1994's Batman: Saga of the Dark Knight trading cards (SKYBOX)

In today's article, we'll be looking back at Skybox's first Batman trading card set -- Batman: Saga of the Dark Knight. Released in April 1994, this 100-card trading card set focused on all the major milestones in Batman's post-Crisis comic career: everything from Batman: Year One all the way up to KnightQuest.      

magazine ad for Batman: Saga of the Dark Knight trading cards

In 1994 non-sports trading cards had become BIG business. Don't believe me? Just check old issues of Wizard Magazine and Hero Illustrated from that era -- lots and lots of ad space devoted to new trading card sets being released. Nearly every comic book company (and then some) had a trading card set being hawked to the masses. Thanks to the success of the Tim Burton Batman films, the Batman animated series on FOX, and Batman getting his back broken by Bane, interest in Batman was at all-time high. The real question was why it took Skybox so long to launch a trading card set completely devoted to Batman? Well, it was because it took THIS long for Skybox to acquire the Batman license from Topps.

This trading card set took me a LOOOONG time to complete as I rarely saw packs being sold at comic shops. According to Wizard Magazine, 13,333 cases were produced (SkyBox upped production from 12,500 at the last minute) and were all snapped up quickly by retailers. They were easy to spot with their gold foil wrapping, but very scarce to find in the wild (at the time):  

image source: ebay.ca

History of Batman

As seen in the ad above, the Batman: Saga of the Dark Knight trading card set boasted highlights from Year One to KnightQuest. Did it deliver on it's promise? Yes, it did. Was it thorough? No, it wasn't. 

In 1994, KnightQuest was just concluding and leading into KnightsEnd -- the final chapter of the KnightSaga. Actually, at the time, everything Batman-related was centered around the KnightSaga and whether Bruce Wayne would reclaim the Batman mantle or if AzBats was here to stay (I was personally hoping for the latter). To this effect, this card set mainly was divided into sub-sets that focused on storylines relevant to KnightSaga cannon. So, no mention of Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year Two, Ten Nights of the Beast, or any cross-over Batman had with the rest of the DCU, but plenty of attention on A Death in the Family, A Lonely Place of Dying, Batman: Year Three, and...of course...anything related to Azrael or Bane. The Knightfall and KnightQuest story arcs received the most attention in the set. Card #99 ended on a cliffhanger, openly questioning if Batman would confront AzBats to take back the title of Batman. At the time this card set was released, it was looking like Jean-Paul Valley as Batman was going to be the new normal. KnightsEnd only started in mid-1994, just as this trading card set hit the shelves, so no mention of that chapter.

I adored this set. I really felt that they delivered on their promise of covering everything important leading up to what was going on in the Batman mythos at the time. The cards had very apt, well-written summaries on the back and some even showed the covers of important comic books (so you can spot them on sight in back issue bins). Even more importantly, the artists who illustrated the front-facing card art were listed on the back, which took the guesswork out of trying to figure out who drew what -- this goes a long way when writing one of these reviews [ha!]. The quality of the card stock was thick and UV coated, so you knew you weren't getting the cheap cards here.

back of card #31

Original art

So, what kind of original art was being featured in this set? If it was anything like Dave Dorman's painted Batman (as seen in the ad), we were in for a real treat. Probably even surpassing the Marvel Masterpieces trading card set, which had raised the bar on how impressive a non-sports trading card could look. Well, while it wasn't an all-Dorman set, we did get some really impressive artistic teams on these cards.  

Mike Mignola, who had drawn the fan-favorite Gotham By Gaslight 1989 one-shot, contributed three cards to the 'Nemesis' sub-set. Not all of the villains appearing in this sub-set appeared in the KnightSaga. Here was his Ra's Al Ghul:

Jim Aparo, Dick Giordano and P. Pigott collaborated on all of the cards in the A Death in the Family sub-section, which was was fitting since Aparo was the original penciller for the story arc that ran from Batman #426 to #429 (1988). Knightfall often referenced Batman's relationship with Jason Todd, so this storyline was pivotal to understanding why Batman was acting so crazy/protective of Tim Drake in the events leading up Knightfall.

