James O'Barr...

[SpectacPete]

...first let me wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hopefully you were all surrounded by your loved ones. Now, I recently picked up the issue of "Wizard", the one with Heath Ledger as the Joker. There was an article talking about the tragic death of Brandon Lee, may god rest his soul, on the set on the Crow, which included an interview with James O'Barr. It says that his dream is to draw Batman and has talked to Alan Hughes of DC about it. James O'Barr drawing Batman? It doesn't get better than that.

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

Yes, i read that. DC basically says they're ready when James is, so it more than likely will happen in the near future...

 

[K.B.]

Sorry to burst peoples bubbles but this will (reportedly) NEVER happen.

O'Barr has COMPLETED a Batman project which now sits in DC's drawers collecting dust (like many amazing projects) never to be seen. DC claims that the book is "too violent" which, according to O'Barr and other who have seen the book, is just not true.

According to souces (meaning O'Barr himself and a few others) the book is about as violent as your average Bat-story and actually other books (like Arkham Asylum) have MORE violence then his Bat-project.

I read all this in an article with direct quotes from O'Barr over on another site some time ago.

Nevertheless..here is how he would tackle Bats for anyone interested.

 

[Joker]

I have a feeling people would be hyped about this, it would come out and be along the lines of a modern Frank Miller story, and everyone but me would hate it.

 

[CrimsonMist]

I have a feeling people would be hyped about this, it would come out and be along the lines of a modern Frank Miller story, and everyone but me would hate it.

nah, i'd probably enjoy it as well. I like O'Barr's style very much. And that picture posted above is pretty sweet.

 

[Nepenthes]

is Batman smoking a Camel?

 

[Goshdarn Batman]

 

[Goshdarn Batman]

http://cgi.ebay.com/James-OBarr-Ori...ZViewItem?_trksid=p1638.m118#ebayphotohosting

 

[Joker]

that one of the two catwomen making out is awesome...this man needs to do a Batman story

 

[CrimsonMist]

that one of the two catwomen making out is awesome...this man needs to do a Batman story

Amen.

A gun-totting, cigarette chomping Batman with nails stuck in his head is so off, that it could be damn brilliant.

I read online, researching the story that K.B said O'Barr wrote and it was a Batman/Crow crossover, but it was a 1940's setting, where Bruce Wayne is a drug addict and has a bunch of other problems he needs to work out... That's all i could really find.

I say publish the damn thing. And then let him do another one. With lesbian cat women.

 

[Motown Marvel]

o'barrs art is pretty hit and miss with me.

 

[hammy]

agreed. ^

 

[RobC]

That's more of an elseworlds Batman to me. The nails, and he needs to lose the gun. Period.

Otherwise, brilliant drawings, I especially like the Joker. However he seems to rely rather heavily on implied violence. Just putting it out there... I mean, you look at those pictures, and Batman looks like a nutjob serial killer.

That's not Batman...

 

[CrimsonMist]

That's more of an elseworlds Batman to me. The nails, and he needs to lose the gun. Period.

Otherwise, brilliant drawings, I especially like the Joker. However he seems to rely rather heavily on implied violence. Just putting it out there... I mean, you look at those pictures, and Batman looks like a nutjob serial killer.

That's not Batman...

http://www.crescentblues.com/3_4issue/obarr.shtml

"Ironically, given his analogies between the Crow movies and the Batman franchise, O'Barr also worked on a Batman/Crow crossover for the past six years. O'Barr noted that it's "taken six years to feel like I have something to say." O'Barr's Batman operates in 1940's Los Angeles. Batman's alter ego, Bruce Wayne, chain-smokes, uses drugs, and needs to work out "a few" personal problems. "My slant on Batman is extreme," O'Barr said."


Definitely, and obviously, an Elseworld. I'd still buy it though.

 

[Cobblepot]

The Crow is easily one of the best comic book stories i've ever read, but his style just doesn't fit with Batman.

 

[RobC]

Agreed, thanks CrimsonMist for that info, i'm glad, but it's a still a bit meh for me, his Joker looked cool but the rest didn't mega-impress me, but then I orefer the newer, cleaner art rather then the more expressionistic older stuff.

 

[MisfitsSamhain]

That's not Batman...

I agree. The nails, stitches and weapons are what turned me off.

 

[Joker]

I love it, like I said...it makes Frank Miller's The Goddamn Batman look like the 60's Batman.

 

[Armored Avenger]

I think it could work, but Batman should never use a gun, no matter how far you go with the look.

 

[RobC]

If it's an Elseworlds then technically it can be overlooked. But I agree, he shouldn't use one...

 

[Joker]

I think it could work, but Batman should never use a gun, no matter how far you go with the look.

Batman used a gun when he was first created, from 'Tec 27 up till Batman #1. Hell, he used to, well, not murder people, but if he accidentaly hit a mobster so hard he fell into boiling chemicals and died, his only comment would be "a fitting end for his kind! to the batmobile, away!" with a big smile on his face.

 

[RobC]

Yeh but that was all retconned and explained. Plus, by that logic, you could give Batman purple gloves lol...

 

[Punch]

It doesn't matter, if it's "Elseworlds" he can have a gun, a bloody knife, purple gloves and, uh, nails sticking out of his head.
The elseworlds label is sort of redundant anyway, it's all fiction and "counts".

 

[RobC]

Yeah but it's a way of having Batman appear in non-Batman type adventures, settings and stories...

 

[CrimsonMist]

Yeah but it's a way of having Batman appear in non-Batman type adventures, settings and stories...

This is the way i see it:

If Batman can become a psychotic vampire bat beast that can slash the throats of common thugs, decapitate the Penguin and his gang, rip the Riddler's throat out, decapitate the Scarecrow, rip Poison Ivy's throat out, decimate Black Mask and his gang, and impale all the heads outside of Arkham Asylum on the metal fence posts surrounding it, and then infiltrate the Asylum and kill everyone inside it, brutally....

I think Batman can carry a gun, smoke a cigarette and have nails sticking out of his head. Besides, that kind of Batman seems way more of a badass than a vampire Batman.

Elseworld or not, i want to see O'Barr do a Batman book.