Gotham Calling

COMICS CAN BE AWESOME (8 August 2022)

This week’s reminder that comic book covers can be awesome is a tribute to Judge Dredd, the perfect straight man for 2000 AD’s offbeat humor and signature puns…

COMICS CAN BE AWESOME (1 August 2022)

Another Monday, another reminder that comics can be awesome. This week, I’ve tried to spotlight covers that show the power of layouts and composition in bringing out the appeal of different genres, from the dynamism produced by lines pointing in multiple directions to the information conveyed by strategically placed details, not to mention the tension that can be created through a precise mise-en-scène (like the reflection in the mirror in the very last cover)…

Alan Grant (1949-2022)

Of the many amazing comic-book creators that have died in the past few months, Alan Grant deserves a special mention in this blog. As I’ve written before, his energetic, darkly comedic surrealism is as close as it gets to my ideal of cool Batman comics – hell, more than any other writer, Grant has shaped my taste and passion when it comes to this type of stories and, ultimately, he’s responsible for the very existence of Gotham Calling.

Today, I won’t share a panel from one of Alan Grant’s greatest works (which, as far as I’m concerned, can be found in his awesome Detective Comics run from the late 1980s or, admittedly, in the pages of 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine). Instead, here is a scene that encapsulates many of Grant’s defining motifs: drugs, social consciousness, bizarre humor, creepy horror, and the will to weave big themes into unapologetically committed genre narratives:

Shadow of the at #58

COMICS CAN BE AWESOME (11 July 2022)

In the turn toward the 1970s, Batman comics grew moodier, with more realistic designs and a less campy feel than the stuff coming out in the previous decades. Creators like Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, and Frank Robbins clearly sought distance from the ludicrous Batman TV show starring Adam West, but it wasn’t just that… There was a whole bitter vibe taking over much of American popular culture at the time, with a wave of gritty, maze-like genre fiction. In film (usually a major influence on comics), this ranged from the classics of paranoid cinema to low-budget productions like Ivan Dixon’s Trouble Man or Michael Winner’s The Mechanic, which made stripped-down, unglamorous settings part of their style while delivering gripping plots and virile dialogue.

Before going full grimdark in the late ‘80s, Batman comics managed to put their own spin on this sort of sensibility without entirely losing their inherent gonzo nature (the best of both worlds!) throughout what became known as the Caped Crusader’s Bronze Age. This week’s reminder that comics can be awesome spotlights ten covers from this era that tread that line: