Today is Batman Day -- DC's second annual celebration of all things Batman -- and what better way to spend it than by talking to iconic Batman artist Jim Lee? We attended a signing for the release of Batman Noir: Hush -- which was drawn by Lee, inked by Scott Williams and written by Jeph Loeb -- and we got the chance to sit down with Lee to discuss the release of the special black-and-white release of the book, plus we asked the DC Entertainment Co-Publisher about the surprise un-canceling of The Omega Men and the potential of getting a new Supergirl comic now that the television show is nearly upon us.

And for more Batman content to sink your Batarangs into, check out our collection of IGN's favorite Batman pieces in honor of Batman Day.

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I think it just went over so well. Retailers had great sales. People want an opportunity to celebrate arguably the world's greatest superhero. Basically, you're creating a worldwide celebration and when you see it take off and get a foothold like it has, it's pretty exciting. I think it's a great way of celebrating not just Batman but comic books in general. It's a wonderful opportunity for people to celebrate the world's greatest superhero.I would think go to your local comic book shop if you're so inclined. The stuff that we have -- like temporary tattoos, posters, comics -- I hope it would have a bit of a mini comic-con feel at every store, which I think every store is in general, but here's our way of showcasing that for more casual fans so they can see the passion and fandom for all things Batman. It's pretty cool, every store does something different and a lot really go out there and bring in people who are dressed up as Batman and will have contests. It's not just about buying something, it's about going there and having fun with mythology of Batman.I think we ran out of all the other options we could push this book. [Laughs]It's a very handsome book. I call it the Scott Williams edition, myself. I love the fact that it's on thicker paper stock, so you can see how much bigger it is than the standard colored version. [Shows me the standard version, which is indeed smaller]You're getting a real deluxe treatment in terms of the paper quality and it really showcases what Scott's work brings to my art. If you are an aspiring artist, this is something to look at because without the color you see the bare bones and the studs, the infrastructure of how the art is put together and the architecture of it. You learn a lot just by looking at the black and white that you might not be able to see when you look at the colored stuff.I think he brings a life to the line. Definitely a crispness and energy. People kind of knock inkers as tracers but really what they're doing is redrawing over the pencils, so his style is similar to mine, but there's definitely something different there and if you look at the way I think my own work versus how he inks it. It's very different.We’ve work together now since 1989 so we have a really good shorthand. He knows exactly what I mean when I lay down something. Sometimes it's not the clearest line and he'll make it into something. It's just really great to work with someone you know who is going to give you his best each and every time.It was my (mini) come back. I hadn't really done a lot of work. I had just come over to DC in ‘98 -- that's when they bought WildStorm. I did a Just Imagine... story with Stan Lee. They offered me Harley Quinn and that wasn't the right fit for me. So I hadn't done a lot of work with DC characters -- maybe some covers, some short stories here and there -- so this was my first dive into DC mythology, and that was 2002 so four years after they bought the company.Remember, when we took over the book, Batman was selling about 66,000 copies, which was not great for the flagship book. We could just see the excitement build, it felt really like the ‘90s in terms of fandom and the readers getting behind the book and it growing from month to month. I think the last issue we sold over 330,000 issues. You could see that trajectory as people got excited by the story that Jeph created and how we really took a Batman through his mythology, through his rogues gallery, introduced this new mysterious villain. It was a lot of fun to be able to orchestrate that after the boom and bust in the ‘90s.I know the Absolute had the most amount of things. I think on this one we just wanted to showcase the black and white art and so we went to a nicer paper stock. When you do larger paper stock it makes the book larger, so if you put additional stuff in black and white -- like I said, it's kind of a Scott Williams edition -- so a lot of the other stuff in other volumes is where you'll find pencil and inking sketches and design work that didn't quite fit in.Yes, by popular demand.I think when we made a decision, it might have been just a bit hasty. Even the editors and other creators, other writers, were saying, “Hey, maybe you should give them time to sell the story. It's a good book.” And then you saw the reaction on social media -- not that it was a ton, actually -- and that was actually one of the great positive things about this. We got a few negative messages, a handful I'd say, but then we reversed our decision, we got 10, 20 fold of people chiming in really ecstatic and saying “I felt really great about DC.” and they're going to support the book, and that’s ultimately what you want.I think you have to realize that not every book that has low sales will necessarily translate into a successful trade paperback, so we made that decision. Also, we had also said early on that we are going to support these books, give them the full 12, and they clearly were working towards that; that's the framework in which they were working. So for all those reasons, we said we should go ahead -- we can admit when we're wrong -- and reverse the decision.It was great, like I said, the reaction was fantastic and hopefully will translate into renewed support for the book and we'll see where it goes from there.That was a special case. I think Omega Men stood out for a lot of reasons. A lot of other professional creators were supporting it, editorial felt strongly about it and, again, the way they were building that story was really a 12 part rollout of the concept, so it of all the projects felt it deserved the time and space that we had promised at the beginning.We'd be remiss if we did not use that as an opportunity. If you look at all the shows, we've tried to do things that both tie in directly into the core mythology of the show itself. But a lot of times you see the best stories featuring, let’s say Green Arrow or The Flash, those are the ones which see the greatest lift when a show becomes a hit. I think you'll see an interesting mix of Supergirl content come out, some of which will closely mirror what's going on in the show, but there's some of the great stories that we publish that we will put out.I think it's exciting to see one of the key franchises lifted and showcased and we have really high hopes for it.

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Lady Gaga are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter and IGN