Batman Panels Daily

A new batman panel everyday.

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I think this panel from Joker written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Lee Bermejo probably speaks for itself.

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The above panel is from Detective Comics #821 written by Paul Dini with pencils by J.H Williams III and colours John Kalisz. The art team made a lot of interesting choices on this run with Dini (who's writing is predictably solid) particularly the insertion of non-diegetic elements into the stories. The circular frame showing off the rogue's gallery in this issue is a great example of this.

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The above panel comes from Batman Chronicles; The Gauntlet with story and art by Bruce Canwell and Lee Weeks and coloured by Matt Hollingsworth. The premise of the book is that Batman sets Dick Grayson a challenge to be completed if he is to be accepted as Batman's sidekick. The challenge, to evade Batman for a day, is soon complicated when Robin becomes embroiled in a mystery involving Gotham's mafia. What I find striking about this panel is the use of shadow, the black arch which frames the scene and Batman's figure cast onto the wall behind him. And also of course the subtlety of the reach for the gun, hidden from the reader as much as from Batman.

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The above panel is from Teen Titans: Year One #1 written by Amy Wolfram with art by Karl Kerschl, Serge LaPointe and the late Stephane Peru. Essentially it is the origin of the original team which debuted in 1965 written by Bob Haney and with art by Bruno Premiani (with Nick Candy collaborating with Haney on the teams first nominal book), told i somewhat the same style as the popular 2000s cartoon. While Wolfram (who was a sometime writer on the cartoon) does a serviceable job on the story, it is the excellent artwork which marks the 6 part series apart from the usual fare. There is a wonderfully distinct contrast between the teen characters and their mentors throughout while the sense that all the characters belong to the same cohesive universe remains.     

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Above are two panels from Batman Vol. 2 #5 written by Scott Snyder and pencilled by Greg Capullo while the inks and colours were undertaken by Jonathan Glapion and FCO Plascencia respectively. While I can't say I've enjoyed Snyder and Capullo's take on the Batman origin as much as I would have hoped (in the Zero Year arc ongoing in Batman at the moment), this issue contains the some of the best storytelling and visuals in a Batman comic this side of the millennium, if not in the character's history. 

Both writer and artist do an incredible job with slowly teasing out the mental and physical decay of the character as he is effectively tortured inside and underground maze. Snyder slowly and convincingly strips away the foundations of the character so sensitively that there are some moving moments within the horror, while the artistic pull the character apart in a more literal sense. As these panels show Capullo et al make use of very modern illustration techniques; the background falling out of focus as the camera flashes and the marble being excellent examples of this. Really though I could have picked almost any panel from the issue (and maybe some will appear here in the future.) 

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Above is a panel from Detective Comics #421 written and illustrated by Frank Robbins. Robbins certainly had an unusual style, a bizarre marriage of Gold and Silver Age schools as well as being indebted to newspaper comic strips where the writer/artist made his name. The disparity between his art and that of (for example) Neal Adams can clearly be seen by comparing the cover of this issue, illustrated by Adams, to the art of Robbins' story "Blind Justice... Blind Fear" inside. Unfortunately Robbins tended to work solely as a writer on Batman comics and so a story such as this, for which he straddles the writing and artwork, is a rarity.  

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The above is a triptic of panels from Detective Comics #33, the issue which revealed Batman's origin story. The story in the issue "The Batman Wars Against the Dirigible of Doom", begins with two pages written by Bill Finger which detail how Bruce Wayne became The Batman, establishing the character's origin for the first time. The story that follows these two pages is a fairly inane and dull yarn written by Gardener Fox. Both sections were pencilled by Bob Kane and inked by Kane and Sheldon Moldoff.

Both the art and writing of these panels hold up quite well alongside modern sequential art, the former in particular has a charm that is sophisticated as opposed to a lot of other art from the early Batman cannon which is appealing in its naivety. As for the writing, while Finger's style is probably more in line with what the modern reader would associate with this era of comics than Kane's artwork, it can only really be measured by the endurance of a line like "Criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot..."

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Klaus Janson is probably best known as an inker. He is of course the man who inked Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. The above panel comes from a book which Janson both pencilled and inked. That book is Batman:Legends of the Dark Knight #6, the first issue in the Grant Morrison's 5 part arc Gothic.

I think that Janson's skills as an inker are definitely emphasised in this panel as he makes the bold choice of contrasting Batman's opaque silhouette with the fine colourful detail of the church spire. A brave move and one which I think  pays off.  Even more artistically ambitious is the use of a screen tone (normally used back in the day to save the time the artist spent of shading) as the background. The flat, patterned background seems at odds with the realism of the figure and spire, yet somehow it holds the composition together and the resulting image is if nothing else, bold and unique.

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Here's a panel from Batman: Year 100, an Elseworlds story written and illustrated by Paul Pope and coloured by Jose Villarrubia. This particular panel comes from #2 of the 4 part series.

The premise of the comic takes 1939 as literally Batman's first year making 2039 the setting for the book. Bruce Wayne has seemingly long since gone but the Batman still exists in some form as do many of the other staple characters of the mythos. I suspect the book served as inspiration for the Scott Snyder penned story in Detective Comic (Vol.2) #27, as I've heard Snyder praise this book before and there are some subtle similarities. 

What's really striking about Year 100 is Pope's artwork and treatment of the anatomy of the Batman character. He emphasises the idea of Batman being simply a man in a suit, his clothing, gadgets and poses all seem very rooted in the real world. As can be seen above, physical activity takes its toll on the character and throughout the book we feel him breathe, sweat etc. This is all made possible through Pope's unique (but admittedly polarising) style clearly influenced by Japanese manga as much as Western comics. Expect more panels from this book to appear here in the future. 

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This panel comes from the very first issue of one of my favourite runs on Detective Comics, that of writer Alan Grant and artist Norm Breyfogle. The issue (Detective Comics #583) also marked the first appearance of Scarface and The Ventriloquist. Interestingly John Wagner was initially paired with fellow Scotsman Alan Grant as a writing partner (and is credited on this issue) but left soon afterwards supposedly because of the pressure and fear that they would be pulled from the book. Grant feared that DC would drop him (as they had hired him and Wagner as a team based on their work in 2000AD) and so Wagner's name remained on the comic for a number of issues after his departure.

These panels highlight Breyfogle's tendency to exaggerate Batman's  facial expressions which, along with his incredible ability to convey movement, (particularly evident in fight and chase sequences) is what appeals to me about his take on the character. There's also some excellent Judge Dredd-esque dialogue from the writers here as well.

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Let's kick proceedings off with a classic and where better to start than David Mazzucchelli's artwork for Batman: Year One which ran from Batman #404 to #407. This particular panel is an edited version of the cover of Batman #404 which appeared in a collected edition of the story.