As people might be aware, my old chum, Norm Breyfogle, had a stroke earlier this year. He's well on the road to recovery, but he can't draw, thus he can't pursue his livelihood, and he needs an income to live. DC have stepped up to the plate by releasing this 500+ page volume, nay, EPIC, that covers Norm and Alan A. Grant's first Detective Comics run. A lot of this material has never been reprinted before, certainly not in such a handsome volume. You can see Norm, as an artist, growing in this book, from his first tentative steps (which he probably will argue with me about - again) to becoming the powerhouse that he did. Norm is considered by many, especially me, as being THE definitive Batman artist of the 1990s (although he started in 1988) and this work is long overdue for recognition from DC.  Norm benefits from each volume sold in royalties. And the more volumes that sell the more likely it is that DC will follow this up with more volumes, covering Alan and

Alan Kupperberg as Wally Wood drew him This was one of his all time favorite pieces of art Alan Kupperberg was my friend. I grew up on Marvel Comics. It didn’t matter who published them, be it Marvel themselves, or Newton or Yaffa here in Australia, they were my staple diet.  Throughout the ‘70s I’d read them and enjoy the artwork and the funny words that I never understood until I looked them up (see, comics DO encourage literacy, or, at least at one stage they did).  Moving into the ‘80s I began to notice names on stories and discovered that some names did stories that I enjoyed more than others.  One name that stood out to me was Alan Kupperberg.  It didn’t matter that his art wasn’t on the same level as Johns Romita or Byrne, or Franks Miller and Robbins, it wasn’t that bad to look at.  It was entertaining. Plus he drew The Invaders and several issues of Marvel Two-In-One including my all-time favourite issue, number 75. I noticed that Alan was good at drawing clowns.