HOME | DD

Description
This is digital art I made of Gotham with the Toronto Canada Old City Hall built in 1889 as the Gotham Police Station with the Bat Signal as seen from the Gothic/noir Batman (1989), since the Gotham Police Station designed by Batman (1989) production designer Anton Furst strongly resembled the Old City Hall building in Canada, and the Machynlleth Wales clock tower built in 1874 as the Gotham City clock tower since the clock tower strongly resembles the Gotham clock tower in Detective Comics #46 (1940), Batman #2 (1940), and the Paris Notre-Dame Catholic cathedral with gargoyles built in 1345 as the Gotham Catholic cathedral with gargoyles and Batman on the rooftop since the gargoyle strongly resembles the gargoyle on Batman #221 (1970) cover by Neal Adams, based on the look of Gotham in the early Golden Age Batman comics by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Sheldon Moldoff, Jerry Robinson, and the Bronze Age Batman comics by Neal Adams and the Batman (1989) movie by Tim Burton and production designer Anton Furst. Gargoyles architecture were meant to frighten people onto the path of righteousness and to scare away evil spirits www.rajeshbihani.com/raj/100/ (the same reason why Bruce Wayne dresses as a bat is to scare evil people). I used real buildings to counter claims that the buildings with the Gothic architecture in Batman (1989) didn't look like any real buildings in any real city, these look like the architecture in Batman (1989) and are real.

The Gotham Police Station designed for Batman (1989) wasn't in Batman (1989) or Batman Returns (1992). Batman (1989) centered mostly around the Gotham City Hall and Monarch Theatre area, and Batman Returns (1992) centered mostly around the Gotham Plaza and Shreck's Department Store area. The Gotham Police Station designed for Batman (1989) did appear in the comic books starting with Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #27 (1992) "The Destroyer Part Two: Solomon" written by Denny O'Neil and art by Chris Sprouse where the modern Gotham Police Department building was blown up so the old Gotham Police Station was used and continued to be used throughout the 1995-1998 Batman run written by Doug Moench and art by Kelley Jones. Until writer Chuck Dixon created a stupid earthquake event in 1998 called Cataclysm destroying all of the awesome detailed ancient Gothic architecture in Gotham that Anton Furst designed. I'd just make the whole dumb 1998-2000 Cataclysm/No Man's Land earthquake story into a fear gas hallucination Batman had which was caused by the Scarecrow. The next quality Batman comic was Batman: War on Crime (1999) written by Paul Dini and art by Alex Ross which completely ignored the dumb event and included Gothic architecture in Gotham with Batman on a Gotham gargoyle like the gargoyles on the France Amiens Catholic Cathedral built in 1270 and the Perth Amboy New Jersey St. Stephan's Catholic Church and Batman in a Gotham graveyard and Batman on another Gotham gargoyle based on the gargoyles on the New York Chrysler building built in 1930.

Gotham shouldn't be bright and glossy looking. Gotham should continue to be authentically Tudor Gothic Art Nouveau and dark with fog-infested night skies, Batman is nocturnal, in contrast to the Art Deco architecture and bright blue skies of Metropolis, Superman is bright and cheery and works in the day both as Clark Kent at the Daily Planet in Metropolis and as Superman. As Jules Feiffer described in The Great Comic Book Heroes (1965) "Batman inhabited a world that cast long shadows - seen from weird perspectives - fog-infested look. Batman's world was scary; Superman's, never."

The comic book Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #27 (1992) "The Destroyer Part Two: Solomon" written by Denny O'Neil brought the detailed architecture that production designer Anton Furst designed for Batman (1989) into the comic books and explained that Bruce Wayne's ancestor Solomon Wayne started a dozen businesses in Gotham creating the Wayne fortune and had architect Cyrus Pinkney design the decorative Tudor Gothic Revival Art Nouveau architecture for Gotham, which gives Gotham a unique character instead of just looking like an ordinary bland boring city.

