Thursday, August 02, 2012

Batman commission

A few months back my long working relationship with Batman came to an end once again with the putting to bed of my Batman: Death by Design book (stylishly scripted by the "rock star" of the graphic design world Chip Kidd). I was relieved it had finally been finished, it was an exhausting three years, half my day looking after my amazing daughter and the other half trying to draw as much as possible without the artistic standards the book had placed upon it slipping. Then it was done, and I looked forward to moving on to something different, a new challenge. I'd set up a gig with 2000AD once again on Judge Dredd and almost immediately started work on "Great Executions", a skilful and classically shocking adaptation of Darls Chickens' Great Expectations written by the highly respected and talented Robbie Morrison (Megs 325, 326 and 327, more on this soon). I was blissfully drawing Dredd again! It's a universe I know probably better than the one I'm physically in so I was a happy lad, having the freedom to design a world with no restrictions. But there was something wrong. Something nagging quietly from the back room. The Batman was still lurking, off in a dark corner of my mind. Damn it all, I missed him! The programming that was in place for my big Batman graphic novel was still running, still active. Luckily for me I'd been commissioned a few months before to produce a "Batman fighting the Joker on a ledge" illustration (seen above). Now it's done that back room, that dark corner seems quiet again, he's disappeared back into the shadows....but for how long?!

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