Through out my life I have been a borderline Joker obsessive. Even when I was a little tot I had a thing for the Joker. And what got me excited about the first Tim Burton 'Batman' was actually the Joker. No Joker, not so much into Batman.

So yes I do spend some time on YouTube locating images of the new 'Heath' Joker (which looks great) and it is really a great American invention. I think the image of the Joker will go on and on - maybe beyond Batman himself.

Nevertheless I was attracted to this More...

Batman has always been one of my favorite superheroes. He wasn't some GQ alien from planet Krypton with super powers and debonair manners that make the Brady Bunch look like barbarians. He wasn't bitten by a radioactive spider or a mutant or exposed to nuclear radiation. He was a troubled rich guy with a vigilante complex with some neat gadgets that you could imagine yourself using (if you had enough money). It makes him the every hero.

Plus, he's a majorly flawed protagonist. The perfect heroes More...

Boy oh boy. Had the library been one week late on delivering my hold request of this book, I think I would have gone mad.

Last weekend, I kind of had an emotional breakdown. The levee holding back grade 12 stresses finally broke. BUT, have not fear, Mr. Alan Moore was here to save me. I hid in my room and read The Killing Joke, over and over again. I lost count after the 3rd hour I spent in my room. The story was so moving and the Joker, at the moment of reading it, seemed like a man telling my s More...

Although I'm still something of a neophyte when it comes to the world of Graphic novels, I can certainly see the appeal to people of all ages.

This is the second full length graphic novel I've read, both by Alan Moore (the other being his opus, 'The Watchmen'), and both have been excellent. Both seem to re-imagine the superhero world as one with real, flawed people trying to reconcile their humanity with their jobs as protectors of the public at-large.

'The Killing Joke' picks up with the known qu More...

I wasn't going to do this one as an official entry - it's so quick to read that it feels like I'm padding the list. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt I wanted to talk about it, and so it goes on the List.

This was originally published twenty years ago, and is still one of the most popular and well-regarded Batman stories ever. Between them, Moore and Bolland - a master writer and a master artist - gave Batman and his prime antagonist new lives and new meaning.

It starts off in an un More...

De chico la leí y mucho no entendí, pero me deslumbró el dibujo y la narrativa. De grande lo releí y me gustó tanto como antes, con el añadido de que entendí toda la historia y los guiños del autor (al menos eso creo). Cuando lo relea seguro me explaye y le escriba una reseña como la gente.

Leído y poseído de la edición de Perfil publicado en Argentina a principios de los 90s. Esa edición estaba bastante bien pero padecía de los errores típicos de aquella editorial, como el "castellano neutro" ll More...

You guys, I've been thinking about this for a few years now and I finally have to say that I greatly prefer the John Higgins original coloring on this book to Brian Bolland's recoloring -- to the point that I actually think the recoloring makes the book noticeably less amazing. To the point that I would have trouble recommending the new version to people if they've never read it before, despite this being one of my favorite comics of all time. It's that big a difference. Seriously, you guys.

I'm More...

5.5 stars!!!

OH…MY…GOD…



I thought I knew everything there was to know about the Joker, one of Batman’s greatest foes. But after reading “Batman: The Killing Joke” and how the Joker was portrayed in this book, the Joker has officially become one of the most VILE, TWISTED, DARK and most DISTURBING villain I have ever come face to face with…AND I LOVED IT! Being brilliantly written by Alan Moore and being masterfully illustrated by Brian Bolland, “Batman: The Killing Joke” has remained to be one of More...

Despite the long years of my misspent youth lined with comic books, I've never been a Batman reader. I was an avowed Marvel kid, so the Tim Burton movie was, sadly, my first introduction to the Dark Knight. I wish I had discovered The Killing Joke back then, because after reading the recently released hardcover edition of this graphic novel, I kind of want to get into the series.

This is the quintessential Joker tale; in fact, I had read that Heath Ledger was given a copy of this story to prepare More...

I can't help thinking that both this and the movie "Dark Knight" would have been more intense if I hadn't spent so many years living/studying/reading/meditating Taoism. I understand where Moore is trying to go with it, but the fierce desires of Commissioner Gordon and Batman to prove the Joker wrong seem to me to equal that of the Joker's desire to prove that everyone is like him. Then again maybe that is Moore's point, but considering the effort he put into trying to shock us with what happens More...

I wasn't going to review this one because it's quite short, but as soon as I finished it I went back and read it again in the most natural of movements. The second time around I saw more layers unfolding through the stark colors, the subtle dialogue and the joke on the final page.

I have to say though the most lingering moment came in an epilogue that I'm not sure was in the original comic. (I have a hardback release that just came out) A man records himself talking about a crime he's involved i More...

Se presentan dos historias paralelas, una mejor que la otra. Cojea por falta de interés propio la del atentado del Joker a Barbara Gordon, hija del comisionado Gordon -la olvidable "Batichica"-, pero es muy buena la correlación que se efectúa entre la tortura psicológica del villano al propio comisionado y la historia del origen del propio Joker -la otra historia-, apoyada en un excelente trabajo gráfico, lo más destacable del "comic book". La limitada intervención de Batman tiene un magistral More...

The good:
- I liked the Joker origin story. I can't believe they told it -- but I liked it. It was bizarrely, disappointingly mundane, and that was exactly the point.
- I enjoyed the conceit that Batman and Joker could ever be anything but archenemies.
- Gorgeous art, and nice music for the Joker's vaudeville act.
- Best of all was how the story problematizes the Batman. Gordon showed his sanity by telling Batman to catch Joker by the book, but there's a logical gap here. Gordon implies that you'd h More...

