Meanwhile in Gotham City...

It's Batman's 75th anniversary, and to celebrate, DC Comics is releasing plenty of new projects to pay tribute to the legendary Dark Knight Detective. I've been lucky enough to work on quite a few Batman-related books recently, most of which are now up for pre-order. So if you're a fan of the Caped Crusader, here are a couple things to keep an eye out for:

First up is the project that's been occupying the bulk of my time since I finished writing The Superman Files for Andrews McMeel Publishing. It's a massive 352-page hardcover history of the Dark Knight from DK Publishing entitled Batman Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle. If the book sounds familiar, it might be because I co-wrote the similar Spider-Man Chronicle a few years ago, and have worked on both DC Comics: Year by Year and Marvel: Year by Year for DK as well.

Batman: Year by Year essentially tells the history of the character, his villains and his supporting cast in a month-by-month format from May of 1939 until the most recent events of this year. It was quite an intense project, but a labor of love for a lifelong Batman fan like myself. The book includes additional writing by Matt Forbeck (who wrote about the 1960s), and an introduction by one of my childhood heroes, Frank Miller. It's available on September 15th, but you can preorder it now on Amazon. I'll post a picture as soon as the cover art is available.

Next is The World According to the Joker from Insight Editions. I wrote this 64-page hardcover entirely in the voice of the Joker, as a sort of book of wisdom from the absolute worst person in the world to take advice from. I've always enjoyed writing the Joker, and this project was a great chance to see the world through his twisted eyes. It includes plenty of fun removable items and lots of great new illustrations. Look for it on October 7th.

Also from Insight Editions are the Batman Hardcover Ruled Journal and The Joker Hardcover Ruled Journal. These mostly blank journals include a story handwritten by each book's title character. The idea is for Batman and the Joker to have each been writing a journal entry when their books are misplaced and wind up in the reader's hands. These were extremely fun little stories to write, and I'm very happy with the result. I'll be sure to post pictures of the covers for these as we get closer to their release date of September 9th.

On August 1st, make sure to check out Catwoman's Nine Lives, my newest chapter book in Stone Arch Book's selection of DC Comics readers. Set in the world of Batman: The Animated Series, it's a fun little caper story that's my seventh contribution to this great line for young readers. I'll post more about this book when it's released.

And finally, while not available for pre-order quite yet, my two issues of Beware the Batman are being collected into a trade paperback from DC Comics due to hit stores on January 27, 2015. This collection includes all six issues of the series, featuring stories also written by Ivan Cohen, Scott Beatty, and the legendary creator of Katana, Mike W. Barr. It features art by Luciano Vecchio and Dario Brizuela. You can find out a bit more about the book here, as well as a preview of my point of view story from issue # 6.

Be sure to be the first kid on your block to collect all six books. Thanks for reading!