FW Presents: Find Your Joy: SUBWAY JACK: A TALE OF THE BATMAN

It's not the return of Batman Knightcast, but it is Ryan Daly gushing over one of his all-time favorite Batman stories: "Subway Jack" written by Joe R. Lansdale, originally published in THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF BATMAN prose anthology.

Let us know what you think! Leave a comment or send an email to: RDalyPodcast@gmail.com.

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Music this episode: selected pieces by Danny Elfman.

Thanks for listening!

7 responses to “FW Presents: Find Your Joy: SUBWAY JACK: A TALE OF THE BATMAN

  1. Like I said on Facebook, I wish I had known you were such a fan of this Ryan, as we could have made a whole Knightcast out of covering this!

    I LOVE this story. My favorite prose Batman story for sure. I loved it so much I begged my high school art teacher to let adapt it into a single image for class when we were assigned to draw a scene from a favorite book. I couldn’t adapt a comic, but she eventually caved to this. I drew the scene you describe where Subway Jack lifts Batman by the neck, and yes, I drew his human head shoes too! I wish I could find that somewhere…

    I was so hoping this story would eventually be adapted into A Legends of the Dark Knight arc. Lansdale was doing the Vertigo Jonah Hex series later on in the 90s, so it wouldn’t have been out of the question. Sadly, it was never to be. But I’d still love to see it!!!

    I think one thing than instantly appealed to me about this story is that it reminded me a bit of one of my favorite Star Trek episodes, “Wolf in the Fold” written by horror icon Robert Bloch. Jack the Ripper is a demonic force that survives the centuries into Trek’s 23rd century future. I didn’t know at the time Bloch had adapted it from his earlier tale, “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper”, about Jack reappearing in modern times. The Hammer film “Hands of the Ripper” covers some similar ground, with the Ripper’s otherwise demure daughter being possessed by her father’s murderous bloodlust from time to time.

    Needless to say, I found my own joy with this one, and I think I shall re-read “Subway Jack” tonight!

    Chris

    1. I had already written up this entire review two years ago for the Coffee and Comics blog, so turning it into an episode took all of thirty minutes, which is why I didn’t mention it in advance.

      I think we may have to take a look at the entire anthology book for a future episode of Knightcast, and perhaps we’ll team up with some others, too.

  2. Excellent podcast Ryan. I really enjoyed these stories when they came out and the Subway Jack story from Joe R Lansdale was one of the best. He was mentioned in passing when Lansdale wrote in the follow up anthology “The Further Adventures of the Joker” in the tale “Belly Laugh”, which is another good story. Looking forward to seeing more of these prose stories being covered!

  3. This was a VERY obscure one to pull out and cover! I remember these anthologies well. For some reason, I wound up with multiple copies of the Batman one and then was gifted a set of Batman prose hardcovers, which only reprinted stories from the Batman, Joker, Penguin and Catwoman volumes.

  4. Fond memories of this paperback (I wonder if I still have it somewhere?) Glad I got to shake Lansdale’s hand at this year’s Comicpalooza (Texans represent!)

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