The legendary, Eisner Award-winning series BATMAN BLACK AND WHITE returns in a brand-new six-issue miniseries featuring tales of The Dark Knight by some of comics' greatest writers and artists! This first issue kicks off with stories by Chip Kidd and Michael Cho, Neal Adams, Joe Quinones and Maris Wicks, John Arcudi and Sean Murphy, and Howard Mackie and Chris Samnee!

Written by: Chip Kidd, Neal Adams, Joseph A Quinones Jr., Maris Wicks, John Arcudi, Howard Mackie
Art by: Michael Cho, Neal Adams, Joseph A Quinones Jr., Sean Murphy, Chris Samnee
Page Count: 48
U.S. Price: $4.99
Sale Date: Sept. 4th, 2013

The photos up above show the regular comic book cover (the 1st one) and the other special variant covers (The 4th one that is totally blank is specially designed so you can get a sketch done on it by a Comic Book Artist at Comic Book Convention. Also, the one with a “photo cover” showing a Batman: Black and White Statue, it’s the one created by Sean Murphy) . Yes, DC Comics has really gone all the way on this new series!

Then, down below, is an example of some of the interior art. The 1st photo of the inside art gives you an idea of what Chip Kidd’s story is gonna look like (Yes, Chip wrote another Batman story and this one includes Robin too!!). The artwork has a very cool retro vintage-style. Plus, I’m really digging the second one showing “Batman Zombie” by Neal Adams! Actually, ALL the art and writing in this thing is super great! You’re gonna love it!! So, please be sure to pick-up your copy today.

This is just a quick post to share this fun image I came across the other day. It’s a promotional poster created by MELTDOWN COMICS (Los Angeles, CA) for when they had Chip Kidd as a special guest. Of course, this was for the BAT-MANGA: THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN (Pantheon) Book Tour a few years ago. The ultra-cool thing was that this poster was super HUGE! Man, I totally love this image.

(CBR) DC Comics provided the website, Comic Book Resources, with an exclusive first look at Phil Noto’s variant cover for BATMAN: BLACK AND WHITE #1, which hits store shelves on September 4th, 2013. The revival of the original 1996 limited series features stories from a cornucopia of creators bringing their unique take on the Dark Knight. The debut issue of the new miniseries features work from Chip Kidd, Neal Adams, Joe Quinones, Maris Wicks, John Arcudi, Howard Mackie, Sean Murphy, Michael Cho and Chris Samnee.

The first issue was solicited with a black and white variant cover by Marc Silvestri, but DC has shifted Slivestri’s cover to be the main image, while Noto’s image will serve as the variant.

Check out Phil Noto’s take on Batman up above!

Here’s a cool piece of Graphic Art History! Dave Taylor, the Artist who drew Chip Kidd’s first DC Comics’ Graphic Novel, BATMAN: DEATH BY DESIGN, created this Promo Poster for the book which never got made. It was actually more like a prototype showing what the book COULD look like. Of course it has his “raw graphite pencil sketch” look, which did make it into the book and was also a great style for the story. So, that’s cool! Hey DC Comics, if you’re reading this you need to make this a poster for sale!!

You can see more of Dave Taylor’s ART if you CLICK HERE!

We reported awhile back here at CHIPKIDD.COM that DC Comics was going to premier a “Book Trailer” Video for their new line of Graphic Novels titled, BEFORE THE WATCHMEN, in Times Square (NYC, NY). There are 4 books in the complete set and Chip Kidd designed the covers for all of them! Some other excited news is that this is the very first time that DC Comics has had a promo on the giant Jumbotron, yes!

Up above is some actual photographic proof and if you still don’t believe us then check out this cool video, ha!

