SDCC 2024: Rafael Grampá on the Darkness of Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham

The Dark Knight is the crown jewel of DC Comics, but no story serves him better than the DC Black Label series Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham. The story is set in a radically different Gotham, where the city lacks its usual cache of colorful criminals, but still suffers from all kinds of crime.

Protecting Gotham, as always, is Batman. But when he decides to leave his life as Bruce Wayne and go all out in life as his old self, he stumbles into things from his past that put the Caped Crusader in a whole new light. Screen Rant caught up with the story’s creator, Rafael Grampá, to dig into his haunting and innovative comic.

Screen Rant: There have been so many alternate takes on Batman and his mythology. Talk about the process of creating one from the ground up, especially under DC’s Black Label imprint.

Rafael Grampá: First of all, it is very difficult to create a new version of Batman because there are so many good ones. The first thing you need to think is “Don’t try to present something that I think is a better version.” Don’t go for it. You ruin the journey. So my point was to create something that I believed could be fun for me. I began to revisit, revisiting its beginnings several years ago. Like “What if I drew a Batman story? What would be the approach?”. Some of the things about his origin … I began to think and think about it. “What happened to a child like that with a lot of resources and money, lost his parents?” I thought they were going to send him for treatment and I never saw that in the comics. It was like “He would have some treatment. Maybe in Arkham. Maybe they have a children’s wing. So I started from that.

Rafael Grampá: That was part of my pitch. They were like, “Okay, we want it.” But when we put the story to the press, we couldn’t, we couldn’t spoil it. So DC decided to take an element of the story that could be interesting. What: Batman decides to kill himself. But it was not the idea. Batman decides to kill himself is part of his journey. He thinks that part of his story doesn’t matter. He means this because he doesn’t know everything. And the moment he started to know, maybe he would change. You know, but the pitch was “what if Batman was being treated at Arkham Asylum today?”.

One of the things I really love about your story is how Gotham feels. We really see how terrible the city is. It feels sick, like it really means a Batman. How do you like working in Gotham when creating your story?

Rafael Grampá: I live in São Paulo. This is the experience I have of a big city. That was easy. I just brought some of the worst elements from Sao Paulo to Gotham and also one of the most beautiful elements. But this is Batman from the point of view of a person who lives in Brazil, a South American person. In fact, I am the first Brazilian artist to write a Batman story. This was something for our country. The things you might see that makes it different is because of my opinion about a big city.

I think most Batman fans have a real connection to these villains. But you’ve chosen to eschew the classic rogues gallery for brand new villains connected to the conspiracy that runs through your story.

Rafael Grampá: I think you need to be bold to avoid working with the classics because I love them and the fans love them. So we need a bit of courage. Actually you need great courage to say “I’m not using them”. Because they are part of the good stories. You need to see the Riddler in action. You need to see Joker, all of them. But because I added something to be past all that all the letters would not fit at the moment I pitched it.

Rafael Grampá: I had ideas for villains for Batman stories but with inspirations from Silence of the Lambs. And I thought we would be strong, bringing the inspirations for Batman stories. Since then, the classic Batman villains have had their origins based on films and posters. And posters, Two-Face was inspired by the Jekyll and Hyde poster. So when I realized that I needed new villains, I started thinking about the ideas and references that would fit.

In my opinion, it worked really well with Crytoon. It is clear that he is the main one. I can see him in a regular Batman universe. I can see him in this universe. He is just so kind and creative.

Rafael Grampá: Crytoon has its aesthetic because when I was a kid, I was afraid of that kind of animation. When I saw it for the first time I was like “Ahhhh!”. So I took the feeling that it could be creepy if it changed to a different context. This can be really, really scary. I also love the idea of ​​a character playing her with the cartoon violence. Imagine if you see someone trying to do that!

I want to talk about the animations you had in coordination with each issue that was released. It’s such an innovative way to market the series and I think it’s a step above what we see from other books.

Rafael Grampá: I work with Justin Townsend, he is my producer. And we have a studio called VSIONS. We have a lot of experience working together and making films, animations and events and all that stuff. And when DC asked us to do the press and the marketing of the book, they suggested some of the things they wanted animations to do. They wanted to make videos about the making of the book. They wanted me to talk about things and I said “we can do that because we have a great network with people who are really good at animation.” Why not work with them? What I really like are movies. Before the movie, the event, the excitement. I love it because I remember when I was a kid and we had the big event waiting for the Batman movie. So I wanted to bring that to my Batman story. We are really happy that DC allows VSIONS to do so we work very closely with them. So I’m not just working close to the editorial department. We work with all departments and that made the project really, really special for all of us.

We’re in the last half of your story, what can you say about the last couple of issues and where it takes your version of Batman?

Rafael Grampá: That’s a good question, actually. My Batman, my version of Batman, you see in the two new chapters. What I did was start with a version of Batman that DC handed over to me. At the beginning of the story, this Batman is a mix of all the variants that I like and that I know. I have the tense caption in the story, because without it, to me, it’s not Batman. The visual is a mix of a lot of Batmans that I like, some things I wanted to see in a Batman to his personality and the things he knows about himself. So I am presenting some new things. I will provide my version of Batman then.

Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham #3 is available on September 25th from DC Comics.