April 8, 1997

Hi everyone.

Sorry there haven't been any new columns here recently. As some of you may know, since my last column, my wife and I just recently moved to a new province so I could start a new job. And two weeks ago, we moved into our new home. So we've been kind of busy, and I haven't been able to devote a lot of time to improving the site. To top it all off, I've been quite ill the last week, and that has just made it that much harder to do something new. So I'm writing this little column, and that will be it.

While home resting yesterday, I had to occassion to read Archie Goodwin's Night Cries. Now, this is not a Batman story that you would want little kids to read. The primary subject of this graphic novel is child abuse, and as soon as I realized that, I knew I was in for a deep, dark story. And I wasn't disappointed.

Now, I find child abuse as repugnant as the next person. And I find Batman stories about child abuse the most heart-wrenching of all. For example, Andrew Vachss' Batman: The Ultimate Evil, a story about the child sex industry, was the saddest book I have probably ever read. The more so because it is based on fact (wrapped around a Batman storylines). So Night Cries immediately made me think of The Ultimate Evil, and the story was quite similar, except that in Night Cries Batman is hunting for the person punishing the offenders.

If you haven't read either of these, go get them!. TUE is available as a novel, or as two Prestige Format comics. And as far as I know, NC is only available as a hardcover graphic novel (I picked up mine for $20). The artwork in Night Cries is amazing (it reminds me somewhat of the artwork from Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth), and the story is so touching.

Well, I've rambled a bit. But hopefully you've seen something: some of the Batman stories tell about our society. After reading The Death of Innocents (a story about the effects of land mine use) I really started to open my eyes to some of the social injustice done to children, and I hope that these stories do the same for you, too. I enjoy an entertaining story as much as the next person, but these types of stories really make an impact.

If anyone can come up with some other Batman stories that do much the same as these three did, please let me know, and maybe I can look at them some more...

Well, those are my deep, dark, rambling thoughts for today.

Patrick

Addendum: In early March of 1998, Archie Goodwin passed away after a long bout with cancer. I will truly miss this great writer.

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