私は部屋です。私はバットマンです。*

This fall acclaimed designer Chip Kidd (along with co-writer Saul Ferris and photographer Geoff Spear) will be putting out a book that any Batman fan will be drooling over . . . BatManga!

The book will cover the history of and reprint copies of Batman stories published in Japan in the mid-1960s in Shonen King manga magazine. Long forgotten (and more likely, unknown to the masses) the comics ran in conjunction with airings of the ABC tv show Batman, which were re-aired in Japan.

Mostly drawn by 8-Man creator Jiro Kuwata, the stories ranged over a year, were all-original and mostly featured new, unknown in the US villians. The book promises to be a treasure trove of Bat-goodness for fans and will serve as an amazing companion piece to Kidd's excellent Batman: Collected tome.

Look for it in October 2008 from Pantheon Books in both a soft-cover edition and an expanded limited edition hardcover. Read an interview with the writers here.

*I am the night. I am Batman. (translated from Japanese)

DESIGN DESIGN, OH SO FINE

Chip Kidd is back to re-inventing the look of book covers. This time its with mainstream, monthly comics. Yes, yes, he's designed plenty of comic book covers before, and had a huge impact on the look of many a Batman-related book and trade.

But this time, it's on a book that will be on shelves monthly and heralds one of DC's biggest books in the last twenty years, Final Crisis by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones.

Dig it . . .

DCU INTO THE FUTURE

With the DC Comics Universe moving into a new year of stories, launching tomorrow with the $.50 DCU #0, and the May-shipping Final Crisis by the mega-star team of Grant Morrison and JG Jones, the company has been unveiling a number of ads depicting the upcoming series and tie-ins from the characters' main titles.

The posters are bold and stark and feature an iconic sliver of artwork from the artists and characters involved in the upcoming series and story arcs. The original release features Darkseid and the upcoming Final Crisis.


Another, featuring a Terror Tales favorite, Batman, is also written by Morrison with artwork from upcoming Batman cover artist Alex Ross. This story promises to change the Bat forever and the death of Bruce Wayne. Much debate is swarming the internet over whether that is a literal or figurative death. Either way, a gutsy move for DC and Warners considering the blockbuster Dark Knight film is only months away from bowing in theaters.


In that vain, I was inspired by the message-board denizens over at Newsarama.com to create my own poster. Booster Gold was a laugh-out-loud character in the 90s when written in the wonderful JLI series by J.M. DeMattias and Keith Giffen.

Mostly a throw-away C-lister since the demise of that title, recently the character has been revived and made into a must-read book by Geoff Johns, Jeff Katz, and Dan Jurgens (w/art assists by the excellent Norm Rapmund). Filled with action, adventure, laughs, intrigue, mystery, and most importantly, fun. Its the way more comics should be written - respective of its past, but pushing forward boldly without scorching the earth it covers.

Anyway, here's my design entry for the new DC-ad push:

GREATEST CAMPAIGN POSTER/SLOGAN EVER? YOU DECIDE!