I guess, I can remember the first time I found the Dark Knight Returns. It was in a double page spread in the magazine Computer and Video Games. A tiny 2″ reproduction of a single page, microscopic text – I suspect the entire thing was under the banner of “kapow! Comics have grown up!”
The page was of Batman holding the draped corpse of an American general wrapped in a US flag. And I remember reading it and thinking “oh wow, this is something else.”. It felt much closer to the sensibilities of 2000ad than a batman comic, and much much closer to my sensibilities as an 17 year old.
I’m not sure actually when I saw that in C&VG, but I do remember it was 1988 when John McCrea and Fred Collier opened their comic shop “Dark Horizons” and I went in there after a drought of five years away from comics, and bought it and just devoured it.
What a book.
I reread it every year for a long long time. And tbh it’s been a while, but I cracked it open last night and started and man, still fresh.
I’ve since bought and rebought this book a number of times (an insane number of times). I have my original copy – scratched all over in front and back, a Titan Books first edition from 1986 (is it worth money? it shouldnt be, but the world is a strange place) and I have copy I bought a few years ago (I just checked, it’s the “Tenth anniversary edition” and dated 1997!) because this one is so beaten up and then I have a pure b&w (a Noir edition) though if I’m honest, Lynn Varley’s colouring on this is so incredible it seems a crime to remove it. A rare instance of colouring doing so much.
And I have an artists Edition. A big old chunky version reproducing much of the original art (including with overlays for redrawn panels).
I also have at least one digital version.
What I’d love would be some version of the original four issues rather than a collection. That might tempt me to buy it again. The digital version is reproduced from scans of the printed book, I think, certainly there’s things in there that make it seem like that (or maybe scans of the film used to print it). So I don’t know if we’ll ever get a definitive reprint that looks as good as the first print editions (certainly my old 1986 copy looks better -at least internally- than the digital versions)
(On the left the 1997 edition, presumably reprinted from film. On the right the 1986 first edition. What’s immediately striking is the blue of the caption boxes, suddenly it’s grey. Why? I have no idea. There’s no other difference, and I would say the blue is more readable.)
Will I ever give any copies of these books away? nope. Not on your nelly. Which is a mad really, but I think that speaks to how important graphic novels and comics are to the people that read them. I know that if I ever see a bunch of comics in a charity shop (as opposed to books) my first thought is “I wonder if I knew that person” – we lived a shared experience, that you only get from physical print.
This year, is the 40th anniversary of the Dark Knight Returns. That’s insane. But what a book. A generally piece of literature, that still even now can resonate.
That’s a fantastic memory! I had a similar experience with that issue; the detail was incredible even on such a small print.
That reminds me that I should read my copy again. Without going upstairs to check, I’m not sure whether there’s anything remarkable about the edition. But it’s old, though – bought cheap around 1993/1994 when someone tried to launch one comic store more than Brisbane could sustain, and had to sell a lot of stock quickly to make the rent.