I need to improve on!

In the end, I wanted to put more silhouettes in there, more Caravggio-esque shadows, more Roger Deakins type of documentarian lighting. It was a pleasure watching The Batman because they basically did what I was aiming for but so so so so much better, even the David Fincher inspiration and specifically the Seven vibe. Honestly, I watched so much David Fincher stuff in the research and playing in the background that it felt like I was working on The Batman myself…and then got fired and decided to make a 9 page, unlicensed comic book out of spite. Of course they didn’t thank me in the credits. All is forgiven.

I feel like there’s a lot that I can say about this project. Every time I think I’m done typing, something pops into my head. This story is based on an episode of Batman: The Animated Series. There’s an episode where Poison Ivy, Penguin, Joker and Croc get together and swap stories about how they “Almost Got ‘im”, him being Batman, of course. Written by the great Paul Dini, it’s gotta be among the more memorable episodes. I went this route because canonically, this story couldn’t have happened, but Batman’s a mystery so we don’t know if this could actually happen to him. So going with this story allowed me the wiggle room to say, this places the narrator, as a character, could have the capability to be a compulsive liar. Originally, I had this as a story between 2 cops walking through the church the following day and guessing what had happened. Did Batman lose an arm, or not? I would be painting according to one cops deductions. But I decided to write the story after I painted this. If I put just the actual dialogue that would be said by Batman and the woman, it just seemed so bare to have maybe 2 lines of dialogue, no narration. Nothing. So I put in another layer of story because I thought this project could be a bit more interesting. I’m sure this isn’t how a real writer does things but I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I’m forming another idea about what do paint next. Probably a shorter story, but it could be longer if I feel like it. I hope I finish that this year.