Batman: Year One. Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli, Richmond Lewis and Todd Klein Make A Masterpiece 

Dino Battaglia is a monster of Italian comics. He specialized in literary adaptations, so you guys will probably find his Edgar Alan Poe comics, his Moby Dick or The Golem. But he was also featured in the legendary Italian series “Un Uomo, Un’avventura” drawing the book about a man from the Foreign Legion. Well worth it.

Everyone has gotten used to the fully-armored Batman, but for the bulk of his existence, he ran around in the thinnest spandex-seeing Wayne getting clipped multiple times hammers home how ultimately mortal he is. The coloring comparisons are mind-blowing! A grand production that once again changed the playing field forever. 🖖♾

I always loved the fact that Miller had Commissioner Gordon have an affair with Sarah, who of course is Gordon's spouse in Dark Knight Returns. He's such a genius with small details. BATMAN Year One is hands down one of the finest. Hands down! Excellent review guys, always love your insights. -Sandy

There’s a blink and you’ll miss it moment in that Absolute Edition that I’d like to point out and expand upon, being that: Mazzucchelli also drew the Jim Gordon entry for that year’s DC Who’s Who anthology, and it’s reprinted there in the back. What they didn’t include (and should have) was Mazzucchelli also drew the entry for The Riddler (!). So if you were ever curious what a Mazzucchelli Riddler (or Robin) would have looked like you can punch that into google! Also, Toth is referring to Dino Battaglia, a contemporary of Hugo Pratt. His work is criminally hard to find here in the states, but he did among other things a HP Lovecraft adaptation that you guys should get ahold of by hook or by crook, his rendering technique (using a sponge or rag or...?) was incredible. It’s my opinion that the comparison Toth made between Battaglia and Mazzucchelli isn’t from Year One but rather the pre- Born Again Daredevil story, ‘Fog’. Also, I can only imagine I speak for everyone here when I say please please please get David Mazzucchelli to sit down for an interview, there’s way too few of em and you guys always ask such great questions! I really appreciate that you guys can make videos celebrating Ron Frenz one minute and Chris Ware the next, the cowboys and the farmers should be friends! ;)

Saddens me that we're not gonna get these two doing a video on the artists edition

Someone's gotta do a supercut of Ed saying jib.

The up-lit Batman is an homage to Zoro, the movie he and his parents went to see the night of their murder.

Great video! David M drew me a fantastic Sharpie Batman sketch at a con back in '87 (no one else at his table!!). I had to part with it a couple of years ago when I needed the money but -- man --- just honored to have watched him draw that in front of my eyes. It's seared into my brain.

You're looking for Dino Battaglia, I have a French copy of "Le Golem". Would love to know if any of his work got translated into English. I'm hopeful that if I trace back enough I can find some branch on the family tree that links me to him.

Greatest commentary of 🐐 comic writer + artist comic… I miss Eddie P.

Getting to see the old newsprint editions versus the collections is always such a lesson in "how comics is made." So cool, gents. Kudos.

35:38 batman on the hood of the car, that little detail of the bullet ripping thru his cape as he landed. Perfect storytelling. that panel struck me as amazing the first time i read this book.

Great video. You guys mentioned Paul Grist. He is a very underrated master. Please, please, please, do a video about his work.

Fantastic coverage guys! The recoloring process for this piece is one of the most interesting process pieces for me to see - how Richmond Lewis later worked those colors for the collection. It is so cool to see what they changed and to imagine why. Thanks for what you do!

Mazzuchelli shows such an amazing display of composition. Adding color to it, lessens the impact. I would love to see a version with very limited coloring, One or two colors at maximum.

The one thing is amazing about this comic is that if take out the words... it's so well writen and drawn... you can still understand what is happening. One of the best!

This book, and Daredevil born again blew my high school aged mind with how the art was composed how the characters were framed. how they moved like real people with just that extra touch of wonder about them.

Man, This series is a Master Class on the 9, 6 and thirds page panel story telling. WoohWEE! Anyone else catch the Divinci "Batwing glider" design? Superb!

Love this book. Had to grab my copy and flip through with you guys. I truly appreciate your guys perspective and respect you guys taking the time to articulate your thoughts and experiences with this work. Thanks.

29:30 ish. Jim Gordon’s Say Anything moment

You should check out the Absolute Killing Joke, too. It's similarly crafted with half of the book printed on the newsprint-type stock with the original coloring and the other half on glossy with the recolors. It's a really nice book.

Year One needs an artist edition... and Born Again needs an Absolute.

You guys should review Asterios Polyp.

Dino Battaglia (1923-1983) was an Italian comic artist, he did a lot of adaptations of classic novels including some HP Lovecraft and Poe. Also worked with English publisher Fleetway in their book Sgt.Kirk on Moby Dick. If you Google his work, you can see why Toth dropped his name when talking about Year One.

Great discussion, I too read this as it came out on the newsstand, but have since lost all but the last issue, Great to see them again. One more Mazzuchelli note, a few years ago the Society of Illustrators in NYC had a Batman exhibit with lots of original art. They didn't have any original pages from year one but they did have a one off drawing. Note on the drawing said "Hope this is the last time I draw this guy!" which at the time I thought was funny, like it was only 4 issues? Also, as mentioned by Ed and Jim, batman doesn't show up all that often anyway! As far as I know he still teaches undergrads at SVA so maybe that's part of his growing influence,. Cheers! (oh, I have a bad photo of the drawing from SI if anyone wants to see it I can post it somewhere).

