Welcome once again, my bat brothers and sisters to Creator Spotlight. Zach here as usual, and this time I will be admiring the prolific and underrated career of the writer Alan Grant. So join me as we take a trip down memory lane and look back at the Scotsman’s career. Enjoy:
Alan Grant is a long time comic book writer, who surprisingly is often mentioned when talking about some of the “great” Batman writers of the last 25 years. Other than Batman, Grant has also worked on a number of other characters including; Judge Dredd, the Demon, Lobo, L.E.G.I.O.N, and many strips in the 2000AD line. Grant’s Batman work is often heralded by fans, but often forgotten by others. Grant’s key Batman works consists of storylines such as; The Last Arkham, Batman: Anarky, and Batman: The Scottish Connection. Additionally, Grant has often co-written several Batman main events; The Knightfall Saga, Batman: Contagion, Batman: Cataclysm, and Batman: Prodigal. Grant has also co-created several Batman villains, who appear in the comics today. These characters include; Victor Zsasz, the Ventriloquist (Arnold Wesker), Anarky, Jeremiah Arkham, Cornelius Stirk, the Ratcatcher, Legs, and the unforgettable Amygdala. Alan Grant is often linked with longtime friends, creators John Wagner and artist Norm Breyfogle.
Alan Grant broke into comics in 1967, when he was hired as an editor for the publisher, DC Thompson. Grant left DC Thompson in 1970 after moving and going back to college. It was here that Grant would meet writer, John Wagner. The two formed an instant friendship and began co-writing Tarzan, and later, Judge Dredd in the weekly magazine; 2000AD. The pair continued to write together for much of the 1980s. After much success in the European market, the two decided to try out American comics. They quickly found themselves working at DC Comics and began writing a 12-issue series titled, The Outcasts. The two gentlemen found themselves working on Detective Comics. This title also marked the beginning of Grant’s often collaborator, the vibrant artist, Norm Breyfogle. The trifecta began with issue #583, a story title; Fever. Issue #583 would also mark the first appearance of the Ventriloquist. Wagner would later leave the title, giving Grant the lead. Together, Grant and Breyfogle would take the Batman Universe by storm.
While on Detective Comics, Grant and Breyfogle would continue to electrify fans until #597, where Grant would leave the title for a short time. Breyfogle had already departed following issue #594. However, the pair would return shortly with issue #601. They would continue to work on the title until #621. Throughout their run on Detective Comics, many unforgettable storylines were written and penciled, including; The Mud Pack, Anarky, and Rite of Passage. Grant and Breyfogle would later return to the title, but not together. All together, Grant wrote 39 issues of Detective Comics. 
Following the success of Grant’s work on Detective Comics, Grant and Breyfogle would once again reunite to launch a new Batman title; Batman: Shadow of the Bat. It would be here within the pages of the first issue, that Grant would introduce one of the most mentally deranged characters into the Batman’s Rogues Gallery, Victor Zsasz. Along with Zsasz, Grant would also introduce Jeremiah Arkham in the four-part story arc titled; The Last Arkham. Grant would leave the title, but would frequently return to Shadow of the Bat. Grant would have a hand in writing the Batman: Cataclysm storyline that would also appear in the title. Shadow of the Bat would run for 96 issues and Grant wrote a total of 36 of them.
Unfortunately, Grant was never given the opportunity to work on the main Batman title, but he often appeared in other various Batman related comics. Grant also wrote a collection of various Batman one-shots that include; Batman/Phantom Stranger, Batman/Judge Dredd Files, Batman-Lobo, Batman/Daredevil: King of New York, and the Batman of Arkham, among others. I think it is safe to say that Alan Grant was the “Batman” writer of the 1990s. He made major contributions to the mythos and should be greatly acclaimed for his work. In my opinion, Grant seemed to be ahead of his time. The characters that he created seem to be more frequently used today then they were back then. He wrote grounded stories that were rooted in the realism of Batman.
Well bat-fans, I hope you enjoyed a watered down look at the enormous career of Alan Grant. Be sure to look out for the next Creator Spotlight, which will focus on Grant’s often partner in crime, Norm Breyfogle. Tune in next time, Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Blog.
Posted by Zach
We all know that we are only about a week away from the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum. But there have been a lot of rumors surrounding which characters will in fact be in the game. Some of the characters that have been rumored have included: Maxie Zeus, Amygdala, Alfred, Blue Beetle, Catwoman, Firefly, Hugo Strange, Hush, Killer Moth, Mr. Freeze, Penguin, Ra’s al Ghul, Ratcatcher, Scarecrow, Tweedledum and Tweedledee. and Two-Face.
Now you are probably thinking to yourself, "Man, that lineup would be awesome." Well, from my perspective do not get your hopes up too fast. Out of the list above we know only know one that will be in the game for sure. That character is Scarecrow. Now Edios has not confirmed this at all, but we know he will be in the game because of the commercial that GameStop is running right now about the Scarecrow challenge map. So that is a pretty good sign that Scarecrow will be in the game. If you don’t know what I’m talking about here is the video:
Alright in the commercial, they specifically say the Scarecrow challenge map. So we can bank on him being in the game for at the very least a challenge map.
Alright so moving on to the other rumored characters. The first one I want to address is Amygdala. A lot of people first assumed that the creature we first saw in screenshots months back was in fact this character. Now since we have learned a little more about what to expect in the game and kind of bits and pieces from the storyline, we now know that venom is a factor in the game and is used on various thugs throughout the game since we have seen many different "creatures" that look like Amygdala. Some of them have face paint on their faces, and some do not. So we can assume that the character we first thought was Amygdala might not be him after all.
As for some of the other characters that have been rumored…. Wait, before I go into that, let me just say that this is all pure speculation and should not be held as truth or assumed that I have some sort if inside information when it comes to this. I don’t want someone to blow this OPINION piece out of proportion.
Some of you may have not gone too in-depth when it came to the Demo that was released, but then again that is why you have us, to do that in-depth research that you may not think of. Well, when diving into all the info that was available on the Demo, I noticed that they had the credits available for viewing. Now before you rush over to your PS3 (which i know all of you have one) I took the time to get screenshots of the English cast that was listed for the game. Here they are:
Now the first image is not as good as the second one, but it took forever to get these screenshots. You can see on the list of characters that there are only so many characters that are listed. Most of them we already knew, but it mentions Scarecrow. So he is in fact confirmed. Now if you look at the list you will notice a shortage of villains. There is no one on that list that we already did not know about besides some supporting characters. Well, besides Jack Ryder. (Wait, who is Jack Ryder? Maybe just The Creeper?)
Now my question to all of you is, if there were going to be a ton of villains that were going to make significant appearances in the game, than why aren’t there voice actors for them. If they list the voices for the supporting characters such as the Arkham guards, why not list the villains? Before you get all upset with me for ruining your hopes of a villain extravaganza, I still do believe that there will be a ton of hints and clues that will reference different villains. I just do not think we are going to see as many as we had originally thought. I might be completely off and Rocksteady and Edios knew that we Bat-fans dig very hard for info, and they purposely made sure that there were no clues as to who else we would see in the finished game.
Is this going to be a great game? Yes. Is it going to be received well by the fans? Yes. I just want to make sure that you do not get your hopes up because of all kinds of rumors floating around that your favorite obscure character is going to appear in the game. Leave any comments below, because I’m sure this will start a commotion.
Posted by Dustin