Ben Wan
- Jan 10, 2022
- 3 min read

The UNUSED Batman 1989 Concept Art (Feat. Living in Crime Alley's Rob Ayling)

We cover the concept art developed in the 10 year journey to bring Batman 1989 onscreen, including Tim Burton's own art for the 1985 treatment where Joker ran for Mayor, how the Batsuit almost had a BLACK utility belt, the main three influences on Gotham City, and the unsung hero of the Oscar winning production design- Nigel Phelps! We then end on the unused posters for the classic film, the comics that inspired them, and the taglines that were never used!

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Introduction & Rob Ayling's History with Batman 1989

We previously had Rob Ayling as our guest in our episode focusing on the Jared Leto Joker:

You can check out Rob's fan film Living in Crime Alley here:

12:01 1980- Marshall Rogers Art

The Marshall Rogers concept art came from this tweet: https://twitter.com/coolcomicart/status/951613391117824000

13:50 The Tim Burton/Julie Hickson Draft Concept Art

These pieces come from this link: https://weirdlandtv.tumblr.com/post/184464567888/early-concept-art-by-tim-burton-for-batman-1989

You can read the script here if you have a Scribd membership: https://www.scribd.com/document/437924384/Batman-1985-Treatment

19:45 The Batsuit & The "Under Armor" with the Batman Begins Connection

The Batsuit concept art by Bob Ringwood came from here:

https://batman.fandom.com/wiki/Bob_Ringwood?file=RingwoodDrawing.jpg

The Under-Armor Design was sent to us courtesy of fan Logan Wood.

The tidbit that the production did NOT want to do a yellow belt came from Anton Furst himself in this interview, which was the source of several other factoids in the episode:

31:46 The Joker

The Michael Uslan art for Jack Nicholson came from his book The Boy Who Loved Batman as well as this link: https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/11/19/how-early-concept-art-turned-the-shinings-jack-nicholson-into-the-joker

The Joker concept art came from these tweets:

https://twitter.com/CoolComicArt/status/1457825423329353731

https://twitter.com/kim_basing1/status/524644515395932160

https://twitter.com/WeirdlandTales/status/1247712489921445894

https://weirdlandtv.tumblr.com/post/628372270100971520/concept-drawings-by-tim-burton-for-joker-batman

And this link to the Burton art in his MoMA exhibit: https://comicvine.gamespot.com/articles/first-look-tim-burtons-moma-exhibit/1100-139807/

Some of the concept art from Bob Ringwood and Anton Furst came from this magazine:

http://www.1989batman.com/2014/07/vintage-magazine-article-comics-scene.html

As well as this: http://filmsketchr.blogspot.com/2014/07/masterful-batman-1989-costume-concept.html

https://www.cbr.com/tim-burton-batman-concept-art/

http://www.1989batman.com/2014/09/special-feature-batman-1989-production.html

You can check out the concept art of Batman 1989 as well as other Batman films in the giant 80th Anniversary book Batman: The Definitive History of The Dark Knight in Comics, Film, & Beyond by Andrew Farago and Gina McIntyre, which you can buy using our affiliate link here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1683834372/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=superherost00-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1683834372&linkId=fdb5baea4e0fd22f94058d6e11b23a9f

46:47 Gotham Characters

48:43 Bat Gadgets

54:05 The Batmobile

The additional Batmobile concept art came from this tweet:

https://twitter.com/othehorrors/status/1114289959077158912

And this link:

https://www.themovieblog.com/2012/04/exclusive-interview-star-wars-storyboard-artist-david-russell/batman-1989-batmobile-concept-sketch-3/

57:31 Break - QuadCast microphones, Hair of the Dogcast, Less than 2000 podcast, Barkbox promo

Check out our link for Barkbox here.

59:27 Return From Break- Gotham City & Acknowledging Nigel Phelps

1:03:23 Gotham City - Influences

The quotes about the inspiration for Gotham City came from the Screencraft: Production Design & Art Direction book by Peter Ettedgui that was recommended to us by a fan, Keva R:

https://www.amazon.com/Production-Design-Art-Direction-Screencraft/dp/0240804007

The shots of Andreas Feininger's photographs of New York buildings came from:

https://monovisions.com/vintage-new-york-by-andreas-feininger-1940s/

https://monovisions.com/andreas-feininger/

The shots of Shin Takamatsu's architecture come from the following links

http://archtalks.com/archtalks-home/2010/6/7/shin-takamatsu-essay-and-lecture-synopsis.html

https://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/gallery/2020/08/31/architecture-as-symbolic-event.html

1:05:40 Gotham City & The Unsung Work of Nigel Phelps

A lot of Anton Furst and Nigel Phelps's Gotham City concept art came from here:

http://filmsketchr.blogspot.com/2014/03/towering-batman-1989-gotham-city.html

http://talesfromweirdland.blogspot.com/2017/03/gotham-city-batman-1989-concept-art.html

https://preview.redd.it/xabd284eza071.jpg?width=250&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe2fbfcfd023d7b556ec837213bc69135f243b2a

The image of the comic book Gotham City Police Department headquarters is from this link:

http://batmangothamcity.net/gotham-city-police-department/

The shot of Gotham with the bridge:

https://timburton.fandom.com/wiki/Nigel_Phelps?file=Phelps_skyline.jpg

1:13:33 Axis Chemicals & The Weird Connection to Detective Comics No. 27

1:16:37 Flugelheim Museum and Its Main Inspiration

1:23:44 Wayne Tower & Deleted Wayne Foundation Scene

1:25:11 The Batcave & The Influence of the Batcave on Future Adaptations

1:34:54 Vicki's Apartment & The Joker's Parade

1:37:35 The Batwing

1:42:52 The Gotham Cathedral & End Shot

1:44:24 The Unused Batman 1989 Posters

Many other unused posters came from this link:

https://theposterboys.tumblr.com/post/141012026318/unused-early-poster-comps-for-tim-burtons-batman

As well as the book The Art of John Alvin.

This unused poster by Chris Achilleos came from Burtonsgotham's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/burtonsgotham/p/CXV0nsCs322/?utm_medium=copy_link

The text version of the unused "Justice is Darkest Before the Dawn" poster came from this wiki.

1:56:22 Favorite Concept Art?

2:06:09 Closing: The Joker's Fireside Chat (Fan Comments)

2:16:14 Fan Shout Outs & Social Media Promotion

BIG THANKS to our guest Rob Ayling. Check out his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHZUJMtTjLkJRlSazVKwl7A

And BIG THANKS to our research assistant Dan Yamat, who put together a ton of the visuals for this episode, as well as did QC and the chapter time codes.

Please record us a “bumper” saying “You’re listening to Superhero Stuff You Should Know” and send it over to superhousepodcast@gmail.comAlso to any animators- we’d love to see our sketches animated. Please include #SuperheroStuffYouShould Know IN the video

Become a part of the Shasta Army on our Patreon page:

https://www.patreon.com/m/superherostuffpod

SuperHouse on iTunes: https://apple.co/3ctz4lN

Please leave us a review in iTunes!

SuperHouse on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2yq3Kpo

INSTAGRAM: @superherostuffpod

TWITTER: Twitter.com/SuperhousePod

FACEBOOK: Facebook.com/SuperHousePod

Please join our Facebook group where you can interact with us and other fans!

YOUTUBE: YouTube.com/c/SuperHousePodcast

Please email us at: SuperHousePodcast@gmail.com

ANDREW’S CHANNEL/WEBSITE: