Batman: Death by Design

Written by Chip Kidd
Art by Dave Taylor

Having given up on the monthly (or weekly) grind of Bat-books does not take away the desire to read a well-constructed and plotted Batman story from time to time, and so I was quite happy to dive into Batman: Death by Design, an original graphic novel that is as (or more) concerned with visual aesthetic than character.

Chip Kidd is known for his design work, and so it makes sense that the Batman story he writes would be about architectural intrigue.  The story is set in a Gotham where people care about buildings and what they signify.  Bruce Wayne is in the process of replacing the Wayne Central Station, a hulking and beautiful building that was built with every possible corner cut, making it a danger to the commuters and tourists intended to pass through it.  Even though tearing the building down would involve erasing part of his father's legacy for the city, Bruce sees the value in building a new station, one that he can place a secret transit hub for his alter ego beneath.

There are protests, and the demolition work is sabotaged, which leads to the Bat-Man having to investigate (I love when his name is spelled like this).  Soon, we begin to come across a character named Exacto, who is always around when something bad is going to happen, such as the collapse of The Ceiling, a new nightclub perched high atop Gotham's streets (designed by Kem Roomhaus, which made me laugh).  Soon enough, we have a story with greedy union bosses, and even the Joker playing a role.

Dave Taylor provides the art for this book, and things look great.  His action sequences may appear a little stiff at times, but his eye for architectural detail is stunning, and his character work very nice.

I found that I really got into this book, although I don't like the over-reliance on a 'stasis field' device to keep Bat-Man safe.  It was a little too convenient.

McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13

Edited by Chris Ware

This is the comics issue of McSweeney's, which received a fair amount of attention when it was published in 2004 for showcasing a lot of up-and-coming talent in the arts comics field.  It contains a wide range of short comics and excerpts from longer pieces, as well as a few essays or memoirs about comic books, their history, or their influences on other artists or writers.

The biggest problem with reading this book for the first time six years after it was published is that I've read a lot of the material in here in its complete, finalized form.  This is not really a problem, as I am very happy to return to some of the works here, but it did limit the novelty of reading such a well-produced and designed hardcover with some of my favorite 'independent' artists contained in it.

Ware and company have assembled a very interesting collection, with contributions from people like Adrian Tomine (Shortcomings), Joe Sacco (The Fixer),Charles Burns (Black Hole), Art Spiegelman (In the Shadow of No Towers), Chris Ware, and Los Bros. Hernandez.  There were also plenty of lesser-known cartoonists included, some of whose work I found irritating, while others were quite enjoyable.

Strangely, there was a very visible Canadian delegation to this collection, with and excerpt from Joe Matt's Spent, David Collier's strips about moving to Hamilton, and a long excerpt from Chester Brown's classic Louis Riel, detailing the death of Orangeman and agitator Thomas Scott, a pivotal moment in Riel's story, and a great example of the genius of that book.

Some of the pieces that were new and interesting to me were Ben Katchor's Hotel and Farm strips, one-pagers that dealt with those two topics; David Heatley's Portrait of my Father; and Kim Deitch's Ready to Die, about a man on Death Row.  I also really enjoyed Chip Kidd's memoir on friendships and Batman merchandise.

Of course, as with any anthology like this, there were plenty of things that I either had no interest in, or just flat-out hated (I'm looking at you Kaz), but overall, this was a very worthy purchase.