Best known as the writer of the long-running Vertigo comic 100 Bullets, a revenge-themed noir series which publishes its 100th and final issue in February, Brian Azzarello is no stranger to villains. In the 2005 DC Comics miniseries Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo turned the tables on the typical Superman story by exploring the rivalry between Superman and Luthor — from Luthor's point of view. This month Azzarello and Bermejo return to the DC Universe with Joker, an original standalone graphic novel about Batman's archnemesis that ignores the caped crusader almost entirely, and turns its spotlight on the clown prince of crime instead.
PW Comics Week: How did the idea for Joker come about? Did it grow out of the Lex Luthor miniseries?
Brian Azzarello: Yeah, it sprang out of a conversation Lee [Bermejo] and I were having in a bar in San Diego after we were done with Lex Luthor, when we were telling each other we weren’t going to work together anymore.
PWCW: Why was that? Were you just tired of each other?
BA: I think we were. We were tired of each other. The relationship has changed now, though; Joker changed everything. After Luthor, I think we were both thinking we’d shake hands and call it a day. But we started talking, and I’d had a meeting earlier in the day with [DC Comic Executive Editor] Dan Didio, and he wanted to know if we were going to do anything else. And we weren’t, but we just started talking…and we pretty much mapped out [Joker] in our conversation.
PWCW: So what changed for you between then and now?
BA: I don’t know; maybe it was the character that did it. Maybe it was the Joker himself. I don’t know if you’ve seen the book, but it’s ugly. It’s brutal and violent. It’s about what it’s like to hang with the Joker.
PWCW: Is it from the Joker’s point-of-view?
BA: No, not [in the same way] that Luthor was. I think it would be impossible to do, anyway, and stay true to the character. Part of the thing that defines [the Joker] is that he’s insane; he’s unpredictable. You don’t know what he’s thinking. The minute you get inside the Joker’s head, he loses his power. It’s from the perspective of one of his henchmen. When [the Joker]’s released from Arkham Asylum, no one in his gang wants to pick him up, so this guy volunteers for the job. And he doesn’t leave the Joker’s side during the book.
PWCW: Were you drawing on any previous representations of the Joker, such as the Joker from Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, or the recent Dark Knight film?
BA: It was our own. We started [the book] before the movie, over two years ago. We actually had it finished before the film, but rather than release it before the film, DC decided to sit on it. At the time, I sort of questioned that decision, but now I don’t at all. It was a really good decision. If that Joker [from the film] is what people want, then this is the book for them. What we wanted to try and do something realistic with the character, and what it’s like living in a city with a crime boss who’s completely insane.
PWCW: Is it in continuity with the other Batman stories currently running in the DC Comics universe, or is it a separate story?
BA: Continuity is not something I want to be too beholden to. I don’t think it’s helpful to stories. I think that these kind of stories in graphic novels work best for a general audience if you treat the characters the way that they’re understood in mainstream pop culture.
PWCW: Why did DC decide to publish the story as an original graphic novel, rather than a monthly miniseries later collected later as a trade paperback?
BA: I just thought that the story lent itself to being told all at once as a graphic novel one-shot, so I talked to the people at DC about it. It’s not something they’ve done in a while. This is the really the first time it’s happened in a long time—an original graphic novel for a DC character that’s not collecting runs [of monthly issues].
PWCW: What else are you working on?
BA: I’m doing a graphic novel one-shot called Filthy Rich for the new Vertigo crime line. The basic premise is that a disgraced ex-football player gets hired to be a bodyguard for a rich girl who gets in a lot of trouble…I've also been finishing 100 Bullets.
PWCW: Is the final issue of 100 Bullets something that you’ve had planned since the beginning?
BA: Yes, yes. Since day one. I’m looking forward to it; I’ve been working on it for a decade… [but] there’s no relief. There’s definitely a sense of sadness. The characters in the book, they’re broken in. They’re very comfortable.
PWCW: Do you have another long-term series lined up after 100 Bullets?
BA: There will never be another hundred issue series, but [artist] Eduardo [Risso] and I are going to continue to work together. We’ve got a few more stories we’ve already been discussing. But they’re not going to take ten years to tell.
