Wow, sorry about the delay. It looks like this is going to be Victorian Fortnight, which sounds very appropriate for the period.

This is one of those comics that I am positive I must have written about on Dave's Long Box, but I can't find any mention of it, so here I am, posting about Gotham by Gaslight with a nagging sense of deja vu - either that, or I've forgotten to pay my car insurance bill and my subconscious is trying to remind me. Regardless, I approach Brian Augustyn's Victorian Tale of the Batman with a certain unease. Maybe it's because in this comic book Batman fights -

- JACK THE MOTHER%#$@ING RIPPER!

See how work-safe we are here at The Society for the Advancement of Dave? No all caps swearing here.

If memory serves, and it often does not, this comic book kicked off DC's Elseworlds line of alternate history comics, where 20th century heroes were reimagined in different settings. Gotham by Gaslight, as the name implies, deals with a seedy, foggy Gotham City in 1889, and the mysterious vigilante named the Bat-Man who prowls the cobblestone streets and perches atop sooty chimneys like some giant crow. OK, or a bat.

Like I said, in this comic Batman matches wits with the prolific British serial killer Jack the Ripper, who comes to America after the heat gets turned up in London. It doesn't take long before Jack begins carving up women on the streets of Gotham - and the number one suspect is socialite Bruce Wayne.


This is the first comic written by Brian Augustyn that I read. I'm a big fan of Augustyn's, but he constructs the Gaslight story with only a fraction of the precision and style that would become more evident in his later work. Here the plot seems a but perfunctory and the Ripper mystery isn't particularly mysterious. Since there are only a few original supporting characters populating the book, the identity of the Ripper is pretty easy to guess from the first few pages. I mean, the killer isn't going to be Wayne, or Alfred, or Gordon... so it has to be the only other major character.

The story is greatly enhanced by Mike Mignola and P. Craig Russell's art, which helps create a sinister, gloomy mood and propel the plot forward with some clever visual storytelling. I am an absolute fan of Mike Mignola's work - I think he's one of the best comic book artists EVER - and Gaslight really played to his strengths. Mignola makes bold use of shadows and hatching, and when he's teamed with a good colorist like David Hornung and some nice paper stock, the results are impressive.


Plus, Mignola can draw brick buildings like a mother&%$#er.

Next on Victorian Fortnight, we'll take a look at Batman Beats Up The Blimp Guy, the sequel to Gotham by Gaslight, which is not quite as cool. Wait [checking title], OK, it's actually called Batman: Master of the Future, but I promise you: Batman beats the living shit out of a blimp guy in it.

-DC

This entry was posted by David Campbell, on Friday, January 9, 2009. You can leave your response.