Batman: Black and White (2013) #4

Batman: Black and White (2013) (Single Issues) #4

by Mike Allred, Lee Allred, Nathan Edmondson

New tales of the Dark Knight from the creative talents of Nathan Edmondson and Kenneth Rocafort, Dustin Nguyen, Michael Allred and Lee Allred, David Macho and Ruben Pellejero and Sean “Cheeks” Galloway.

Genres: Batman, Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Comic Book

49 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 4, 2013

About the author

Michael 'Doc' Allred (Also Credited as M. Dalton Allred) grew up in the 60's and 70's and was surrounded with the best in pop culture and a steady diet of music, movies and comic books including the three B's: Beatles, Bond and Batman to the point of obsession.

So it should come as no surprise that he keeps a hand in film and music (He's the lead singer and guitarist for The Gear), but comic books have always been a seminal source of joy for Mike and that joy remains the main ingredient in most of his work.

Allred first tasted success in the comics field with his wildly popular MADMAN series, which is currently being developed for a live action film with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. His earlier work from GRAFIK MUZIK was turned into the cult hit movie G-Men from Hell directed by Christopher Coppola (featuring Robert Goulet as the Devil). Other work includes Red Rocket 7, his history of Rock and Roll told in the context of a sci-fi adventure storyl the Madman spin-off THE ATOMICS and his magnum opus, THE GOLDEN PLATES, where he's illustrating the entire Book of Mormon.

Mike counts the secret to his success to be his wife, and creative partner, Laura Allred, who is is considered to be one of the best colorists in the business.

Reviews

[Ｆｒａｎｋｈ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't a stellar issue as far as Batman Black and White standards go. I tried to think about how to come up with a decent review but there's not much to say about this particular issue except that I probably enjoyed looking at the artwork more than the writing. The five stories presented were simplistic and easy to just set aside after reading. I suppose it's suffice to say that style was prioritized over substance. There's not enough meat and bones to the stories that would capture and hold someone's imagination for long.

I did, however, find some very cute moments in all the stories but the moment is usually fleeting, and as soon as I closed the book, I was not left with any sense of lasting fulfillment. I still have issues 5 and 6 and I am hoping that they will fare better. I'll be on the look-out for the earlier three as well. I've watched a handful of motion comics online for Batman Black and White stories, and most of them have been outstanding so far so I still have expectations that the next issues will set the bar a little higher than what was accomplished here.

NOT RECOMMENDED: 6/10
* You're free to skip this one but the first story Ghost of Gotham is actually worth a glimpse.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first of the black and white series I’ve read. The short stories take up about 8-ish pages each, which is a properly challenging limitation. And for the most part each story succeeds. The art is *gorgeous*. It’s seriously the main reason to get this book. The first story is my favorite art style (I think by Kenneth Rocafort?), even though Sean Galloway has the last story and his art is always #goals.