10 Joker Drawings to Celebrate the Joker’s 75th Anniversary

Hot on the heels of the reveal of Jared Leto’s version of the Joker on Suicide Squad (showing 2016), I’m celebrating the Clown Prince of Crime’s 75th anniversary with two new drawings of the best Batman villain of all time (some would say the best comicbook villain bar none and I’d heartily agree).

At the time of writing, “Joker” is still trending in the US on Twitter, hours after the official image was revealed by Suicide Squad director David Ayer. It just goes to show how iconic the character is–as entrenched in the collective cultural imagination of the people as his arch nemesis, the Batman. As with every cinematic reveal of the character (Nicholson and Ledger), this one was met with equal amounts of uproar, ridicule, and praise. Personally, this tattooed, prison thug Joker wasn’t quite what I was expecting but I’m very curious with how this version would play on the big screen. I commend DC for taking risks with its characters and bringing us something we’ve never seen before. Plus I’m really excited to see Jared Leto’s performance because that guy’s acting chops are just freakin’ off the charts!

This next one is more of the classic Mistah J we all know from the comics, with the exception of that tragic frown. You almost never see the Joker flash a sad face in the comics (except when he’s mocking something), so when he does it, as I tried to capture here, the facial expression always comes off as very creepy. It’s like seeing him spiritually defeated (which I guess is a good thing if you were Batman) and discovering the all-too-human person behind the demonic smile and the goofy, psychotic theatricality. I will always be a fan of this classic maniac in a purple suit but I’m ready for the next cinematic version. Hoping for the best!

And just to complete my celebration of Joker 75, I’m collecting some of my recent and not-so-recent Joker art here in this post. ‘Til next time! Bye! 🙂