Arkham Asylum by Jared Alexander

               The illustration in Arkham Asylum has a realistic style. Even though the art style changes during the book it keeps the dark creepy vibe. It goes from a sketchy look to a blurred dream-like look to a almost photograph look.  It has a lot of detail in the faces but, the backgrounds in most panels are pretty much nonexistent. The background looks very foggy or blurry.  

                This story would not work as a movie or a novel because you can’t get the same feeling or the images of insanity and madness that you can through the graphic novel. In a movie you can’t have Amadeus Arkham narrate his journal through the movie.  Also the story switches back and forth from the pages of Amadeus Arkham’s journal and Batman. This could work just like the “Holes” movie where it switched back in forth from past and present through the movie, but you wouln’t be able to know Amadeus thoughts as he fell deeper into madness.

                There isn’t really any narration in the novel. The closest thing to narration is the readings from Amadeus Arkham’s journal. The story switches from Amadeus Arkham’s journal to Batman and sometimes the journal is also read during Batman’s part in the story. 

                The most significant part in the book is where the Joker first takes Batman into the Asylum and the bottom of the page says “Let the Feast of Fools begin!” The rest of the page has text scattered all over the pages with random phrases like “No room! No room!” “Who killed Bambi” or “Oranges?” In the room you can also see dead people and patients in the asylum.  With text and images that don’t seem to make sense or connect to the image. This is where you step outside of a rational world into a world of chaos and madness. This is where you see just what kind of mad world Arkham Asylum is.