The amazing thing about Alfred Hitchcock isn’t just that he directed what the latest Sight & Sound poll considers the greatest film of all time (Vertigo), or that on top of that he was behind numerous other classics, but that even when digging through his lesser known catalogue you can still find absolute gems like Lifeboat, Sabotage, or Blackmail. Sure, some Hitchcock thrillers haven’t aged that well, and even those that have aren’t perfect, but they are always entertaining to some degree. Also, the more you watch the work of the so-called Master of Suspense, the more you start to pick up on hypnotic patterns beyond the famous director cameo.
Although my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie is probably Rope, I’ve pointed out that the British director came the closest to the feel of a Batman adventure with Foreign Correspondent. And while that movie in particular didn’t leave much of a mark on the comics, others certainly have!
For example, it’s hard to imagine that Norm Breyfogle didn’t have Hitchcock’s The Birds in mind when he drew this bird attack on Wayne Manor…
Detective Comics #615
…or that Gabe Soria didn’t ask artist Dean Haspiel to do an obvious homage to the crop duster chase scene from the spy comedy North by Northwest:
Batman Adventures (v2) #9
Batman #395 was more explicit. That issue, written by Doug Moench and illustrated by Tom Mandrake, introduced a villain called Film Freak, who based his crimes on classic movies. And sure enough, the issue started with a reference to Alfred Hitchcock’s romantic caper To Catch a Thief…
Batman #395
…and finished with a callback to the horror masterpiece Psycho:
Batman #395
This cool story arc continued into Detective Comics #562 and finished in Batman #396, but not without key plot twists inspired by Hitchcock’s Rear Window and The Man Who Knew Too Much (the remake).
That was back in 1986. Since then, sadly the Film Freak hasn’t made many appearances, but a modern version of the character did feature rather prominently in Will Pfeifer’s Catwoman run. In an issue with pencils by David Lopez, inks by Alvaro Lopez, and colors by Jeromy Cox, the Film Freak explained his fascination with the Master of Suspense:
Catwoman (v3) #56
Yet no Batman comic paid a greater homage to Sir Alfred Hitchcock than the awesome ‘The Third Door’ (The Batman Adventures #6).
That whole issue was designed as a tribute, with the only thing missing being a title sequence by Saul Bass. The plot revolved around a falsely accused Bruce Wayne having to prove his innocence to the authorities, which was the premise of most Hitchcock thrillers. The credits even named the authors after some of them: writer Kelley “The Wrong Man” Puckett, penciller Brad “Psycho” Rader, inker Rick “Rope” Burchett, colorist Rick “Vertigo” Taylor, letterer Tim “Spellbound” Harkins, and editor Scott “Frenzy” Peterson.
Brad Rader did an excellent job of mimicking Hitchcockian camera angles. And of course he couldn’t resist adding the director’s cameo:
The Batman Adventures #6
If you ask me, the reason Tippi Hedren is slapping Hitch in the face is because he never got around to direct a Batman movie… Ah, one can dream.