Legends of The Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle Volume 1 HC (Batman) Hardcover – 4 Aug. 2015

Norm Breyfogle is one of the names I will always fondly associate with Batman. His style truely lifts Batman and his world off the page in ways that contemporaries (and many after) simply didn't. Breyfogle's panels explode with energy and drama! His exaggerated expressions and movements drawing you in with their detail, and his sense of space and framing is still amongst the best I've ever seen.On to the stories themselves. Breyfogle is well known for his association with Alan Grant, and rightfully so. They are a team that perfectly complement each other, and there are several classics here including the introduction of several long-standing enemies.This features the first appearences of the Ventrilloquist and Scarface (excellent, probably V&S's best issues), the Ratcatcher (Also excellent, definitely RC's best story), the Corrosive Man, Kadaver, Cornelius Stirk (again, best story), Joe Potato (taking a moment here, "Ecstacy" is actually one of my favourite one off Batman stories), and the epic Mud Pack 4-parter in which ALL Clayfaces (technically...) band together to kill Batman, resulting in the now well-known Basil Karlo version of Clayface (prior to this, he was a normal human in a mask, which itself was an excellent very early Batman story).As per the cover, we also see The Demon, who Breyfogle and Grant have had fun with several times over the years.Hopefully, we'll get a volume 2 for the first appearences of Anarky, Zsasz and much, much more.

I'm so thrilled that we are finally getting a collection of Breyfogle's work! As he is my favourite artist this book is a real treat for me and includes a couple of early works I have never read.The late 80s/early 90s Batman stories penned by Alan Grant (and John Wagner) with Breyfogle on art duties are absolute classics and my favourite era of the Dark Knight.This is a pretty packed collected volume of 23 issues. Highlights include the fantastic 4 part Mud Pack story, featuring a team up of Clayfaces, and first appearances of The Ventriloquist and Scarface and Cornelius Stirk.I really hope DC will continue to collect Breyfogle's stunning work for many volumes to come!Beautiful art, wonderful stories, highly recommended!

Very nice book and I'm extremely happy for with this publication a very long wait has finally come to an end. I love the work of Mr. Breyfogle and I grew up with his Batman, and him and his writing contributor Alan Grant are responsible for my Bat obsession big time.As I said I'm very happy for the book but it's not without it's issues. While the book itself is gorgeous and will go on your shelf like it was born there I think the art (one of the most important part of the book) is being ruined by overly saturated digital colors and some kind of barbaric scanning process they used that makes all the black lines massive and strong. That great many times destroys the fantastic inking done by Steve Mitchell. The details are lost. Some frames only some of it remains making it look like a printing flaw. In certain frames certain items are colored wrong by mistake, blond hair is green, previously red jacket is now yellow etc. Anyway, I don't mean to moan, as I said I'm very happy that we finally got a collected Breyfogle. It's long overdue. The cover says Volume 1. which implies there is gonna be another one coming. I hope so. But I also hope that next time they will be less hasty and take bit more time to make things look nicer.

Arguably the best Batman artist ever, this massive hardback volume is a fantastic. The art is printed on shiny high quality paper and is superbly reproduced with clear vibrant colours. The run of stories in this book are just fantastic, some of ther best Batman tales ever written.If I have one complaint is that the packaging pretty much ignores the input of the writers to the contents. None qualify for a mention on the sleeve notes. Strange given that the vast majority of them are written by one writer - Alan Grant. Other writers include Mike Barr, Jo Duffy, Max Allan Collins, Robert Greenberger and of course Grant's co-writer at the start of the run: John Wagner.At £24 its a bit expensive, but If you like Batman - this is a great buy.

When people say to me "Think of Batman" - This is what I think of. Finally DC have pulled together the work of one of the most under-rated Batman artists of all time. Very sad to hear of Norm's recent stroke. I hope that DC will contribute the money from the volume towards his medical bills.

One of the best artist of Batman! The art and the storys are exceptional/Fantastic! Its a graphic novell to have in a good our library! indispensable!

Some of the stories are kinda campy and naive, but I got it mainly for Breyfogle's art. His a bit old-school style reminds me old good times when I was a kid reading Batman regularly and stuff. Nice good sentimental journey into the past. Also, Breyfogle draws actions superbly, even by today's standards. Just too bad that they picked one of the worse covers for the whole thing. Still, a great book.

Talk about cashing in. A disgrace.