Product Description

It's refreshing when you find a Batman story that both is epic and successfully explores the core of a resolutely explored character. Taking as its catalyst a sub-plot from the seminal Batman: Year One, the story revolves around murders occurring on national holidays, the victims connected to Mob boss "The Roman." Dubbed "Holiday," the killer uses an untraceable handgun and leaves small trinkets at the scene. Plenty of suspects are available, but the truth is something the Dark Knight never suspected. This series scores two major coups: it brilliantly portrays the transfer of Gotham rule to the supervillains and charts the horrific transformation of Harvey Dent from hardened D.A. to the psychotic Two-Face. Both orbit around the sharply portrayed relationship between Dent, Commissioner Gordon, and Batman: a triumvirate of radically different perceptions of Justice. It is always great to see the formative incarnation of Batman, drenched in noir here.Jeph Loeb's writing is keenly aware that Batman is a detective, and Tim Sale portrays a Gotham that is a fertile breeding ground for corruption and madness. Here, Batman is coming to terms with the potent image he projects and the madness it attracts. There are many fine Batman stories, but the ones that capture the spirit with extreme clarity are few. On this alone, The Long Halloween comes highly recommended. Masterfully executed, this is an excellent chance to revisit the world of Batman as fresh as in the summer of 1939. --Danny Graydon

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1727 in Books
• Published on: 1999-11-01
• Released on: 1999-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Amazon.com Review
It's refreshing when you find a Batman story that both is epic and successfully explores the core of a resolutely explored character. Taking as its catalyst a sub-plot from the seminal Batman: Year One, the story revolves around murders occurring on national holidays, the victims connected to Mob boss "The Roman." Dubbed "Holiday," the killer uses an untraceable handgun and leaves small trinkets at the scene. Plenty of suspects are available, but the truth is something the Dark Knight never suspected. This series scores two major coups: it brilliantly portrays the transfer of Gotham rule to the supervillains and charts the horrific transformation of Harvey Dent from hardened D.A. to the psychotic Two-Face. Both orbit around the sharply portrayed relationship between Dent, Commissioner Gordon, and Batman: a triumvirate of radically different perceptions of Justice. It is always great to see the formative incarnation of Batman, drenched in noir here.

Jeph Loeb's writing is keenly aware that Batman is a detective, and Tim Sale portrays a Gotham that is a fertile breeding ground for corruption and madness. Here, Batman is coming to terms with the potent image he projects and the madness it attracts. There are many fine Batman stories, but the ones that capture the spirit with extreme clarity are few. On this alone, The Long Halloween comes highly recommended. Masterfully executed, this is an excellent chance to revisit the world of Batman as fresh as in the summer of 1939. --Danny Graydon

Customer Reviews

One of the best Batman graphic novels!
I have only recently started into graphic novels, but out of the ones I have read I would rate the batmans from best to least favorite as follows:

1)Dark Knight Returns
2)Long Halloween
3)Killing Joke
4)Dark Victory
5)Batman: Year One

Long Halloween has a great story (which continues in Dark Victory), great art style, and is just fun to read. Highly recommended.

Great story lines...
If you are looking for a good batman comicbook to start with, this is it.

Good story lines and drawing with real Batman feelings.

The Long Halloween
The highlight of this Batman offering is above all, the artwork of Tim Sale. His vibrant, unique compositions give the book's plotlines an edgy, kinetic energy which keeps the story moving along in the reader's mind even when Loeb's complex storyline sometimes fails to carry its weight. The story is on balance very engrossing and ultimately very entertaining, even if it loses steam or strains for gravitas here and there. It's an admirable attempt to cover all the ground of the Batman mythos- the fun superficialities of cape, cowl and gizmo, the pop philosophical musings on perceptions of justice and the large catalogue of villainous foes the Dark Knight meets along his crusade. Indeed this book shows that Batman's fight for justice is a crusade of sorts in the classical sense of the term- a fight that is becoming more taxing and lengthy than he anticipated, and one perhaps undertaken with misguided intentions and resulting in unexpected consequences. The greatest accomplishment of the writing is the Two Face story arc. It covers the tragic story of Harvey Dent maybe even more ably than the recent film, though the characterization of the Joker in this instance is all style and little substance, pale (no pun intended) in comparison to the recent Ledger incarnation and light years behind the monstrous jester and seminal portrayal found in Alan Moore's 'Killing Joke'. On par with the excellent Dent/ Two Face characterization here, is the intriguing and mysterious handling of Catwoman. In this book and his other works like 'Dark Victory' and the 'Hush' volumes, Loeb has treated the Catwoman character with more respect and realism than most writers and rescued her from the campiness usually associated with her, and in so doing, given Batman an interesting and believable romantic interest and the Batman universe a much needed feminine foil and counterweight to all the testosterone fueled escapades. All said, this comic may not crack the top five of the all time best Batman stories alongside, 'The Killing Joke', 'The Dark Knight Returns', 'Year One', 'Arkham Asylum' and the underrated 'Batman Year 100', but it is definitely a solid number 6 or 7, paired with 'Dark Victory', in the all time top ten. Good read, escpecially for die hards.