Article by Steve J. Ray
In a recent interview with Newsarama, Three Jokers artist Jason Fabok divulged the identities (and personalities) of the mysterious alter-egos of the Clown Prince Of Crime.
Fabok was the artist on Geoff Johns’ “Darkseid War” arc, from the pages of Justice League, and this is where the mystery of the Three Jokers was first revealed to the world, almost exactly five years ago. Batman fans worldwide have been waiting anxiously for all that time, eager to learn more. With the first issue of Three Jokers due to hit comic shops on August 25th, getting this information now will only add to the excitement.
According to Fabok, the characters will be based on different comic-book eras, and the villains personas will be The Criminal, The Clown, and The Comedian.
Jason Fabok:
Part of us wanted to make something different and defined, and part of it is that they’re also supposed to look a little similar to each other. Visually, Batman would see that if there were these three jokers – a lot of people complained, ‘Well how could the greatest detective not know this?’ Well, because they all look very much the same. There are little visual differences to them that you’ll see in the book.
The biggest one that we did was with the Golden Age Joker, we called him ‘the Criminal Joker’, and he’s the one that doesn’t really smile. That kind of goes back to Batman #1 in 1940, where there are these creepy panels where he’s not smiling and then there are creepy panels with big grins and whatnot. We chose to really lock in on the not smiling part, and it’s so much creepier. It’s a cold calculating version of the Joker and he’s a criminal mastermind. It’s just a very different feeling to the Joker.
Then we have ‘the Clown(ish) Joker’ as we call him. He’s like the classic Joker from the ’40s and ’50s, and so everything with him is brighter, louder, and a lot cornier – like the big gags that would happen in the ’50s comic books, those kinds of things that were a lot of fun. We touch on a lot of those and tip our hat to some of those moments from the classic comic books in the ’50s and ’60s, especially.
Then you have your modern age Joker, who we call ‘the Comedian Joker.’ He’s The Killing Joke joker. He’s very psychotic and just evil. He’s always smiling and cackling. I played up a lot on that with the way that Brian Bolland drew him in those classic books.
I don’t want to go into too much more because I want people to just read it and see how it all comes together, but each one is its own thing. Yet, each one also feels like they’re part of the other versions of the Joker. That’s what makes the mystery a little bit more fun.
The Killing Joke
Fabok also goes on to state that he has three copies of The Killing Joke, and that this book was his greatest inspiration. It’s not hard to see why, because it remains one of the greatest Joker stories ever told, even now, over thirty years after its original publication.
In a few short weeks we’ll meet the Three Jokers, and a secret five years in the making will finally be revealed.
I’ll definitely be picking this series up, will you? Please let us know.
Issue #1 is due out on August 25th, and you can read the full Newsarama interview here.
Images Courtesy Of DC Entertainment
