I think you mean Nightraven, Benny. As far as I can remember he starred in comic strips as well as prose. Might be wrong, tho'. I remember liking that strip as a wee 'un.
I know DC and Marvel have put out the odd prose novel starring their respective men in pants, but, as I think you acknowledge, 'snot quite the same as the British annual experience.
Thanks, Tim. It would seem that Grant is taking a peculiarly British convention and trying to sell it to an American audience. I wonder what the motivation was? I'm sure Grant has strong associations with that kind of storytelling, and I'm doubly sure he knows that many Brits out there will too, but he must also know that Americans aren't used to this stuff. In as much as it formally references Denny O'Neil's prose Bats story, I suppose it continues this run's love affair with 70s / early 80s Batman, so that makes sense. Also, it is an interesting thing to do from a creative standpoint, and Groo does love to fanny about with that stuff, so yeah, that fits. I can't help wondering, however, why he chose this story. Maybe, by doing something highly unusual, he felt he was underlining his Joker return story, emphasising it's specialness. Maybe he felt he could cram more story into a prose narrative. Maybe he thought that a picture book - a format traditionally associated with children - was a particularly obscene way to present a character as hellish as the Joker.
Just some thoughts sloshing around in that thing I like to call "Special Brane". |
