Their names probably do not tell you anything, but Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo are real stars in the world of comics. Azzarello, 57, writes, Bermejo, 42, draws. They were both in France this weekend for the Comic Con, where there was a tail of several hours for the dedication of their latest comic: Batman: Damned , published at Urban Comics on October 25th. Pile 80 years after his birth, Azzarello and Bermejo manage the feat of reinventing the Black Knight.
When Batman's demons come to life
The starting point of Batman: Damned is pretty punchy: the Joker is dead. And not far from where his body is found, Batman wakes up wounded and amnesiac. Did he finally kill his worst enemy? Tortured by this question, the detective will investigate the lowlands of the city of Gotham. But this time, Batman is confronted with demons: his own, who haunt his past, and others real, them. The invasion of the supernatural in his universe forces him to team up with an exorcist, John Constantine.
In 160 pages very involved, Brian Azzarello delivers an extremely original story, even confusing when he fully engages in the path of the supernatural. It was he who had the idea of this story, established in duet with his friend for 15 years Lee Bermejo. "We all do two from A to Z. We do not make stories on order.We come up with an idea and we do not really give them the choice," says Brian Azzarello at the microphone of Europe 1. The historical editor from Batman, DC Comics, gave them carte blanche to reinvent Batman.
A career in duet
Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo started their career separately. Azzarello first worked for DC Comics, with the series 100 Bullets and especially the adventures of John Constantine ( Hellblazer ) , an irreverent exorcist brought to the screen with Keanu Reeves in 2005. Then, he went to Marvel, for whom he wrote stories of Hulk, Luke Cage, before returning to DC. Lee Bermejo, he has drawn on many series, including Superman and Batman. It was already around the Black Knight that they began to collaborate, in 2002. Together, they then reinvented two iconic villains: Lex Luthor then the Joker. In 2012, they also worked on the origins of Rorschach, one of Watchmen's iconic cult characters.
How to reinvent a myth?
A mission far from simple when you know that the Black Knight is celebrating its 80th birthday this year! So many mythical stories have already been told by great authors. But the challenge was precisely what interested Azzarello and Bermejo. "It's a chance to have the opportunity to add your stone to such a building after so much time, it's great.I always find something new to tell, a new approach to the character," says the scriptwriter. "This time, Batman has been taken out of control, he does not control anything, and when he is not the smartest, he is completely lost."
Also in the drawing, Lee Bermejo worked to renew the identity of the Gotham superhero. "There's always a way to reinvent Batman, he's the most malleable superhero, you can do anything with him and his world, just look at what's been done. It's the same character, but with two very different approaches, we wanted to propose our vision to us, "the cartoonist agrees.
A story in "one-shot"
The other advantage of Batman: Damned is that it is accessible to everyone. No need to have read other comics to understand. It's a story that starts on the first page and ends on the last page. This is rarely the case in American comics. Usually they take the form of a series that spans several albums. A format that rejects Brian Azzarello. "Today, people do not read a lot of comics because it's an impenetrable world for them.The character continuity, this soap opera side, it loses people, it's a real problem. no more readers of comics because they do not know where to start, "he laments.
Indeed, in the United States, comics are first published in fascicule, week or month, before being published in books. In France, only the cardboard format exists. This allows, in the case of series, to have a clear numbering. Brian Azzarello prefers "one-shot". "Our book is a single volume, you are not asked to fill your shelves with our stories, I always want the first page to be really the beginning of the story," he says. With Batman: Damned , the big Batman story continues.