Scott Snyder’s Mysterious Background Hipster Cops Turn Up in BATMAN: GATES OF GOTHAM #2

You'll recall the grand conspiracy regarding the background hipster cops, as brought to light by Detective Comics and American Vampire writer Scott Snyder. Months ago he began to notice a pair of distinctive detectives popping up in the backgrounds of diverse comics, many of them aimed at younger readers. Sometimes they were beat cops in Spider-Man's New York. Other times, they were roping off a crime scene in Metropolis.

The same two guys, one with red hair and glasses and another with an unshaven face. And in books from different publishers and different artists. What is the connection and who are these cops? 

This week, Snyder unearthed a chilling new lead. Within the pages of his own comic. In a conversation a few weeks back, Snyder told me to keep a close eye on the characters mulling about in Batman: Gates of Gotham #2, a book he co-wrote with Kyle Higgins, drawn by Trevor McCarthy. 

And sure enough…

This image is from 1877. 

……

 

Flash the Brad Meltzer signal ASAP. 

Comments

  1. My mind is blown!! I have been keeping my eye open for these guys. Its very odd. I swear I saw them in an episode of Batman Brave and the Bold.

  2. Time Lords!

    at this point its gotta be an easter egg inside joke kinda deal. still funny though.  

  3. So that’s who they were!!! I was looking at that panel abd I thought they were editors or something….This makes the issue all the more great now.

  4. Someone went off-model…

  5. This is so cool.

  6. @ccarney  I’m glad someone else noticed that!

  7. Those aren’t the hipster cops at all.

    Firstly, the hipster cops are both white guys, and the guy with the dark hair has a soul patch.  The fellow in glasses resembled him, but it is a coincidence I assure you. 

    The cameo you’ve pointed out are the leads from the action/comedy/stoner/epic “The Hashisian” by Trevor McCarthy and Joe Harris coming from Oni Press.

    You can see them in a page from the Hashishian here:

    http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/293/6/5/hashisian_pg_31_by_trevormc112-d315s0s.jpg

  8. Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

    @RonnieThunderbolts  i was told I’d find a cameo. This is it. 

  9. Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

    That said…

  10. You were told you’d find a cameo of the hipster cops?  Because that cameo is the of the leads to “The Hashishian” by Trevor McCarthy, the arist of Gates of Gotham.

  11. Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

    @RonnieThunderbolts  Snyder specifically told me I should look for the hipster cops, yes. Maybe that was his interpretation of the panel? 

  12. I mean, look at the overweight black fellow with the full goatee?  I can see the other lead from the Hashishian looking very much like the one hispter cop.  But the two of those guys together looks like the main characters from Trevor’s Oni OGN The Hashishian.

    Is it possible the hispter cops are in the book as well?  Could the one lead from the Hashishian be living a double life as one of the hipster cops?

    Could be.

  13. @PaulMontgomery  That makes sense, it could be how he saw the panel.  Interesting either way.

  14. Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

    @RonnieThunderbolts  No, I think you’re right. Good catch!

  15. @RonnieThunderbolts Hey good correction. I never read that comic before, is it any good?

  16. Obviously we’re slowly being told who the 12 models of Human-form Cylons are. Hipster Cops, Stars of Hashishian. I think I even hear Bob Dylan…

  17. @TheNextChampion  It hasn’t been released yet.  There are a couple other Joe Harris books from Oni that have already come out, like Ghost Projekt, and that haven’t come out yet like Spontaneous, and Trevor McCarthy has done some Batman stuff at DC with last winter’s Batman and Detective Comics annuals and this Gates of Gotham mini series.

    The Hashishian looks fantastic though, it is like Harold and Kumar meet the Manchurian candidate and Indiana Jones.  It is like an epic stoner adventure movie in a graphic novel, and when it does come out, it looks like it will be fantastic.  There are a bunch of uncolored pages up at Trevor McCarthy’s deviantart page too. 

  18. @RonnieThunderbolts Now I’m thinking Scott Snyder is messing with us and trying to be paranoid that hipster cops are running around his comics. Damn him! 🙂

  19. So the hipster cops are Josh and Black Conor now?

  20. If those two guys turn out to be behind the DC reboot…

  21. The cops in the top picture do look like Ron and Josh

  22. This is pretty damn neat.

  23. @cormano

    I would totally love to hear the alternate universe ifanboy podcast featuring Black Conor

  24. twilight zone theme cue now

  25. They’re looking for Scourge.

  26. @bugcatchermitch  greatest album ever

  27. Okay, so Snyder planned this out but couldn’t get his artists to make the cops look the same between two appearances? And of those four faces I’d only call one of them remotely “hipster”.

    I dunno, guys. These are the sort of details that we and our A-list creators think are worth dealing with?

    Meanwhile every issue of Batman Inc has like five classical literary references, and a few references to textbook philosophies and psychologies, but we don’t talk about that. Instead we obsess over silly stuff that doesn’t really say anything and isn’t even consistent between issues.

  28. @froggulper 

    Not at all.  If you look at the comments above, we’ve figured it out, and the mystery hipster cops don’t even appear.

    The artist of the issue, Trevor McCarthy, included the two leads of his creator-owned OGN The Hashishian in this issue of Gates of Gotham.  The co-author, Scott Snyder, thought they were the mystery hipster cops because one of the two characters cameo-ed resembles the red headed, glasses wearing hipster cops.

    Scott Snyder retweeted this article with the comment added: “Could I be behind it … and not even know?!” Indicating that he didn’t plan on an appearance by the mystery hipster cops, but was taken by surprise when he believed he saw them.

  29. Wait, why isn’t anyone asking the important question– where is the other hipster cop?  

  30. Snyder’s losing it. Jumping at shadows and what-not.

    This is already better than “Secret Invasion”… 

  31. Hipster cops…even the name sound hip!

  32. Yay!  This is awesome!

  33. this has got to be a group effort between the two companies for an upcoming event. a cross over or some such sillyness