In 1989, I decided to collect comics for serious.  Batman had been my all time favorite superhero, pretty much my whole life, but I wasn’t as fanatical until after I saw Tim Burton’s Batman one June afternoon with my brother J.C. (then had to walk all the way home afterward by ourselves from Southern to McLellan in the blistering heat . . . but I was geeking so hard on Batman, I didn’t even mind.)

Anyway, at that time, my goal in life became to read every Batman story in existence, and I used pretty much every cent of my Penny Saver route income to do just that.

One day, during my weekly visit to Atomic Comics, I saw a shrink wrapped hard cover graphic novel titled Arkham Asylum.  I couldn’t see the price so I asked an employee how much it was.  The “employee” just happened to be Michael T. Malve, the owner and founder of Atomic Comics.  He told me the price, which being a hard cover was a bit steep for me, but I decided to buy it anyway because . . . I was trying to read every Batman story in existence.

I continued to browse for another 15 to 20 minutes, excitedly turning my imminent purchase over and over in my hands, when Mike Malve came back and asked me how old I was.  “Fifteen” I answered. He then informed me that he couldn’t sell me Arkham Asylum.  He turned the book over and showed me that it had “Suggested for Mature Readers” printed in small letters on the back cover. He couldn’t sell it to me until I was 18.

I was devastated, I was angry, and if I remember correctly I left without buying anything else because I was so embarrassed (So embarrassed for not being old enough?!!! That’s how my teen-aged mind worked then).

I knew nothing of the story inside Arkham Asylum but suddenly it had all the nagging allure of forbidden fruit, and every time I’d return to Atomic I would look longing and then ashamedly at Arkham Asylum sitting there on the shelf.

Years passed and I repeatedly fell out of then back into comics; yet over all those years I never once read Arkham Asylum.  (There was one time, while working at Barnes & Noble that I started to read it on break, but after two days we sold our only copy and once again I was robbed of it.)

Flash forward to present day.  I had just beaten Batman: Arkham Asylum on the Xbox 360 and had Bats and Asylums for the Criminally Insane on my mind, when to my joy, I found Arkham Asylum at my local library.

This was it.  The wait was over.  After 21 years, I was finally going to read Arkham Asylum.  And read the HECK out of it, indeed, I did.

Now about the book itself: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth was written by Grant Morrison, and illustrated by Dave McKean in 1989.  I really like Dave McKean’s art, but I’ve always found his sequential storytelling to be irritatingly abstruse, and Arkham Asylum being no exception, I was going to give this book 2 maybe 3 stars on Goodreads . . . but then I read Grant Morrison’s INCREDIBLE script for Arkham Asylum (with commentary) that came as supplementary material in the back of the 15th Anniversary Edition.

After that . . . well all I’m going to say is Dave McKean blew it . . . big time.

I never got around to reading every Batman story in existence, but Batman is still my favorite superhero ever and I’ve read a whole lot of his stories.

An outstanding Batman story is, in my opinion, one that covers new ground while staying true to the characters essence (this is where The Dark Knight, for all it’s flaws, succeeded, and The Joker by Brian Azzarello complete failed).  Arkham Asylum, especially Grant Morrison’s script, hit it out of the park.

I can’t believe it took me this long to read it . . . but if I hadn’t waited for the 15th anniversary edition with Grant Morrison’s script, I probably would have thought Arkham Asylum was just a disturbingly surreal mess of confusion.

So thanks to Mike Malve!  Plus, he was right.  A 15 year old kid probably shouldn’t have read that book.