Batman Tales: Once Upon a Crime

by Derek Fridolfs, Dustin Nguyen

Overview

Gotham City is filled with stories-of heroes and of villains, of police and criminals, of families both lost and found. But the enchanted short stories in Batman Tales are brought to life with a classic fairy-tale twist that will fill you with wonder. Once upon a crime in Gotham... Damian Wayne dreams of becoming a real boy wonder-as long as he can avoid telling lies and making his nose grow. Batman's butler takes an unexpected trip through the looking glass and finds himself in a topsy-turvy world, for Alfred's in Wonderland! Gotham City Police Department detectives interrogate Gotham's most dangerous criminals looking for the princess who stole the pea. And Batman meets a snow queen who leads him on a dangerous quest. Derek Fridolfs and Dustin Nguyen, the creative team behind Batman: Li'l Gotham, return to their Bat-roots-this time with a fairy-tale flair!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781779501479
Publisher:	DC
Publication date:	02/11/2020
Sold by:	DC Comics
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	558,707
File size:	78 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Writer Derek Fridolfs has been Eisner Award-nominated for co-writing BATMAN: LI'L GOTHAM and is the #1 New York Times best-selling writer of the DC Comics: Secret Hero Society series. In addition, he's written and provided art for titles including TEEN TITANS GO!, SCOOBY-DOO, LOONEY TUNES, Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Artist Dustin Nguyen is a New York Times best-selling and Eisner Award-winning American comics creator best known for his work on Image Comics' Descender and Ascender, DC Comics' BATMAN: LI'L GOTHAM, Scholastic's DC Comics: Secret Hero Society, and many other things Gotham-related

Editorial Reviews

01/01/2020

Gr 5–8—Fridolfs and Nguyen combine the Bat-family and the world of fairy tales in this collection of stories. Dreaming that he is Pinocchio, Bruce Wayne's son Damian lies on purpose to make his nose grow, then breaks off the long wooden nose and uses it to fight bad guys. Butler Alfred Pennyworth takes a trip through Wonderland after drinking strange tea in the Batcave. Nguyen's impish character art and Fridolfs's fast-paced scripting are delightful, though some of the action is merely implied and characters' Bat-universe origins are left unexplained. Portrayals of the villains' schemes are the most eye-catching, though baddies are, of course, foiled by each tale's end. Illustration quality wavers between cute, streamlined depictions of adults and children and emoji-esque facial expressions. Full-page and wide-panel moments allow Nguyen to pull out all the stops, particularly in the final story, "The Snow Queen," in which Batman, lost in a blizzard, fights not only for his own life but also for anyone he can save. This showstopper is the most thoughtful and painted with the most detail, placed for maximum effect after the pranks and pratfalls of the earlier entries. VERDICT These inspired mash-ups bring new flavor to both the fairy tales they're based on and the Bat-family, heightening readers' appreciation for both.—Thomas Maluck, Richland Library, SC

School Library Journal

2019-12-08
Four classic tales, considerably reworked to feature the Dark Knight and various foes and associates.

The creators of the Secret Hero Society series (kicked off with Study Hall of Justice, 2016) turn from middle school to another fertile milieu—classic tales. The creators follow wooden "Waynocchio" on his quest to become a "real Boy Wonder"; send the butler Alfred into Wonderland to rescue his costumed charges from the "Jokerwacky" and "Harley Queen"; cast Nora "Mrs. Freeze" Fries as the Snow Queen, who seeks help from Batman to thaw her captive husband, Mr. Freeze; and reimagine "The Princess and the Pea" as a series of interrogations by police seeking a hefty stolen diamond. As dialogue constitutes the only text in all but one of these, readers unfamiliar with the originals may have trouble following at least the first two. Moreover, Batman himself takes only a supporting role in all but "The Snow Queen." Still, from the Cheshire Catwoman on, the characters (all white), though largely drawn as children or at least with young faces, will be recognizable to fans of DC comics and films. Being loosely drawn and brushed in transparent inks, the art has a quick, sketchy look reinforced by impressionistic backgrounds in both the spacious panels and unbordered larger scenes.

Clever if rough-hewn concept bearing at best a chancy resemblance to its literary models. (Graphic fantasy. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews