I feel like the Joker can be a very hard character to get right. Whether he’s being portrayed in a comic, on the BIG screen, in a cartoon, or even by that crazy cosplayer that walks around my town all day with a flashlight, shining it at the ground, trying to see if people will walk across the beam of light on the ground. We all know he’s just going to shut it off once you get close enough.
In other words, whenever the Joker is involved, and if they get him right, then your dealing with a layered character that is not only a sociopath (because psychopaths aren’t that fun) but an extremely complicated one with the ability to make or break a story.
And, when The Joker is done right, it’s greatness. Here are some artists that have brought the Joker to life in the comics and other mediums
Alex Ross
Alex Ross is a master. Plain and simple, he’s done amazing work all across the board Marvel, DC, he even drew
The Beatles, and as always he did it with style and grace. His take on The Joker is no different, well, it is different, but it’s also still perfection.
Looking at his Joker is like looking into the eyes of a madman, but not just any madman. This guy knows something and he’s having fun. You don’t know why he’s smiling, but you know that he knows something. Something about you, something that will hurt you, something that will give you nightmares, and he is going to savor every moment of revealing this knowledge to you. He wants to let you in on the “Joke” and if your not watching your back, it might be too late.
The most intriguing thing about this Joker is that I want to know, I want to know why he’s smiling. He’s drawn in a way that is scary but at the same time inviting.
Brian Bolland
Bolland brought the Joker to life in one of the greatest Joker stories ever made, “The Killing Joke”. When I look at this, I see somebody having an epiphany. This is when the Joker becomes the Joker
(supposedly) and it is one of my favorite moments in comics. It’s a picture of a man finally finding comfort in his own skin. Finally reaching the point where he accepts himself and it is in the context of a man who jumped into a vat of chemicals permanently bleaching his skin chalk-white, staining his lips ruby-red and dyeing his hair bright green. This is all a culmination of the notion that the misfortunes that occur during one bad day can drive a man completely insane.
It is beautiful. Like Mark Twain said, “Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.”
Greg Capullo
Greg Capullo is a veteran of the industry and another masterful and amazing artist. On his excitement for taking on the Joker he said,
"You know, I'm happy to be doing this because I look at it as an opportunity to have fun. So no, this is going to be a blast. Let's put it this way. I would have put my own slant on the way the Joker looks traditionally anyway. Now I can go down the road of, like, Texas Chainsaw Massacre stuff. And I'm a heavy metal guy, so stuff like Slipknot pops in my head, you know? So I'm going, "Yeah! Something really, really dark and creepy!" It amplifies it. We're turning the Joker up a notch, you know? If you can turn the Joker up any higher." (source)
I couldn’t agree more with him, because they definitely turned him up to 11. When I see this Joker, I see someone who has lost any resemblance of sanity and possibly humanity. Not only does he have no limits within society, he has no limits for his own body. His mind is so twisted that it’s scary to imagine the thoughts running around in his head. For me, the difference between this Joker and Alex Ross’ is that I don’t want to know what Capullo’s Joker is thinking.
Bruce Timm
Bruce Timm is a genius. If you’ve had the pleasure of enjoying “Batman The Animated Series” then you already know about Bruce Timm. They brought the Joker mainstream into homes across the world and they did it because of Bruce Timm. Timm even helped to create Harley Quinn. I can’t wait to see him reunite with Mark Hamill in the upcoming animated adaptation of “The Killing Joke”.
Other artists that I plan on talking about in a future editorial, each of whom are equally as amazing as the above artists….
Tony S. Daniel
Lee Bermejo
Jock
Jim Lee
Tim Sale
Doug Mahnke
If my joke about flashlights and beams of light flew over your head, no worries because Red Skelton and The Joker are here to take you to school….
With all of that said, I feel like we could be getting one of the best portrayals of The Joker next year, and I hope your looking forward to seeing Jared Leto take the stage as the Joker in “Suicide Squad” as much as I am….