CHRIS SAMNEE Picks His TOP 13 All-Time #BATOBER Illustrations: VERTICAL EDITION

Posted By Dan Greenfield on Oct 23, 2025 | 2 comments

Magnificent black-and-white sketches by one of comics’ modern masters…

For eight straight years, from 2018 to 2024, superstar artist Chris Samnee posted online a new Batman black-and-white sketch every day for the month of October. Each image was based on a one- or two-word prompt. He called it #Batober, like similar “-tober” exercises by other artists.

For eight straight years, we highlighted 13 of his grooviest illustrations, and a lot of the fun was checking out how each drawing reflected the prompt. Sometimes it was obvious, sometimes subtle, but always interesting.

With last fall’s debut of his and Mark Waid’s maxiseries Batman & Robin: Year One, Chris decided that 2024 would be the last year for #Batober. Instead, for 2025, he’s been posting some of his faves from years past. And with Batman & Robin: Year One #12 — the finale — out Oct. 29, we asked Chris to pick his 13 favorites, both widescreen and vertical.

(#Batober, by the way, was instrumental in our pounding the drum for years for a series just like Batman & Robin: Year One. Sometimes manifesting works!)

So here are 13 VERTICALS. Click here for 13 horizontals.

Right on.