Like its predecessor Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan continues his grand vision of grounding the world renowned character in a 'gritty realism' that, as it did with Batman Begins, will attract a new audience to the Gotham Knight's long history of published works. Provided here is a list of some of the more popular trade paperbacks surrounding the Caped Crusader, including those who inspired this exciting new franchise.

Batman: Year One

Story by Frank Miller
Illustrated by David Mazzucchelli
Colored by Richmond Lewis

The quintessential Batman story, written by Miller in 1986 details the rise of Gotham's original crime fighting team: James Gordon and Batman. In Year One, Miller strays from previous Gothic interpretations of Gotham City and returns it to its New York City based roots. Rife with corruption, these men seek to clean up "a city that likes being dirty." Though Batman Begins strays from this story to stand on its own, Gary Oldman's performance of James Gordon is literally Mazzucchelli's artwork leaping off the page. Also look for a interesting interpretation of Catwoman.

The Long Halloween

Story by Jeph Loeb
Illustrated by Tim Sale
Colored by Gregory Wright

This grand narrative by Jeph Loeb serves as a thrilling murder mystery as well as an unforgettable reinterpretation of the rise of Two Face. When consulted on which stories serve as the inspiration for the new image of Batman, David S. Goyer responded with The Long Halloween, much to the acclaim of fans everywhere. Look here for parallels of Harvey Dent's rise and fall in The Dark Knight.

Dark Victory

Story by Jeph Loeb
Illustrated by Tim Sale

The follow up to The Long Halloween, this story details the end of the established crime families of Gotham City as well as the rise of a young Boy Wonder, Dick Grayson. When cops and politicians, all who have a strange connection to Harvey Dent, begin to be killed, Gotham is thrown into another serial killer's grasp. Having lost a great ally in Harvey Dent, who can Batman afford to trust?

The Dark Knight Returns

Story by Frank Miller
Illustrated by Klaus Jason and Lynn Varley

First written in 1986 and published as four different issues, this trade paperback brings together the story widely attributed with returning Batman to his roots in realism and the inspiration for the Batman movie franchise. Ten years after the last sighting of Batman, a retired Bruce Wayne watches as Gotham City lowers itself to the brink of lawlessness. Unable to fight his inner demons any longer, Bruce dons the cape and cowl once again-but is this new generation prepared to accept Batman's methods? This critically acclaimed work is a breathtaking conclusion to the legend as well as a chilling social commentary of the 1980s.

Hush Vol. 1 & 2

Story by Jeph Loeb
Illustrated by Jim Lee

What happens when you take two of the greatest talents in the comic book industry and give them full control of the Batman monthly flagship comic? Damn good storytelling. Set at the height of Batman's career, someone is teaching his enemies new tactics and methods which threatens to tear down everything Batman and Bruce Wayne has ever known. A griping story set to Jim Lee's amazing artwork, Hush proved to be every bit worth the hype, if only for the controversy raised.

1. Drawing

   Manga: American Comics
   
   American comics try to make their drawings far too realistic than what they need to be. Fancy color and top-notch clarity will really cut into a budget, and personally, it looks terrible. Too dark and gritty, it makes for a horrible job at trying to be “cool” and “hip”. Black and white is what you will see in most manga. Sure, there is an occasional color page or two, and they look a whole lot better than that.

2. Multiple Universes

   Far too long has the industry relied on just the current roster of heroes that they have. They have just repeatedly used them over and over and over. Sure, they are well-known characters, but please, get some originality. With manga you have one story, and after it finishes, it normally stays finished. They don't use it another twenty times to bring in money. That is why Manga does so well; they just come out with a refreshing new story and hope for the best, not abuse one character's universe to death. Speaking of characters, this leads to another point.

