P.I. Writers who Have Contributed to the Canon
Since his creation back in the thirties, Batman has had an immense and undeniable impact on not just crime fiction but on our culture itself, influencing and appearing in films, radio and television, graphic novels, cartoons, comic strips, videogames and of course comic books.
Here’s just a small sampling of crime and detective writers, many of them favourites of this site, and other, perhaps surprising, writers who have penned tales of the Dark Knight.
By the way, despite claims made elsewhere, Mickey Spillane never wrote Batman comics. He never worked for DC.
COMICS
- Ed Brubaker
- Max Allan Collins
- Greg Rucka
- Andrew Vachss
TELEVISION
- Howard Chaykin
- Chuck Dixon
- Alan Grant
- Joe R. Lansdale
- Greg Rucka
SHORT STORIES
- Max Allan Collins
- George Alec Effinger
- Ed Gorman
- Edward D. Hoch
- Stuart Kaminsky
- Joe R. Lansdale
- William F. Nolan
- Dennis O’Neill
- Mike Resnick
- Kristine Kathryn Rusch
- Dan Simmons
- F. Paul Wilson
NOVELS
- Dennis O’Neill
- Greg Rucka
- Andrew Vachss
FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
- Greenberg, Martin, editor, The Further Adventures of Batman (1989) | Buy this book
- Greenberg, Martin, editor, The Further Adventures of the Joker (1990) | Buy this book
- Greenberg, Martin, editor, The Further Adventures of Batman, Volume 2 (1992) | Buy this book
Featuring the Penguin - Greenberg, Martin, editor, The Further Adventures of Batman, Volume 3 (1993) | Buy this book
Featuring Catwoman - Greenberg, Martin, editor, Adventures of the Batman (1995) | Buy this book
- Greenberg, Martin, editor, Tales of the Batman (1995) | Buy this book
- Greenberg, Martin, editor, Legends of the Batman (1997) | Buy this book
NOVELS
- Gardner, Craig Shaw, The Batman Murders (1990) | Buy this book
- O’Neill, Dennis, Knightfall (1994) | Buy this book
- Vachss, Andrew, The Ultimate Evil (1995) | Buy this book
- Rucka, Greg, No Man’s Land (2000) | Buy this book
- Moench, Doug, The Forensic Files of Batman (2004) | Buy this book
- Shirley, John, Batman: Dead White (2006) | Buy this book
- Irvine, Alex, Batman: Inferno (2006) | Buy this book
- Reaves, Michael, and Steven-Elliot Altman, Batman: Fear Itself (2007) | Buy this book
- Hickman, Tracy, Wayne of Gotham (2012) | Buy this book
AND FOR TRUE BAT-BELIEVERS
- Block, Lawrence, “Batman’s Helpers” (1990, Justice for Hire) | Kindle it!
This short story isn’t really a Batman story, but the Caped Crusader might well have given a big thumbs up to Block’s New York City private eye Matt Scudder, as he works a case of copyright violation.
Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Mind you, I’m not quite the Bat-Freak I used to be. If I’ve missed anyone significant, please let me know.
