INSIDE LOOK: One of Batman’s greatest writers tells all…

It’s no secret that we’re big admirers of writer Steve Englehart and his classic 1970s Detective Comics run with Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin. We’ve spent quite a bit of digital ink on it — click here for the latest news on 2020’s hardcover collection — and Englehart himself has stopped by 13th Dimension a number of times to comment on it.

It’s also no secret that the writer has long stated his claim to the 1989 Batman movie directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton. For our 30th anniversary BATMAN ’89 WEEK celebration last year, Englehart was even willing to put aside his grievances to write an appreciation of the film. (Click here to check it out. It’s well worth your time.)

But Englehart has more to say on the matter and he penned a column in the upcoming Back Issue #118 addressing it. (He explains why he felt compelled to do so in the intro.)

Anyway, given our interest in Englehart’s integral role in Batman history, I’ve chosen this piece as our regular EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT from BI.

Gotta say, though, if not for Englehart’s column, we’d be probably be excerpting editor Michael Eury’s interview with Alex Ross about his failed Fantastic Four pitch — a story we actually broke in 2018 as part of our coverage of the book Marvelocity. (Click here. It’s a bona fide corker.)

Or we might have excerpted Bryan D. Stroud’s piece on Englehart and Trevor Von Eeden’s never-published Batman story.

All of which goes to show how great Back Issue #118 — the “Greatest Stories Never Told” issue — is.

Just dig the table of contents:

The ish will be in comics shops as early as Jan. 8 but you can also get it directly from publisher TwoMorrows. (Click here.)

Now, here’s Englehart:

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Back Issue #118 will be in comics shops as early as Jan. 8 but you can also get it directly from publisher TwoMorrows. (Click here.)

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MORE

— An INSIDE LOOK at ENGLEHART AND ROGERS’ Unfinished BATMAN Trilogy. Click here.

— The TOP 13 BATMAN Countdown: ENGLEHART & ROGERS. Click here.