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Published: 2019-06-03 11:28:28 +0000 UTC; Views: 4900; Favourites: 21; Downloads: 0
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This is a collage of the Riddler's history with scans of the first appearance of the Riddler in Detective Comics #140 (1948) "The Riddler" written by Bill Finger and art by Dick Sprang [reprinted in Batman Arkham: The Riddler (2015)] and Batman #362 (1983) "When Riddled by the Riddler ..." written by Doug Moench and art by Don Newton [reprinted in Batman Arkham: The Riddler (2015)], art by Bill Fraccio from Four Color #1341 The Andy Griffith Show (1962) "Undercover Man" written by Don Segall and art by Bill Fraccio, art by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson from Batman #16 (1943) "The Joker Reforms" written by Don Cameron, art by Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson and George Roussos [reprinted in Batman: The Dark Knight Archives vol. 4 (2003) and art by Tim Burton from "Swirly Eyed" (1993) [reprinted in The Art of Tim Burton (2009)], art by Bill Fraccio from Four Color #1341 The Andy Griffith Show (1962) "Undercover Man" written by Don Segall and art by Bill Fraccio, art by Gene Colan from Detective Comics #532 (1983) "Laugh, Killer, Laugh" written by Doug Moench and art by Gene Colan [reprinted in Tales of the Batman: Gene Colan (2011) vol. 2 (2018)], Riddler art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez from Batman: Confidential #28 (2009) "A New Dawn Part Three" written by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir and art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez [reprinted in Batman: King Tut's Tomb (2010)] and art by Tim Burton from "Swirly Eyed" (1993) [reprinted in The Art of Tim Burton (2009)] [that I put together and colored] and the Riddler description quotes from The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes: Batman (1976) by Michael L. Fleisher, "His real name is Edward Nigma, and uses his name initial, coupled with his last name, producing the word enigma, as therefore, his preoccupation with puzzles and riddles. Years ago, while Edward Nigma was still a young boy, his history teacher announced a contest to determine which of her students could assemble a jigsaw puzzle the fastest. The night before the contest, Nigma pride open his teacher's desk and took a photograph of the assembled puzzle so that the next morning, when the other students were introduced to the puzzle for the first time, he was able to win the contest easily by capitalizing on his knowledge of that the finished puzzle would look like. Having won the puzzle contyest, E. Nigma soon became known as a puzzle expert among his friends - who didn't know that he had cheated.
As an adult, Nigma, as the Riddler, operates a puzzle booth at a carnival, where customers compete with him for prize money. If the customer successfully solves Nigma's puzzle, he wins a cash prize, but if the customer failed to solve the puzzle, and Nigma succeeded, the customer would pay a fee to Nigma. In each case Nigma would rig the puzzles in advance to ensure that his customers would always lose. But the time came when the small pickings of a carnival attraction did not satisfy the crooked puzzle master. Nigma muses to himself - 'I'm clever enough at puzzles to baffle even the police - and Batman, too! I'll commit puzzling crimes - and fix the puzzles so I'll always win!' The Riddler wears a green carnival costume - decorated with a black question mark."
The comics panels on the side say, "The career of the Riddler began years ago, with a school history contest!" The teacher said, "Tomorrow, each of you will receive a disassembled jigsaw puzzle. The first to put it together wins a prize!" Edward Nigma, acting entitled, claimed to another student, "I ought to win [for] sure! After all, my name is Edward Nigma - E. Nigma!" from Detective Comics #140 (1948) "The Riddler" written by Bill Finger and art by Dick Sprang [reprinted in Batman Arkham: The Riddler (2015)].
"The boy who cheated on puzzles grew to be a puzzle expert...And still cheated!" Edward Nigma claims, "Solve that Chinese puzzle and I pay you! If you don't and I do...then you pay me!" A customer says, "I'll try it!" from Detective Comics #140 (1948) "The Riddler" written by Bill Finger and art by Dick Sprang [reprinted in Batman Arkham: The Riddler (2015)].
"From that seemingly insignificant beginning, he graduated to a puzzle booth at the carnival, where customers competed with him for prize money. Rigging the puzzles in advance, he always won. Then it was only a matter of time..." from Batman #362 (1983) "When Riddled by the Riddler ..." written by Doug Moench and art by Don Newton [reprinted in Batman Arkham: The Riddler (2015)].
