Batman No. 291 Cover by Jim Aparo

David V Reed was a notable Batman writer, first writing the character in the late 1940s/early 1950s. He would return in the 1970s and likely his best moment was a four-parter published in Batman Nos. 291–294.

Beginning in 291’s “Where Were You on the Night Batman was Killed?”, each issue a villain takes credit for killing Batman and explains how they did it. It was a novel idea and an entertaining story arc. All four issues had covers by The Brave & the Bold‘s regular artist Jim Aparo.

New colour by myself.

As published.

Original art scan from somewhere on the web.

Art made production ready.

New colour.

Re-created trade dress added.

Jim Aparo in his studio, 1978. Photo by Todd Reis, who bought the cover to No. 291 from Aparo, though it has since left his hands.

UPDATE

Having the original issues, I didn’t realise DC had collected the story arc as The Strange Deaths of Batman, and they used 291’s cover for the trade paperback. I learned about it after putting up this post. So here’s their version.

The Strange Deaths of Batman trade paperback.