Tony Daniel announced via Facebook his departure as writer and artist of DC’s Detective Comics with issue #12 in August.
From Tony Daniel's Facebook fan page
As a swan song, he will draw but not script September’s Detective Comics #0. It is not yet known whether that issue’s writer, Greg Hurwitz, will continue on to issue #13 and beyond. No new artist has been announced at this time.
Detective Comics #0
Written by Greg Hurwitz
Art by Tony Daniel, Richard Friend• Discover how young Bruce Wayne learned to wield the martial arts, and how a major villain was introduced into his life.
With Daniel’s tenure on Detective Comics wrapping up, who would you like to see take the reins? That’s not just one vacancy, but two. Who should write Detective Comics? Who should draw it? What role should the book play in the larger Batman story moving forward? And what do you think multi-hyphenate Tony Daniel should do next?
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I say let Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla take over and do a book that focuses a bit more on Batman’s interactions with Gordon and the GCPD. I loved the way those two handled Gordon on the pre-52 Detective.
As for Tony Daniel, he’d be a big enough name to take over drawing Justice League, right?
Well, there are rumors (B—d-ng -ool) that Jim Lee is leaving JL soon.
Tony Daniel on JL would be pretty cool.
@ken: I like both suggestions.
as good as Snyder is on Batman, i’d want another creative vision behind Detective, and i’d love to see a fresh team that hasn’t worked on it yet. I wouldn’t mind it being more police-y, but i’d still want it to be a Batman centered book.
I heard rumours of Lee moving on to start up wildcats.
Man, I would love do see Synder get back to some more Gordon-centric stories. I agree 100% on his pre-52 detectice run.I’m pretty sure we aren’t alone there. If that isn’t the way they’re going, I think Wally had a great point about getting a fresh team on the book. I really enjoyed Jeff Lemire’s artwork in the 1st issue of the new Legends of the Dark Knight series.
http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/i/2012/06/06/legends-of-dark-knight_175.jpg
Does Brian Azzarello have time to add another book to his schedule?
Azzarello or Rucka could make this book amazing.
Rucka did make Detective amazing ten years ago, but he seems to have a lot of issue with DC of late so it’s doubtful
Sean Murphy should do the art. That would be just about perfect.
YES!!!!
I’d be totally in for Sean Murphy on a Bat-book…but word is he’s not real interested in super-hero work these days.
I’m sure he’d be down for it if the right project came along. Getting to do Batman in Detective Comics with a great writer? He might be interested (then again, maybe not, but one can hope)
I am in love with Sean Murphy. Thanks for proposing it. I hope someone at DC will at least ask him if he’s interested for this job.
That would be amazing!
Murphy has said he wants to do a book that sells after Punk Rock Jesus. Can’t see him doing anything until after it’s done, and I assume he’s only 2 or 3 issues into it at this point.
I don’t get all the Sean Murphy love here. Not a fan of anything he’s done – just looks ugly and scratchy to me.
Good call there
Bring back Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen! Or maybe Don Kramer
Seriously, what happen to Don Kramer? After Wonder Woman, he just felt off the comic book map.
Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen on Detective again would be amazing.
i would love dini and nguyen
I just read that Joker and Robin in the car story from Dini’s Detective run. That was fucking good. Dini has got my vote.
Ironic that this post had 52 likes when that screengrab was made!
that isn’t irony.
Jock/Francesco Francavilla on alternating duties like the legendary last issues of Detective pre-52 would be awesome!
As for the writer, well, Snyder would be a sure bet but I think writing two Batman books might burn him out quickly (plus Swampy + American Vampire). If not, why not give a new writer take a chance like they let Snyder do? James Tynion IV could write a story arc, I’d buy it and give it a chance. If not, maybe rotating artists/writers for quick 2-3 issues story arcs could work also I guess!
Get Brubaker and Rucka involved and bring back Gotham Central!
Amen to that!
Yes, please! One of my favorite books ever.
Fantastic artist, but poor writer, I thought.
Too right, he sucked terribly!
I totally agree. I had no complaints about his art, but his writing was not good. But I wish him the best, and I wouldn’t mind if he stayed on the art duties.
The art as executed was obviously fantatstic—BUT–the art choices as it related to the stories did NOT work for me. I felt like I was reading someone’s attempt to be “creepy” and “gritty.” Like trying to outgross himself.
Compare to Francavilla, or Capullo who don’t draw the literal concrete representation of creepy, scary, gross etc. Their style is Hithcockian and Daniel’s is Eli Roth.
I think his writing is okay, and not as bad as some people here make it out to be.
But, he is a really good artist, and if he was working with a really good writer, he could be a part of a great book, rather than an okay one.
What’s Tim Sale up to at the moment? Would love him to draw Batman again.
I don’t think he could do an ongoing. But yeah, where’s he been at?
Darwyn Cooke writing. Peter Snejbjerg on art.
definitely azzarello writing and russo on pencils. or maybe gary frank…
*risso*
I would like to see Bryan Q. Miller to write it
Or James Tynion IV take him off the back ups in Batman and give hime Detective
This is good news as far as I’m concerned.
I’d love to see Dini and Nguyen back on Detective (they were just getting started if ya ask me). I’d also buy the hell out of an Azzarello/Risso Detective.
But the idea that gets me most excited is definitely Brubaker or Rucka turning the title into a Gotham Central revival. Maybe with Francavilla on art? I could die happy if that happened.
Get Chris Yost on writing and make it a Red Robin centric book.
Okay…
I. AM. SO. HAPPY.
Seriously, how bad was Detective Comics? I stopped purchasing it after a while, and I was so let down by Daniel’s “Eye of the Beholder”. I was really starting to hate the guy for how sloppy his work on Batman was.
Now, it’s really good news from DC that they CARE about the artistic quality of their books. Both “The Dark Knight” and “Dectective Comics” were huge sellers, but huge crap too (talking about the writing here guys, not the drawing), and yet DC didn’t chose to let the current teams on for the almighty dollar. It’s a bold move from DC and I really appreciate it.
Now, I would love to see Sean Murphy drawing. Also, I think TEC should be used to talk about Batman’s past with Robin. Like Batman during his first years with a young Dick Grayson. In the modern Comics Age, there’s no stories about those two ! It’s time to bring the FIRST Dynamic Duo back !
So : Bruce Wayne + Dick Grayson. First years. Sean Murphy. And as a writer : David Hine.
Would be awesome.
Amen on the Crap tastic writing. I actually traded in all my Detective comics at the LCS.
I dropped Detective for the first time in ten years because of issue 1, and his horrible Batman run before that. he’s like the Chuck Austen of Batman comics
A friend of mine who isn’t so versed on hero comics or DC was chatting with me about the New 52, and I was gushing about Snyder and Jeff Lemire.
Then he asked why Snyder was considered so great and what were the other bat-titles like.
I said to him… “Detective and The Dark Knight right now… are like if Michael Bay wrote them”.
He immediately understood.
I agree, Daniel’s run on Batman was so unforgettable. Iching and something about some Asian people. I dunno, it was all crap. Great artist, but not so impressed with his writing. Ditto for Finch. Let ’em draw, don’t let ’em write.
Promote Snyder protege Kyle Higgins from Nightwing to Detective and let them play together. Move other Snyder protege James Tynion IV to Nightwing. Have CAFU or Freddie Williams II draw.
I like the idea of promoting Higgins, but he seems to fit more on Nightwing than he would on a pure Batman book. I could see Tynion writing Detective with Snyder IF he wasn’t just announced to do the Talon book.
My vote is a relatively unknown writer and artist. Part of the problem for me with The New 52 is that DC keeps using the same people who have written and/or drawn the comics over the last 10-20+ years. While some of the stories have been great, a lot of it has felt rehashed and “done before”.
Bring in the new blood — a new writer and a new artist who can (hopefully) bring a new perspective to the New 52 Batman universe! Maybe we’ll find the next superstar creative team that we’ll be praising and wanting to come back to the title 10 years from now!
Bring back crazy Frank Miller!
i was just about to say that!
So what happened to The Joker?
Ha! just thought about that. Thats never going to be resolved now.
It will.
If Snyder or someone else wanted to tell a Joker story, I would moan or groan if they just ignored the face/off thing as just got on with their ideas.
I’d love the whole of the Scalped team on Detective Comics (including Jock on covers). That’s obviously not going to happen as Aaron is at Marvel but it would be astonishing. Other than that Azzarello is a natural choice, as long as he doesn’t leave Wonder Woman!
