Howard Chaykin, Midnight Men #4 Splash Page

Never let a great idea go to waste.

Howard Chaykin turned an unused Batman pitch into an imaginative new series for the extremely short lived “Heavy Hitters” imprint from Marvel/Epic in 1993.

I'm fortunate to have seen most of this title's original art and each page is beautiful: Great storytelling, terrific draftsmanship, and a generous use of deep India ink and screen tone for depth and effect. He busted his ass on these pages, and it shows.

Bonus: Great lettering, as always, by John Workman.

Honestly, the only thing I don’t like about the series is the coloring (not by Howard), but hey, it was the 90s.

The four-issue series has never been collected, but individual issues typically turn up in dollar bins, and are worth seeking out.

Remember, you can’t kill the Midnight Men.