From the very first 1939 Batman comic books by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, etc. Gotham had lots of Gothic clock towers, bell towers, Gothic castles, gloomy old mansions and Gothic lamp posts, winter trees, and was very foggy, with bats flying around, and it always was a full moon at night, and detailed Batman artist Neal Adams showed gargoyles architecture in Gotham first in 1970, so Gothic architecture and Gothic/noir atmosphere was in Batman comic books decades before the Batman (1989) movie, Tim Burton was being faithful to that. Bill Finger explained in Jim Steranko's History of Comics volume 1 (1970), "I patterned my style of writing Batman after The Shadow. Also after the old Warner Brothers movies, the (film noir) gangster movies with James Cagney, George Raft, Bogart. I always liked that kind of dramatic point of view. It was completely pulp style." Bob Kane explained in his autobiography Batman & Me (1989) co-written by Tom Andrae, "Films also contributed to the dark, mysterioso atmosphere I tried to evoke in Batman. I was a real movie buff as a kid. Movies like Dracula, with Bela Lugosi - with the fog swirling up around the moors and the evil old castle - left an indelible impression on me. The first year of Batman was heavily influenced by horror films, and emulated a Dracula look. I also loved the mystery movies and serials; The Shadow on the radio was a big influence. Bill Finger was a great fan of pulps like The Shadow."

Batman artist Kelley Jones said, "I always think of Gotham as a place where you can have steam engines next to Concorde jets, and hook and ladder phones next to a PC. It's just it's Gotham, you know, and Gotham's a weird place. And I always figure the reason that is, is Gotham has real strong unions, you know. They can keep the hook and ladder phones there because they have a hook and ladder phone company, or manufacturing company, you know, right next to the guys who are importing the Apple computers. That's just the way it is. It's a wonky town, and it takes a wonky hero. Oh, to me atmosphere, that this is a different comic book, flavor-wise, than, not so much the other guys doing, just specifically bat-books, but just in general comics, superhero stuff. I think if there's one thing I've brought back to it again, it's mystery. He [Doug Moench] doesn't reinvent these characters, he just presents them in a modern context so they don't--you know what worked in the forties, or in that classic period works now. And that's all he does. He just keeps it not dated. He doesn't let it seem tied to the time." www.comic-art.com/intervws/jon…

Metropolis was named after the movie Metropolis (1927) and based on Jerry Siegel's 1930s art deco Cleveland. Gotham City was named after New York City and Bill Finger based it on a mix of The Shadow's eerie 1930s New York City in The Shadow pulps, Zorro's corrupt old Spanish California in Douglas Fairbanks The Mark of Zorro (1920) and Dracula's Gothic Transylvania castle with bats and the Gothic foggy London in Dracula (1931). Also on the 1930s noir atmosphere of cities in the old Warner Brothers movies, the (film noir) gangster movies with James Cagney, George Raft, Bogart. Neal Adams brought the Gothic gargoyles architecture to Gotham first on the Batman #221 (1970) cover. In The Amazing World of DC Comics #14 (1977) Paul Levitz wrote that Metropolis is in Delaware and Gotham City is in New Jersey, based on nothing by the creators. The DC Universe Role Playing Game (1990) repeated that Metropolis is in Delaware and Gotham City is in New Jersey.

The William Dozier/Adam West Gotham City Police Headquarters in the satirical comedy show and the 1966 movie was a dull white building set on the Warner Brothers studio lot in Burbank, California and Adam West's Batman would walk up the steps and go through the front door in broad daylight. powsley.blogspot.com/2008/12/g…
Dozier: "The idea came to me to make it so square, so cliche-ridden, so corny and so bad that it would be funny." www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUIMP3…
The Joel Schumacher/Val Kilmer Gotham City Police Headquarters in the satirical comedy Batman Forever was a set based on the 60 Wall Street in New York with shiny, glamorous architecture instead of Gothic. Schumacher said he was determined to "not have kids terrified." Yet he replaced the Gothic noir elements with flamboyant ambiguously gay elements which he called "sexy and fun". Completely out of character for Batman.
The Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale Gotham City Police Headquarters in the action-dramas Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises was at the white Farmiloe Building in Chicago. www.movie-locations.com/movies…

Description
This is digital art I made of Gotham with the Toronto Canada Old City Hall built in 1889 as the Gotham Police Station with the Bat Signal as seen from the Gothic/noir Batman (1989), since the Gotham Police Station designed by Batman (1989) production designer Anton Furst strongly resembled the Old City Hall building in Canada, and the Machynlleth Wales clock tower built in 1874 as the Gotham City clock tower since the clock tower strongly resembles the Gotham clock tower in Detective Comics #46 (1940), Batman #2 (1940), and the Paris Notre-Dame Catholic cathedral with gargoyles built in 1345 as the Gotham Catholic cathedral with gargoyles and Batman on the rooftop since the gargoyle strongly resembles the gargoyle on Batman #221 (1970) cover by Neal Adams, based on the look of Gotham in the early Golden Age Batman comics by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Sheldon Moldoff, Jerry Robinson, and the Bronze Age Batman comics by Neal Adams and the Batman (1989) movie by Tim Burton and production designer Anton Furst. Gargoyles architecture were meant to frighten people onto the path of righteousness and to scare away evil spirits www.rajeshbihani.com/raj/100/ (the same reason why Bruce Wayne dresses as a bat is to scare evil people). I used real buildings to counter claims that the buildings with the Gothic architecture in Batman (1989) didn't look like any real buildings in any real city, these look like the architecture in Batman (1989) and are real.

The Gotham Police Station designed for Batman (1989) wasn't in Batman (1989) or Batman Returns (1992). Batman (1989) centered mostly around the Gotham City Hall and Monarch Theatre area, and Batman Returns (1992) centered mostly around the Gotham Plaza and Shreck's Department Store area. The Gotham Police Station designed for Batman (1989) did appear in the comic books starting with Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #27 (1992) "The Destroyer Part Two: Solomon" written by Denny O'Neil and art by Chris Sprouse where the modern Gotham Police Department building was blown up so the old Gotham Police Station was used and continued to be used throughout the 1995-1998 Batman run written by Doug Moench and art by Kelley Jones. Until writer Chuck Dixon created a stupid earthquake event in 1998 called Cataclysm destroying all of the awesome detailed ancient Gothic architecture in Gotham that Anton Furst designed. I'd just make the whole dumb 1998-2000 Cataclysm/No Man's Land earthquake story into a fear gas hallucination Batman had which was caused by the Scarecrow. The next quality Batman comic was Batman: War on Crime (1999) written by Paul Dini and art by Alex Ross which completely ignored the dumb event and included Gothic architecture in Gotham with Batman on a Gotham gargoyle like the gargoyles on the France Amiens Catholic Cathedral built in 1270 and the Perth Amboy New Jersey St. Stephan's Catholic Church and Batman in a Gotham graveyard and Batman on another Gotham gargoyle based on the gargoyles on the New York Chrysler building built in 1930.

Gotham shouldn't be bright and glossy looking. Gotham should continue to be authentically Tudor Gothic Art Nouveau and dark with fog-infested night skies, Batman is nocturnal, in contrast to the Art Deco architecture and bright blue skies of Metropolis, Superman is bright and cheery and works in the day both as Clark Kent at the Daily Planet in Metropolis and as Superman. As Jules Feiffer described in The Great Comic Book Heroes (1965) "Batman inhabited a world that cast long shadows - seen from weird perspectives - fog-infested look. Batman's world was scary; Superman's, never."

The comic book Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #27 (1992) "The Destroyer Part Two: Solomon" written by Denny O'Neil brought the detailed architecture that production designer Anton Furst designed for Batman (1989) into the comic books and explained that Bruce Wayne's ancestor Solomon Wayne started a dozen businesses in Gotham creating the Wayne fortune and had architect Cyrus Pinkney design the decorative Tudor Gothic Revival Art Nouveau architecture for Gotham, which gives Gotham a unique character instead of just looking like an ordinary bland boring city.

From the very first 1939 Batman comic books by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, etc. Gotham had lots of Gothic clock towers, bell towers, Gothic castles, gloomy old mansions and Gothic lamp posts, winter trees, and was very foggy, with bats flying around, and it always was a full moon at night, and detailed Batman artist Neal Adams showed gargoyles architecture in Gotham first in 1970, so Gothic architecture and Gothic/noir atmosphere was in Batman comic books decades before the Batman (1989) movie, Tim Burton was being faithful to that. Bill Finger explained in Jim Steranko's History of Comics volume 1 (1970), "I patterned my style of writing Batman after The Shadow. Also after the old Warner Brothers movies, the (film noir) gangster movies with James Cagney, George Raft, Bogart. I always liked that kind of dramatic point of view. It was completely pulp style." Bob Kane explained in his autobiography Batman & Me (1989) co-written by Tom Andrae, "Films also contributed to the dark, mysterioso atmosphere I tried to evoke in Batman. I was a real movie buff as a kid. Movies like Dracula, with Bela Lugosi - with the fog swirling up around the moors and the evil old castle - left an indelible impression on me. The first year of Batman was heavily influenced by horror films, and emulated a Dracula look. I also loved the mystery movies and serials; The Shadow on the radio was a big influence. Bill Finger was a great fan of pulps like The Shadow."

Batman artist Kelley Jones said, "I always think of Gotham as a place where you can have steam engines next to Concorde jets, and hook and ladder phones next to a PC. It's just it's Gotham, you know, and Gotham's a weird place. And I always figure the reason that is, is Gotham has real strong unions, you know. They can keep the hook and ladder phones there because they have a hook and ladder phone company, or manufacturing company, you know, right next to the guys who are importing the Apple computers. That's just the way it is. It's a wonky town, and it takes a wonky hero. Oh, to me atmosphere, that this is a different comic book, flavor-wise, than, not so much the other guys doing, just specifically bat-books, but just in general comics, superhero stuff. I think if there's one thing I've brought back to it again, it's mystery. He [Doug Moench] doesn't reinvent these characters, he just presents them in a modern context so they don't--you know what worked in the forties, or in that classic period works now. And that's all he does. He just keeps it not dated. He doesn't let it seem tied to the time." www.comic-art.com/intervws/jon…

Metropolis was named after the movie Metropolis (1927) and based on Jerry Siegel's 1930s art deco Cleveland. Gotham City was named after New York City and Bill Finger based it on a mix of The Shadow's eerie 1930s New York City in The Shadow pulps, Zorro's corrupt old Spanish California in Douglas Fairbanks The Mark of Zorro (1920) and Dracula's Gothic Transylvania castle with bats and the Gothic foggy London in Dracula (1931). Also on the 1930s noir atmosphere of cities in the old Warner Brothers movies, the (film noir) gangster movies with James Cagney, George Raft, Bogart. Neal Adams brought the Gothic gargoyles architecture to Gotham first on the Batman #221 (1970) cover. In The Amazing World of DC Comics #14 (1977) Paul Levitz wrote that Metropolis is in Delaware and Gotham City is in New Jersey, based on nothing by the creators. The DC Universe Role Playing Game (1990) repeated that Metropolis is in Delaware and Gotham City is in New Jersey.

The William Dozier/Adam West Gotham City Police Headquarters in the satirical comedy show and the 1966 movie was a dull white building set on the Warner Brothers studio lot in Burbank, California and Adam West's Batman would walk up the steps and go through the front door in broad daylight. powsley.blogspot.com/2008/12/g…
Dozier: "The idea came to me to make it so square, so cliche-ridden, so corny and so bad that it would be funny." www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUIMP3…
The Joel Schumacher/Val Kilmer Gotham City Police Headquarters in the satirical comedy Batman Forever was a set based on the 60 Wall Street in New York with shiny, glamorous architecture instead of Gothic. Schumacher said he was determined to "not have kids terrified." Yet he replaced the Gothic noir elements with flamboyant ambiguously gay elements which he called "sexy and fun". Completely out of character for Batman.
The Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale Gotham City Police Headquarters in the action-dramas Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises was at the white Farmiloe Building in Chicago. www.movie-locations.com/movies…