The Killing Joke: the film versus Alan Moore's comic

How to adapt a story that is too short for a film? The response chosen here has become a textbook case of what not to do. Decryption source by source, without disclosing the outcomes.

As in each article in this series, only verified information (creators, distribution, dates, publishers) is stated; the comparative analysis is ours, without reproducing dialogue or protected images.

The Killing Joke (1988): forty-eight pages that changed everything

The Killing Joke was published by DC in 1988, written by Alan Moore and drawn by Brian Bolland. It is a unique story of around fifty pages, published outside of the regular series, in a neat format which was still a novelty at the time.

The point is based on a thesis, formulated by the Joker: the difference between an ordinary man and him is only one bad day. To demonstrate this, he sets out to break James Gordon - and to do so commits an act of brutality which has a lasting impact on the character of Barbara Gordon. At the same time, flashbacks tell a possible origin of the Joker, presented as uncertain by the story itself.

The title has become one of the best-selling and most cited in DC history. It is also one of the most discussed: the violence committed against Barbara Gordon has fueled decades of debate on the treatment of female characters in the medium, and Alan Moore himself has publicly expressed regret over this story, which he considers minor in his work.

Brian Bolland's work is inseparable from the result. His drawing of extreme precision - each line laid, no approximation - gives the story a clinical coldness which makes the horror more effective than any emphasis. Bolland also completely recolored the album for its anniversary edition, replacing the original bright colors with a muted palette, closer to his initial intention. Today's reader therefore has the choice between two visually very different versions of the same story - a rare case, and one that weighs on the collector's decisions.

The problem: forty-eight pages don't make a movie

All adaptations in this corpus face a problem of volume. Most have to compress: seventy-five issues of Sandman, one hundred and ninety-three of The Walking Dead. The Killing Joke poses the opposite, and the opposite is more difficult than it seems.

The source is around fifty pages, or around thirty minutes of animation. A video sales format requires more. Three solutions existed: take on a short film, as had been doneYear Oneby calibrating its duration over its four numbers; stretch the story itself by developing its scenes; or add hardware. It is the third way that was chosen.

The prologue, and why it was so poorly received

The film opens with about a completely invented half hour, centered on Barbara Gordon and an investigation unrelated to Moore's story. The stated intention was defensible: to give the character an existence of her own before what will happen to her, rather than reducing her to the role of victim - a long-standing criticism of the comic.

Reception has been overwhelmingly negative, for reasons beyond taste. Firstly because the prologue introduces a relationship between Barbara Gordon and Batman which has been perceived as uncomfortable given their history and their gap, and which has no basis in the source. Then because it produces the opposite effect to that sought: by making Barbara the subject of a romantic intrigue before placing her in the scene that we know, it reinforces the reading that it claimed to correct. Finally, because it damages the only thing that Moore's story had that was impeccable - its concision. The Killing Joke works like a rap; thirty minutes of warming up blunts the impact.

The second part of the film adapts the comic with application: the dialogues are largely preserved, the flashbacks respected, the funfair and the ordeal inflicted on Gordon faithfully carried. So we have a strange object, half of which is a careful adaptation and the other half a largely rejected addition. The case is similar to that ofPreacherand its first season as a prequel: in both cases, an adaptation wanted to install what its source had deliberately left off-camera.

The characters, from paper to screen

• The Joker— Its thesis and its possible origin are faithfully reproduced.
• Batman— Confronted with his own resemblance to his opponent.
• James Gordon— The real target of the Joker's demonstration.
• Barbara Gordon— Very developed in the invented prologue, as in the comic afterwards.

Alan Moore, Brian Bolland and the “prestige” format

A word on the publication context, because it explains the title's place on the market. In the late 1980s, DC experimented with a new format: full-length stories, printed on quality, high-priced hard softcover paper, sold as books rather than as booklets. The Killing Joke belongs to this wave, alongside other major titles of the period.

The difference withYear One, published the same year in the regular monthly series, is instructive for the collector. A prestige format costs more to purchase, is purchased by a more informed public, and is better preserved — you don't roll a collector's album in a back pocket. Result: high grade copies are proportionally more numerous than for a monthly of the same year, which weighs on the relative rarity. Conversely, the demand for this title is exceptionally strong and constant.

Brian Bolland, a British cartoonist who came from English comics, belongs to the same wave of authors who transformed DC in those years. His production of interior boards remained rare - he then devoted himself mainly to covers, of which he became one of the recognized masters. This rarity adds to the artist value of the title.

Collection side: what numbers to aim for after the film

Batman: The Killing Joke(1988) is a single story, which simplifies the collection: there is only one piece to aim for. The difficulty lies elsewhere — in identifying the edition. The title has seen many successive printings, and the distinction between the first and the following is the decisive point of the market. The print mentions generally make it possible to decide, but vigilance is required for advertisements which do not specify them.

The anniversary edition recolored by Bolland constitutes a separate object: it does not have the value of the first printing, but it is sought after for its own sake, being a version approved and reworked by the designer. Some collectors own both, precisely because they do not tell the same thing visually. OURkey numbers guidedetails the identification marks. As always, condition and gradation determine value; relying on real recent sales is strongly recommended.

Where to start reading

The story can be read in half an hour and requires no prior knowledge. The reader who comes from the film will discover that the entire prologue is absent, and that the comic goes straight to the point - this is precisely where its effectiveness lies. The choice between the original colorization and that of Bolland is a matter of taste; both defend themselves.

Timeline to know

• 1988— The Killing Joke is published by DC, in prestige format.
• 1990s-2000s— The title becomes one of the publisher's best-selling and most discussed.
• Anniversary edition— Brian Bolland completely recolors the album.
• 2016— The animated film, with its invented prologue.

Its place in the saga and for the collector

The Killing Joke will go down as the adaptation that stumbled upon an unusual problem – a source material that was too short – and chose the worst of the three available solutions. Its second half, however, shows that a faithful and brief version was perfectly within reach, as Year One had proven five years earlier. For the collector, the title remains one of the safest values ​​of the modern era, with a rare particularity: two official colorizations coexist, and the market treats them as two distinct objects.

The verdict: the second half faithful, the first too many

• Loyalty: the Joker's thesis, the flashbacks to his possible origin, what happens to Barbara Gordon, the funfair and the dialogues of the second half come from the comic.
• Freedoms: a half-hour prologue entirely invented, a relationship added without basis in the source, the conciseness broken, and the cutting like the colorization of Bolland not reproduced.
• To collect: Batman: The Killing Joke (1988, DC), first printing — and the anniversary edition recolored by Bolland.

The Killing Joke faithfully adapts Alan Moore and Brian Bolland in its second half, and ruins it in the first. The original story works as a blip; the film preceded it by a half hour which blunted its impact. For both the reader and the collector, it is an invitation to open the original forty-eight pages.

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