Batman and the Outsiders
 

So, as I noted in the Batman thread I got the first volume of Batman and the Outsiders. I LOVE that book. But as I've just skimmed across Volume 2 I'm noticing that the art kind of goes to hell when Jim Aparo isn't doing it (and he only did the art for about half the issues in Volume 2).


Trevor Von Eeden did #15, and that is THE absolute worst comic book art I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of bad art over the decades. The story is fine, but the art flat out sucks. Bill Willingham and Bill Anderson are serviceable, but not all that good. Then after Aparo leaves you get Alan Davis, and his art just doesn't come close to what Aparo had been doing.

So I'm on the fence about getting volume 3. I want to read the stories, but, man, the art on a couple of these is a chore to get through, and as Alan Davis became the regular artist (and I'm not a big fan of his art in his first couple of issues), I'm not sure if I really want it. I'll probably get it, but I have some reservations.

Has anyone read the issues that make up volume 3 (24-32)? Does his art get better?

Re: Batman and the Outsiders
 

It's been many years since I read BATO but Aparo (who is my favorite Batman artist) was great on the book. I recall Von Eeden doing very stylized work in #15. If I recall correctly, he inked himself and I think it worked. If that's the worst art you've seen in a comic book, you haven't read enough comic books. Alan Davis, IMO, is one of the all-time comic greats. If you don't like him, I don't know what to tell you. Spoiler alert, Batman eventually quits and the book becomes the Outsiders only. Good news though, Aparo comes back. My recollection was that this, like Teen Titans, was one of the titles where DC experimented with a deluxe baxter edition while the regular newsprint was still being released. Aparo left to do the deluxe title and eventually the regular comic began to reprint the baxter title (I think). I was buying these single issues off the stand at the time so my memory is a bit fuzzy.

Re: Batman and the Outsiders
 

Von Eeden wasn't just doing stylized work, it was sloppy stylized work where everything looked like he was rushed and had to do the whole book in one day. It was rough, haphazard art.

As for Davis, the first couple of issues he did looked somewhat sloppy, too (especially the shapes of some of the faces, just a little bit), and the characters didn't look right compared to how Aparo drew them.

Yeah, I knew that Batman left the group, and I knew that the main title became a reprint series like Teen Titans, reprinting those deluxe issues.

Re: Batman and the Outsiders
 

So I ended up getting the third book, and it's pretty good. The art isn't anywhere near as good as when Jim Aparo was doing it, but it wasn't bad. (From what little of Davis' later art I've seen he did get better over time, too.)

I'm glad I got it.

Now, The Outsiders continued without Batman, and I'd love to read the next 12-15 issues in a TPB. It's a shame that DC doesn't seem likely to reprint those issues in TPB format. (I definitely wouldn't expect a hardcover collection like these...)

Re: Batman and the Outsiders
 

Glad it improves. I never read the book during the original run but liked the Showcase and bought the three collections digitally but haven’t read them yet.