I've recently joined a Facebook group called
Illustration Art Archives which is a wonderful resource for images from all different times and places. Sometimes comic book images are posted there and yesterday I came across this stunning Batman illustration by Jaunty
Jim Steranko and knew it was destined for TGW-S. Apparently this was a variant cover for issue 33 of Detective Comics, part of the much-maligned DC New 52 revamp in 2014.
This lovely image got me thinking how cool it would have been if Steranko had worked for DC back in the 1970s and had drawn a Batman strip instead of moving into publishing. Of course, the Jaunty One was never too good with deadlines and his lovingly-rendered, time-consuming style just about functioned for 10 page strips in Strange Tales but I'm sure would never have withstood the deadening grind of 20-page monthly comics. Still, it's a nice idea...
Here's the actual cover to the comic...
This is a classic take on Batman, with our hero ( yes, he was a hero at one point before he became a psychopath... ) battling mobsters against a typically Gothic Gotham backdrop of Art Deco buildings and cloud-shrouded moon. The only real problem for me in this composition ( apart from the bloody awful logo which isn't Steranko's fault ) is the hooded, er, hood at the bottom right who seems to be looking in completely the wrong direction. You'll never shoot Bats like that, buddy! I suppose it could be argued that Batman swung in so fast that the bad guy was left pointing his gun at the spot where he first saw the Caped Crusader... but I think it's probably more down to Steranko's occasionally wobbly sense of human anatomy. But, for all that, it's a lovely, retro piece in Steranko's often-imitated but never-equalled style.
And, as a Batman Bonus, here's the cover of the original Golden Age Detective Comics #33 from way back in 1939: