about_faces ([info]about_faces) wrote,
2012-01-27 14:47:00
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News: Walt Simonson's upcoming centuries-spanning Batman/Two-Face graphic novel "The Judas Coin"

So holy crap, DC has just announced that comics legend Walt Simonson is releasing a new graphic novel called The Judas Coin, featuring Batman and Harvey!



Holy crap. Well, this certainly helps make up for the fact that Tony Daniel is most likely doing Harvey's new origin.

According to Simonson, this story has been in the works for years. It was originally going to be published in Solo, one of the best series that DC has ever done, sadly cancelled before its time. Solo was one of the many brilliant projects by artist/editor Mark Chiarello, and his involvement in getting Simonson to create The Judas Coin marks yet another example of Chiarello's ongoing connection with Harvey. With Solo cancelled, Simonson ran the idea by Dan DiDio (whom I understand is a huge Two-Face fan), who greenlit the project. Now, several years later, it's finally coming out!

Here's the official press release:

This fall, DC Entertainment will be releasing THE JUDAS COIN, an original 94-page hardcover graphic novel written and illustrated by industry legend Walter Simonson.

THE JUDAS COIN features characters from all across the DC Universe. Today, take an exclusive first look at the book’s cover based on a featured showdown between Batman and Two-Face.

“The cover for THE JUDAS COIN was designed and drawn with inspiration provided in part by movie posters from the ‘60s and ‘70s,” Simonson exclusively told THE SOURCE. “In particular, I was thinking of the posters of Bob Peak, who did such beautiful work back then with montage. Peak was a master at creating a strong central image and surrounding it with smaller, often fairly loose images derived from various scenes in the movie.

I make no claims to Peak’s draftsmanship, but for a work like THE JUDAS COIN, comprised as it is of six separate but related stories, I wanted a cover that would provide both a strong visual image at its core, and a series of small drawings that would reflect the structure of the book’s interior. Batman and Two-Face, eternal enemies, provided a good focal point. The vignettes around them echo the individual stories within the book.”

Look for THE JUDAS COIN in bookstores everywhere on September 18th and be sure to keep checking THE SOURCE as more details about the book become available.

In the video interview up at the link, Simonson gave no further details as to what role Harvey would play, but added that the story takes place over two thousand years, and will feature cameos of many, many old DC characters. Naturally, one of them will be Bat Lash, a character of whom I am rather fond. A gunslinging fop who was once voiced by Farscape's Ben Browder? What's not to love?

That said, if there was going to be a western flashback, this could have finally been a way to tell a story with both Harvey and Jonah Hex, but eh, never mind. Maybe we'll just have to wait for some story where Harvey encounters Hex's stuffed corpse, because that's totally what happened to Hex. Seriously, look it up.

Man, why does big Two-Face comic news always hit mere hours after I've finally posted a long review?
Tags: news, solicitations, walt simonson

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  • 18 comments

[info]straysheeper

January 27 2012, 20:11:07 UTC 4 months ago

I honestly have noting to add other then HOLYFUCKINGSHITSOEXCITEDSQUEEEEE!!!

A western staring Batman and Two-Face and maybe Jonah Hex done by Walt Simonson!? May as well rename the comic Straysheepers Favorite Things: The Graphic Novel.

But seriously, that press release is pretty optimistic. Yay for addressing that Batman and Two-Face are dark mirrors to each other, something that's often paid lip service to but hasn't been explored as much. Plus at least with the western part, you have some very Harvey themes at work in terms of trying to establish order in a often lawless world.

[info]about_faces

January 27 2012, 20:15:09 UTC 4 months ago

Sadly, I doubt that Harvey and Batman will actually be in the western parts. From the title, I suspect the Judas Coin is some valuable object that Bat Lash encountered at some point and which Harvey is probably after in the modern day, but still, you get a western and a Two-Face story in one big book, plus who knows what else? Win-win all around!

But here, in the meantime, have this art to tide you over:

[info]straysheeper

January 27 2012, 20:25:06 UTC 4 months ago Edited:  January 27 2012, 21:31:42 UTC

Awww, your probably right, kind of just saw Two-Face western and went into fan freak out mood. But yeah, it'll still be a lot of fun. Chocolate and peanut butter are fantastic together, but it's not so bad if you can only eat them separately. :P

Hahahaha hell yes that is amazing. I think the bat-logo on the holster is my favorite touch.

