comic books

‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ bringing back an animated Batman, which we must always have

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

Benjamin Franklin said only two things in life were certain: Death and taxes. I think he could’ve added that there will always be a Batman cartoon on the air, though Franklin died 149 years before The Dark Knight debuted in Detective Comics No. 27.

My contention that there’s always a Batman cartoon on the air doesn’t quite hold up either. The last one was Beware the Batman, a computer-animated series which Cartoon Network pulled off its schedule in 2013. (The series, including seven episodes that were burned off on Adult Swim’s Toonami, can now be seen on HBO Max. I’m catching up on that someday.)

But with a new Batman movie set to be released in 2022, WarnerMedia is launching a new animated series as well. And this one has some star power behind it. According to DC, Batman: Caped Crusader has been ordered for HBO Max and Cartoon Network, going straight to series. No pilot episode and series order necessary.

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Mourning the loss of comic book artist John Paul Leon

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

Sad news in the comic book world Sunday night as news of artist John Paul Leon’s death circulated on social media.

The veteran illustrator was 49 years old and had struggled with cancer for several years, which delayed the full publication of his most recent project, the Batman: Creature of the Night mini-series. (The complete series was released in a collection last year and is now available in paperback.)

Leon’s editor on Creature of the Night, Chris Conroy, announced the passing on Twitter.

If asked to name my favorite comic book artists, I doubt Leon would be among the first to come to mind. I grew up loving George Perez, John Byrne, Frank Miller, John Romita Jr. Walt Simonson, and Alan Davis. (There are so many more.)

Yet I greatly admired Leon’s work as I renewed interest in comics in the late 1990s. Eventually, if I found out he was drawing something, I tried to check it out. His artwork always grabbed me from the comic shop rack. And if I saw a cover of his, I hoped he did the interior artwork as well.

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Happy Birthday, Frank Miller

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

Monday is Frank Miller’s birthday. Whether you’re a comic book fan or not, if you’re at all familiar with Christopher Nolan’s Batman films (Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher’s Bat-movies were influenced as well), Netflix’s Daredevil series (and the Ben Affleck film), or the Sin City movies, you know Miller’s work.

The legendary comic book creator turns 63, and he’s still producing work. As could be expected, he’s no longer the prolific illustrator he once was, but is still writing Batman and Superman stories for DC Comics, and illustrating stories in his 300 mythology for Dark Horse Comics.

The Dark Knight Returns is one of my favorite stories throughout all of the movies, TV, and books I’ve enjoyed and studied in my life. An aging Batman’s regret over allowing The Joker to continue his murderous reign of crime was one of the most powerful elements of that story.

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Diving deep into the Batcave on Batman’s 80th anniversary

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

If you hadn’t already heard (or read) the news, today (March 30, 2019) is the 80th anniversary of Batman’s debut in Detective Comics #27. To commemorate the occasion, DC Comics published the 1000th issue of Detective Comics.

Typical of comic books these days, a whole bunch of variant covers were released for the landmark issue. This is the one I ended up buying, a retro-style cover by Michael Cho.


Surprising myself, I passed on the Frank Miller cover. As much as I love Miller’s work — and the heavy influence he’s had on Batman — that illustration was messy and dark. I wanted something more fun. Cho’s cover also alludes to how versatile Batman is as a character. He works in any genre, any style, something I wrote about five years ago.

— Happy Batman Day: Appreciating Different Caped Crusaders on 75th Anniversary —

A few months ago, my nieces stopped over for a visit. With their mother around, watching TV or playing with the iPad wasn’t an option. So the kids went to Uncle Ian’s room to find some toys to play with or books to read.

While we were doodling on sketch pads, Junior Niece asked me, “Why do you like Batman so much?” What do you mean, kid? Why do you ask think I like Batman?She then took some Blu-rays from my TV stand and set them down in front of me. Hmm, the kid had a point.

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Stan Lee left behind a legacy like no other

/ Ian Casselberry / 2 Comments

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Writing a tribute to Stan Lee was something I’d been thinking I should do for quite some time. After all, (Stan) the man was 95 years old and there were various reports about his deteriorating health. Just as a newspaper would get an obituary ready, I thought I should get something ready — whether the piece was written for another site or my own.

Sure, laziness and procrastination were probably the primary reasons for not getting that done. But the idea of writing something in anticipation of Stan Lee’s death was also very upsetting. He still appeared to be lively and vibrant in his many Marvel movie and TV cameos. It seemed as if Smilin’ Stan might just live forever.

Thanks to those movie cameos, even my sister knew who Stan Lee was. She grew up with me endlessly reading and collecting comic books, of course. But when I pointed out the guy who co-created Spider-Man on the screen, she recognized him every time he popped up in the handful of Marvel movies we saw together. She’ll never be able to escape superheroes entirely.

(By the way, will Lee’s last live-action cameo have been in Venom?) Unless he’s in Avengers 4, his final on-screen appearance may well be in the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which hits theaters in mid-December.)

There will and have already been so many tributes, eulogies and obituaries dedicated to Stan Lee that I’m not sure I could possibly add anything. All I can contribute is what Lee and his many iconic creations mean to me to this day. So often when people write a tribute to someone, the piece ends up being about the writer more than the subject. As much as I’d like to avoid that, I don’t think it’s possible here.

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