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Where Was Bill Sienkiewicz In Dark Knight: The Last Crusade?

Published Fri, 24 Jun 2016 11:00:06 -0500

DC Comics solicited Dark Knight: The Last Crusade, a $7.99 prestige format comic written by Frank Miller and Brian Azzarello as having art by John Romita Jr and Bill Sienkiewicz.

For many retailers, Sienkiewicz's name gave them the confidence to order big.

On release, however, the comic was drawn by John Romita Jr and Peter Steigerwald. No Bill Sienkiewicz anywhere. DC says that they announced this, but no one can find that announcement in a retailer newsletter and both the Diamond solicits AND the DC site listed Sienkiewicz through Tuesday 6/14 and Wednesday 6/15 respectively.

DC Comics did not announce the change to any retailer and the DC Comics site kept the original listing until the date of release.

There have been calls by some retailers for DC Comics to make the book returnable – but to date this has not happened.

DC has thus far failed to make this book returnable, even though there are some who ordered extras because of the involvement of a name talent like Sienkiewicz.

I asked Bill Sienkiewicz about his involvement and he told me "I asked DC the same question after I saw the news in print and hadn't received any pages. Apparently Frank decided to go in a different direction, and ink the story himself. ( I believe was I going to ink Frank, not John, and if that sounds vague, that's how it was relayed to me as well).

Well, turns out neither did, it was Peter.

Bill also clarified "bear in mind the editor I worked with had to look into it too ; he was just as confused as I was. he investigated and found the advertising hadn't been corrected. So it wasn't a case of deception, just an oversight."

I don't believe anyone would see this as deliberate – but retailers I've spoken to would like to see DC Comics at least take responsibility.

And at least Bill did this cover…