Batman The Long Halloween 48 Page Special (Early October)

[Hypo]

Batman: The Long Halloween Special #1 Preview + Interview
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Tim Sale

[Frontier]

Really curious to see how they use Gilda in this.

[thwhtGuardian]

I was pretty skeptical about Loeb and Sale returning to Batman after all these years, I didn't think it was possible to capture that magic yet again...but they pulled it off. The roof top conversations between Gordon and Batman are dramatic and moody, the villains colorful and energetic and the scene with Commissioner Gordon chaperoning Robin and Barbra Gordon going trick or treating was absolutely perfect. Some people still may not have forgiven Loeb for the perceived wishy-washy answer about who Holiday was but I've always loved the relationship between Gilda and Harvey so seeing more of it here was fantastic and with the way the issue ended with Gilda and Two Face escaping into the night I'm hoping we get even more in the not so distant future.

Sale hasn't lost a step in how he depicts Gotham and all of its inhabitants but I think the coloring here steals the show in a few places. Brennan Wagner(yes, son of THAT Wagner) has a fantastic grip on the bold primary colors that have always made the art of the Long Halloween so iconic, and his deft mix of warm and cool colors creates a stunning mood all its own. If there's more to come I surely hope that Wagner comes along as well as I can't wait to see more from him.

I'm almost all digital these days, but this book was really that good and the art was fantastic so I'll be double dipping here and tracking down a physical copy sooner rather than latter and you should too

[Frontier]

I was pretty skeptical about Loeb and Sale returning to Batman after all these years, I didn't think it was possible to capture that magic yet again...but they pulled it off. The roof top conversations between Gordon and Batman are dramatic and moody, the villains colorful and energetic and the scene with Commissioner Gordon chaperoning Robin and Barbra Gordon going trick or treating was absolutely perfect. Some people still may not have forgiven Loeb for the perceived wishy-washy answer about who Holiday was but I've always loved the relationship between Gilda and Harvey so seeing more of it here was fantastic and with the way the issue ended with Gilda and Two Face escaping into the night I'm hoping we get even more in the not so distant future.

Sale hasn't lost a step in how he depicts Gotham and all of its inhabitants but I think the coloring here steals the show in a few places. Brennan Wagner(yes, son of THAT Wagner) has a fantastic grip on the bold primary colors that have always made the art of the Long Halloween so iconic, and his deft mix of warm and cool colors creates a stunning mood all its own. If there's more to come I surely hope that Wagner comes along as well as I can't wait to see more from him.

I'm almost all digital these days, but this book was really that good and the art was fantastic so I'll be double dipping here and tracking down a physical copy sooner rather than latter and you should too

Reminds me of the animated movie adaption.

[MajorHoy]

. . . but I think the coloring here steals the show in a few places. Brennan Wagner (yes, son of THAT Wagner) has a fantastic grip on the bold primary colors that have always made the art of the Long Halloween so iconic, and his deft mix of warm and cool colors creates a stunning mood all its own. If there's more to come I surely hope that Wagner comes along as well as I can't wait to see more from him . . .

Interesting that Brennan Wagner was the colorist considering what previously happened the last time Matt Wagner was the artist for a Batman story . . .

[ispacehead]

I was pretty skeptical about Loeb and Sale returning to Batman after all these years, I didn't think it was possible to capture that magic yet again...but they pulled it off. The roof top conversations between Gordon and Batman are dramatic and moody, the villains colorful and energetic and the scene with Commissioner Gordon chaperoning Robin and Barbra Gordon going trick or treating was absolutely perfect. Some people still may not have forgiven Loeb for the perceived wishy-washy answer about who Holiday was but I've always loved the relationship between Gilda and Harvey so seeing more of it here was fantastic and with the way the issue ended with Gilda and Two Face escaping into the night I'm hoping we get even more in the not so distant future.

Sale hasn't lost a step in how he depicts Gotham and all of its inhabitants but I think the coloring here steals the show in a few places. Brennan Wagner(yes, son of THAT Wagner) has a fantastic grip on the bold primary colors that have always made the art of the Long Halloween so iconic, and his deft mix of warm and cool colors creates a stunning mood all its own. If there's more to come I surely hope that Wagner comes along as well as I can't wait to see more from him.

I'm almost all digital these days, but this book was really that good and the art was fantastic so I'll be double dipping here and tracking down a physical copy sooner rather than latter and you should too

Nice. I'll take that under advisement.

[thwhtGuardian]

Reminds me of the animated movie adaption.

It definitely seemed to play off that, or rather when the adaptation was happening perhaps he told them about the scene in the special they were working on.

[Bad Witch]

I was able to get a 1 in 25 variant as well as the normal variant. I'm going back to get the normal cover because this book was awesome!!! The art was gorgeous , the colours were vibrant. This is easily the best one shot of the decade so far... I hope beyond all hope more is coming!!

[thwhtGuardian]

Interesting that Brennan Wagner was the colorist considering what previously happened the last time Matt Wagner was the artist for a Batman story . . .

That was the definition of an unforced error, way to piss off a top tier artist by telling him his son(who's a professional in his own right) can't color the book after the guy had already started work on the book.

[Bad Witch]

That was the definition of an unforced error, way to piss off a top tier artist by telling him his son(who's a professional in his own right) can't color the book after the guy had already started work on the book.

What happaned? I'm out of the loop

[thwhtGuardian]

What happaned? I'm out of the loop

Wagner was doing some artwork on Batman around the time of Rebirth, I don't remember the issue(maybe 50?) and his son was contracted to do the coloring and at the last moment they switched out because they felt the coloring didn't fit the house style.

[K. Jones]

I thought this was excellent. And was actually pretty startled to see words that could more or less be interpreted as "to be continued" at the end. I like that they kept it loose and not too promisey.

Anyway the story was really good. Quite a natural progression on from DV, frankly. Clean, brief, and tailored fairly well into the sort of "Year Three" timeframe of things. I still bristle whenever I see the Frank Millerification of Barbara to being a niece, but I'm not that picky about it, it's like the main thing I saw and was like "ah, still trying to make that work, continuity nevermind, I can work around this in my own head".

This could be the best Calendar Man story ever told.

[SixSpeedSamurai]

I really loved it, they hadn't missed a beat, doesn't seem like it's been as long as it has since we last visited this world.

[caj]

I really enjoyed this.

As others have said, Loeb and Sale don't miss a beat. The story and art are very nice. While the previous storylines incorporated many characters, this issue focused on only 6 characters (7 if you count Solomon Grundy) and still managed to make it fascinating.

I wish this would have been another multi-issue mystery, but as a stand-alone story, it was fantastic and managed.to connect to the two previous stories.

[Lightning Rider]

Do we get the sense this story will be revisited again? Or will it just continue to be left open-ended?