Matt Fraction talks about his smash-hit Batman comic series: "By the time I realised that I should be afraid, it was too late"

DC is no doubt incredibly happy with the work that writer Matt Fraction and artist Jorge Jimenez has delivered with their new Batman comic book series, as despite only launching at the start of September, the first issue in this new saga is already into its third printing after shipping hundreds of thousands of units. Needless to say, there is perhaps no bigger superhero today than Gotham's Caped Crusader, and naturally when we spoke with Fraction at San Diego Comic Con Malaga, we had to inquire about whether this reception has surprised him.

"It sold 500,000 copies, it's the biggest selling comic of the year. By the time I realised that I should be afraid, it was too late. I was six issues in before it occurred to me. Oh, this is a big deal, I should be freaked out by this. It feels incredible, the reception has been amazing. It's Batman, he's the coolest character in comics, people love him. I'm thrilled to be here, I can't believe I fooled somebody into paying me to write it. It's great."

We also asked Fraction about what he wanted and still wants to achieve with this series, to which he told us all about the plans to bring back a version of Batman and Gotham that has perhaps faded away as of recent.

"I wanted to do... I was interested in telling a story that was very superhero forward. And Batman has been very black and grey and brown and green, and Gotham City looks like a dead avocado and you need a tetanus shot every time you go outside. That wasn't what made me fall in love with the character and I think the reason it's endured 85 years is because you can tell all these different stories with that character. And I wanted to do a superhero forward version of the book. The first time Jorge and I spoke, I was like, I want to put him back in the blue and the grey. I missed that and he immediately went, yes!"

Fraction continued: "I wasn't kidding, comics are a visual medium. I wanted a book that looked beautiful, I wanted to see a Gotham where I understood why people would live there. I wanted to celebrate all the comic book stuff that people love. Just because I missed it, but it's also the thing that made me... Batman was the first comic I ever read. I was three years old, it was 1978. I feel like I'm dancing with the girl that brought me. So I want to celebrate all the stuff that made me love comics, and that means colour and pop and scale and energy and all that stuff.

"For all of the remarkable work that's happened with Batman, I really do think he's endured because none of those stories invalidate any of the others. You can have Lego Batman and Ben Affleck in movie theatres at the same time and no one's confused. It's all Batman. So I wanted to write a comic with that same kind of energy, like anything goes."

You can see the full interview with localised subtitles below to hear what Fraction had to say about the recent Superman film, what it was like writing Hawkeye, and more. Also, we recently spoke with Fraction's partner, Kelly Sue Deconnick, about her efforts reshaping Captain Marvel and about what she has planned for the future.