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| Art by Norm Breyfogle |
The Scottish comics writer Alan Grant passed away yesterday. He started his career with 2000AD and Judge Dredd, but I became aware of him when he and co-writer John Wagner teamed up with artist Norm Breyfogle on Detective Comics. For me, and I think perhaps a lot of others, that late 80s-early 90s run really defines the post-Crisis Batman. The run added several interesting villains to the Batman's rogues gallery, and one perhaps the pantheon of all-time greats: The Ventriloquist.
His other big contribution to DC was probably the Lobo limited series with Keith Giffen and Simon Bisley. Lobo had first appeared in the Omega Men, but this series recreated him essentially and catapulted the character to super-stardom for a time--and unfortunately, over-exposure.
To get a taste of Grant's DC work, I would suggest starting with Batman: The Dark Knight Detective vol. 2, The Batman/Judge Dredd Collection, and Lobo by Keith Giffen & Alan Grant Vol. 1.
I missed the news of his death, that's unfortunate news indeed. Think I liked his 200AD work most, particularly the Judge Anderson stuff, but his Batman run was certainly solid as well. I couldn't stand Lobo but that's a matter of taste involving the character, not a critique of the creators' talent.
ReplyDeleteWell raise a glass to his memory tonight.
That run on Detective Comics and then Batman was great. I always looked forward to those issues.
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