thedeadairchannel010

Hello. It's been a minute, hasn't it? I've been so swamped I took a bit of an unexpected hiatus from writing to you. I feel guilty sitting down to noodle with one of these letters when there are fires that need put out.

But today, Batman: Dark Patterns issue 1 is out. I've beaten the drum here about it a fair bit, but it's one of my favorite things I've been involved in at DC. I love crime stories, the gnarlier the better. I love cities and their myths. This is me telling those kinds of stories with Batman, with a stellar team, and stellar editorial support. It's been a space to experiment and explore- I've just written issue 9, which is unlike anything I've done before in a comic.

The book also looks incredible. Hayden, Triona and Frank have created a seamless, unique visual aesthetic that somehow also feels incredibly classic. And the cityscapes look so good I have to stop myself writing one on every other page.

I hope you'll pick it up. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Next week, I'll write a bit of commentary here for issue 1. A lot of research went into each mystery for this book, and plenty was inspired by real crime cases, cover ups and scandals. I think I'll use this space to unpack that, month by month.

Ahead of that, here was one of the overarching influences at the start: Monica Black's A Demon-Haunted Land.

A non-fiction book exploring the rise in witch trials and faith healers in the traumatized post-WWII Germany.

Obviously the context there doesn't wholly apply to Gotham, but there's a concept of untethering that I think is fascinating. People who thought the world worked a certain way, who thought the future was guaranteed to look a certain way, suddenly finding themselves facing a reckoning. Having to face the monsters next door and in themselves, with such tight rationing that they couldn't even trust that the flour they bought on the black market wasn't entirely wood shavings.

So untethered, they turned back towards the ghosts of the past, to superstition and blind faith. Flocking to visions of the Virgin Mary, even trying a cheeky bit of witchcraft out for themselves.

The idea of the real world becoming so desperate that it's preferable to submerge oneself in what terrified or comforted one's ancestors is an interesting one. Superstition and cowardice. Batman's always been good at exploring those.

I spoke at some length last week to Brant Lewis at Graphic Policy about the above and the creation of Dark Patterns last week if you'd like to hear more. It was a great chat.

Since I started writing this, the first review for issue 1 has rolled in courtesy of AIPT, who give it a 9.5/10 and say:

"You’ve never seen a Batman book like this, and you’re better off for it once you put this book down."

and:

"Not since Victor Zsaz has a villain been so freakish, scary, and truly unhinged."

So that's a relief.

I've been down with a rather crap flu this week, so I've been going slightly mad indoors and posting reading recommendations on Bluesky. People keep liking the bloody post. Sadists. But it's been a fun trip down a certain memory lane of books I've enjoyed. We'll see if I cap it or keep going till everyone gets bored. It's all novels so far. I like talking novels with people.

One I recommended was Laird Barron's Man With No Name, which sees the author shift (sort of) away from cosmic horror towards crime fiction. Which reminded me he's written a whole crime series afterwards I hadn't yet broached; so now I'm reading Blood Standard, the first of his Isaiah Coleridge series. So far it feels like a Jack Reacher from the other side of the tracks- a brutal criminal with a code, and a heart full of Humphrey Bogart. One of those books I can already tell I'll enjoy very much.

I need to keep this one short. I have a Nightwing issue I need to get in today for a guest artist I'm overjoyed that we managed to pull on board.

I also have a call about an outline for a very cool project tying into a big comic launch from the last year- and then the second draft of another outline for a DC project I'm excited to get started on proper. Once all that's squared away, I can start my actual script for the week...

Bloody hell.

This has been thedeadairchannel. A transmission from the desk of Dan Watters. Please do subscribe.