An EXCLUSIVE interview with the beloved artist… I had the wonderful privilege of interviewing artist Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez for the 1982 DC Comics Style Guide, from Standards Manual and DC Comics. It was also insightful to discuss the original project with its manager, Mary Yedlin (then Moebus). Here’s the EXCLUSIVE interview, which is included in the newly released hardcover. Dig it. — By DAN GREENFIELD, 13th Dimension As is often the case when you’re a kid, I didn’t immediately know José Luis García‑López’s art was his when I first saw it. I just knew that I liked it. I was (and remain) an avowed Batman nut, and when, at the ripe old age of 12, I went to the local stationery shop in December 1979 to pick up the latest issue of his flagship title, I was struck by the bright, colorful cover: Batman #321 had the Caped Crusader and his closest allies — Robin, Alfred and Commissioner Gordon — trussed up on brightly burning stakes placed like giant candles on a massive, pink cake shaped like The Joker’s face. On the upper left was a banner that read, “YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO THE JOKER’S BIRTHDAY!” On the bottom right was the wild-eyed Clown Prince of Crime himself gleefully — and malevolently — beckoning to the reader, “AND YOU’RE ALL WELCOME TO ENJOY THE FIREWORKS!” It was a setup right out of the 1960s Batman TV show, but there wasn’t a hint of camp. It was outrageous, yes, but it was dangerous. Batman and co. were clearly suffering while the Joker was having the time of his demented life. The concept easily could have collapsed under its own inherent silliness except that the artist — whom I later realized was José Luis García‑López — sold the burning hell out of it. Today, that cover is considered a classic. Over the next couple of years, JLGL (as he’s often called) caught my eye again, with his covers to comics’ first planned miniseries, The Untold Legend of the Batman; the interiors to Batman #336, which featured a handful of Batman villains that had been mothballed since the ’60s; and, most of all, with DC Special Series #27, better known as the treasury edition in which the Darknight Detective, as he was called at the time, took on The Other Company’s...