 

Matt Wagner, who illustrated 1992's Faces story arc in Legends of the Dark Knight as well as a few Detective Comics covers, also provided painted art for a few Bat-villain cards. Here's his Mud Pack:

Rick Burchett, probably best known for inking 1992's Batman Adventures ongoing series (based on Batman The Animated Series), pencilled and inked the first eighteen cards dealing with Batman's early origins (Batman: Year One, Shaman, The Killing Joke, The Cult and Batman: Venom):

Tom Grummet, who was drawing the new Robin ongoing series that debuted in 1993, contributed card art for all nine cards in the 'Dynamic Duo' sub-set. This sub-set was all about Batman's history with his former sidekicks:

Brian Stelfreeze, who was producing some of the most stunning Shadow of the Bat painted covers at the time, graced this set with a few bat-villain cards:

I don't think John Bolton had done any work on Batman prior to 1995's Batman: Man-Bat, but I'm glad he contributed art to a few cards in this set: 

Jim Balent (penciller) and Scott Hanna (inker) provided art for all nine 'KnightQuest' cards. Balent was the primary penciller for 1993's Catwoman ongoing series and Hanna had a long stint inking over Graham Nolan's pencils in Detective Comics in 1992. KnightQuest immediately followed KnightFall and was divided into two storylines: one about Jean-Paul Valley's trials and tribulations taking over the role of Batman, and Bruce Wayne's (somewhat dull) search for Robin's missing father. Thankfully, the few KnightQuest cards in this set focused on the former rather than the latter because they knew what the fans wanted. 

Appropriately enough, Hanna also provided the inks for all of Nolan's pencils in the 18-card 'KnightFall' sub-set. Knightfall consisted of 19 chapters (and that's not including the prelude issues setting the event up), and this sub-set managed to capture all of the relevant story points. Nicely done:

Phil Jimenez, who was best known as the New Titans penciller at the time, pencilled all the cards from the 'A Lonely Place of Dying' sub-set (presumably because George Perez was unavailable). These cards were inked by Peter Gross (who was mainly an inker for Dr. Fate): 

..and yes, there were a few Dave Dorman cards in the set. One of which was his impressive painted rendition of Nightwing:

Other prolific DC artists who contributed original art to this set included Barry Kitson (Azrael ongoing series), Kyle Baker (inker for The Shadow), and Eduardo Barreto (inker for Vengeance of Bane one-shot). The different artistic styles from the wide array of contributors made for a great effect and kept the card set visually interesting. Everyone here was at the top of their game (and probably paid quite handsomely by Skybox, too). 

Insert Cards

The chase cards in this set consisted of 5 spectra-etch 'painted portrait' cards (1 in 18 packs), and the highly-coveted Batman SkyDisc hologram card that only appeared once in every 240 packs.

The spectra-etch chase cards were named, aptly enough, the 'Portraits of the Batman' sub-set. Original art for these cards were provided by John Bolton, Dave Dorman, Phil Winslade, Brian Stelfreeze and Mark Chiarello (Batman/Houdini: The Devil's Workshop). These cards had a reflective sheen on them not unlike the foil-covered "collector's edition" comic books of the time. While the entire five card sub-set was nice enough, the only card I really coveted was the Jean-Paul Valley as Batman card illustrated by Brain Stelfreeze, which I managed to eventually obtain in a trade that weighed heavily in favor of the person I was trading with. Ah well, I still own it today and occasionally take a few moments to admire it:

The Batman SkyDisc hologram card was something I had never actually seen in person, but always wanted to own since I love holograms. Apparently, if you lay the card down flat on a surface and shone a light on it, Batman appeared to rise from the card. By walking around the card you see a complete 360-degree figure. This was next level Star Trek stuff. It was explained that this effect was achieved by filming a Batman statue from every possible angle. 

Re-sellers sold these cards starting at $75 USD and upwards, which was quite out of range for my thirteen year-old self. Several years ago I had the chance to purchase this card for a decent price, but balked out at the last minute after I realized how much tracked shipping would cost me. Maybe someday.

Promo Cards

Since it was SkyBox's first Batman set EVER, one would assume that they'd be aggressively trying to market this -- and you'd be right. Various promo cards/products were distributed through various magazines and events.

Comics Buyer's Guide promo card:

 

As we went through the base set you might've realized something was noticeably absent: no trading cards featuring Kelley Jones original art. Jones, who had illustrated almost ALL of the Knightfall covers, seemed like a pretty obvious choice for original card art in this set. Sadly, this one lone promo card offered via Comic Buyer's Guide magazine was all that we got. As of this writing, I'm not sure if it was a mail-in or simply included in the magazine, but I'm assuming it was the latter. 

