The book, Joker was originally going to have a much more familiar title, before corporate synergy dropped by to say hello, according to the writer:

Yeah, it was originally called Joker: The Dark Knight but this whole ‘The Dark Knight’ movie came along and we kind of got out voted. (laughs) But that’s okay—I actually like calling it just Joker.

The 120-page graphic novel may be a follow-up to Azzarello's Lex Luthor: Man Of Steel series (both books have been illustrated by Lee Bermejo), but aside from focusing on iconic villains, they aren't too similar, apparently:

Well, one of the major differences in Joker is that I’m not telling the story from his point-of-view like I did in Lex. Lex isn’t insane so you can give him a world view that I think is relatable. I firmly believe that trying to write from the Joker’s perspective would be taking power away from that character; part of the power of that character is his unpredictability. Nobody knows what he is going to do next; so, if you’re in his head, you totally take away the unpredictable nature of the character. Rather than tell it from his perspective, I chose to tell it from the point-of-view of a tough guy who joins his gang—so it’s someone close to Joker; someone who wants to be like Joker who doesn’t really understand what being like the Joker is actually all about... It’s a brutal book. I have a reputation for writing all kinds of hardcore, violent things. This is the most violent thing I’ve ever written.

And if you're wondering just what version of the Joker will be starring in the book, then Azzarello is happy to... well, tease, more than share:

You know, I really love what Frank [Miller] did; but then, you have to consider what Alan Moore did with Killing Joke. Denny O’Neil did some great things with Joker—I thought Greg Rucka used him really well in Gotham Central... I think that’s part of the power of that character—there hasn’t been a definitive Joker—and that’s what makes some of these characters so strong; coming back to them and there’s always something fresh. Look at the theater—that’s a brand new Joker! [And] if you like that character—you’re gonna love our book. They’re very, very eerily similar.

Joker appears in stores October 22nd.

Exploring the Joker -Brian Azzarello Talks [Newsarama]

Since we are future reporters and all, we loved this other Silver Age inspiration for a present-day comic featuring a reporter named Spider. Of course, by "inspiration" we mean retroactively-Photoshopped creation. Is that a retpho? W00t!

Rampant Plagiarism [Mightygodking] (Thanks, Douglas!)

So here's what we did: we went around the AAAS exhibit hall and took pictures of any sign that made us think of something sexual or made us want to yell the word "dude!" really loudly. When we took the picture of the PNAS sign, the guy in the booth looked all suspicious and said, "Are you making fun of our sign?" We admitted that we were, but he was really nice about it. Nobody else even noticed that their signs were dirty. Even the chick whose poster said "talking dirty" on it.

OK, fine. So what we did wasn't really that mean and just shows that we are a bunch of immature dorks. But in our defense, we did do a public service. We took a stack of "pocket guides" on WMDs from the FBI's booth and handed them out at the airport. You know, for science education.

* Actually, we didn't really steal the skulls. That guy in the picture did.