Posted in: Batman, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics | Tagged: eduardo risso, jeph loeb, klaus janson, Last Halloween, Long Halloween, Mark Chiarello, mcm, mcm london comic con, Tim Sale

Jeph Loeb Announces Batman: The Last Halloween as Tribute to Tim Sale

Jeph Loeb Announces Batman: The Last Halloween, as a Tribute to Tim Sale, with Klaus Janson, Eduardo Risso, Mark Chiarello and more

Tim Sale died two years ago, at the young age of sixty-six, and today at the Diamond UK Retailer Event, Jeph Loeb announced, with Klaus Janson, that they – and other friends and colleagues of Tim Sale – will be creating the final chapter of Batman: The Long Halloween that Loeb and Sale had planned, for publication from September this year. He promised it yesterday, he announced it today, and Bleeding Cool was in the room.

It will begin with the previously published Long Halloween Special in 2021 that Loeb and Sale previously created for DC Comics, now revealed as the planned lead-in to a final Long Halloween story, and presented as a zero issue. The first issue will be drawn by Eduardo Risso for September, with Klaus Janson and legendary DC art director Mark Chiarello on the second and third issues, respectively, in October. Other artists will be announced in due course, and Loeb promised some amazing names and that will just wonder how they got them. The answer, naturally, is respect and admiration of Tim Sale.

Each issue of Btaaman: The Long Halloween: The Last Halloween will come with a main cover by Tim Sale, featuring unseen Batman art of his, appropriate to the issue. And then, inspired by Mark Chiarello's Riddler cover, an alternate variant cover by that issue's artist featuring the spotlighted member of Gotham's rogue gallery as a mugshot.

The news will be shared more widely later today but for now, it was only Bleeding Cool in the room. Which is where I filmed these two videos of Jeph Loeb and  Klaus Janson talking about the work, its origin, its inspiration and their relationship with Tim Sale. We also note this marks a return of original Long Halloween art director Mark Chiarello to a DC comic book project, after he was made redundant by DC back in 2019.

The original Batman: The Long Halloween was a 13-issue comic published by DC in 1996 and 1997, as a follow up to three Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Specials by Loeb and Sale. The Long Halloween tells the story of a killer named Holiday, who murders people on holidays, one each month. In his first years as Batman, Batman works with District Attorney Harvey Dent and Captain James Gordon, to try and work out and prevent the murder every month, alongside dealing with a crime war between two of Gotham City's most powerful families, Maroni and Falcone. The series' success also led to sequels Batman: Dark Victory and Catwoman: When in Rome set in the present day.

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