Paul Dini and Eduardo Risso teaming for ‘Dark Night: A True Batman Story’, an original graphic novel
Now here is a legit meeting of the artistic minds. Paul Dini and Eduardo Risso are bringing their talents together for what will hopefully produce glorious synergy. It has been announced that the duo are putting out an original Batman graphic novel, inspired by actual events in Dini’s life.
Paul Dini has teamed with Eduardo Risso for “Dark Night: A True Batman Story,” an original graphic novel inspired by a traumatic event in the veteran writer’s life.
The 121-page book will be published in June by Vertigo.
For the graphic novel, announced in The Hollywood Reporter, Dini revisits his own 1993 mugging in Los Angeles that left part of his skull shattered, requiring surgery.
According to the website, “Dark Night” features Batman and his rogues gallery as a Greek chorus of sorts, with the focus on Dini, “then a recent Emmy winner for ‘Tiny Toon Adventures’, who drinks too much and dates the wrong women. […] Then one night he runs afoul of two thugs. In the days, weeks and months that follow, he tries his best to recover but has to navigate Batman and his infamous cohorts, who offer criticism and advice as if angels and devils on his shoulders.”
Batman is described as “a blunt parental figure” who berates Dini and tells him he could’ve gotten away from his assailants, while The Joker urges him to “take it easy and not leave his apartment.”
“I’m not saying I talk to cartoon characters all the time,” Dini tells THR, “but the characters are very real to me. In a very non-insane way.”