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.

MARSHALL ROGERS, 1950-2007

While few details are available at this time, the great comic artist, Marshall Rogers, has passed away. The trained architect turned comics penciller was only 57 years old.

One of the most definitive Batman artists of all time, he is best known for his run on Detective Comics with writer Steve Englehart in the late 1970s. Rogers was also highly-acclaimed for work he did on Mister Miracle, The Silver Surfer and Dr. Strange at Marvel, and most recently, new work with Englehart in the Batman universe with their sequel to their classic 70s run Dark Detective.