Steve Englehart is an American writer. Englehart is best known for his eight-issue run on Detective Comics with penciler Marshall Rogers, starting with issue #471 in 1977. Most notable among these stories is The Laughing Fish/The Sign of the Joker! which was a strong influence on the first Warner Batman movie as well being adapted in a episode of the same name of the animated series that followed.
Batman works[]
Night of the Stalker![]
In 1974 Neal Adams came up with an idea for a Batman story in which there would be no dialogue. The story became Night of the Stalker!, plotted and drawn by Sal Amendola and Englehart was asked to add dialogue to the story. Realizing this was a mistake, editor Archie Goodwin removed the dialogue from the final pages but Englehart's narration at the ending was left in.
Dark Detective limited series[]
Englehart and Rogers were asked to reunite for a six issue miniseries in 2005. A sort of "sequel" to their 1977 run, love interest Silver St. Cloud returned.
Claims against DC/WB for proper credit[]
Englehart feels slighted by DC and its parent companies as the years go by for not always giving him credit where it's due.
- The first is his claim that was asked to turn in a draft of the first Batman screenplay that involved both Joker and Penguin as villains, at the studios request Robin also had to be included. This screenplay was then reworked by Sam Hamm and another unnamed writer before that. The primary changes according to him were turning Silver St. Cloud into Vicki Vale and Rupert Thorne into Carl Grissom with the removal of the Penguin and Robin characters altogether. Jenette Kahn nor anyone else involved in the early development of the project have ever admitted to him being among the writers of the many "failed scripts" in the decade long development cycle of the movie. It also worth noting that Michael Uslan commissioned concept art from Marshal Rogers that was used during his pitches to sell the rights to a Batman movie.[1]
- The second is elements of his unpublished "Dark Detective III" series being used in The Dark Knight movie. Specifically a scene where Two-Face confronts a blonde politician, Evan Gregory, after being mutilated and losing his significant other and then corrupts him at his low point. He also claims some aspects influenced parts of The Dark Knight Rises.
Videos[]
References[]
- ↑ Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight - Pt. 1: The Road to Gotham