The Man Who Laughs: Exploring The Clown Prince of Crime, a new anthology of essays about Batman’s arch nemesis, the Joker, will be published on 2nd August by Crazy 8 Press, edited by Lou Tambone and Rich Handley, with a foreword by Bob Rozakis and an afterword by Steve Engelhart.
DC Comics’ Joker has been a goofy trickster, a giggling lunatic, a psychopathic killer, a methodical mastermind, a failed comedian, and an unstoppable force. It all depends on the writer and artist telling the story. He’s the Clown Prince of Crime, the Man Who Laughs, an agent of chaos. He has no special abilities or superpowers, but also no moral code or grip on reality. The Joker is charismatic, terrifying, unpredictable, and downright hilarious. The only method to this criminal’s madness is that there is no method.
“This anthology offers more than twenty perspectives on the yin to Batman’s yang, written by respected comic creators, historians, and industry insiders. So step right into the mouth of madness,” we’re told.
“The joke’s on us, and we’d like to let you in on it.”
The Man Who Laughs, edited by Lou Tambone and Rich Handley, with a foreword by Bob Rozakis and an afterword by Steve Englehart, features new material from Tom K. Mason, Michael Jan Friedman, Bobby Nash, Jim Beard, Brian Cronin, Duy Tano, Alan J. Porter, Valentina Rossi, Jo Duffy, Lou Tambone, Robert Greenberger, Rich Handley, Paul Cornish, Joseph F. Berenato, Kaz B. Towner, LaMarrison Forte, Keith R.A. DeCandido, John Trumbull, Glenn Hauman and Paul Kupperberg.
The book and cover were designed by artists David Pipgras and Aaron Rosenberg.
Lou Tambone is a freelance writer, musician, and UX designer from New Jersey. A lifelong fan of pop culture, he was an early HTML adopter, creating and maintaining some of the first Star Wars fan sites under the Starwarz.com banner. Along with the occasional magazine/web article, he’s been published in anthologies covering the Planet of the Apes, GI Joe, Batman, The X-Files, and Star Wars franchises.
His book editing credits include The Cyberpunk Nexus: Exploring the Blade Runner Universe, From Bayou to Abyss: Examining John Constantine, Hellblazer, Musings on Monsters: Observations on the World of Classic Horror, and Somewhere Beyond the Heavens: Exploring Battlestar Galactica. When he’s not reading or writing, he’s usually making music with one of his many bands. During his “spare time,” he tries to remember to eat and breathe.
Rich Handley is the author or co-author of Watching Time: The Watchmen Chronology, Timeline of the Planet of the Apes, Lexicon of the Planet of the Apes, Back in Time: The Back to the Future Chronology, and A Matter of Time: The Back to the Future Lexicon. He co-edited Titan Books’ Planet of the Apes: Tales from the Forbidden Zone, as well as five Sequart essay anthologies about the Planet of the Apes and Star Wars franchises.
He has contributed to all of IDW’s Star Trek and Star Wars comic reprint books; Sequart’s New Life and New Civilizations: Exploring Star Trek Comics and The Cyberpunk Nexus: Exploring the Blade Runner Universe; ATB Publishing’s Outside In Boldly Goes; and Eaglemoss’s Star Trek: The Graphic Novel Collection, and is a regular contributor to Star Trek Explorer. In addition, he’s penned numerous works for Lucasfilm’s licensed Star Wars universe, and has written for many magazines and websites.
Crazy 8 Press, which has published a huge range of genre books, is a consortium of writers (Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Robert Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, Aaron Rosenberg, Russ Colchamiro, and Paul Kupperberg) who are bypassing the traditional publishing process to bring their work directly to the reader.
They have a bi-monthly schedule of new releases, using the intervening months to introduce backlist works and preview forthcoming projects.
• The Man Who Laughs is available from 2nd August 2023 | ISBN 978-1958482070 | Buy it from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | Buy it from Amazon.com
• Crazy 8 Press are online at crazy8press.com | You can sign up for the Crazy 8 Press mailing list which will keep you updated on a regular basis. Or you can sign up for their Twitter feed or their Facebook page
INSIDE THE MAN WHO LAUGHS
Introduction: Let’s Get Nuts!
By Rich Handley and Lou Tambone
Foreword: Who Is the Joker? A Question from the Answer Man
By Bob Rozakis
Text Messages of the Dark Knight
By Tom K. Mason
The Banter and the Bat
By Michael Jan Friedman
My, What Big Teeth You Have!
By Bobby Nash
Delicious! The Joker as Latin Loverboy
By Jim Beard
One Card Short: Missing the Joke(r)
By Brian Cronin
Something Tastes Funny—That’d Be the Clownfish
By Duy Tano
Why I’m Fed Up with the Joker
By Alan J. Porter
Is the Joker Gay? Queer Representation and the Clown Prince of Crime
By Valentina Rossi
Joker: Stop Punching Down
By Jo Duffy
The Joke Book: Laughing Along with the Joker’s 1970s Solo Series
By Lou Tambone
The Joke’s on the Audience
By Robert Greenberger
One Hell of a Joke: From Laughing Magician to the Man Who Laughs
By Rich Handley
Empathy for Emperor Joker
By Paul Cornish
Don’t Get Even, Go Mad: Joker and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Days
By Joseph F. Berenato
Why Do We Care That the Joker Hates Nazis?
By Alex Galer
Toward a Short Comparison and Contrast of the Joker with Trickster Characters of African Folklore
By LaMarrison Forte
Whatever Joker Wants, Joker Goetz
By Keith R.A. DeCandido
Fixing the Laughter: Voice Casting the Joker on Batman: The Animated Series
By John Trumbull
The Joker: Just How Crazy Is He?
By Glenn Hauman
Mountebank to Monster: The Bloody Road from “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge” to The Killing Joke
By Paul Kupperberg
Afterword: The Last Laugh
By Steve Englehart
• The Man Who Laughs is available from 2nd August 2023 | ISBN 978-1958482070 | Buy it from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | Buy it from Amazon.com
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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Thanks for the shoutout, John.
Bobby