Dealers exclusive promo card:

This was just a re-hash of card #1, but with the card set's logo and byline on the front. Oh yeah, and it was sent to dealers. Like the aforementioned promo card above, the back of the card just listed all of the cool features about this new trading card set and made a passing mention about the first-ever Spectra-Etch display boxes that will be individually numbered.  

Georgia Dome promo card:

This was a Superbowl XXVIII giveaway at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on January 30, 1994. These promo cards were limited to a print run of 50,000. No clue who the artist was.

Camden Yards promo card:

This was a promo card given away at Camden Yards in Baltimore, presumably during a Baltimore Orioles baseball game. Similar to the aforementioned promo card distributed at the Superbowl, I don't know why SkyBox decided to giveaway Batman promo cards at a baseball game. SkyBox was well-known for their sports cards, so this may have been an attempt at a cross-promotion? If I were to draw a Venn diagram, how many professional baseball fans were also Batman fans? Or sports card collectors also non-sports cards collectors, for that matter? Also limited to a print run of 50,000, I have no clue who the artist on this card is.

     

Oversized SkyDisc in CD case:

image sources: ebay.ca

This was a curious promo item, and they were limited to 10,000. It was the SkyDisc Batman hologram (the same from the ultra rare chase card), but it was the extra-large version and came in a CD case [remember those?]. I don't know who got them or how. Either way, color me impressed. I would've loved one of these.

In addition, there was a binder available for this trading card set, but I don't know if it was a mail-away exclusive or if it included any special promo items:

image source: ebay.com

  

Summary

I loved this trading card set. It was perfect and couldn't have been released at a better time. A few months after this set was released, comic readers would start getting burned out by the (seemingly) never-ending KnightSaga and then DC would launch it's big Zero Hour reboot event providing DC fans with something new to have a vested interest in. However, for about a year and some change, the fate of Batman's legacy was the main event and held our attention rapturously. Jean-Paul Valley as Batman was a new, violent Batman who took no prisoners and didn't care about collateral damage or killing villains. It was a total paradigm shift from Bruce Wayne's "save the innocent bystanders first, and never kill unless you have to" values. In a way, Jean-Paul Valley's attitude was reflective of the world around him: dealing with violent crime with the intent of eliminating the original cause rather than trying to rehabilitate it. Bane was also a different time of villain: he was ultra-strong and smart (typically Bat-villains were either strong and dumb or smart and weak), which was also reflective of the new types of villains the world was dealing with in the 90s. Great memories flipping through these cards -- makes me want to re-read my Knightfall omnibus.

To me, the main selling point was being able to catch up on my Batman lore -- the internet didn't really exist back then and my Batman comic book collection was sporadic with lots of missing story arcs. Rumor has it that SkyBox was planning on releasing ANOTHER Batman trading card set, The Archive Collection Series, but the company couldn't secure the rights to various Batman licenses in time for a September 1994 release. Apparently, it was going to be released in two 160-card sets and would've covered every single thing you probably would've liked to have known about Batman (this included the movies, the cartoons, toys, gadgets and comic books). Alas, it was not meant to be. SkyBox did, however, release a fully-painted Batman: Master Series trading card set in 1996, which I hope to review in a future article.

-Justin    

A look at the 1993 DC Editorial Presentation

It always tickles me when I happen across something I didn't even realize existed.  It's like so many of us feel completely "dialed in" to the comics industry via the internet, that nothing really excites or surprises us anymore.

Then, from the corner of your eye... you see the textbook-sized DC Comics: 1993 The Year of Change Editorial Presentation... on a shelf with a $2.00 price tag on it.  Now, tell me... who could say no to that (besides, of course, the dozens of folks who had already passed it by)?

So, just what is this thing anyway?  Well, it's part Previews Catalog, part State the Union Address... and if you care to join me, together we can take a deeper look into this odd little time capsule from the "boom era" of DC Comics.

Milestone Media

1993 saw the birth of the multi-cultural imprint known as Milestone.  With the mission statement of presenting "exciting heroes in a context of urban reality", we are introduced to the imprint's four titles: Icon, Blood Syndicate, Hardware and of course, Static.

