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palate. However, enough did escape the censors to make this the only Bat<br />
artifact worth having.<br />
Finally, Warners instructed by law suit and copyright that there were to<br />
be no images that contradicted the greater Warner way; ie. anything that let<br />
you in on the fact that Batman was something over 5'3, and the Joker something<br />
less than 14 stone.<br />
And the movie? Who really cared that it was only a partial success (and<br />
a large part of that being Jack Nicholson) when everyone made such a killing?<br />
When the party's over<br />
Bathype did have one positive effect, along the way the message gradually<br />
became Comics Are Coming. New comics for a new age. Some serious fun.<br />
Fleetway publishers of 2000 AD, were first off the mark with Crisis, but<br />
this was about as hip as The Tin Machine until the introduction of Milligan!<br />
McCarthy's Skin, As far as the UK went, the year really went to Deadline<br />
with its electric mix of girls, guns and kind hearts. The world's first dance<br />
comic, brought us Tank Girl and a host of original, young, cartoonists that<br />
literally exploded off the page.<br />
We might also have traced a little of the Crisis Band Aids, in Alan Moore<br />
and Bill Sinkiewicz's Brought To Light, except this was a harrowing tale that<br />
counted the cost of American foreign policy in swimming pools of blood.<br />
Definitely a highlight of last year. As was the first part of Moore's From<br />
Hell serialised in the horror anthology Tabboo (Spider Baby Grafix) a scalpellike<br />
examination of Ripper mythology.<br />
Other delights of last year were to be found in the resurgence of independent<br />
publishing in this country. Like the independent record companies, these<br />
independents can go into unexplored areas with an enthusiasm and energy<br />
that big companies with their unwieldy corporate structures can't hope to match.<br />
Downside, a soap opera set in a future East End council estate, and Velocity,<br />
a withering satire drawn from the junk culture are but two to watch out for.<br />
On the other side of the pond, Love and Rockets (Fantagraphics Books)<br />
by Gilbert and Jame Hernandez, continued to lead the way with its gently<br />
surreal soaps set in the barrios of Los Angeles, and the mythical Mexican<br />
village of Palomar. Meanwhile America continued to snap up the best of British<br />
talent; Jamie Delano's Hel'blazer (DC) drew its horror from the nightmare<br />
of the Thatcher decade, and Kevin O'Neill and Pat Mill's Marshal Law (Epic)<br />
gave a final slashing to the rotten core of the superhero.<br />
The year ended on a high for me with the discovery of Munoz and Sampayo's<br />
Sinner (Fantagraphics Books), a comic that fuse Hollywood noire with 50's<br />
expressionism, to examine the human heart.<br />
1989; there was more to life than Batman.<br />
Stuart Green
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