Posted in: Batman, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics | Tagged: Alan Grant, Daniel Best, Norm Breyfogle

Norm Breyfogle, A Life Story by Daniel Best and Norm Breyfogle

Norm Breyfogle, A Life Story, seven years after he pased away by Daniel Best, and Norm Breyfogle, launching on Substack

Author, researcher and commentator, Daniel Best, known around these parts for writing The World vs Todd McFarlane, has also written a biography of Norm Breyfogle, partly with Norm. Best known for drawing Batman, Norm Breyfogle died in 2018 at the age of 58. But before, back in 2007, they were planning to tell his life story together, something they pieced together over the next few years.

"We had a publisher lined up. All was in place for the book to appear as a coffee table book, but the publisher went broke, owing a few people money. Then another publisher stepped in, but they ultimately decided that Norm wasn't noteworthy enough for the project we had in mind. They were after a project no more than 15,000 words, consisting of interviews. Norm wasn't happy with that, so we passed. A third publisher came along, but they were so bad we both passed (said publisher still owes me money, going back 20 years next year). We kept at it, though. Norm sent over photocopies and scans of his earliest art (which I will share). We used interviews and articles that Norm wrote, letters, faxes and more. The book was written and we went back and forth, each adding, subtracting and editing."

They didn't find a publisher, and as Daniel hadn't received Norm's final edit, and no publisher seemed interested, he didn't go ahead and publish it. But in 2025, it is time. And Daniel Best will be publishing Norm Breyfogle: A Life Story on Substack over the next few weeks. And he starts with an introduction by one of his Batman writers, Alan Grant who himself, died in 2022, aged 73. It begins "Way back in 1987, when DC Comics senior editor Denny O'Neil asked John Wagner and me to write a trial Batman script, our first question was "Can we choose the artist?"…  Denny quickly ended our speculation. "I have an artist in mind," he told us, "a young guy called Norman Breyfogle. He's been working on a book called 'Whisper', and he shows a lot of promise." Ths rest is history and it's a history that will be told by Daniel Best, and Norm Breyfogle. And a never-used cover by Mike Netzer…

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