Mondo, Art by Justin Erickson

Titan, out now

A collection of artwork from the seminal Batman animated show.

Titan bring another of Insight Editions’ beautifully prepared art books to a British audience with this stunning selection of posters, CD covers and much more from the imagination of Justin Erickson. There’s plenty of sketches, design roughs and unused ideas to go with full page portraits that feature the Caped Crusader and his rogues gallery of villains. Howie Severson’s design complements the artwork neatly, and you really get a feel of the many different moods that the series could achieve.

Paul Dini introduces the book, explaining the concept – contemporary posters for a 25-30 year old show that demonstrates its timelessness – and then Erickson is interviewed by Mondo co-founder Rob Jones about how he became involved and the particular challenges that he faced.

Then we’re into the meat of the book, starting with a section dedicated to the Batman film Mask of the Phantasm for the 20th anniversary of which Erickson first prepared a poster. There’s commentary on the changes that were made, and the priorities given.

That’s followed by the posters for each episode, which are in multiple different styles. Concept sketches show the evolution – sometimes, as in It’s Never Too Late, it’s very dramatic, other times the posters have had a strong idea from the start. On many occasions, a simple change of angle on Batman or his opponent allows for a more dramatic pose. Inspiration comes from many different places – there’s a Hitchcockian vibe to some, while Drew Struzan’s Indiana Jones posters clearly influence The Demon’s Quest. From there it’s on to the soundtracks that Mondo have released, with a note about the different requirements, in particular which episode to feature in colour on the front and in monochrome on the rear of the sleeve.

Verdict: As with other such art books, if you’re a fan of the show, you’ll get more from these than simply as posters, but even to a non-aficionado, these are terrific. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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