BATMAN: YEAR ONE - a graphic novel by Frank Miller & David Mazzuccheli with Richmond Lewis (1986)
Batman: Year One follows the stories of Lieutenant Gordon and Bruce Wayne as they face intertwining struggles within Gotham City.I think this was a great book for my first foray into the Batman comics. I enjoyed the backstory behind Bruce Wayne as a supplement to the general knowledge of the story I had from pop culture.
What I found truly interesting was the back story of Lieutenant Gordon. How coming to Gotham City affected his marriage, his wife Barbara, the early progression of his career, (and because he is human) his mistakes. He's flawed but still tries to do the right thing. He fights for himself, fights for Gotham, he's a lot like Batman in that respect. In a way, I feel like I connected more with Gordon this time around than I did with Batman.
That being said, there were some great action scenes with Batman which had me shouting at the pages at times. This is the cover page to one of my favorite chapters in the book, CHAPTER THREE: BLACK DAWN. (I've reread this quote so many times, so awesome.)
And for everyone who likes to see the workflow or creative process of other artists and writers the behind-the-scenes sketches, sample layouts and script pages in the back of the book are a joy to read. I particularly enjoyed Frank Miller's afterword at the end of the book, describing his first glimpse of the Batman comics as a young boy.
Overall, Miller offers vivid imagery of the ever mysterious Batman and takes the reader on a journey into the perpetually gritty, concrete hole of Gotham City. Well done, Mr. Miller. Well done.
I'm not huge on comic books, in fact, I had never read one until a week ago which was one of Deadpool's by Marvel. The last one, actually. I kinda enjoyed it. I should probably go down to the comic book store a la The Big Bang Theory and get one! I actually love Christopher Nolan's Batman so I don't see why I won't enjoy a Batman comic.
ReplyDeletemortem blonde
ps. thank you so much for the kind twitter message <3
I haven't read Deadpool yet but I've seen some clips of the movie coming out and it looks really cool. You watch Big Bang Theory? I've been meaning to start watching, I've heard its a super funny show! (#Bazinga)
DeleteThe hear the Batman movies are pretty awesome, although I haven't seen all of them. You should definitely head to the comic book store, even if you don't pick up a comic they usually have great graphic novels (which are the reason I got into reading comics in the first place). Thanks for your comment, Bian (and you're welcome!) :] <3