Who Was Frank Miller's First Choice to Draw Batman: Year One?

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published Mar 13, 2020

In the latest Comic Book Legends Revealed, find out which artist Frank Miller first asked to draw Batman Year One before David Mazzucchelli.

Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the seven hundred and seventy-first installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false.

As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends. Click here for the first legend.

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COMIC LEGEND:

Frank Miller originally wanted Trevor Von Eeden to draw Batman: Year One

STATUS:

True

In October of 1986, Batman #404 was released. In that issue, writer Frank Miller and artists David Mazzucchelli and Richmond Lewis kicked off their historic storyline, "Year One"...

The story is one of the most famous Batman tales of all-time...

And yet Mazzucchelli was not actually Miller's first choice for the project!

No, before he asked Mazzucchelli, Miller first asked artist Trevor Von Eeden to draw the story, according to Van Eeden.

Von Eeden had debuted a new, more expressionist style on Batman Annual #8 in 1982 (working with Mike W. Barr)...

But probably more importantly, Von Eeden drew the first Post-Crisis Batman story in Batman #401 (with writer Babara Randall)...

Von Eeden explained it to my buddy Daniel Best at Best's website:

"Frank had called me in person to offer me the Batman: Year One job, before giving it to Mazzuchelli. I said, 'No.'," says Trevor, "And I have no regrets - Dave did a beautiful job. His wife [Richmond Lewis] colored it, too."

Talk about a momentous shift in comic book history!

Von Eeden would later do layouts for a very important Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight arc (introducing the drug Venom into the Batman mythos, as Batman gets addicted and quits cold turkey by locking himself in the Bat-Cave until he has broken his addiction)...