Batman goes to Arkham Asylum on a fool's errand - to try and talk sense to the Clown Prince of Crime, the Joker. But Joker's not there! He's escaped and plans on destroying the Gordon family. Will the Dark Knight save them? Or will Joker have the last laugh...

First off, this is an acknowledged classic and I utterly loved it when I read it several years ago. Re-reading it now, I can say this book most definitely holds up, this is a classic Batman book for a reason. What I forgot was how slim a bo More...

This is certainly a good graphic novel, but I found the writing disappointing, especially coming from Alan Moore. He plays his usual games with self-reference and clever placement of words and images, but I found the Joker's plot to be surprisingly shallow and uninspired. The light touch at the end between him and Batman was also jarring. But I don't want to trash this work. It is very good, just unequal to the hype. In any case it contributed to the Batman canon (because of what happens to Barb More...

I haven't read any of the Batman comics, and I read this because I had heard Heath Ledger used it to inspire his take on The Joker. I loved the dark artwork, the color palate, everything about the LOOK of the story. The artistry is outstanding.
But the story falls short. It assumes too much knowledge on the part of the reader, knowledge I don't have. So, I don't get it. The punch, the power, it's not here.
I think the author assumes you have the backstory necessary to provide that power. And I th More...

Wow. I read this in the library because people kept telling me to read it. After reading "Batman RIP" I wasn't so keen on another Batman comic (besides the one Neil Gaiman wrote), but this is just brilliant. I definitely would recommend it to others, even those who turn their noses up at comics/graphic novels.

This is sadly overrated. I've liked Alan Moore's other work, and expected to like this one, too; it's often listed as one of the best Batman tales ever (one otherwise spot-on ranking from IGN puts it at #3). But it was one of the most disappointing of the ones I've read thus far. I'm a bigger fan of the more realistic approaches that Loeb and Miller employ. Moore is normally big on realism in his comics, but he misses the mark here somehow. His version of the Joker makes only a little bit of sen More...

Esta es la historia que inspiró a Ledger en su visión del Guasón. Con ese dato de entrada les debería bastar para echarle un vistazo.

Escrita por Alan Moore e ilustrada por Brian Bolland, esta novela gráfica es considerada una de las mejores historias de Batman, tengo que acordar con dicha afirmación.

Una versión sobre el origen del Guasón es expuesta sin que el mismo esté claro en que ese sea su origen y procedencia, él se perdió en el camino.

Esta novela no trata sobre el origen del bufón del cri More...

The third in my series of Batman stories is “The Killing Joke.” This is a Batman verses Joker story. As I mentioned in my last review, the joker is unoriginally my favorite Batman villian. I think he is everyone’s favorite, and for a reason. He is mad, pure and simple. The acts he commits are not carried out to gain something, like wealth or revenge. He is chaos at his core. That makes him completely unpredictable and fun to read.

In the story he aims to spotlight the differences he sees in himse More...

Ini adalah komik ketiga karya Alan Moore yang saya baca. Sebelumnya, saya sudah membaca dua karya Alan Moore yang lain, Watchmen dan V for Vendetta. Komik ini pertama kali diterbitkan tahun 1988

Banyak yang bilang kalau cerita Batman terbaik adalah The Dark Knight, film yang disutradarai Cristopher Nolan. Film tersebut menjadi menarik tentu saja karena karakter Joker. Joker dalam cerita Nolan adalah seseorang yang datang entah dari mana. Tak ada yang tahu asal usulnya, bahkan baju yang dipakainya More...

It's a short comic book created by Alan Moore. The first time I look this comic, I kinda feel funny. It's a batman comic, then why would Joker be the one in the cover. This in Alan Moore Comics, there's always a surprise. I read it page by page and I found the old school Alan Moore that always fascinating for me. This comic tells us about not what crime the Joker do, but how society makes a villain like the Joker. As I quote a dialogue that the Joker says, "I've proved my point. I've demonstrate More...

If the fact that it's by Alan Moore wasn't enough to tip you off, here's a warning: this is not a fun comic book to read to your children.

While I've read some of the other Batman graphic novels and have found the darker side of them to be a little unsettling, "The Killing Joke," by far, as disturbed me the most. This story isn't about Batman, it's about the Joker. It's an origin story of sorts, though it's not clear if the origin story is true. It's also a commentary by the Joker on how everyon More...

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and
strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."

-Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror In Literature

Yes, yes, I know. Technically, Joker's origin presented here is supposed to be "multiple choice". That argument would have much more weight if we were presented by some more choices.

Why not have Joker try to drive Gordon crazy by making him filter through truth and lies while attempting to figure which story is true More...

The good: Brian Bolland's art is exquisite, as always! He even pays homage to other artists that went before him as the story unfolds.

The story, until the final page, is very, very good. Alan Moore does his masterful job of creating firm plotting structure, exciting dialogue and giving insight to each character ... until the final page where despite his effort, the book is ruined.

The bad: that final page. Batman behaves so out-of-character ... so WRONGLY, especially given the violations of two o More...

i am a huge fan of alan moore but have never felt the need to be completist about his works. in truth, some of his stuff just doesn't interest me. that said, i don't know why it took me so long to get around to reading this now infamous work of his. maybe i was waiting for the uproar to die down. maybe i was hoping to forget that i already pretty much knew everything about it from word of mouth.

all the praise for this slim book is warranted (even spoilered as it was for me). the story is sublime More...