OK, I hope the picture up above is not misleading, ha! I mean, this is NOT a new book about “The Art of Batman: Death By Design”, ha ha! It’s a graphic designed to present a wonderful video created by Bernard Hill who seems to really like the Batman Graphic Novel created by Chip Kidd and Dave Taylor, BATMAN: DEATH BY DESIGN (DC Comics). It’s one of those “Book Trailers” where they browse through the book and give you an idea of it’s contents. It’s pretty well made and we think it really does showcase Dave Taylor’s amazing artwork really well. So, please check it out! (Thanks Bernard!)

This weekend, at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con (SDCC), Neil Gaiman made some HUGE announcements about coming back to his “Sandman” character for DC Comics’ Vertigo line. He will write the books and the interior art will be done by J. H. Williams III. The cover art (example up above ) is by Dave McKean and he will do a few other covers as well. This is great news, especially considering that the original comic books came out 25 years ago (circa 1988) and now we get to revisit that world and those amazing characters. The six-issue series starts this October and will be released bi-monthly. Yeah, we’re drooling already and can’t wait!! For more info just check out the video down below:

Here’s some very exciting comic book news! DC Comics has created a special TV Commercial for their brand-new set of 4 BEFORE WATCHMEN Graphic Novels (The covers of which were all designed by Chip Kidd!). The commercial, featuring artwork from the series, will begin airing on cable stations including IFC, TruTV and TNT this week.

Then, the BIG NEWS, it will be on the Jumbotron in New York City’s TIMES SQUARE starting July 16th. Fitting, when you consider that it was the location of the original series' climax!

Oh, and if you’re headed to San Diego, you can watch it in the DC Comics, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros booths. Oh yeah, before we forget, here’s the VIDEO… Check It Out!!

Here are the titles we’re talking about and they are available right now in hardcover, with two series collected in each deluxe edition:

- Before Watchmen: Minutemen/Silk Spectre, by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner
- Before Watchmen: Ozymandia/Curse of the Crimson Corsair, by Len Wein, Jae Lee, John Higgins and Steve Rude
- Before Watchmen: Nite Owl/Dr. Manhattan by J. Michael Straczynski, Adam Hughes, Andy Kubert, Joe Kubert, Bill Sienkiewicz and Eduardo Risso
- Before Watchmen: Comedian/Rorschach by Brian Azzarello, Lee Bermejo and J.G. Jones

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) will be in San Diego for the 2013 Comic-Con International (SDCC). You can find them at Booth #1920 and you’re going to NOT want to miss them because they will have a bunch of exciting things going on!

First, the CBLDF will have a few Exclusive items you can only get at this event. One such item is a brand-new T-Shirt with the face of EC Comics/Mad Magazine Creator, William Gaines. The shirt also has the motto, “Bill Gaines Was Right”, which relates to the censorship of comic books and supports free speech. Right On!

They will also have some exclusive variant-cover comic books, really great stuff like:

Adventure Time #18, with art by the amazingly talented Chrystin Garland!
Liberty Variant of Quantum and Woody #1, with a cover by Tony Millionaire!
Comics Code Variant of Lazarus #1, by the Creative Team of Rucka, Lark, and Arcas!
Also, don’t miss their authoritative guide book on Manga Art titled, Manga: Introduction, Challenges, and Best Practices!

Aside from these variants and exclusives, the CBLDF will also have in-booth book signings featuring designer Chip Kidd and translator Anne Ishii, among other exciting appearances! “Chip Kidd” related books on hand will include: Batman: Death by Design (DC Comics), Neil Gaiman's Make Good Art, and The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame. Of course they will have many other Creators, Artists, Writers, etc, as well. For a full signing schedule, CLICK HERE!

Chip Kidd, after being involved with a few projects with DC Comics’ characters, bought the original artwork from All-Star Superman #10, Batman & Robin #2 and a story from the 1960′s Japanese Batman Bat-Manga comics (with the art of Jiro Kuwata) and then had them specially custom-bound with glass covers. You can see them in the Comic Archive video down below and the end result is pretty interesting. Wow, what a treasure!