THE GOOD BATMAN ARTIST

Marshall Rogers 1950-2007

Fellow FOG!-ger Ryan Jackson covered the passing of comic book artist Marshall Rogers earlier today, but I had a few thoughts that I didn't want to bury in a comment.

Marshall Rogers had a profound influence on my childhood even though I didn't know his name until many years later. I just thought that he was the "Good Batman artist".

I used to spend time in the summer with my father's brother and his family in Gloucester, Massachusetts. My dad was a voracious reader, and I would occasionally get the opportunity to accompany him to a small bookstore downtown (The B&B if I remember correctly). There I got countless Treasury Editions, the original Marvel paperback reprints and a slew of comics, from Justice League of America to Richie Rich.


As I write this, I'm looking at a framed copy of one of those issues that I devoured as a child, Detective Comics #472. This particular issue blew my mind with an intense splash page of The Batman removing his mask to reveal his Bruce Wayne identity and then, removing Wayne's face to reveal the diabolical Dr. Hugo Strange. Marshall Rogers drew that issue, collaborating with Steve Engleheart and Terry Austin. Over the years as I tracked down many of Rogers' Batman issues, I've been pleasantly surprised to realize that I had read many of them as a child and that little story or art quirks had burned themselves onto my brain.

Marshall Rogers work on Batman confirmed him as my favorite Batman artist of all time (closely followed by Dick Sprang, David Mazzucchelli and Alan Davis, all of whom offer quite different interpretations.)

His Batman stalked the rooftops of Gotham, in vigilant pursuit of his Rogues gallery of villains; swinging across the rooftops of his Gotham City, a stunning interpretation of a modern metropolis with nods to the past (like the giant Sprang-esque typewriter in "Deadshot's Revenge").

In my opinion, his work was never as good as his short run on Detective Comics. His Batman was heroic; His Joker was frightening; His Silver St. Cloud, beautiful; His Gotham City a stunning interpretation of a modern metropolis with nods to the past (like the giant Sprang-esque typewriter in "Deadshot's Revenge").

And his comics, unforgettable.