DC should do something interesting with it. Get a younger or more contemporary writer to do a series of one-shots or shorter story arcs with a rotating group of artists, Warren Ellis/Secret Avengers style. Or do it Avenging Spider-Man style, where both the writer and the artist rotate, but more consistently.
I know! Maybe a Batman book that isn’t so completely dark, gritty, and super serious all the time! That kind of goes against the whole mantra of the Nu 52, though, doesn’t it?
I do wish they’d make it, at least for a while, a book centered on the bat-people without books, namely Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown and/or Cass Cain, we have enough Batman, I think the little people should be given a fair shot too
I think that would be good.
also, though unlikely since he doesn’t seem to be interested in doing a monthly nowadays, I wish Gabriel Hardman would be put on art duties *keep on dreaming*
Not sure if they would give Tynion such a flagship book when he has yet to publish anything for the company besides backups. Would figure that editorial would see how Talon did for a few months before assigning him such a hile profile gig.
Is Rucka exclusive with Marvel? Is he interested in working again for DC? I may be lumping him in with Waid, but I was under the impression that he didn’t leave under the best circumstances. That being said, I have no real recall of hearing that anywhere.
Not sure how plausible it is, but if I’m DC, I try to bring aboard Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. I think that would be a really interesting fit.
Hill and Rodriguez would be really interesting and I feel like I remember Joe Hill saying he had a Batman story he wanted to tell when he was on the comic book club podcast.
Count me as a fan who would be incredibly happy to see Paul Dini back on a Bat book. He had a great run on Detective and Gotham City Sirens with fun done-in-one stories with a loose overarching story, so I’d be stoked so see him take the reins again.
Gotta love Paul Dini. I just heard this interview with Dini and Kevin Smith. It got me watching the animated series again with a new-found appreciation.
http://smodcast.com/episodes/fat-man-on-batman-1-paul-dini/
Azzarello would be awesome. Risso would be icing on the cake, but if not him, as they’re working on more Vertigo stuff I think, than someone with a “noir-ish” look to them, a la Lark or Phillips. I would also love it if they focused more on Batman’s interaction with the GCPD and Gordon. None of the other Bat-books are doing that I believe. I also like the idea of someone “new”, but rather than the ones suggestion, how about Nathan Edmonson? I haven’t read his Grifter, but I loved his “Who Is Jake Ellis?”, and if he could do that noir-ish tone in ‘Tec and hopfully without too much editorial intereference, he’d probably do a great job. Marvel seems to always grab the new writing talent, DC really should make more of an effort rather than just using Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicienza or any other of Bob Harris’ buddies on a book.
I thought Dc have had a better track record recently as far as finding new writers. They noticed fans were liking Snyder and Lemire and have moved them to prominate positions.
Marvels ‘indie darlings’ like Bunn and Spencer seem to get lost in the shuffle a lot.
They have gotten a bit better, but historically, Marvel has been more about getting the hot new writers. I’m thinking of how particularly DC didn’t know what to do with Andy Diggle (although really, neither did Marvel once they got him), or that they had Jason Aaron writing Scalped and didn’t take advantage of that. With the coming of Snyder and Lemire, and the fact they did use some newbies for the new-52, whether they’re still around or not, shows some initiative, but considering they keep giving books to Harris-cronies such as Lobdell, who in no way shape or form is a good writer, shows they like keeping their old guard buddies around, even if they’re not good at their jobs. I have nothing against using older writers, but use the good ones, not the hacks.
Personally, I would say that it’s not that Bunn and Spencer get lost in the shuffle, it’s that they’re still new to the whole main stream comics way of doing things. Like, with Snyder and Lemire, They had at least done a lot of smaller stuff with DC and Marvel, so they’re more acclimated to how it works at the big 2, where the others are still finding their feet. Plus, Lemire had already done a lot of stuff for Vertigo, and Snyder had a history of doing prose writing.
Guys like Bunn, Spencer, Humphries, Edmondson, and Willamson are all still relatively new to writing comics and have all done a few indie things here or there. Plus, if you look at the DC books that have younger writers, most of them have either been canceled or the teams changed. Fialkov and Higgins are hanging in there but I don’t know if many others are. Sorry, this got really long and hopefully not too ranty.
You make some good points tomistommy. Also, if you look at the fact that they replaced Edmonson on Grifter with Rob Liefeld, that doesn’t bode well in terms of using new talent as opposed to keeping the old guard in work. Regardless of what people think of his art, he is not a good writer. Now maybe have him pick some writers, as he’s made some strong choices with his Image properties lately, that might work, as hearing the guy talk, he’s passionate and cares about comics and wants them to be good, he’s just probably a better facilitator than an actual creator. Plus, if you look at Marvel, they have writers over there that are making fun comics: DnA, Gillen, Remender, are some. I know DC had DnA for Resurrection Man, but maybe give them a property that has some recognition and see what they can do, as their Marvel Cosmic stuff were some of the best “old-school style but still modern comics” in recent memory.
I wish DC would realize that comics are meant to be fun and entertaining. Not everything has to be so dark and gritty, and so self-serious. I mean, say what you will about the quality of Marvel lately, at least we are getting books like Dare Devil, Journey into Mystery, and Wolverine & the X-Men out of them. You know, books that are actually FUN.
As for Liefeld, he may not be the world’s best writer or artist, but at least the man was willing to let people take control of his characters and let them go crazy. I got Prophet and Glory out of it, which are 2 of the best new books going right now, so I will give the man that.
Yeah Prophet is obviously awesome and Glory really surprised me. I’m hooked on both
Yeah, Liefeld saw people with some good ideas and let them go at it. I agree that Marvel has some fun books right now with Daredevil, etc., the fact is, to me they have the writers who are able to capture that old-school magic but write the stories in a more modern way, as well as tell stories in shorter issues. I think it’s time comic companies moved on from the 5-6 issue story arcs for the trade and just tell stories between 1 and 4 issues, varying on the story, not on what fits into the trade. I’m a trade reader, but I would love for stories to not outwear their welcome and for single issues to actually have some “meat” to them (that’s another comptaint, some comics are single issues, but they lack a sufficient amount of depth to the story). DC does have some fun comics, like Demon Knights, but they definitely are leaning towards grim and gritty or just cheesecake silliness.
I’ve been waiting for this announcement for a long time. I’ve always liked Tony Daniels’s art, but his style is too inconsistent. The style he adopted since the new-52 is much less appealing than the one used on RIP. And his writing and storytelling are incredibly bland. I could always make my way through his issues of Detective, which I guess says something, but I barely enjoyed doing so.
If the gods were just, Damon Lindelof and Jeff Lemire would take over Detective and continue the great work they started in Legends of the Dark Knight.
Thank you Tony Daniel is leaving Detective YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OTHANKGOD
I am so glad to hear this news. I stopped reading Detective because the writing was really bad in my opinion. The art was good, but I just couldn’t get past the bland writing. I really hope DC put a good writer on the book, someone who can do it justice. This is Detective Comics for God’s sake. It should be one of DC’s flagship books and it should be written by a really great team – it doesn’t necessarily have to be a superstar writer and artist, I’d be happy to see some of the newer creators given a chance, as long as they have some interesting ideas.
That said, my dream would be Brubaker writing and Francavilla or Murphy on art. I’d buy that book 3 times over!
Or maybe DC could buy Dustin Weaver out of his exclusive contract without Marvel….
In a perfect world, Brubaker or Rucka would leave his swanky Marvel pad and come write some pure Batman detective stories to sit next to Snyder’s horror-thriller Batman title. I can’t pick the artist though, as I wouldn’t wanna see Sean Murphy NOT working with Scott. I do miss Dustin Nguyen drawing Batman though (Beyond stuff withstanding).
Brubaker and Steve Epting on pure Batman detective stories. The only thing that could probably top that is a Question back-up by Rucka and Francavilla
I think it would be cool to have the book be a place for different creators to tell one-shot stories, or small two and three part tales. They could keep the same writer around, but use the book to bring in and showcase different artists. That way guys like Murphy, Hardman, Francavilla, Tonci Zonjic, Michael Cho, and others who might not want to be tied to a monthly schedule could jump in and tell cool stories.
I also like the idea of it being more on the lighter side, there are plenty of “Dark” Batman stories going right now. Look what some levity did for Daredevil at Marvel. I wouldn’t mind if the stories veered into a more pulpy, throwback style; with Batman and Robin–or Robins–foiling the rogues’ hare-brained schemes. Kind of like the Adam West TV show, but without campiness.
GABRIEL HARDMAN ON DETECTIVE. MAKE IT HAPPEN. SOMEONE. PLEASE.
@TurdSandwich: My thoughts exactly.