3. Characters

   American comics seem to just make their characters either invincible or near-perfect. Superman is a perfect example of this. He is immune to everything, except for Kryptonite and a different colored sun (guess what one makes the most appearances for a weakness). If I remember correctly, there was even one universe where he developed an immunity to Kryptonite. The characters just aren't human enough, while if you look at manga, you will find a huge selection of different kinds. Yes, there are some that do what American Comics do if you are interested, but there are also some that make the character more human than invincible beast. It actually has character development instead of the good-guy beats bad-guy over and over. Also, unlike in most comics, the main manga character will sometimes ACTUALLY DIE! That doesn't happen very often in American Comics without some other universe making it happen.

4. Ads

   Ok, you won't find any more Charles Atlas ads in today comics, but what you will find will be ad after ad after ad. This makes it to you aren't really getting much content in what you buy. They are slowly taking up more and more of the comic. In manga you get three pages at the end of a book. Yes, a book. Not some little 19 page thing, an actual book for anywhere between $7 and $11 USD.

So there you go. American Comic are becoming one big cliché. Eventually the unoriginality and lack of funds will drive American Comics into non-existence unless something is done. I will miss my Iron Man if that happens…

 

Adult comics have surprisingly long history. The first modern adult comics were published in the USA in the 1920s. They are called Tijuana bibles and they contained pornographic comics. In the modern world, porn comics or Japanese hentai manga aren't uncommon.

Brute violence was brought to comics by two Europeans, Benoît Sokal and Hugo Pratt in the 1970s. In the 1950s, American EC Comics showed that adult comics can be made without sex or violence as mature fiction comics.

Censorship knocked EC Comics down but adult comics managed to survive in America, thanks to the underground comics movement in the late 1960s. It was not until the early 1990s that adult comics started to be mainstream in America. Famous adult comics like Hellblazer and Sandman were published at that time.

Another country with a traditional comic culture is Japan. Modern manga comics were born about 60 years ago. The first manga were for children but soon adult manga started to gain popularity. Nowadays lots of adult manga like hentai are published. Compared to American or European adult comic culture, Japan's culture is more open and mainstream.

Most of the published comics may be for children but adult comics stand firmly on their feet also.

Although men definitely enjoy yaoi, its main target audience is women. And it is not gay porn for women. As yaoi is written by women for the enjoyment of other women, the works display a female fantasy of what is sexually attractive, but not necessarily a gay male one. Moreover, yaoi is much more than sex; yaoi manga, novels and anime actually cover a wide variety of genres, from comedy to science fiction, from giant robots to high school romance. Some of them, however, can be sexually explicit and should be kept away from minors.

Many people are still not sure whether shounen-ai and yaoi are the same thing or not.

Shounen-ai, meaning boy-love, refers to shoujo manga written in the "70s and early "80s that featured stories about poetic, platonic or romantic relationships between pubescent or pre-pubescent boys. While Japan gradually discarded the term, the West lapped it up and started using it differently. The American fans now apply the term to stories that have little to no sex, keeping yaoi aside to describe those with a higher erotic or sexual content.

Several companies in the United States publish yaoi titles. They include 801 Media, Be Beautiful, Blu, DramaQueen, Hirameki International, JAST USA, Juné Manga, Media Blasters/Kitty Media, Netcomics, and Tokyopop. Juné by Digital Manga Publishing has announced two new yaoi titles- Don't Say Anymore Darling and Not Enough Time - for summer.

In Don't Say Anymore Darling, Kouhei is a doctor at the local university hospital who has lost touch with his schoolmate Tadashi. While Kouhei grew up to become a successful doctor, Tadashi turned into a jobless, poor-as-dirt, flaming gay writer. One lonely night, at his wits end, Tadashi sends Kouhei a text message and gets a reply. In fact, Tadashi has secretly harbored feelings for Kouhei for a long time. But he finds out Kouhei is getting set-up for an arranged marriage…

In Shoko Hidaka's Not Enough Time, a collection of eye-opening love stories, Yousuke suddenly shows up on the door step of his old high schoolmate Tanigawa after years of separation. While the two had a budding relationship in school, things fell apart and they decided to part ways looking for their true love. However, it might be that their relationship during their school days was what they have been looking for all along.