ANNOUNCING BATMAN: THE WORLD - A Never-Before-Seen Global Comic Event From DC!

General Discussion Comic Books
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The Dark Knight Takes His War Against Crime Global in Batman: The World, A Never-Before-Seen Publishing Event from DC

Comic Book Talent from 14 Different Countries Present Their Interpretation of Batman in Stories Unique to Their Cultures

184-Page Hardcover Anthology Available Worldwide Digitally and in Print September 14, 2021

This September, DC takes Batman’s war on crime worldwide in a new hardcover anthology, Batman: The World. This 184-page book is a first-of-its-kind publishing event, featuring Batman stories by top creative teams from across the globe, taking place in their home countries. Batman: The World launches worldwide on Tuesday, September 14, 2021—just in time for Batman Day 2021 (Saturday, September 18, 2021). The complete anthology will be localized to the following international territories: North America, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, China, Korea, and Japan.

“Batman has grown into a true pop culture icon, known the world over,” said DC publisher and chief creative officer Jim Lee. “Batman: The World is DC’s way of showing fans everywhere that Batman is more than a character; Batman is a phenomenon that transcends languages and borders.”

Kicking off the anthology is a story from the award-winning duo of writer Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo (Batman: Damned, Joker, Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, Batman/Deathblow). In the story titled “Global City,” Batman reflects on his time in Gotham, protecting his city and its inhabitants from all manner of threats. But when he looks beyond the bridges, alleys, and skyscrapers, the Dark Knight realizes that the call for justice knows no borders, as there are wrongs to be righted everywhere. Their story sets off a series of tales chronicling Batman’s past and present, stories told by some of the best-known international voices in comics:

  • Mathieu Gabella (writer)/Thierry Martin (artist) – France
  • Paco Roca (writer/artist) – Spain
  • Alessandro Bilotta (writer)/Nicola Mari (artist) – Italy
  • Benjamin von Eckartsberg (writer)/Thomas von Kummant (artist) – Germany :g
  • Stepan Kopriva (writer)/Michal Suchánek (artist) – Czech Republic
  • Tomasz Kolodziejczak (writer)/Piotr Kowalski, Brad Simpson (artists) – Poland
  • Ertan Ergil (writer)/Ethem Onur Bilgiç (artist) – Turkey
  • Alberto Chimal (writer)/Rulo Valdés (artist) – Mexico
  • Carlos Estefan (writer)/Pedro Mauro (Artist) – Brazil
  • Inpyo Jeon (writer)/Jae-kwang Park, Kim Jung Gi (artists) – Korea
  • Xu Xiaodong, Lu Xiaotong (writers)/Qiu Kun, Yi Nan (artists) – China
  • Kirill Kutuzov, Egor Prutov (writers)/Natalia Zaidova (artist) – Russia
  • Okadaya Yuichi (writer/artist) - Japan

Each international version of Batman: The World will also feature its own unique cover art by the local creative team. International publishing and distribution partners include Urban Comics (France), ECC Ediciones (Spain), Panini (Italy, Brazil, Germany), CREW (Czech Republic), Azbooka-Atticus (Russia), Egmont Polska (Poland), JBC (Turkey), Editorial Televisa (Mexico, Central America), Sigongsa (Korea), Starfish Media (China), and Shopro (Japan).

Are you familiar with any of the artists and writers involved? Let us know which story you’re most excited for int the comments below! :earth_americas:

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This sounds great! This sounds very unique. The perspectives will be awesome to read.

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This is such a cool idea! I can’t wait to read this!

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This is so coooooool. I am all for the increased globalization of the DC Universe! (Even if it is more Batman… we’ve got, like, 22,000 other characters, you know. :0_the_question_jlu:)

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I can’t say that I’ve heard of any of these other writers/artists, but I’m thrilled to see what they come up with!

Hopefully this sells well so that we can see more of these anthologies for other prominent DC characters. Getting an international perspective on the DC Trinity at the very least would be spectacular!

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These are a lot of REALLY big names in the local comics industries of their home countries, but who haven’t reached much of an international audience. I’m very excited to see Americans get to know them better!

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Do you have more info on them?

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Matieu Gabella is a French cartoonist best known for graphic adaptations of novels such as The War of the Buttons and Jules Vernes’ The Mysterious Island.

Paco Roca is the cartoonist behind Wrinkles, which was adapted into a Spanish film in 2011.

Alessandro Roca and Nicola Mari are behind the hugely popular Dylan Dog series in the Italian comic markets about a supernatural investigator by the same name.

Benjamin von Eckartsberg and Thomas von Kummant are the team behind the critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic Gung Ho comic series.

Tomasz Kolodziejczak is a hugely prolific Polish sci-fi author. He’s won a ton of Polish fiction awards, but to date few of them have been translated into English. Piotr Kowalski has worked on a lot of titles for Marvel and Image, such as RoboCop, The Dark Tower, and Sex. Brad Simpson is an Eisner-nominated colorist for titles such as Black Stars Above and Coffin Bound.

Alberto Chimal is a Mexican essayist, short story writer, and literary theorist who’s probably one of the sharpest literary minds in the world. The idea of him tackling Batman is particularly interesting.

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Thank you! This is awesome, will need to look into these great peeps! Anything on the others?

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Nothing I can dig up on short notice! Some of the others are probably better known in their home countries than I can dig up, and a few appear to be relative newcomers with impressive personal portfolios.

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Really awesome concept! Would love to see this for Wonder Woman and Superman as well!

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I can try and see what I can find out about the others and share, I’m very curious. Also want to see samples from all these artists. Very exciting stuff!

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This is a hellafun idea. As @FawcettCityQuestion mentioned, it’s a great way for regional talent to get international exposure. I hope it’s successful so other characters can follow in the same format, as @agbats suggested!

Do we know if this is the MMA fighter Xu Xiaodong? Or a writer with the same name?
(Wondering if CM Punk might have started a crossover trend…?)

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Sounds awesome™:+1: very cool idea

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Some artist samples I have found. Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with these very talented peeps to know how representative these samples are of their work, or what their Batman stories will look like.

Thierry Martin :fr:

500×714 189 KB

Paco Roca :es:

1417×2017 992 KB

Nicola Mari :it:

700×675 122 KB

Thomas von Kummant :de:

757×1000 215 KB

Michal Suchánek :czech_republic:

884×1250 430 KB

Piotr Kowalski :poland:

800×1215 525 KB

Brad Simpson :poland:

585×888 93 KB

Ethem Onur Bilgiç :tr:

700×1018 318 KB

Rulo Valdés :mexico:

Pedro Mauro :brazil:

768×960 204 KB

Jae-kwang Park :kr:

2000×1205 772 KB

Kim Jung Gi :kr:

2123×1500 2.42 MB

Natalia Zaidova :ru:

1339×2048 1 MB

Okadaya Yuichi :jp:

863×1200 332 KB

I couldn’t really find anything for the Chinese artists, I’m sorry. Maybe searching with Chinese characters would help, so if someone is familiar with their work, I’d love to see some of it!

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Oh and looks like Piotr Kowalski just dropped his first piece of art for this book:

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Paco Roca’s dropped some art too!

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so is this going to include all the international batman characters(maybe the lost nightrunner story from round robin could show up)

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I really dig this concept and hope it is successful so we can see other characters in this format. Jim Lee spoke on this at Fandome last year when he mentioned that he sees DC as a global company. I have a feeling this is just one of many steps DC is moving towards and I for one can only see the benefits as a comic fan.

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