Just saw the news on Paul Kupperberg's facebook. I'm completely stunned.



The loss of Breyfogle hits me very personally. I grew up with his Batman, and later I truly grew up with his and Kupperberg's work on Life with Archie: The Married Life.

Wow.

This one hurts as I met Norm Breyfogle several years back in Winnipeg and spoke with him quite a bit.  I remember telling him that he was the first artist who convinced me that Batman's appearance would strike terror into the hearts of criminals.  "What about Neal Adams?", he asked.  "Neal Adams' Batman would intimidate them, but he wouldn't frighten them".  I said something about Adams' Batman looking like he's in perfect physical condition, but still a man whereas Breyfogle's interpretation gave him a supernatural aura.  Breyfogle had mentioned once in an interview that he tried to add subtle changes to Batman's appearance by determining how the person looking at him would see him.  If Batman were speaking to a child, you might get a shot of Batman kneeling to answer the kid's question and his features would soften; if a criminal were being interrogated by him, you might get a close-up shot of Batman's face looking down at you with the sharpened points of his ears and eyes, and granite jaw emphasised for effect - but it was always the same character. 

Norm is my favorite Batman artist after Jim Aparo but as I attempted to stress to him, this wasn't due to the sentimentality that comes from those two being the guys who drew Batman when I was a kid.  In fact, he drew a faux-Batman cover for me based on a Shelly Moldoff cover from 1963 (Detective 319 "The Fantastic Dr No-Face") so he knew that I grew up with a whole slew of Batman artists I could have picked as my favorite (well, second favorite) today.  If I still feel that I wasn't quite able to convince him about how great I knew his art to be, it's because his "What about Neal Adams" retort to my earlier question seemed to indicate that he wasn't the type of person to let another person's work be overlooked or undervalued.  That is, it wasn't as if his doubt stemmed from any suspicion on his part as to my sincerity but from a concern that there were other artists out there who had topped his work who weren't getting the credit they deserved even if it was from one guy whose opinion would almost certainly never make it back to Adams.  Anyhoo, I still stand by what I said - Breyfogle's Batman looks like he was born from the shadows, his cape looked like as though it were somehow attuned to its hosts emotions and thoughts, and nobody did that whole bright emblem/white eyes projected against a black silhouette look better than he.

I spoke with Norm very little on Facebook but it's because of him that I even have an account since he invited me to add him as a friend.  His posts made it clear that he was a nice, moral guy who tried to add good karma to the world wherever he could (I recall one post in which he mentioned being rear ended by another driver and telling the fellow not to worry about it in spite of the damage sustained to Norm's vehicle.  I suppose you could argue that this was somewhat irresponsible of Breyfogle since the other was clearly not 100% attentive to the road, but it was clear from his post that his only concern was that this other driver be given a second chance after this scare).

So many images of his are flooding my mind right now that I wouldn't know where to begin posting pictures in his honour - the debut of Tim Drake's new Robin outfit from Batman 457; the two page spread of Batman smashing through the roof of The Joker's convertible from Detective 617; a clever little scene where a criminal is firing blindly at Batman behind him but set up in such a manner that it looks as though he's running towards him from Batman 459; a one page sequence in which Batman crashes through a skylight in the first panel, lands flat on a table in the second with his hands gripped to the edge as the bad guys look startled, the third panel has him pulling his knees to his chest and his feet connecting over his head so as to kick the first rushing, the fourth has him with his hands still on the table and feet now on the ground as he lifts the table as the crooks on his right rush into it while we see the outdoor sentry rushing towards an open door, panel five has Batman kick the door closed as he elbows another goon; panel six has said outdoor sentry's head smash through the now closed door as the goon Batman elbowed looks dazed as Batman crosses his arms; and panel seven consists of the dazed goon dropping to the floor while Batman looks satisfied that his job is complete (a one page sequence that could very well have been scripted as 'Batman crashes through skylight and beats up everyone in the room).  The last one came from I believe the Street Demonz issue of Detective which I believe was Detective 612 - I could look it up but I'm citing these issues numbers and sequences from memory to underscore how indelibly marked these moments are on my mind.

Man.  I'm just shocked that he's gone.

Class guy who cut out a distinctive style for his best known work. His Batman was not going to get lost in the shuffle, but is one of "the" chapters of the character's run.

His Batman work was among the best ever.

I am also a big fan of Whisper and the Hellcat mini.

R.I.P.

Wow, just wow. Truly shocked and saddened by this.

R.I.P Norm

Sad news indeed. I loved his stuff, it was a breath of fresh air when I first encountered it in the Batbooks of the early 90s. He left behind a wonderful legacy of work, but he will be missed.

-M