I gave Riddler additions to his wardrobe, that I believe Tim Burton would have given Riddler, including an tailcoat and a pair of pants, instead of wearing a leotard covered in question marks or copying Frank Gorshin's suit and tie covered in question marks or Jim Carrey's suit and tie covered in glowing neon question marks, and his unassuming question mark cane being secretly a deadly sword-cane instead of just a prop. It makes more sense for him to wear a green question mark costume if he started wearing it as his carnival job costume, and he secretively starts committing deadly puzzling crimes, like bombing buildings, while using his public job as just a unassuming, unsuspecting, carnival worker to hide in plan sight at the carnival, making Riddler more of a complete character like a person that could exist and less of a cartoon caricature of a real person. The original comics Riddler's carnival roots suits Tim Burton's carnival circus imagery. I have a hunch that Tim Burton would have cast quirky creepy Steve Buscemi for the Riddler in the '90s, instead of lovable zany manic comedian Robin Williams or spastic goofball comedian Jim Carrey, so I used vintage '60s Don Knotts art for the Riddler's head because Steve Buscemi looks like Don Knotts. I used the vintage art for this to make it look authentic and professional. The Riddler in the comics had that sort of lean face but cartoony Dick Sprang art and generic superhero art, the Don Knotts/Steve Buscemi face gives the Riddler a more distinctive realistic look. Today, Bill Skarsgard could be Tim Burton's Riddler pick, he looks like a younger Steve Buscemi.
In the Big Fish commentary Tim Burton said about Steve Buscemi, "He's a guy that just, anytime I see him in a film it just makes me happy, he's just such a great presence and I always wanted to work with him and because I love people that look like they could be in a silent movie. He's one of those guys that just expresses so much without even having to say anything. I love Steve's character, too. He's another that I related to. This guy that is artistic... I just love this character, going from a poet to a bank robber, and then becoming very successful, I always felt very close to this character in a weird way... This kind of Don Knotts gone bad, kind of like if Barney Fife had got on the wrong side of the law type of a situation. Steve [Buscemi is] excellent at improve and again getting kind of a funny tone because when Steve [Buscemi] comes out of there it's actually kind of scary because you don't know if he's gonna shot somebody, get that mixture of comedy and slightly scary at the same time. I would love him [Steve Buscemi] to be [in all of my movies]."
"I don't know if any ideas made it in," says Tim Burton of the subsequent Batman Forever film. "I realized halfway through my meeting with Warner Bros. that they didn't really want me to do the movie. They kept saying, ‘Don't you wanna go back and do a movie like Edward Scissorhands? Something smaller?' I said, 'You don't want me to do the movie, do you?'"
www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat…
In Tim Burton's book Burton on Burton he explained, "I don't think Warners wanted me to direct a third Batman. I even said that to them. I've always been a little at odds with them. I have a different perception of what dark is. There was a big backlash that it was 'too dark,' but I found this movie [Batman Returns] much less dark than the first one. It's just the culture climate. And they [Warners] hear that. They listen to that. I don't want to because I think it's dangerous and perverse. I think the culture is much more disturbed and disturbing than this movie, a lot more. But they just fixate on things and they choose targets. Got a lot of flake from parents thinking it [Batman Returns] was too scary for their kids. But I feel close to that material. I certainly don't feel like dissociating myself from the material completely because I feel I gave it something. I saw Batman Forever, but I didn't see the last one [Batman & Robin]. I couldn't. It's like you're involved with something and then you're not. You feel like you've died and you're having an out-of-body experience. That's the best way I can describe it. I just had a shock. I always hated those titles like Batman Forever. I though, 'Batman Forever, that sounds like a tattoo that somebody would get when they're on drugs or something,' or something some kid would write in a yearbook to somebody else. I have high problems with some of those titles."
It was actually Joel Schumacher who wanted Robin Williams to play the Riddler, and Joel Schumacher's writers Lee and Janet Batchler wrote the role with Robin Williams in mind. Robin Williams confirmed in November 19, 1993, that he had been talking to director Joel Schumacher about the project scheduled to film in September 1994, and he said that he thought playing the Riddler would be "nifty," but the script wasn't finished yet. Joel Schumacher was expecting the script to be in his hands on January 1, 1994.
