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  • Published: 2 December 2025
  • ISBN: 9781799506997
  • Imprint: DC Comics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 144
  • RRP: $23.00
Categories:

Batman: Arkham Asylum: DC Compact Comics



Grant Morrison and Dave McKean's all-time classic Batman story is now available in a portable, 5.5" x 8.5" format!

Written by legendary comics creator Grant Morrison and beautifully drawn by artist Dave McKean, Batman: Arkham Asylum stands as one of the most perennially revered Batman comics of all time. Now, this celebrated graphic novel is more accessible than ever before, in a casual reader-friendly Compact Comics Edition!

In 1920, following the death of his disturbed mother, brilliant psychologist Amadeus Arkham began the conversion of his ancestral home into a hospital for the treatment of the mentally ill.

More than half a century later, the Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane is a place of dismal corridors and oppressive shadows—a dark riddle in stone and timber, best left unsolved.

Within its claustrophobic walls, the demented and deformed enemies of the Batman brood in padded cells and unlit cellars, dreaming of a day when they might rise up and overthrow the world of reason.

That day has finally come.

It is April 1st, and the lunatics have taken over the asylum. Led by the Joker, Arkham’s inmates issue a terrible ultimatum to the man responsible for their imprisonment.

The Batman must descend into this heart of darkness, confront his greatest foes, and face the truth of his own divided identity — or condemn himself to share their fate.

  • Published: 2 December 2025
  • ISBN: 9781799506997
  • Imprint: DC Comics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 144
  • RRP: $23.00
Categories:

About the authors

Dave McKean

Dave McKean is an illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker, and musician. His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art, and sculpture.

After a trip to New York in 1986, during which he failed to find work as a comics artist, McKean met writer Neil Gaiman and the pair collaborated on a short graphic novel of disturbing childhood memories, Violent Cases, published in 1987. This was followed in 1988 by a Black Orchid miniseries (again with Gaiman) and Hellblazer covers for DC Comics. Beginning in 1989 he produced the covers for Gaiman's celebrated series The Sandman as well as all its collected editions and many of its spin-offs; and the Batman graphic novel, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, with writer Grant Morrison (1989). McKean has gone on to collaborate further with Neil Gaiman in both print and film.

Praise for Batman: Arkham Asylum: DC Compact Comics

"Morrison's first big commercial hit - and his first shot writing Batman, a character he would spend a great deal of time with over the course of his career - was this ground-breaking graphic novel featuring the grim, twisted artwork of painter Dave McKean. In this darkly poetic, psychologically rich tale, Batman faces off against the Joker, Two-Face, the Scarecrow and other villains inside Gotham City's house for the criminally insane"-- Rolling Stone

"Grant Morrison and Dave McKean explore that connection in Arkham Asylum, one of the finest superhero books to ever grace a bookshelf"--IGN

"Between Morrison's esoteric writing and Dave McKean's gorgeous painting, this may very well be my nominee for the definitive Batman story. Yes, even more so than The Dark Knight Returns, Year One, or The Killing Joke. Exploring both Batman and his rogues equally through significantly different characterizations than typically seen in the main DCU, Morrison boils these characters down to their essence while providing a chilling mystery story set within the confines of Gotham's home for the criminally insane"-- Crave Online