RARA-AVIS: Da nah nah ne nah ne nah....BATMAN!

Kevin Smith (kvnsmith@colba.net)
Mon, 20 Apr 1998 11:07:42 -0500 > >Anyone here familiar with Andrew Vachss?
>
> he is one of my favorites-marla
>
> Did you read his (Andrew Vachss) "Batman" pastiche [Batman : The Ultimate Evil
> by Andrew H. Vachss]? Still can't figure out
> exactly what genre (is it sui generis?) that that one belongs to.

I read the comic book version (Good stuff!) but supposedly the novel is
even more in your face! Do you know if it's the same storyline? Vachss
hass written several rather hardboiled comic book series over the years,
and there was even an anthology series called Hard Look a few years
back. They're certainly worth checking out.

Then again, I find Vachss' Burke novels to sometimes be a bit TOO comic
bookish, so what do I know?

By the way, anyone expecting the cheesy, gimmicky cornball antics of the
sixties TV series will be blown away by the various Batman comics
available these days. Many recent storylines could be called hardboiled,
and some almost noirish, by almost any definition of those words. Not
bad for a comic featuring a guy dressed as a flying rat.

There's also a couple of anthologies of original Batman prose stories
around, by several writers (such as Max Allan Collins, Joe Lansdale,
Stuart Kaminsky, Ed Gorman and William Nolan) who should be familiar to
Rara-Avians. Some of the stories are surprisingly good, an off-beat
combination of hardboiled detective fiction, supernatural shenanigans
and old-fashioned pulp adventure.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Kevin Smith
The Thrilling Detective Web Site
http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective

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