Penthouse Comics... Now there is a deep drive story and one hell of a cautionary tale that needs to be told! I was close to some of the people involved. Jim, Ed, this is something that would be perfect for you guys.
I was going to say this reminded me of Marvel's "Strange Tales" from the early 2000's, where independent artists took their turns doing some of Marvel's characters ...until I realized Jim had done a Machine Man entry for that series.
It's amazing how Marvel and DC just let money sit on the table when top class creators bring them great projects and then the big 2 are like "nahhh." Marvel lost out on a great Hulk story by BWS but we got Monsters ultimately instead courtesy of Fantagraphics. Marvel are tapping into multiverse stories in advance of setting up their next wave of MCU films, and have made 0 attempts to enlist John Byrne with that bootleg beauty X-MEN Elsewhen. So. Fucking. DUMB.
The introduction to the first Batman Black and White series mentions that they had to reject a pitch from a "comics legend" because it was "too naughty". I've never seen it confirmed anywhere but this story may have been what they were referring to. And if so Moebius could've very well been looking at the Bruce Timm animated series which came out a couple of years earlier.
Thanks for the video! Never knew this existed. I feel like this was ahead of it’s time for Batman, would totally fit into something like Batman black & white well.
I hope eventually huge corporations like Disney won't be able to extend the public domain laws anymore and characters like Batman will become available to all creators.
Love this story. I first saw it as an Ashcan that I got during the very early days of ebay (pre-paypal when you had to send people moneyorders!). It was signed and numbered and in b&w. Bud Plant may have sold them, but I got it from ebay. This B*tm*n so cool and insane.
Good one. I have never seen this story. Tony Salmons did a great story for Penthouse Comics. Would love to see you guys cover his work. Happy new year!
Having said the below I LOVE this Moebius take on (not) Batman :D :D :D thanks so much for doing the video. I picked up Dream of the Bat based on your video and that was amazing as well.