Axes and Owleyes

First Darwyn Cooke comic: For me and many others, it was probably Batman: Ego. A few months earlier, I had found Cooke’s work via an obscure Vertigo mini-series called “Bad Girls,” which he had done the covers (and interior colors) for. Back then, I tended to gravitate toward particular books “by artist” (and rarely by writer save for a few: Keith Giffen, Christopher Priest, etc etc) and was immediately drawn hither by the cover art. Then I read the book, and it was alright, but I showed up for the covers. Sometime later, the owner of my then go-to comic shop greets me one wednesday with a copy of Ego in hand. “Here you go,” he says. “Right, but I dont read Batm-” and then I looked, simultaneously as elated as I was nega-moodswinging over the fact that as a pizza delivery dude, I didnt make squat for impulse buys over my pull box. “It’s okay,” the store owner said, “your pull can wait a week.” Favorite Darwyn Cooke comic: Yeah, that’s his Parker stuff. From the get-go, I’m a huge Donald Westlake mark; to compound matters, the movie that supposedly informed much of Cooke’s style in these books, Point Blank (itself an adaption of The Hunter) is a maelstrom of brutal, stylish crime fiction and one of my favorite mod-noirs. I couldn’t not love this book. As a well-forged pessimist and believer in the creativity of the cosmos in finding ways to fuck with people, this work seemed like the universe’s grand apology and I was more than glad to accept it. Even if the very next day after reading it, I stepped in vomit, was fired from my job and then attacked by a comically small bear in the parking lot on the way out, I could say for certain behind the giggles of the paramedics treating me post-event that it would have all been worth it.

I do need to read The Score, though. That got held off as I was anticipating Cooke creating more Martini editions for these books. Guess I don’t have to worry about that anymore. Favorite odd Darwyn Cooke trivia: so he got his start in animation production at the WB. We know about his work in the Timmiverse and how much of that universe turned out to be so much of Cooke’s own contributions in the end, to take nothing away from Dini, Altieri and Timm himself. Check that: but did you know that Cooke was responsible for animating that god damn amazing intro for Batman Beyond? Look I’ll make no bones about it, I did not like that show and won’t pretend to now for decorum’s sake but as an animation-obsessed kid who was just getting into video artistry, that shit hotwired my still coagulating, pubescent brainmeat in ways I never expected. That shit was a gale-force assault of style, motion and mixed media dancing betwixt the chemtrails of Gibson and Toth and probably the names of genre greats who havent even been fucking born yet. If youre a born animator, stuff like the Batman Beyond intro is your Substance D. (Bonus trivia: Cooke also directed episodes in the 3rd season of the shamefully underrated MIB: The Series!)