For those unaware, these titles take place in the city of Dakota... sometimes referred to as the "Dakotaverse", much later as an actual city in the DC Universe proper (pre-Flashpoint).  During a gang war between three rival gangs, the secret police use a radioactive "tear gas", which leaves many of the survivors "altered".

Piranha Press

An imprint near and dear to my heart, Mark Nevelow's Piranha Press was DC Comics' first attempt at a true "Mature Readers" line of alternative comics.  It was also the first imprint from DC Comics to allow creator-owned material.  This imprint would run from 1989 until 1994 when it would morph into the more "boutique" brand, Paradox Press.

The big news out of Piranha in 1993 was the launch of its Factoid Book Project... otherwise known as the "Big Book" Series.  The "Big Book" line would actually never hit shelves under the Piranha Press banner... DC would hold off on the release until the Paradox shift was complete.

Worth noting that this very book does announce what would be, the final (though we didn't know that yet) Piranha Press offering... Prince: Three Chains of Gold.

What nobody really knew then, was... the very idea of Piranha Press was about to become redundant, because...

Vertigo

1993 also saw the official launch of DC Comics' Vertigo Imprint!  Bearing a Mature Readers warning... and playing with DC Comics-owned characters (as well as creator-owned work), the writing was very likely on the wall for Mark Nevelow and the gang.

Ongoing DC titles marked with a January, 1993 cover date... including Animal Man, Doom Patrol, Shade the Changing Man, Swamp Thing, Sandman, and Hellblazer were shifted over to the nebulous new imprint to continue their current volumes.  Seeing as though this was the early 1990's, Vertigo even went as far as to announce its first semi-line wide crossover event!  We know it as "The Children's Crusade", however, here it's pitched as "Family Values".

Bloodlines

After two years of using Annuals for crossovers (Armageddon 2001 in 1991, and Eclipso: The Darkness Within in 1992), DC sought to make 1993 the biggest one yet with... Bloodlines.  Interestingly enough... all of the issues announced would come out just as they were announced in this very book!

It's shocking to see such forward-planning and commitment from any given comic book company.  These days it feels as though DC (and Marvel) check the way the wind's blowing before committing to an order at the drive-thru!

Knightfall

One of the biggest events of 1993 for DC (and comics in general) was the "Breaking of the Bat" in Knightfall.  While this book refers to the storyline as Knightfall, it does not elaborate much.  What we do get is the announcement that something big would be coming in Batman #500... a new costume (designed by Joe Quesada)... and the most shocking change in Batman's 50-plus year history.

Reign of the Supermen

Speaking of playing their cards close to the vest... "Supermen" is the watchword for the Superman family of titles.  But, get this... the retailers (who would likely be the only ones getting this book) received the same information as the readers... which is to say, not a whole lot!

All four of the new "Supermen" are introduced, via outlines... without nary a hint as to whether or not any of them are the Real Steel Deal!  This could not happen today.

By the Numbers

Flipping through this time capsule really affords us the opportunity to see, at a glance, where DC Comics' priorities were.  For a little fun let's take a look at the Top Three characters when it comes to who had the most "paginal real estate" in this very book.

Batman - 34 Pages
Lobo - 18 Pages
Superman - 14 Pages

To close out, this was a ton of fun to flip through... and lemme tell ya folks, we've only scratched the surface!  There's a lot of weird stuff we didn't look at (I mean, there are 18 pages on Lobo alone!).  If you enjoyed this piece, please let us know... and we can share a bit more of this massive tome with you. 

-Chris

---

Chris Sheehan writes the very terrific Chris Is On Infinite Earths blog, and was one of the first contributors for DC in the 80s. When he's not writing about the BEST ERA OF DC COMICS ever, you can find him co-hosting the Cosmic Treadmill and Weird Comics History podcasts with Reggie Reggie. 

A collection of Knightfall house ads - 1993

If you remember reading and/or collecting Knightfall, congratulations. For anyone else who was too young or was taking a hiatus from comics at the time, Knightfall was a twenty-issue story arc from 1993 that ran through 4 different titles (Batman, Detective Comics, Shadow of the Bat and Showcase '93) that told the epic tale of the downfall [and presumed death] of Batman and the introduction of his new successor. I honestly thought that this was going to be my generation's 'moon landing', and by that I mean I really thought this was 'it' — this was going to be the end of Bruce Wayne as we knew it. What can I say? I was a pretty naive 11-year old. DC had just killed off Superman a year ago, [and I honestly thought he was staying dead] and we were living in 'extreme' times where anything could happen.

