Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: Batman, dc comics, joker, marc silvestri, neil gaiman, sandman

Marc Silvestri, Holding Out on a Greg Capullo Deal For Batman/Joker?

Published Mon, 18 May 2020 15:00:25 -0500

Bleeding Cool has learned that one of the projects that DC Comics was hoping to come out of shutdown with, was Marc Silvestri's Batman comic book, Batman/The Joker: Deadly Duo.

Image Comics co-founder and partner, creator of Witchblade, Cyberforce and The Darkness, Marc Silvestri has been working on a Batman project for many years and Bleeding Cool has reported on its existence and shown of leaked snippets of it, as we have got them. There was a possibility it might have debuted in 2016, but it wasn't ready. Bleeding Cool has learned that it still isn't.

We first mentioned it in December 2014, then in September 2015, then in January 2016, ten announced it was a Batman/Joker mini-series in June 2017 before it was officially announced at San Diego Comic Con of July 2018. But we also know if has been around for many years before that. So what's the hold up? DC Comics seems to be running as many Batman and Joker projects as they can at the moment.

Some of the gossip explaining this states that when Marc Silvestri started working on the project it was at a time when the industry was in a slump in terms of the value of its bigger talent. Now Marc Silvestri is aware of what Greg Capullo is getting for Death Metal. Not unjustifiably, given how many copies this thing is likely to sell on release, he might be looking for something a little closer to The Full Capullo. As soon as DC Comics are prepared to pay the going rate, he'll be prepared to finish the comic.

Also known as reaping the fruits of your labour, and getting paid what you are worth. Neil Gaiman did the same for Sandman: Overture and that took years for DC Comics to cave, giving Neil a better deal on royalties from the Sandman collections. Something the Netflix and Audible versions are likely to goose. Marc did not reply to enquiries made over the weekend, but then I don't blame him.