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Post by Nalkarj on Sept 29, 2018 23:23:28 GMT
Anyone else read this one? I’m not big into comic-books (Tintin excepted), but I’ve been boning up on Batman stories for a Batman piece I’m intending to write before Halloween. Anyway, I thought this was excellent. The writers had to be inspired by Ellery Queen—the story is pretty much a cross between Calendar of Crime and Cat of Many Tails—and with the background based on The Godfather, with Batman thrown in as the sleuth. It’s wonderful, and creepy, and really one of the best comic books I’ve read (I say with nearly no knowledge of comic books). A good, solid, surprising murder-mystery too. My only real complaints are that Harvey Dent’s story moves far too quickly (a flaw this comic shares with Nolan’s The Dark Knight), that the art in the first issue is good but becomes a bit too cartoony for Batman and Catwoman, and that throwing in all of Batman’s foes is unnecessary and feels like padding. (The elusive “Holiday” could have handled most of this story on his own.) Also, if you’ve read this, who do you think the killer is in the end? Mrs. Dent, or Alberto Falcone (who had faked his own death)? The story leaves it ambiguous. Throwing in Mrs. Dent as a possible killer rather reminded me of Carr’s The Burning Court, by the way. Oh, and it’s all available online.
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Post by Nalkarj on Oct 18, 2018 0:45:59 GMT
So, I guess not, then? I think Messrs. Loeb and Sale did a superb job. I also read their Spider-Man: Blue, and it was very good as well, albeit not up to the quality of The Long Halloween. This is what comic books should be.
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Post by HorrorMetal on Dec 3, 2018 4:46:52 GMT
Love it. One of my favorite graphic novels of all time. I think Jeph Loeb is underrated and should rank right up there with Frank Miller among the best. He did a great job with Dark Victory, Hush, and Haunted Knight as well.
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Post by Nalkarj on Dec 3, 2018 14:29:50 GMT
Love it. One of my favorite graphic novels of all time. I think Jeph Loeb is underrated and should rank right up there with Frank Miller among the best. He did a great job with Dark Victory, Hush, and Haunted Knight as well. Thanks for the reply! Loeb does a fantastic job on this one, and for me (I really haven’t read many comic-books) it was a surprise how good the story-structure, plotting, and characterization were. I also read Dark Victory and Haunted Knight and loved those as well ( DV has an even better surprise murderer, but unfortunately it’s just not presented as well). Do you know if Loeb has written more murder-mysteries? He really has a talent for it. (I know I pointed this out in the OP, but it’s so close to Ellery Queen that it could be considered a Queen pastiche.) I was surprised that I liked Dark Victory because I don’t usually like Robin, but Loeb managed to make the character fit. And Sale’s artwork was superb. Who do you think is the killer–Alberto Falcone or Mrs. Dent? Dark Victory implies that it’s Falcone, but even so it’s still not certain.
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Post by HorrorMetal on Dec 3, 2018 15:08:15 GMT
Love it. One of my favorite graphic novels of all time. I think Jeph Loeb is underrated and should rank right up there with Frank Miller among the best. He did a great job with Dark Victory, Hush, and Haunted Knight as well. Thanks for the reply! Loeb does a fantastic job on this one, and for me (I really read many comic-books) it was a surprise how good the story-structure, plotting, and characterization were. I also read Dark Victory and Haunted Knight and loved those as well ( DV has an even better surprise murderer, but unfortunately it’s just not presented as well). Do you know if Loeb has written more murder-mysteries? He really has a talent for it. (I know I pointed this out in the OP, but it’s so close to Ellery Queen that it could be considered a Queen pastiche.) I was surprised that I liked Dark Victory because I don’t usually like Robin, but Loeb managed to make the character fit. And Sale’s artwork was superb. Who do you think is the killer–Alberto Falcone or Mrs. Dent? Dark Victory implies that it’s Falcone, but even so it’s still not certain. I always thought it was Mrs. Dent but I could be wrong.
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Post by Nalkarj on Feb 5, 2019 23:08:14 GMT
I finished Loeb’s Batman: Hush (art not by Tim Sale this time but by the team of penciller Jim Lee, inker Scott Williams, and colorer Alex Sinclair), on which I wrote a review in the Popular Movie Franchises boards. If anyone’s interested, I’ll copy my comments here, but suffice it to say I didn’t like it as much as the Loeb-Sale collaborations.
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Post by Nalkarj on Feb 5, 2019 23:19:51 GMT
^^^ Thinking it over, there is a clue to the identity of the final culprit: the Riddler. It’s what mystery-theorist and playwright Scott Ratner has called a “behavioral discrepancy” clue, though in this case it works the opposite way: why is the Riddler, who we know is not the trigger-man, behaving normally, while all the rest of Batman’s rogues gallery is acting unusually? The answer to that question is satisfying, but unfortunately including the Riddler in Dr. Elliot’s plot is not satisfying: it makes the already-complicated plot even more contortuplicated.
The problem is, there are no clues, as far as I can tell, that incriminate the trigger-man and real culprit, Elliot.
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Post by Nalkarj on Mar 8, 2019 20:09:01 GMT
Does anyone here know of an interview in which Jeph Loeb confirms he was inspired by Ellery Queen? The similarities to Queen’s work is unmistakable—the first solution (and, I think, true) solution in The Long Halloween is pretty much borrowed from Queen’s The Tragedy of X—but I can’t find anything to confirm it. If anyone’s interested in Ellery Queen, by the way, I recommend the following: The Egyptian Cross Mystery (1932) The Tragedy of X (1932, written under pen name of “Barnaby Ross”) The Tragedy of Y (1932, “Barnaby Ross”) The Siamese Twin Mystery (1933) The Adventures of Ellery Queen (1934; short stories) The Four of Hearts (1938) “The Lamp of God” (1940; novella) Calamity Town (1942) Ten Days’ Wonder (1948) Cat of Many Tails (1949) Calendar of Crime (1952; short stories) The Scarlet Letters (1953)
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