On January 2nd 1994 Des O'Connor asked Robin Williams, "You've got the Riddler coming up?" Robin Williams said, "Maybe. Yeah, if the script is good I'll do that."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ufWTu…
After reading the script and the studio giving him a final deadline for his decision, Robin Williams turned down the role. He believed the character was too intellectual and not as comedic as the Riddler played by Frank Gorshin on the TV series. Robin Williams was reportedly also concerned that his Riddler would be overshadowed by the film's other foe, Tommy Lee Jones' Harvey Two-Face. So Joel Schumacher cast Jim Carrey instead. It took just 30 minutes of negotiation to cast Jim Carrey.
ew.com/article/1994/06/03/cast…
In Cinescope [June 1995] Joel Schumacher explained, "I wasn't asked to do the third of Tim's movies... When I was able to bring Val Kilmer in, it really gave me and the rest of the creative team an opportunity to feel that we were doing a new [version] instead of a sequel... In my Gotham City...The Batman suit has nipples, and so does the Robin suit... We tried to add a lot of humor to Batman. They are called 'comic' books. The trouble with taking him [Two-Face] from a comic book into a movie is that [in the comic books] he's a very tortured soul who lives in the shadows. Even though he has two faces, the character can be very one-note. So we chose to make him less the Phantom of the Opera and give him a more theatrical flair; he's quite a clothes horse on one half of his body. And he has a girlfriend for each side - Sugar and Spike [Drew Berrymore and Debi Mazar]."
www.1995batman.com/2018/03/mag…
Pat Hingle and Michael Gough were the only ones from Tim Burton's back, and even their characterizations were changed from dignified and authoritative to bumbling comedic elders to be laughed at or pitied.
Warners had Bob Kane brought on as a film consultant on Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, too. But Joel Schumacher didn't even respect Bob's consultation. Joel Schumacher explained, "Bob Kane doesn't understand why Chris O'Donnell [as Robin] has an earring and Batman has nipples. I told him 'it's the '90s, Bob! It's my Gotham City, and if I want Batman to have nipples, he's going to have nipples!'" Jim Carrey explained, "It pissed off Bob Kane. Bob Kane was walking around going 'I never put nipples on a Batsuit. Whoever heard of nipples on the Batsuit?'"
In Cinescope [June 1995] even Bob Kane explained about Batman Forever, "It's not really a sequel - it's a brand-new ballgame."
www.1995batman.com/2018/03/mag…
In SFX #3 (August 1995) Batman Forever and Batman & Robin production designer Barbara Ling explained that when Joel Schumacher offered her the job, she would only agree on the provision that "We're doing our own version, right?" Joel Schumacher completely agreed.
www.1995batman.com/2018/08/mag…
In Action Heroes '95 #1 (1995) Batman Forever and Batman & Robin scriptwriter Akiva Goldsman explained, "This [Val Kilmer] is a younger Batman and he fits into a world that has more colors to it, a world that isn't as dark and Gothic."
www.1995batman.com/2018/09/mag…
In Starlog Science-Fiction Explore #8 (August 1995) Batman Forever and Batman & Robin producer Peter MacGregor-Scott explained, "They [Warners chairman Bob Daly and Terry Semel] wanted a very different film. They didn't want this film to be as dark as [Michael Keaton's] Batman Returns [by Tim Burton]. There was quite a bit of criticism from parents about the second film. The six-year-olds liked it. I know mine did. But the parents just thought it was too dark, and the studio had some concerns... What we've done is make things lighter... [Jim Carrey's] Riddler is more of a clown-like super-villain than any sort of horrible monster. He does bad things but not necessarily evil things. [Tommy Lee Jones'] Two-Face could have been a bit of a problem if we had decided to play him the way Batman Returns portrayed [Danny DeVito's] the Penguin. He's [Tommy Lee Jones' Two-Face's] not gruesome or ghoulish in appearance. He has his good side and his bad side but, ultimately, Two-Face wont be terrifying."
Costume designer Bob Ringwood explained that he was instructed that Batman Forever was "going in a different direction. The studio wanted the costumes to be more cartoony...They wanted things lighter and more colorful."
www.1995batman.com/2018/06/mag…
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