And so my first draft of a Batman comic has been completed. At this point, after this particularly long preamble, I guess you must be wondering what my Batman story is about. Well, in the last few years there has been some online discussion as to what actually happens at the end of Alan Moore's "The Killing Joke" graphic novel. The book is a one issue Batman story in which the Joker tries to drive Commissioner Gordon crazy through a violent attack on his daughter Barbara (a.k.a. Batgirl) that leaves her paralyzed. Grant Morrison, one of comics most significant talents, in recent years offered up his explanation that Batman kills the Joker at the end of the book. You really have to see the last two pages of the story to understand the ambiguity of the situation. Batman tries to reach out to the Joker and in response the Joker tells a joke that infers that he is too far gone to be reached. They both start laughing. Batman puts his hands on the Joker around his shoulder as they both continue to laugh. The panels move off of the characters and toward the ground and then suddenly the laughter stops. The implication is that Batman snaps the Joker's neck….. or, he doesn't. Anyway, discussions began running rampant across the internet debating the ending of the book with valid conjecture supporting both sides of the argument.
And that is EXACTLY what my short story is about. It's the epilogue to "The Killing Joke". I decided to write a short story that explains what TRULY happened after those last ambiguous panels. The working title for my story is "Pulling Punchlines". Progress on the short story will appear within this blog and most likely in the WORK section of this site.
June 10. 2014 - Production has begun on the "Pulling Punchlines" short story. The cover art is nearly completed. I have never actually drawn the cover to a book first. It has always been the last thing I draw, however, this time the idea and the inspiration for the cover came first. As well, working out the cover with iconic characters like the Batman and the Joker gave me a chance to work out the nuances of how I want my version of these characters to look.
July 6. 2014 - Page art and layouts is in progress. The story is written for the most part with only some minor changes to incur. Page one has been completed with only some background work and grayscale touches to add. So far, I am pleasantly surprised and pleased with the results.
October 30, 2014 - It's the day before my birthday and I am approximately 3 pages away from completing the Killing Joke Epilogue short story. Production on the book has, for the most part, gone very smoothly. I'm running only a couple weeks behind my self imposed deadline (which is remarkable in and of itself). More artwork from the book will be displayed on this site as the book nears completion. The plan is to post the pages online to view for free on my site, but also offer printed copies from a limited run as giveaway items. Maybe I'll entice people by giving away a free copy of my Batman short story, if you buy a copy of any of my other original books. I am also going to be looking into having the book converted into a digital format that would also be a free download. More info to come.
