by: Jay Carlson – Editor-in-chief

Confession time. I am not among the masses that consider Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s Batman: The Killing Joke to be the be all, end all. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool story but I found that it demystified The Joker a little too much for me. What is undeniable is that The Killing Joke was a hugely important piece of work at the time it came out. Within those few years we had Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, the Tim Burton film and The Killing Joke. This was a drastic turnabout considering the public perception of Batman was of the hokey (but still very fun) Adam West TV show.

So while I don’t love The Killing Joke, I do enjoy cracking it open occasionally and giving it a read. And there’s no doubt that there were real ramifications as a result of The Joker’s actions that were felt for many years afterward which made the story worthwhile, and Brian Bolland’s Joker is the one that springs to mind whenever I think about the comic version of the character.

So now that I’ve come clean about my stance on The Killing Joke, I will tell you that I am extremely excited to see an R-Rated animated adaptation of the story. I wish they had given us the R-Rated balls out animated version of Miller’s DKR, but what they released was still fairly enjoyable. Hopefully The Killing Joke succeeds like gangbusters and we see a flood of more adult oriented adaptations following suit.

Batman: The Killing Joke will premiere at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. Until then feast your eyes on the extended preview below!