Batman: The Killing Joke Avant-Garde Edition Costs $17,409.75 Each

Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: Alan Moore, Avant-garde, brian bolland, John Higgins, killing joke

Batman: The Killing Joke Avant-Garde Edition Costs $17,409.75 Each

The Batman: The Killing Joke Avant-Garde Edition of the Alan Moore and Brian Bolland graphic novel will cost $17,409.75 each... is that mad?

Published Sat, 09 May 2026 07:57:12 -0500
by Rich Johnston
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Article Summary

• Batman: The Killing Joke Avant-Garde Edition is priced at $17,409.75, limited to just 47 copies worldwide.
• Argent Comics’ luxury edition uses classic John Higgins colors, with every copy signed by Brian Bolland.
• The fine art Batman: The Killing Joke book is hand-bound in aluminium and goatskin, styled as Joker’s camera.
• A second Batman: The Killing Joke Noir Edition is also planned, offered through a private acquisition process.

At the beginning of April, Bleeding Cool scooped the news that Argent Comics, a new fine art publishing imprint based in Zagreb, Croatia was about to publish a 47-issue limited-edition version of the classic comic Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, with a new introduction by Bolland, who had signed every copy. It also appeared to be using the classic colour files from John Higgins rather than the recent recoloured version from Bolland. And the graphic novel looked like a very large camera, held in a large camera bag, just like the kind The Joker uses in the comic book. The detail and print quality were extraordinary. But we didn't know how much it would set us back. Now we do. And it is $17,409.75. Or £13,006.43. Or €15,000. Check it.

Here are the details of the book, and then the case:

• BOOK: Width: 22,5 cm / 8,86 inch
• Height: 31,5 cm / 12,4 inch
• Depth: 6.5 cm / 2.56 in (comic) | 3.5 cm / 1.38 in (lens)
• Weight: 4.4 kg / 9.7 lb (with lens) | 3.2 kg / 7 lb (without)
• Bespoke Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Metallic with 100% cotton base
• Finely milled aluminium with a glass-bead finish
• Anodised aluminium lens
• Black goatskin leather
• Each page fused by hand from two individual prints
• Hand-bound
• CASE: Width: 40 cm / 15,75 inch
• Height: 28,5 cm / 11,22 inch
• Depth: 14 cm / 5,51 inch
• Weight: 3,8 kg / 8,38 lb
• Cinnamon calf leather
• Purple and green suede leather
• High quality press studs
• Tropic strap
• Assembled by hand
• Hand-stitched

Pigment Collective, the publisher of Argent Comics, is based in Zagreb, Croatia, and states that it is focused solely on giving fine art treatment to iconic comic book stories. And as part of that, have secured an official English language licence through Mediatoon, DC's foreign rights agency, to produce what they believe is the most ambitious physical edition of a comic book ever made: a fine art publishing edition of Batman: The Killing Joke.

It is the first release in their Avant-Garde Edition line, with more to come. Each edition will be limited to 47 copies worldwide, with an additional 5 copies designated as non-sale for archival purposes. The chosen number is the atomic number of silver (argent), and the Avant-Garde editions will be created on silvery Hahnemühle metallic paper. Which means the whole comic is giclée-printed on that custom metallic paper for the greatest detail and the widest colour range. Once the printing is done, the book block is assembled using a page-fusing technique, which they claim as patent pending.

Each copy is bound between aluminium covers with a removable magnetic lens, detailed with goatskin leather, looking like the camera the Joker uses throughout The Killing Joke, and housed in a handmade leather camera case lined with purple plush. The entire assembly and binding process is also done entirely by hand. You can look at how it operates right here. Even the little metal clasps have the words HA embossed on them.

They will also publish a second variant, the Noir Edition, which instead will be printed letterpress on 100% cotton Hahnemühle paper. Each volume will be offered through a private acquisition and allocation process.

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