Jim Aparo was already a comics veteran when he started drawing Batman in earnest in the 1980s. Hed done a few Batman stories before (including two thirds of 1980s The Untold Legend of The Batman), but his trailblazing work with The Dark Knight didnt truly begin until he started drawing Batman & The Outsiders, a series he worked on with the ridiculously talented Mike W. Barr (Damian Waynes absent father). From there, Aparo drew many of the most memorable moments of The Batmans career, including the sublime Many Deaths of The Batman, the harrowing A Death in the Family (which saw the second Robin, Jason Todd, meet a sticky end at the hands of The Joker) and, of course, the epic 90s Knightfall saga (which introduced the character of Bane and saw Batman suffering a rare defeat in the process). He even provided pencils for A Lonely Place of Dying, the story that introduced Robin Mark III, Tim Drake. Aparos Batman was slender and athletic. As opposed to a brawler or cage fighter, he more closely resembles a stealthy ninja or poised martial artist. Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the James Owsley story The Wall, which sees a still-grieving Bruce Wayne track down one of his former mentors. In Aparos hands, Batman looked every inch the classic superhero redefined for the 1980s. He was confident, towering and spry. When Jim Aparo drew Batman, he was wholly believable as a capable and dependable hero, as well as a man of action and authority. The fact that DC gave Aparo almost every major Batman art assignment going is a testament to his skill, popularity with fans and professionalism. Aparos stories were typically densely detailed, with special emphasis placed on dramatic moments and dialogue scenes. In that respect, Jim Aparo was very ahead of his time, as such details are commonplace in comics today.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