I wasn't able to collect/read these as they were being published — my limited financial assets were being diversified among numerous short-term investments (i.e. I was buying a lot of Marvel comics and non-sports trading cards). I did go to summer camp in the summer of '93 and another kid at camp (who was a massive DC fan) had brought his comic book collection with him. He didn't have any issues of Knightfall, but the Knightfall house ads were plastered in every second DC issue I thumbed through. They say a picture tells a thousand words, and these full-page house ads told me that something BIG was going down. I liked the way the ads created a narrative informing the reader just how grim things were getting for Gotham's dark knight. The red eclipse that was slowly starting to swallow the bat logo was also a nice touch of foreshadowing.

(click to enlarge)

This event did two major things: it introduced me to a whole slew of new Bat villains (I have never heard of Amygdala, Film Freak, or Mr. Zsasz prior to these ads), and introduced a lot of non-Batman DC comics readers to the Kelley Jones Batman — the one with the foot-long bat ears on his cowl who always seemed to be stooped or crouching. That was the Batman that would leave the longest lasting-impression on me and would be found doodled in almost every high school notebook I've ever owned (and then some). For a 19-part story arc, I realize we are missing quite a few house ads here [at least 8, by my count]. Rest assured, however, that the house ad was not original art. It was just the cover of the issue being described in the house ad, combined with a bit of enticing ad copy meant to summarize just how dire Bruce Wayne's situation was getting. These covers are real eye-catchers, but I'd like to gently point out that the cover of the issue was not always representative of the interior art.

It was interesting the way that Knightfall chapters 1 through 10 kept escalating and then... bam! denouement! Batman gets crippled by Bane! But wait, there's more! The house ads for Knightfall chapters 12 to 18 build up to the final showdown between the *new* Batman and Bane. [The house ad for chapter 18 looks downright pornographic. Please tell me Bane is wearing pants....] The Knightfall saga would become 1994's Knightquest, and then Knightsend, and would ultimately resolve sometime in early 1995. I think by this point fans had had enough, realizing that this storyline had already dragged on too long. Even the Knightquest and Knightsend house ads lacked the zeal the in-house DC marketing team had put into the Knightfall promotional campaign.

While I wasn't able to collect the issues, I was able to purchase the softcover Batman: Knightfall and Beyond novelization written by Alan Grant (I was avid book reader back then — I think I read the entire thing in one afternoon). While it filled in a lot of missing gaps, I still felt it was 'lacking' — probably because it was packaged for the young adult crowd. Sometime shortly after, a friend lent me the much thicker, much more mature-looking (and hard-cover) Batman Knightfall: A Novel by Dennis O'Neil. I seem to recall the latter being on the New York Times Bestsellers list during it's heyday, so it was a 'big deal' to finally get my hands on it. I remember it being leaps and bounds better than the Alan Grant novelization.

The final resolution of Bruce Wayne healing up, training himself to become better than before, and becoming Batman again really shouldn't have come as a surprise to me. In hindsight, one year prior to Knightfall being launched, Batman Returns hit the box office and grossed $162 million in North American sales. That very same year, Batman: The Animated Series debuted on Fox to a North American audience and is still being referenced as one of the BEST animated shows ever made. Ads for the new Batman animated film, Mask of the Phantasm, were also being heavily promoted in every DC comic available while Knightfall was in full effect. It wouldn't make sense to permanently retire a creative property that was generating so much revenue for the company. In my defense, I was a product of the 80s comic book culture and fake 'deaths' were still a relatively new gimmick in the early 90s. At least, that's how I'd like to remember it.

What Knightfall ultimately did for DC comics was to keep DC (and Batman) relevant during the deluge of X-books and Image/Malibu/Valiant comics that were flooding the market in the early 90s. Interestingly, some comic book analysts have theorized that the Knightfall/Knightquest/Knightsend story arc may have contributed to the comic book crash of the mid 90s — readers were experiencing 'burn out' from having to buy too many titles to complete a story arc that lasted way longer than it should have. Would it have been the sole cause for the comic book crash? Absolutely not. But I'm positive it wouldn't have helped anything.

Looking back on this now, I don't feel tricked or cheated. I feel like it was a good memory and a good time to be a comic book reader. Feel free to share any memories or stories you have from the whole Knightfall saga in the comments section below.