I drew RATMAN number one when I was twelve or so, rendered with a trusty ballpoint pen. I loved the outrageous,absurdist idea that Commissioner Gordon would replace Batman with the super-powerless, inept Ratman and considered the comic book to be my finest work -- a project I began that I actually finished.
Years and years later, Tom Spezialy gave me The R. Crumb Coffee Table Book wherein Crumb reprinted a comic he'd done when he was a kid -- and the version he re-drew as an adult. So I did the same thing. When I was living in Manhattan working on a Glen Gordon Caron show, I spent my evenings redrawing RATMAN number one, replete with the exact dialogue, sound effects and exclamations ("Yeeooo!") and, for the most part, the same panel composition.
Two comparative pages are posted above (guess which were the originals...)