[info]Vito Wisniewski

January 27 2012, 21:48:25 UTC 4 months ago

I look forward to this comic

[info]eyeofthedivine

January 27 2012, 22:23:07 UTC 4 months ago

wow this looks great, I can't wait til it comes out! Thank you for pointing me towards this entry ^_^

[info]about_faces

January 28 2012, 03:06:19 UTC 4 months ago

You're very welcome!

[info]eyeofthedivine

January 30 2012, 16:40:24 UTC 3 months ago

I needed some good news it really perked me up to read this ^_^.

[info]kitewithfish

January 27 2012, 22:59:47 UTC 4 months ago

Because you are the Chosen One.


[info]about_faces

January 27 2012, 23:56:08 UTC 4 months ago

I am the Pan!

[info]straysheeper

January 27 2012, 23:14:50 UTC 4 months ago

Also I'm sorry because this a ridiculously nitpicky point, but while that drawing is pretty great overall, I don't like Harvey's scarred eye being blue. The regular side yeah but it just doesn't work as well for the big bulgy rage eye. Prefer it to be like yellow or red, just a very strong color, just helps increase the contrast and makes the scarred eye stand out more.

But yeah, again, super duper minor and nitpicky. NERD. D:

[info]about_faces

January 28 2012, 00:46:37 UTC 4 months ago

You don't ever have to apologize for being nitpicky here! You're in very good in company! Hell, Harvey's eye color is one of my favorite recurring nits to pick! I always get annoyed when anyone colors his eyes brown, when they're canonically blue, but I always feel so silly for complaining about that.

I can totally understand why you prefer it that way, but personally, I kinda like both his eyes to match. I think it gives Harvey's face a small but vital bit of symmetry, that no matter how unrecognizable his scarred side may be, no matter how much his eye bulges out in a horrific fashion, it's still Harvey's eye, the same as its twin. Just a little something to offset the risk of Two-Face looking like a guy who's half-monster, you know what I mean?

[info]psychopathicus

January 28 2012, 01:24:01 UTC 4 months ago

Actually, I'm kind of on the fence about that. I mean, I get what you mean, but I've been wondering for a while now just how being splashed with acid would affect the human eye (besides quite possibly rendering it useless, of course). Assuming it got only a tiny sprinkling, might that not be enough to warp the surface of the cornea in some nasty way so that the eye itself appears quite different, perhaps even radically so? I've kind of toyed with the idea of Harvey's bad eye having a sort of roughly starburst-shaped iris and pupil in my personal canon - perhaps realistic, perhaps not; I don't know. It'd certainly LOOK cool, though.

[info]straysheeper

January 28 2012, 02:13:11 UTC 4 months ago

Yeah, I get what you mean too and it's a good point. It does add a little bit more humanity to Two-Face. I dig the asymmetrical eyes from a design standpoint, it just looks more striking to me, plus what Psychopathicus said about the acid affecting his eye.

And *whew*, glad to know I'm not alone when it comes to poking small details like that. Felt kind of embarrassed for bringing it up.

[info]psychopathicus

January 28 2012, 01:17:09 UTC 4 months ago

Ooh, this could be cool! It's Walt Simonson, who is never not cool, taking on Bats and Harvey along with Bat Lash, pirates (or so would be my guess from the ships) and... Atlantis? Something like that? I'd normally say ancient Greece, but those aren't Greek helmets, so I'm guessing either Arion's Atlantis or something involving the Warlord. Either way, cool! I'm definitely checkin' this out somewhere down the line.

[info]about_faces

January 28 2012, 03:04:55 UTC 4 months ago

Simonson really is the man. Not only has he created some truly epic comics, but he's always seemed like a crazy nice fella to boot. The video interview of him at the link only reinforced that notion. Even if I have complaints/nitpicks of the way he handles Two-Face, I am buying the HELL out of this graphic novel, which is something I don't often say these days.

[info]psychopathicus

January 28 2012, 03:21:25 UTC 4 months ago

Must have missed that - has he handled Harvey poorly in the past?

[info]about_faces

January 28 2012, 04:42:42 UTC 4 months ago

Oh no, no, I didn't mean it that way. I just meant that on the off chance that the Two-Face he writes in The Judas Coin turns out to be not-so-good, I still won't regret shelling out the cash for the graphic novel as a whole.

[info]psychopathicus

January 28 2012, 04:48:43 UTC 4 months ago

I'd say it's work the risk, yeah. I don't have an extensive Simonson collection, but I've never read a bad thing from him yet.
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