Batman: The Long Halloween #1

History

The project grew directly out of Loeb and Sale's well-received Halloween specials for the Legends of the Dark Knight anthology — 'Fears' (1993), 'Madness' (1994), and 'Ghosts' (1995) — which editor Archie Goodwin had shepherded into existence after noticing Sale's chiaroscuro style was a natural fit for Batman's world. Goodwin then approached the duo at San Diego Comic-Con and encouraged them to build something larger around Gotham's organized crime, particularly mob boss Carmine Falcone, who had been introduced in Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One. Writer Mark Waid further nudged Loeb to focus on Harvey Dent's pre-scarring years, noting that era had never been explored in depth despite Dent's appearance in Year One, and Loeb — drawing on his background as a Hollywood screenwriter and his love of film noir and The Godfather — structured the story as what DC's own editorial has called Batman's first true maxiseries. Colorist Gregory Wright and letterer Richard Starkings of Comicraft rounded out the core team, with Wright's deliberately muted palette proving as integral to the book's atmosphere as Sale's angular draftsmanship.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published on October 16, 1996 (cover-dated December 1996) by DC Comics; written by Jeph Loeb, art and cover by Tim Sale, colors by Gregory Wright, letters by Richard Starkings / Comicraft, edited by Archie Goodwin.
• Issue #1 is titled 'Chapter One: Crime' and runs 48 pages in prestige format — a larger, higher-production format also used for the series finale, issue #13; the eleven middle issues were standard format.
• First appearance of Alberto Falcone, son of crime boss Carmine Falcone, who is ultimately revealed across the series as the holiday killer known as 'Holiday.'
• The series functions as an unofficial sequel to Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One, reusing that story's early-career continuity and its supporting cast of Gordon, Dent, Falcone, and Catwoman.
• The phrase 'I believe in Harvey Dent,' spoken in issue #1, was later lifted almost verbatim by screenwriter David S. Goyer for The Dark Knight (2008).
• The full 13-issue series won the 1998 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series.
• The series directly influenced Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy (screenwriter David S. Goyer has cited it) and Matt Reeves' The Batman (2022), and was adapted as a two-part DC Universe Animated Original Movie in 2021.
• Issue #1 has been reprinted in numerous collected formats, including the 1998 hardcover collection, the 2007 Absolute Edition, the 2018 Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale Omnibus, the 2021 Deluxe Edition, a 2024 Batman Day Special Edition excerpt, and a 2025 Facsimile Edition.

Full credits

Key issues in Batman: The Long Halloween

Variants (1)