To coincide with tonight’s much-anticipated release of The Dark Knight, NPR is hosting a wealth of Batman-related material.
There’s last week’s edition of Fresh Air, which re-airs Terry Gross’s 1990 interview with Batman creator Bob Kane. Kane, who died ten years ago, talks about the superhero’s origins, his own preference for drawing slapstick comics, and how Bruce Wayne nearly became Harvey Schwartz The Tailor.
In Character reporter Alex Cohen traces the evolution of a villain with her piece, The Joker: Torn Between Goof and Evil. To quote:
Humor has always been a pivotal part of The Joker, and though we usually think of humor as an enjoyable, likeable trait, it can also be tinged with evil says Paul Levitz, president and publisher of DC Comics.
“There’s a level in humor, where humor can verge on being offensive or invasive of your space or your life — where you don’t quite know what’s going on. Is this guy putting me on? Is he actually going to do those things to me?”
And if that isn’t enough, the 2002 Present At The Creation: Batman features everything you need—history, video clips, sound bytes—to satisfy your superhero sweet tooth.
[Update: Over at Wired, Daniel Dumas gives the scoop on Batman’s latest collection of toys. Also, Scott Brown shows us what happens when directors of comic book films abandon digital special effects for the real thing. Really cool stuff.]