CBR News: What was your introduction to Batman?
Damon Lindelof: “Super Friends” and the Adam West “Batman” were my fundamental introductions to the character. I had a Batman alarm clock when I was five years old. It was a talking alarm clock with Batman and Robin on the front. When it went off every morning, Robin would say, “Jumping Jehoshaphat, Batman” and then the two of them would have a whole little dialogue. I had bed sheets and all that stuff too, but that was my first exposure to him.
What is interesting is that Adam West gave me a fundamental understanding of who Bruce Wayne was, but Bruce Wayne isn’t even in “Super Friends.” He was only Batman. At the time, I didn’t really group them in the same category because one was animated and one was live action.
What about as a comic book reader?
I remember “The Dark Knight Returns” really specifically, because my dad was reading it and I knew that it was very cool and very dark. Obviously, that whole shift was happening in terms of the deconstruction of superheroes. I remember “Year One,” which was also [Frank] Mille,r and then, of course, “The Killing Joke,” with Barbara getting crippled. I feel like those all came out within a week of each other, but I know I’m covering something like a three-year period. That was really my primary exposure to the comic book Batman.
Since then, I’ve dropped in and out over the years. I remember getting back in during the early 2000s when [Jeph] Loeb and [Jim] Lee did “Hush,” and I followed [Grant] Morrison’s run, too. All the Batman titles aren’t on my weekly pull list today, but I am aware of what’s happening with the character.
Last year, you did a Superman story for “Action Comics” #900. What brought you back to DC Comics to do a Batman story?
What happened was that I basically became obsessed with Jeff [Lemire]. [Laughs] I read “Sweet Tooth” and was like, “Holy shit. Who is this guy?” I googled him and found out about “Essex County,” so I ran out and grabbed the collected edition and read it cover to cover. Then I tweeted about him and about how awesome “Sweet Tooth” was. And then, he tweeted back at me, we exchanged email addresses and just started talking to each other.
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Source – CBR
– Adam