The most iconic Batman serial of all time, The Killing Joke, is getting an oversized prestige edition themed like a film camera (with removable lens and leather case) for an eye-watering €15,000 – approximately $17,500 / £13,000 / AU$24,400.
While other caped crusader comics are arguably better (check out The Dark Knight Returns and Year One), what makes The Killing Joke the most iconic Batman graphic novel ever is its cover – featuring a rictus-grinning Joker pointing a camera at the viewer.
Drawn by Brian Bolland, it's one of the greatest comic book covers the medium has ever seen – and it reflects the Joker's twisted use of photography to psychologically torture Commissioner Gordon, in what serves as the villain's most widely accepted origin story.
ABOVE: Watch the ridiculously beautiful book "trailer"
The 1988 comic, written by similarly iconic Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta), has inspired everything from action figures to an animated movie – and now the essential Batman story is being presented in the most prestigious of prestige editions, styled after the Joker's fictitious Witz film camera.
Described by publisher Argent Comics as "the world’s first giclée-printed comic book," only 52 volumes will ever exist – 47 for sale to the public, with 5 archive copies for Argent and DC.
"Each side of every page is giclée-printed individually, then fused by hand using a patent-pending technique to form the book block. The volume is bound into precision-milled aluminium boards, lined by hand with goatskin leather, a faithful recreation of the Witz camera from the story’s iconic cover.
"The case is bound by hand in cinnamon calf leather, lined with purple and green suede, and fitted with a tropic strap. Equal parts protection and display piece. Where tradition falls short, we engineer forward. Where technology lacks soul, we return to the hand."
Photographers will drool over the detachable anodized aluminum lens, held in place by magnets and swivelable (so people like me can pretend to focus it), and every page being printed on bespoke Hahnemühle Photo Rag Metallic paper, made exclusively for the publisher.
I've justified some extravagant (read: ridiculous) camera-related purchases in my time, but $17,400 for a comic is a bit rich even for my blood. I might have been able to talk myself into $1,740, but there are too many decimals here for me – no matter how excited this makes me.
I'd also love to hear what Alan Moore has to say about this, as the famously curmudgeonly once told Deadline: "It wasn’t meant to be a medium for middle-aged hobbyists. It was meant to be a medium for people who haven’t got much money."
Still, if you're the sort of person who just wants to watch the world burn, though, Argent Comics "invite serious collectors to arrange a private viewing by appointment. You are also welcome to collect your edition personally from our atelier in Zagreb."
Find out more about Batman: The Killing Joke – Avant Garde Edition at the official website.
