Sometimes the cover to a comic will totally blow you away- which is exactly what the upcoming cover to August's issue of Batman and Robin #28 did to me. The jaw-droppingly gorgeous Chris Burnham cover to the upcoming issue written by David Hine and illustrated by Greg Tocchini was revealed by DC earlier today. It isn't just that the cover is stunning- but it is also extremely different than many covers I have seen on the stands. I feel like DC editors gave Burnham a lot of flexibility to artistically strut his stuff with this one. Likening to a Salvador Dali painting, Burnham uses abstract imagery to reveal both the plight of Batman and Robin and some of Paris' most famous monuments like (but not limited to) the Arc de Triomphe, Tour Eiffel, and the Lourve. The premise? Paris will be topsy-turvy if Batman and Robin don't do something to stop the prisoners of Le Jardin Noir who have mysteriously been freed!

The Jardin Noir is the equivalent of France's Arkham Asylum and made it's first appearance in Batman Annual #26. While we don't know much about the Jadin Noir or the overall crime in France, it does seem like a pretty cool way to introduce some completely new villains for Dick Grayson (Batman) to combat. It will also be pretty cool to see some new additions to his "rogues gallery." Will we see another appearance of Nightrunner, who also appeared in the Annual issue? Or perhaps we'll see Korrigan again?

What do you guys think of the introduction of Le Jardin Noir as France's Arkham Asylum? Do you think it's a good idea, or do you think that Batman writers could have had an opportunity to create something different for France? Are you looking forward to this issue?

Very very cool.

I am SOOOOO excited about this issue!!!!

I haven't been keeping up with this title, if Dick (Batman) is in France, whose looking after Gotham? I thought Bruce was the world traveling Batman?

I think I gotta get high to make sense of this cover. It's very trippy, I like it. Hopefully David Hine makes another good story to go with it as well.

The cover is absolutely amazing. Really eye-catching; more so than any recent cover that I can recall.

The story could go either way, really. I like the idea of Le Jardin Noir and getting a taste of French supervillains. However, shouldn't this have been Bruce's jurisdiction? I was under the impression that Dick and Damian were the Batman and Robin of Gotham and Bruce would be the global crime fighter. Perhaps they'll address this within the context of the story -- I hope so.

Always good to see more Nightrunner

very inceptiony cover

lol. I love the cover :D

It's going more for Magritte over Dali. Awesome cover nonetheless, I'll probably grab a couple copies of it.

Very Clockwork Orangish

épatant!    

J'adore!

weird >_>

Whoa, that cover would make one hell of a painting. 

Wow!  Incredible cover to say the very least, thanks for sharing that here for us to see.  I love different artistic interpretations and it seems like we don't get enough of them with comic books of late. 

I heard that Batman and Robin were going to France because they had to take a....Oui Oui.  :)

I only just read the "All the Rage" story in Detective Comics Annual #12 & Batman Annual #28, and I thought the Arkham equivalent "Le Jardin Noir" was a neat idea.  An alternate asylum brings a bit of familiarity to the Batman adventures in France.  They can always try something different in other countries if they wish.

Wow France's supervillains are mind rapey

YES! David Hine is a fantastic writer and I'm beyond eager to get my hands on anything he's writing. This is glorious news!

Wow.

Good cover.Glad to see Hine on writing duties.

Um...It's issue 26.

Inception + Batman, was anyone else thinking that 

That cover is terrible.

LOVE the cover, intrigued by the concept...after Judgment of Gotham, not feeling too hot about Hine as the writer though. 

Inception + Batman, was anyone else thinking that 

The concept for this story arc looks really interesting, but Batman & Robin has become a rotating creative team after tons of advertising of Tomasi and Gleason taking over the book full time. I like Hine's work but still not enough to buy but I will read though

The cover is absolutely amazing. Really eye-catching; more so than any recent cover that I can recall.The story could go either way, really. I like the idea of Le Jardin Noir and getting a taste of French supervillains. However, shouldn't this have been Bruce's jurisdiction? I was under the impression that Dick and Damian were the Batman and Robin of Gotham and Bruce would be the global crime fighter. Perhaps they'll address this within the context of the story -- I hope so.

I'm going to rain on the parade as it were. I am not a fan of that cover. the hands on the villain look kinda meaty. I know hands are really hard to draw, but I figure professional artists should be able to do that. Damien's face looks bad also. his jaw seems too low for the rest of his head and with the angle he's at, he ends up looking like a monkey. If this was internal art, i'd be a little more forgiving, but for a cover I think the art needs to be impressive.

Wow, it's Batman and Robin as drawn by Salvador Dali! How surreal...

This makes me think of some old Vertigo comic covers. 

Man that looks nice.  I just like the picture though, for I stopped with B n R way back at #16

Nothing strange . Everyone have to go some other places sometime.

isn't that the nightrunner dangling off the arc de triomphe to the side there?

now that's the beauty of letting imagination run wild :)

That is one incredible amazing cover! Beautiful and mind-bottling! :P

Why is their a stringing version of x-force deadpool on the side of the image? lol . Very cool cover.

Very nice

if that cover was available for purchase as a poster i would almost certainly buy it, just such a cool image.

if that cover was available for purchase as a poster i would almost certainly buy it, just such a cool image.

Agreed. This and the propaganda-esque Batman Beyond #5 covers would make excellent posters.

Nightrunner's on the cover as well, I assume he makes an appearance. More Korrigan would be nice.

I don't really think the cover looks too great. I mean, it COULD be better. I think it should be more frantic, more stuff in the background, more complex, to resemble true insanity. Just my opinion : /

The cover does have some really nice touches. The Eiffel Tower giving Batman an Eye-full and a clockwork orange worked in are some of my favorites. I'd now love to see Batman ala Van Gogh.

Poor Batman XD