Courtesy of Substack Origin Story, we have your first look at a Batman story that never saw the light of day. Penciled by DC Comics inker John Stanisci, “Gangs of Gotham” was drawn back in 2012 coming off of the success of his work on Batman Beyond: Hush Beyond.
Origin Story was created by comic book artist and playwright John Stanisci with comic book marketing veteran Jeremy Atkins as a venue to share their collective experience, creative pursuits, and projects across entertainment mediums.
I’ll let Stanisci explain and set up the never before seen story:
“So, it’s 2012 and it’s a turning point in my career. Coming off the success of Batman Beyond: Hush Beyond, I honestly felt like I wasn’t sure I was going to ‘climb higher’ in my work as an inker. Also, I had this nagging voice in my head saying, ‘y’know, you DID want to be a penciller ALLLLLLL the way back in the beginning’.
So, maybe it was time to really do it. Basically, put a ‘stop’ on pursuing inking and…announce to the world I’M A PENCILLER NOW!!!! So…..I did. And….crickets. Tumbleweeds and….well, a LOT of crickets. Hmmm, maybe it wasn’t going to be as easy as all that. Maybe, y’know, I might have to develop the penciling and I don’t know, work up a portfolio of some kind and, y’know, prove to people I could do it.
CUT TO: Two years later.
It’s 2014 and, actually, I did work up the penciling and a kind soul ( and good editor) named Chris Ryall, gave me a bunch of gigs over at IDW. Some really fun stuff and I had a chance to work out my chops a bit penciling and inking my own work.
On the heels of that, it was time to go back to DC and convince folks I could do this.
Brian Cunningham gave me a great shot on a Constantine inventory story that I pencilled and inked. REALLY fun stuff and, maybe in another newsletter, we’ll show you those pages!
I took those pages over to Chris Conroy, my editor on Batman Beyond and asked for a shot. Now, you have to understand that A: Chris is one of the BEST editors in the game, B: is a SUPER nice guy and C: was the editor of the Batman books, so, it was kind of a big ask even for a super great guy like Chris. BUT, at the time, Chris was editing the Batman Eternal book which had one and two off stories. Not a huge commitment….and it looked like not everything on the Batman eternal slate was assigned. Sensing blood in this editorial water, I pounced. Ok, I didn’t pounce. I…very gently, and with great reverence, asked if I could take a one or two issue slot. I may have bowed my head.
Chris said yes.
There was a really cool two issue story called GANGS OF GOTHAM, written by Frank Tieri and, without giving too much away (in the very very small chance DC ever wants to pick this up someday), it tells the story of Gotham in the 1800’s and who were the first folks to don masks and why they did. It gives us a look into some of the ancestors of our favorite characters and, trust me, there were a TON of surprises.
Frank wrote a GREAT story of Gotham in its formative, brutal time. It’s a story about immigrants and gangs forming to just try to survive in this dark, crime filled world. Just killer stuff. We were doing two issues but Frank had a larger story planned and I SO wanted to do the whole thing.
I got to work and pencilled, I think, around thirty pages. We had Scott Hanna on board to ink and it was looking great.
Then…DC decided to move to L.A….and other changes. Changes that swept through the company and, in its aftermath, apparently, a whole bunch of ‘underway’ projects just didn’t go forward, including Gangs of Gotham.
These things happen. It’s all a part of the industry and I’m very, very grateful to Chris Conroy and the good folks at DC for giving me the shot. It was shortly after working on Gangs Of Gotham, that I had the notion of starting my creator owned series LIFEDEATH, which of course, led to my meeting Jeremy Atkins and the rest…isn’t history to absolutely ANYONE except for well, me and Jeremy!! But you get the idea!!
But, every once in a while, I’ll look these pages over and think…sigh, I REALLY wish we would have seen this through. Now, I basically consider this to be in the realm of fan fiction, so that’s why we decided to share the art with all of you.
So, without further adieu, here’s a whole lot of the GANGS OF GOTHAM pages, including two covers, for your perusing pleasure.
Enjoy!”
Check out the preview below.
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