Croc is one of those Bat-villians that, if you’re not careful, can turn the modern, post-Miller Dark Knight back into the goofy fifties Caped Crusader who flies around the galaxy in a bat-rocket. Or worse, into the postmodern incarnation who refers to himself as “the Gaddamn Batman”, and seems to be the belligerent, testosterone-pumped version of the fifties Batman, fighting hulk-sized sewer mutants  and extra-terrestrial death gods. Yet as Chip Kidd so eloquently put it, the Batman’s greatest appeal is that he can endure so many reinventions without breaking. Everybody has a different take, from the early creepy Bat-Man of Bob Kane, to Bill Finger’s Caped Crusader with kid side-kick,…

Working hard on Good Neighbors, Mouseguard, and a mystery project that I won’t announce till I get the full go-head. Here’s the latest Bat-Villain. The Penguin often struck me as a victim of the Batman world’s narrow focus. All the villains have colorful and various styles and methods, but in the end, they all ended up being robbers, and the story plots all followed the same formula, with different palettes painted over it. One themed villain, 3-5 henchmen, one elaborate caper involving the robbery of an object in keeping with the villain’s theme, etc. Even the 90s cartoons stuck with this formula, though the prodigious talents of Paul Dini managed…

Ladies and Gentlemen, Ms. Harley Quinn. I’m sure you’ll get along like a house on fire. There may be no survivors.

I’ve based a lot of characters on David the years. Lucky for me that there are so many of him.

My Poison Ivy. Not a drastic reinvention but not exactly canon. I’m curious to see what kind of reaction I get from this one.