<p>It’s April Fool’s Day* and the Joker has led an inmate revolt of Arkham Asylum! In 1989, Tim Burton’s <em>Batman</em> was the year’s hottest movie, and fans took to comic book shops and bookstores starving for more Dark Knight content. What they found was…a dense, 128-page experimental narrative featuring terrifying expressionist paint and artwork with a story crammed with allusions to the Tarot, Passion plays, St. George the Dragonslayer, and Carl Jung. Was this an April’s Fools prank DC was pulling on new readers? <em>Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth</em> has been praised as a brilliant psychological-horror take on Batman by some and a pretentious mess by others; even writer Grant Morrison and artist Dave McKean don’t see eye to eye! It’s a graphic novel open to interpretation, and we’ll guide you through a bunch of possible readings, unpack some symbolism, and use the book’s subtitle to unlock the ambition behind one of the strangest Batman stories ever told.</p><p><br></p><p>* No really, check your calendar</p><p><br></p><p>CONTENT WARNINGS: Lurid and sensationalist approaches to the concepts of mental health and “insanity,” as well as other disturbing topics befitting a “mature readers” graphic novel.</p><p><br></p><p><br><br><br></p>