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Frank Miller's Dark Knight Strikes Again, Published Without Lynn Varley's Colours

Published Wed, 09 Aug 2017 13:30:01 -0500

When Dark Knight Strikes Again by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley was published a decade and a half ago, critical response was decidedly mixed. Lynn Varley's colour technique was especially criticised, away from her original dull tones of Dark Knight Returns, these were pop Photoshop, neon and gaudy.

Descriptions included "green, flavored mouthwash" or "the colors were a fuckin travesty. Let Lynn Varley paint with a brush, and keep her the hell away from computers" or "Baby's first Photoshop".

But, as time has continued, it has been kinder to the work, recontextualising it thus "DK2 deals with the world of 2000s, with Internet, where a news loses importance in 2 minutes, where everything is image, and the colorization of adobe perfectly emulates the internet environment" and seen as ahead of its time, "Varley's use of digital coloring which seemed uncomfortable in 2001 is now so commonly used in comic books as to be mundane. Once that shock is gone, Varley's skillful take on the tools is unique and vibrant."

Which means it's just the right time to put out Dark Knight Strikes Again from the original never-before-seen black and white artwork of Miller and compare the two.

And that, according to Amazon, is just what we are getting in April next year!

Batman Noir: The Dark Knight Strikes Again

Iconic comics writer and artist Frank Miller's black-and-white pencil and ink artwork is spotlighted in this never-before-released hardcover featuring the Dark Knight returning once again!

It's been three years since the events of THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, and everything is just fine. At least on the surface. What the world at large doesn't know is that it's a total sham. A perfectly choreographed, pretty little world where everything that's ugly, or even potentially disturbing, is all nicely wrapped up with neat little ribbons and swept under the carpet. Only he knows better. He's watched it fester to near-breaking point, and it's time for the only free man left who can effect any real change to bring it all down around their ears once and for all.

Together with his army of Bat-soldiers, including Carrie Kelley–formerly Robin, and now the new Catgirl–the Dark Knight wages a new war on a diseased world that's become completely lost.

BATMAN NOIR: THE DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN features the never-before-seen black-and-white inks of the great Frank Miller's BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN.

How will it hold up?

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