alan moore absolute batman the killing joke 30th anniversary edition

Originally published in 1988 Batman: The Killing Joke is a short, but incredibly nuanced story that points to the core of Batman and Joker’s relationship. All three editions: Absolute (left) 1988 edition (centre) and the Deluxe Edition (right). Before we go any further it’s worth taking a quick look at the two previous printed incarnations of Batman: The Killing Joke, as they have a direct influence on this new Absolute edition.

The result, Batman: The Killing Joke, became a huge hit, and has rightly taken its place as one of the greatest (if not the greatest) Batman stories ever told. The fronts covers to both the book and the slipcase.Ĭoming off the huge success of 1986’s genre-redefining Watchmen, which he co-created with artist Dave Gibbons, Alan Moore was given the opportunity to write a much shorter story, this time featuring The Batman, to be published as a prestige one-off graphic novel. I’m also going to take a quick look at the history of DC’s Absolute range of reprints. For this review I’m not going to look at the story, but rather at the Absolute edition itself in order to discover if this new prestige format re-release is worth a double - or even triple - dip.

This new collection celebrates the 30th anniversary of writer Alan Moore and artist Brian Bolland’s seminal Batman and Joker story, originally published in 1988. September 2018 saw the release of DC Comics’ Absolute edition of Batman: The Killing Joke.

Alan moore absolute batman the killing joke 30th anniversary edition