Sunday, August 04, 2019

Sunday Splash Page #73

"Guess Who Invited Himself to Dinner?", in Batman Adventures #3, Kelley Puckett (writer), Ty Templeton (penciler), Rick Burchett (inker), Rick Taylor (colorist), Harkins (letterer)

The series based on the super-awesome '90s cartoon show. Mostly done-in-one stories, although there were some multiple issue arcs. Like this story, where the first two issues the Joker had maneuvered Penguin and Catwoman into committing crimes that actually helped him set up his plans for this issue. Which involve abducting Gordon, then breaking his arms with a baseball bat while broadcasting it across the city. It's extremely effective for just how casually brutal it is, without requiring Joker to kill a small town's worth of people. Imagine that.

Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett are the two artists most commonly associated with the series, but for this issue, but the first three issues are all Ty Templeton, with Burchett on inks. Regardless, the characters are recognizable, while still being each artists' own style. There are some great panels in these issues with Batman leaping out smoke or punching people.

I'm pretty sure they've collected the entire series, plus the follow-up Batman and Robin Adventures, into a bunch of trade paperbacks in the last 5 years. Which is good since, at least from what I've seen online, the single issues can be surprisingly pricey.

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