Batman 1988
Batman 1988
It was time to get serious.
By Brian Cunningham
I had several goals in 1988: passing my junior year of high school (ding!), getting a girlfriend (bzzt!) and making my own comic books the way professionals did (ding?). Two out of three ain't bad.
I wasted no time in upping my comics game. For my birthday in January, my mom took me to a legit art store. Not the local mall Art Emporium, but a Real Art Store, a highly regarded shop that local comic artists shopped at. There were so many mysterious art materials to behold, it was both intimidating and a wonderland of possibility.
We purchased a 14 x 17 inch two-ply "plate" (smooth textured) Bristol board pad, a bottle of india ink and three different-sized Rapidograph technical pens. I confess the pens were the least intimidating of the inking tools shown in The Official Marvel Comics Try-Out Book.
Try-Out was just that: an 11 x 17 inch book printed on thick Bristol board and designed to show aspiring comic pros how comics were made. Notably, it contained John Romita Jr. pencil art so that you could ink it or hand-letter in the dialogue. There were also inked pages you could color, and blank pages, with the printer guides, to pencil the rest of the story. It was mind-blowing for someone who previously doodled on lined looseleaf paper.
Not that anything I would draw that year resembled "professional," but I had to start somewhere.
So I began with Batman.
Here's my five-page "try-out" (and sent to no one) drawn in February 1988, just to see if I could do it. Looking at it now, I see the influences of that period: Todd McFarlane, John Byrne, Kevin Maguire, M.D. Bright, Jerry Bingham… It was my valiant attempt at imitation without truly comprehending how or why their work was effective. Heck, I'm still figuring it out.
While I wince at some of this work, there's a lot of wistfulness for the naiveté and ambition of this 17-year-old kid.
I wish him well on his journey.
Joker's first appearance in Batman #1 (1940).
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