GRAPHIC CLASSICS 263
killer who married and later poisoned several rich older ladies for their money. His
failed suicide attempt by drinking strychnine leaves him with a face paralyzed into
a permanent grin. Attorney Harvey Dent also appears briefl y, as does the United
Kingdom’s Prince Albert Victor. Much of the enjoyment of the graphic novel comes
from pre-modern crime fi ghting techniques that both Batman and the police must
employ. Eventually, Bruce Wayne is arrested, tried, and convicted of Gotham’s Jack
the Ripper slayings. While awaiting his execution he is visited by Inspector Gordon,
who provides him with all his police fi les in the hope that Wayne may fi nd some
means to prove his innocence. Jack the Ripper’s identity is soon revealed to be that of
Jacob Packer, an old Wayne family friend whose killing spree was instigated by Mar-
tha Wayne’s rejection of his romantic advances. Wayne escapes prison and confronts
his foe as Batman. Packer reveals that his anger over Martha’s marriage to Th omas
Wayne led to his hiring their killer years earlier. Hearing this confession, Batman
removes his cowl to reveal his identity to his parents’ murderer. Packer then slashes
Wayne with a knife hidden beneath his coat; seconds later he is shot and killed
by the arriving Inspector Gordon. Th e tale concludes with the hauntingly familiar
image of Batman astride a gargoyle protecting Gotham from the shadows.
In 1991, Augustyn and artist Eduardo Barreto crafted a sequel to Gotham by
Gaslight. Titled Batman: Master of the Future , it continues the story of the 19th-century
Batman a year or two later as he is reluctant to continue his crime fi ghting career. Th e
plot is primarily concerned with the villainous Alexander LeRoi’s attempts to disrupt
Gotham’s upcoming turn-of-the century celebrations. Augustyn returned to this alter-
native reality again in 2008 with Countdown Presents Th e Search for Ray Palmer: Gotham
by Gaslight #1. Th is tale was connected to DC Comics’ weekly series Countdown; it
presents modern heroes Donna Troy, Kyle Rayner, and Jason Todd traveling through
the multiverse. In current DC Comics continuity, the Gotham by Gaslight world is now
designated as parallel Earth-19.
Gotham by Gaslight was not originally designated as an Elseworlds publication.
However, its success led to the development of the Elseworlds concept so much so
that the title has been retroactively declared by DC Comics to be its fi rst Elseworlds
adventure. Subsequent printings showcase the Elseworlds insignia on the book’s
cover. Th e graphic novel demonstrated that Batman’s popularity is so great that the
character could be easily translated into a variety of settings and time periods.
Charles Coletta
GRAPHIC CLASSICS. Since the 1940s, adapting classic writings has been a mainstay
for comic books and a way for the form to establish legitimacy. Whether the source
material is the Bible, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, or Franz Kafka, comic publishers have
used these literary pieces to not just establish comics but to explore the diff erent ways
in which text and image can create similar or new eff ects in the readers. As a publisher
emerging in 2001, Graphic Classics became one of the fi rst publishers to focus on adapt-
ing classics as regular practice since publishers such as Classics Illustrated in the 1940s
