Batman gets a female artist for one issue; Becky Cloonan to draw issue #12

Two years ago I wrote a post asking if we would ever once again see a woman on a writing a Batman book. The club of women who have written Batman books (as opposed to the broader set Batbooks which includes titles like Nightwing and Birds of Prey) is very small. Ann Nocenti wrote the Batman/Catwoman mini-series The Trail of the Gun and Louise Simonson wrote Detective for few issues twenty years ago. The only full time writer on a Batbook has been Devin Grayson who was headwriter on Batman: Gotham Knights. Gail Simone, you ask? She’s written Batman but only in other books. Not a very big club.

But if you think the pool of women who have written Batman books is small, the pool of artists who have worked on a Batman book is even smaller. DC announced today that Becky Cloonan  would be doing a fill-in issue on Batman. The only prior example of a female penciller drawing a Batman book I could find was Mary Mitchell who penciled a Batman mini-series, Gotham Nights, with John Ostrander. If you know of another please let me know.

Cloonan is an incredibly talented artist who is currently doing terrific work on Dark Horse’s Conan the Barbarian with Brian Wood. I can’t wait to see her work on this issue which is the story of a new female character in the Batverse, Harper Row. 

It would be great to see her drawing any book in the DCU, but its mind boggling that she is in such rare company as a female artist on a Batman book. Nicola Scott draws a a great Batman. Amy Reeder drew him too. I’m sure there are plenty of other female artists who could too. I hope the club that Becky Cloonan just joined doesn’t stay small.