In this feature, I spotlight five scenes/moments from within comic book stories that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently in comics). Here is an archive of all the patterns we've spotlighted so far.

This time around, based on a suggestion by Will B., we take a look at times that the inmates all escape from Arkham Asylum...

Arkham first showed up in Batman #258 by Denny O'Neil, Irv Novick and Dick Giordano and sure enough, an inmate was escaping!





But just ONE inmate, so it really doesn't count.

The first full Arkham Asylum break-out happened in Batman #400 by Doug Moench, Steve Lightle and Bruce Patterson...











(Ra's Al Ghul was the guy who let them all out)

The kick-off for Knightfall was when Bane and his crew released the inmates in Batman #491 by Doug Moench, Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo...









Geez, Batman, such sorrow - you'd almost think you were Captain America after killing a bad guy to save a bunch of hostages from certain death.

The next escape was a more friendly release. After the events leading up to No Man's Land, Jeremiah Arkham released all of the inmates rather than let them starve to death in Batman: No Man's Land #1 by Bob Gale, Alex Maleev and Wayne Faucher...



The inmates of Arkham Asylum were cleared out for the events of R.I.P. On the way back, though, they were freed by the Black Mask in Batman: The Battle for the Cowl #1 by Tony Daniel and Sandu Florea...







The most recent one was a bit of a minor breakout, as a corrupt Arkham Asylum guard released the cells to stop Batman when he showed up to take the guard in (luckily, Batman thought ahead and planted Nightwing there disguised as the Joker to help him out if it came to that) in the opening of Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion's current run on Batman in the New 52...











There have been other Arkham breakouts over the years, but, well, these are the five I'm going with this time around. Feel free to share other instances of Arkham breakouts in the comments section!

Thanks again to Will B. for the suggestion! If YOU have a suggestion for a future edition of Drawing Crazy Patterns, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com