Crazy, I was just watching the ninja turtles artisan edition video, and then boom, immediately got the notification for this. Can’t go wrong with analyzing Miller’s work.

Please do a Kelley Jones or Norm Breyfogle, early 90s Batman. I think we are in the same age bracket and I also read every Batman comic in that era, although I made it all the way to No Man's Land.

I love how yall always cover the stories I love. Yalls videos made me buy the 2 hulk books and 2 red room books.

I was just watching the Born Again video you guys did before this went up lol. Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli are really a great team! Also, I only have the deluxe edition of year one but based on what I've seen, I think this is one of the few times that I preferred the recoloring more than the original colors. Either way, Richmond Lewis' colors are superb!

My wife went to RISD with those two.

Please do a vid on Kraven's Last Hunt. And I gotta say, I like the original colour better. As Jim is fond of saying, "Too much Brown."

Great overview, gents. One of my favourites. It’s only subtle, but I love the repetition of the composition of the panel where Batman side kicks the pillar while trapped in the building in part 3, with Bruce Wayne practicing that kick on the tree in part 1. Nice little character beat, I wonder if that was a Mazzucchelli choice or if Miller wrote that specifically as a little visual callback in the script.

This art is so good and natural it can have a dumb line and the underline drawing is so thought out it still looks incredible. Not for beginners

Hey guys I wonder if you even can imagine how much good information I get from watching you guys. I just want to say that you might be doing a better job than you think you are. I really appreciate what you are doing. Thank you!!!!

I really appreciate this video guys..... you are so fascinating to listen to. I love this book, and watching this channel keeps on giving me new insights into (for me) well known comics! Also a comment to one of your comments, how about a Chris Warner special? Black Cross is a small comic that deserve some attention ;)

Another great vid guys. I had these books at the time and know them well but this closer look at the colour was fascinating..

Why isn't there a Frank Miller Batman - Dark Knight Returns / Batman - Year One Graphic Novel

Hell yeah gentlemen - the discussion I've been most craving

My friend got me year one hard cover as a christmas gift and this was awesome to watch before re reading

Another good one! This is a masterpiece! So glad to see Year One under the microscope from you guys. I put this one first before Dark Knight Returns in my top Bat list. Such a beautiful book from legends of the genre.

Oh shit, I'd never noticed, but page 3(?) of Part 2 @29:18, there's even a different treatment of the panel where Gordon holds up his gun. In the original print, it's cropped into a panel with the bottom lining up with the surrounding images, but in the reprint, it stretches to full bleed.

really enjoyed this video, dudes!

Thanks for the Jewel about the chopper silhouette bomb drop very similar to the real life footage of a bomb dropped by Phlly PD in the 80's on members of the organization MOVE. Very sad history. Respect that gem.

Was never a fan of Mazzucchelli ... but now this video. I love Jaime Hernandez and now I get it. Thanks for taking the time to show this. I've got some catching up to do.

That's Dino Battaglia, who did mostly adaptations of classics. I remember seeing him in an old Italian comic called Sgt. Kirk (offered by Bud Plant back when), which was an early Hugo Pratt series. Sgt. Kirk also carried work by Sergio Toppi, so it was a nice package. Battaglia's work reminds me of some of the Spanish guys that worked for Warren, particularly Jose Bea, but I never followed him enough to know what to recommend. There's the static figures, beautifully arranged, and the National Geographic-level of detailing that you see in Pratt and Toppi. I know he did a book on the Golem legend, some Lovecraft and some Poe, so that may be a good starting point.

Why does the comic say September 5 but the TPB says September 7 (@ 56:30)

Salute to this channel ...completely changed the way i appreciate and absorb the comic medium.

"... It'spretty much one of the most beautiful packages, PAUSE..." hahaha priceless

Another artist whose very influenced by Mazzuchelli's art in this story is Jorge Fornes. One could do a hell of a lot worse for influences.

i have been following the red room streaming and learning a lot from ed piskor

I don’t know if it’s an actual influence, but I just realized that some of the figure drawing (like Batman running in the second issue) reminds me of the animation rotoscoping of Ralph Bakshi, Max Fleischer or early Disney. Off Topic: can you review Trevor Von Eeden’s Thriller?

“Schmuckery” favorite new word!

A nice vid. Love the minimal colours used. I don't think the newer version looks good at all.

Love the vid! It’d be super cool to see you guys put Batman the Long Halloween under the microscope.

Guys, you mentioned the "dumb line" a couple of times. Where can I find out more about the concept?

56:52 Interesting...not only is the formatting different--the dates were changed.

This is one I can returning too as well. Fair to say it's my second favorite comic story right behind Akira. :D

I really thought the letter from W. Flanagan was gonna be the one haha

Mazz and Magenta go hand & hand. Why is that, Jim?

Last week during an Ed inking session, somebody asked who he would have write his comics. I agreed with Ed’s response, “he can count on both hands with fingers leftover on good collabs” I answered with Miller & Mazz....lol. Give me a cookie!

I got chapter 3 and its old man like orange pages and old ads

great art!

what an amazing video

A classic

Didn't know Richmond Lewis is female! Shades of Marvel staffer/writer Jo Duffy who as a kid I also thought was a man!

Batman Year 2 its not memorable except the first issue drawn by Alan Davis and the other 3 is drawn by Todd Mcfarlane... ok its deepened the no gun Batman..

People don't say 'bask' enough