i believe in harvey dent too

Check out this cool viral site for the upcoming Batman: Dark Knight movie which is still in production. Ok so it looks like an error page. Wrong! See if you can highlight the text. Ha ha! But that's not it either. Check this out. Copy and paste the whole lot into a text editor and then use the find and replace function (usually under the edit function) to replace all the "Ha"s with just a blank space. To make the secret code even more obvious. Find all the "spaces" and replace them with simply nothing and the coded message should be really easy to read.

Catch up lady has lots of news around other campaigns that have been witnessed in and around the LA area for the new Batman movie. How excited am I. I absolutely love this kind of marketing as it gives an edge over traditional advertising and it appeals to it's target audience. Can anyone say Annie's secret decoder ring? (watch Woody Allen's Radio Days if you have no idea what I'm going on about).

the dark knight returns

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns was originally released in 1986 and brought with it a welcome breath of fresh air into the Batman franchise. The superhero gets reimagined by Frank Miller as an aging ex-superhero, now 55, who hasn't fought crime as Batman for 10 years. The character is also haunted by the death of his side-kick Robin, amongst other angsts. For me this was my first venture into the world of the graphic novel being firmly locked in the cinema realm or traditional novel world. This truely is an amalgam of the two genres, in what most would see as a comic. Really it is much more than this and the reason that this medium is hearalded for the success of many movies of late. My interest was sparked after seeing Sin City which watches exactly as the graphic novel reads. This story is also penned by Frank Miller who's upcoming movie 300 is of interest to me as well. I think the style of narrative is a big pull.

In Batman the illustrator is Klaus Janson who has a gritty etched style that feels almost dirty. Perfect for reimagining a dark hero who is miles apart from the pussy whipped Superman (he makes an appearance as a character whom worldwide governments have allowed to remain saving lives but is not seen anymore as a hero). It is a dark tale told with gusto. The camp character we once knew is transformed into a really dark hero who is seen as a vigilante and enemy of the state. He fights criminals with extreme violence and pays no mind to hurting police along the way.

This graphic novel has opened the way for me and I'm looking forward to reading Hellboy, The Watchmen and Dark Empire amongst others. All it takes is to get over your fear of reading a comic book as an adult and you will be in for a treat.