You should really check out the new Legends of the Dark Knight series, Its close to what you’re describing. I enjoyed the hell out of the first two stand alone stories
Oh I just realized who should draw ‘Tec. Norm Breyfogle!
Hopefully they go back to the old formula of this series before the relaunch. At most have two issue stories and put more emphasis on the mystery then making it an ‘action’ book. Gregg Hurwitz could be a great choice since he was a mystery/crime writer before getting into comics. But they said that Hurwitz is NOT staying after the #0 issue so I guess he isn’t an option.
I honestly don’t know who should take over at this point. Tynion might be a good choice but I don’t know if they’ll give a new writer such an established series….Gotta think on this.
I don’t care what anyone says, Daniel draws the best batman. While i won’t overly miss his writing, his art was always outstanding.
This is great news. I think it would be good if Dustin Nguyen returned to Detective Comics. As for writer, why don’t we try Eric Trautmann or Sterling Gates.
Daniel’s a great artist, but an awful writer. I was surprised DC even put him on writing duties for the relaunch, as he wasn’t getting glowing reviews for his work on Batman.
Would love Nguyen back on art – huge fan of his work and am lucky enough to have a commission by him.
As for writer – Rucka would be awesome, but can’t see it happening. Hope it’s someone original.
Some of you might think this is crazy, but Davis Liss and Francavilla could breathe some new life into the title.
No that isn’t crazy! That would be a great creative team. Cause, like Hurwitz, Liss is a crime/mystery writer so he could fit right into the series. But it looks like Francavilla isn’t doing ongoing series, or at least not for DC/Marvel.
But Liss is a good choice.
DC still has a dearth of female creators; this would be a great way to put a woman on a main Batman title for the first time ever.
I agree. Who would be a great choice?
Batwoman was in Detective in 2009 as part of ‘Batman Reborn’. It worked well and was the springboard for the
Ongoing series.
Gail Simone? I’ve read her work on several titles and she could easily write a dark gritty Detective Comics. However, I don’t know how likely that is.
Honestly I wouldn’t mind seeing this periodically focus on other Batman cast members, i.e. Gordon, as I feel we’re kind of glutted with Batman stories right now. Maybe seeing Gotham from another person’s perspective might be interesting.
I can’t think of a writer I like for the book but I think we can combine this with the other “anthology” idea floating around and do something like: give Becky Cloonan (who’s already going to be popping over to Gotham shortly) a guaranteed year on the book, from 13-24, and then just bring in whatever writers want to do a one shot or two-parter about Batman or any of the other satellite characters that don’t have their own book and don’t conflict with what Snyder, Morrison and Tomasi are doing in their books.
So you could have an issue where Bryan Q Miller reintroduces Spoiler to the DCU or an Alfred one shot or maybe a day-in-the-life of The Penguin or 24hrs following a Gotham beat cop on their first day.
A bunch of different stories all anchored by one artist.
I would like to see Brian Wood write Detective Comics. He could really flesh out Gotham City and make that the focus of the book. On art I agree with Sean Murphy being the top choice. Others would be Giuseppe Camuncoli or Leandro Fernandez who drew Garth Ennis’s Punisher Max books.
What about Joshua Hale Fialkov as the writer and Amy Reeder on art?
Joshua has been knocking it out of the part with I,Vampire, I think it would be cool to see his take on Detective.
And I think fans were all a bit dissapointed when Amy Reeder was moved on so soon from Batwoman.
Whilst I love the idea of Rucka or Dini coming back to do a run on detective I agree that it would be best to give someone new the reigns. If Joshua Hale Fialkov is too busy my next suggestions would be Bryan Q Millar, or Sterling Gates (seriously why isn’t this guy getting any work at DC at the moment?).
I think Jeff Lemire would write an awesome Batman book actually. Just keep Rob Liefield, Scott Lobdel, Paul levitz, and Tom Defalco the fuck away!
I know this wholly a fanboy thing to say and a LOT of people are going to be against this, but I have always wanted to read a Batman tale written by Garth Ennis. But I doubt it would ever happen.
It’s happened twice:
THE BATMAN CHRONICLES #4
BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK #91-93
This is all pointless now because of Layman coming in but I FINALLY figured out who I would like to see:
Cullen Bunn
His Marvel work hasn’t impressed me lately but he could do wonders with a more light-hearted Batman book.