The Killing Joke immortalized in ARTFX

One of the most famous Batman stories of all time- The Killing Joke is a classic Joker tale to say the very least. Now Kotobukiya has brought the clown prince home in an awesome new ARTFX statue.

When I first saw this piece, I seriously thought it was an art sample from the original Alan Moore and Brian Bolland DC Comics graphic novel. It’s that well done- have a look.

Featuring a portrait inspired by the graphic novel cover art coupled with an original pose by Kotobukiya, this new statue brings the maniacal clown to life as you’ve never seen him before. Joker stands with one foot resting on a crate of dynamite, smiling his huge toothy grin as he snaps a photo on his old school film camera. The sadistic villain’s costume is incredibly detailed, showing off every seam, cuff, button, crease, and more on his purple three-piece suit and trench coat. His outfit is even topped off by authentic studded spats, fedora, iconic white gloves, and lapel-pinned flower. The Joker’s elongated white painted face leaps right off of the graphic novel cover with its deep laugh lines, left eye squeezed shut, and unruly green hair peeking out from under his hat. There’s even a motion sensor built into the base that activates an LED spot lamp and camera shutter sound after a brief delay. As an added bonus, the lamp is movable and can be placed at any angle around the statue!

The Killing Joke was famous for two things really: firstly, it established an origin of sorts for The Joker (something that had never been done before), and secondly it saw Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) shot and paralyzed from the waist down. And that, of course, led into her becoming Oracle- a character I still like better than her original (and now again in the new 52) persona.

Sculpter Junnosuke Abe did the honors with this amazing 11″ tall piece and he really did wonders. The pose may be an original design (though perfectly fitting I might add), but the face and all it encompasses is beyond perfect. It’s dead on with the book.

Lights, camera, action- The Killing Joke goes on sale in May 2013 for $129.99 USD, which isn’t bad for something like this at all by the way.