Admittedly, most comics fans own “Batman: Year One” in some form. It’s been in trade essentially since it came out. But, in case you were wondering, the new trade coming out stinks, according to Dave Mazzucchelli.
No, this isn’t an artist ticked off over some political point. As Mazzucchelli himself puts it:
… I don’t understand why they thought it was necessary — several years ago, DC asked me if I’d help put together a deluxe edition ofBatman: Year One, and Dale Crain and I worked for months to try to make a definitive version. Now whoever’s in charge has thrown all that work in the garbage. First, they redesigned the cover, and recolored my artwork — probably to look more like their little DVD that came out last year; second, they printed the book on shiny paper, which was never a part of the original design, all the way back to the first hardcover in 1988; third — and worst — they printed the color from corrupted, out-of-focus digital files, completely obscuring all of Richmond’s hand-painted work.
Admittedly, Mazzucchelli answered his own question: DC didn’t think it was necessary. They just wanted to cash in on the DVD, which was frankly kind of weak and unnecessary itself. Still, considering there have been no fewer than five editions of it that we can find, just on Amazon, including a Kindle eBook of Mazzucchelli’s definitive edition for eight bucks, if you want a copy that the artist doesn’t hate, it should be fairly easy to find.
[ via the Comics Journal ]