The Long Halloween creators Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale have opened up about getting back together to collaborate on the 25th-anniversary follow-up one-shot of the seminal series.
The team have collaborated for years on multiple projects, including The Long Halloween‘s sequel Dark Victory. Their other Batman-related projects include Catwoman: When in Rome. The last time they produced a book together was over ten years ago with Marvel’s Captain America: White.
A Creative Friendship
Fortunately, the team could not have been happier with the reunion. Artist Sale likens working together as a way to strengthen their own personal bond.
After spending almost the last 10 years apart, since we did Captain America: White, reconnecting with Jeph both in the work and talking every day as friends, rekindling that, finding that friendship and creative partnership again, it’s just been glorious. That’s the single best part that came out of doing a new Long Halloween story, is that our friendship is now stronger in many ways than it’s ever been. We’re just older, you know, two old bulls sitting up on the hill.
Meanwhile, writer Jeph Loeb pontificated about how his time in the television industry gave him some pressure to ensure continued reader interest in the original Long Halloween story. Fortunately, the story has gone on to huge critical and commercial success. The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan and The Batman director Matt Reeves have stated what a major influence the story has been. All of the praise has flattered Loeb.
Shows come out and people watch the first few episodes and go, “Yeah, it’s okay. I don’t think I’m going to watch it”. For it to have been accepted so widely, and to have filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and David Goyer talk about how it affected the Dark Knight Trilogy, and to have The Batman director Matt Reeves talk about how it influenced the new movie, and then for them to make the animated film adaptation – it really is quite flattering, and amazing. We’re very, very grateful to the fans because as I often say, I can’t do what I do unless they do what they do. So it’s a real partnership in that way.
What to Expect from ‘The Long Halloween Special’
So what should fans expect from the Special? Loeb coyly teased fans and was careful to reveal not a lot of the plot.
In every mystery, there are secrets, there are some secrets leftover from the original story that are revealed, and then there are some new secrets left when the new story is done. So, if you want to continue to play The Long Halloween game after this story, so to speak, we hope to be able to do that, but it’s DC’s decision. Obviously that decision may come down to how readers respond to the new story, but we certainly know that there’s a lot more story to tell. It’s a very rich time in Batman’s life.”
All right, Loeb. That was barely a tease. You gotta give us more than that!
Batman: The Long Halloween Special #1 is out now.
Source: newsrama.com