The Brave and the Bold 152 Batman and Atom page 11 by Jim Aparo

This page and me have history. When I was looking for an example of Aparo’s artistic brilliance, it was one of the two cheaper examples to be found on a dealer’s website that were of interest. And yet, the price felt a little steep (when doesn’t it?). Then it got sold. It latter popped on CAF in a for sale gallery. I reached out to the seller to ask for the price and discovered I had to make an offer and only had one chance to do so. Not being a fan of the system and while life helped me procrastinate, I received an angry email a week after my initial contact telling me I was obviously not that interested. I apologized and communication broke. Then said seller put a price on it that was extremely cheap. I reached out again to say that this process was more comfortable for me and that I would gladly buy it along another piece. I received no answer. Given how low the price was, what could be expected happened and it ended being (instantly) flipped on Heritage. For whatever reason (likely another squirrel I HAD to chase), I did not buy it. Only for it to recently pop up on Ebay Europe where I could happily buy it tax free and for a very very fair price. A long story and journey, the likes I would love to see happen more often, especially on higher end pieces :)

This is peak Aparo to me (along the second part of his Aquaman run, of which I own a page, and the Spectre), at a time when he was handling pencils, superb intricate inks AND lettering (which says a lot about the expert balloons placement to lead the reader's eye throughout the page). All those functions form a nice incentive to get such pages showing a master at his craft.

What excited me about this page is the great use of verticality and both the sense of dread and urgency it conveys.

The first two panels see Bruce Wayne’s (bat)car being snatched off the road then dropped on top of rocks. The first see the car being taken horizontally as it is ridding before we change the angle in the next one. The second panel is especially brilliant as the car is dropped vertically on top of the ominously shadowed pointy rocks and the placement of the only word balloon participates in enhancing all that.

The third is excellent at framing Bruce Wayne exiting the car mid-air to convey a sense of movement, immediate chaos and danger. The tilted angle works perfectly.

Then the sense of speed takes over in the fourth panel has the Atom jumps into action. You have got to love only seeing Bruce’s foot as he introduces the (comic book) science 101 aspect into the action.

Then the Atom saves Bruce by vectoring his fall towards the water (and managing not to break both their spines while doing so). Bruce’s body language is perfect here. Also notice how Aparo used the position of his tie to indicate direction, much like he did in panel 3.

Then splash, everyone falls into water with the Atom having slowed down somehow. This panel is purely vertical after the diagonal angle of the 4rth and the close to horizontal one in the 5th. This to show that as any good storyteller, Aparo changed angles and camera placements to induce dynamism on the page. Atom’s body language also looks spot on.

Given the time period it was produced in, the sense of speed on this page is insanely good imho.