Ram V: For the Uninitiated

With titles ranging from Swamp Thing, The One Hand, The New Gods, Detective Comics, and a new Vertigo series- Black Tower: The Raven Conspiracy under their belt, Ram V has established themselves in the upper echelon of the comicsphere. However, because Panel Bound Comics partnered with DC Comics for our very own exclusive cover variant for their highly-anticipated Detective Comics omnibus, we had the pleasure of sitting down with the man, the myth-maker, and the legend themselves, Ram V. 

Their masterful gothic opera can be read in its entirety with the upcoming omnibus coming out on September 29, 2026. Make sure to support our store and get the exclusive PBC Variant Cover! Without your support, this interview, this variant, and our work would not be possible, so thank you, dear readers, for all your continued support! You can also watch the interview on YouTube.

Finding Comics Through Vertigo

PBC: I always like to ask, what got you into comics? 

Ram V: I read comics as a kid, but it was mostly European comics like Tintin and Asterix. My introduction to the DC and Marvel characters was really through the animated series when I was a kid.

I only started looking at comics as a medium that I might be interested in writing somewhere around my twenties, when a friend gave me the first volume of The Sandman. That sent me down this Vertigo rabbit hole where I realized, “Oh, comics can be all of these things.”

That whole milieu of writers- Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison, and all of those guys was what really got me thinking about writing comics.

It's funny because my first real introduction to Batman in comics, outside of the occasional thing I might have read as a kid, was actually The Sandman, where Batman appears alongside John Constantine. So that Vertigo vibe has very much been part of my comics introduction.

PBC: It has to be a pretty incredible full-circle moment, then, that Vertigo was what got you hooked on comics as an adult, and now you're launching your own Vertigo series.

Ram V: Yeah, there's obviously that nostalgic aspect of it. “Hey, cool. I'm part of a Vertigo lineup that I've wanted to be part of for years.”

But I'm also one of these people who doesn't get emotionally overwhelmed about the work that I'm doing. My greatest enjoyment is when I'm actually working on something.

The publishing of it, the labels, the publisher- all of that comes second. So, yeah, it's good. I hope there will be more in the future, and I hope there is some of that flavor of old-school Vertigo still in there, because that's the thing that got me to enjoy comics in the first place.

Finding Batman in the Animated Series

PBC: What was the first Batman comic you really remember reading? Or did most of your early Batman influences come from Batman: The Animated Series?

Ram V: A lot of them came from the animated series. But some of the most memorable comics I read were Batman: Year One. I also really love the Tim Sale and Jeph Loeb stuff: The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, and When in Rome, which was a big influence on my Catwoman run as well.

I've read a lot since, largely because I was like, “Okay, I guess I should read some Batman comics because I'm going to be writing some.”

But you can absolutely see the animated series influence in my Detective Comics run.

That was one of the things that surprised me when I came to the comics. I thought that modern Gothic aesthetic was the default mode for Batman because that's what I had grown up with through the animated series and the Tim Burton movies.

So when DC came to me and said, “Do you want to do a Detective Comics run?” I thought, “Cool. I'm going to lean into that.”

Why Gothic Opera Was the Perfect Language for Batman

PBC: Why was opera the language you wanted to use for the structure of Gotham Nocturne?

Ram V: Whenever I think about Batman in my head, somewhere that Danny Elfman theme starts playing.

There are also obvious historic connections with Nolan doing Deflator Mouse in Batman Begins, and with all of these characters being inspired by The Phantom of the Opera and those aesthetics.

So it just made sense.

I'm also a musician, part-time enthusiast, if you will, and I've always had musical influences in everything I've done. I did a series called Radio Apocalypse with Vault that was about what would be on your mixtape at the end of the world.

I've always written about music and tried to include music in my work. This just seemed like the perfect opportunity to take something like a Gothic opera and use its structure to tell the stories.

Why is the Omnibus the Perfect Format for Your run?

PBC: Do you have a preferred format that you like to read comics in? And why do you think this particular Batman story benefits from reading it all in one sitting, like in this omnibus edition? 

Ram V: I didn't grow up with single issues at all, so I have no particular emotional attachment to the single-issue format.

It's an interesting format, and I've worked to it before. I've written these kinds of snappy, almost one-shot stories. But considering both mediums exist, and five years down the line no one's picking up the single issues, they're picking up the omnibus, I was like, “Listen, I just want to do a big story that has an arc and a feeling of payoff that happens after 25 or 30 issues worth of comics.”

I went in knowing that, and I pitched it as something that would be a story over that length when I first talked to DC about it.

I think in terms of reading it, I do love doing things that work like that in storytelling. You see something that may be a passing reference in issue two, but you don't know its importance until 25 issues later. All of a sudden, that thing you saw in issue two is very important.

It's about throwing pitches that you can catch later down the line. You only get to do that when you're writing stories to that sort of larger format, if you will. 

Making the Reader Part of the Mystery

PBC: You wrote half of The One Hand and The Six Fingers, and I read both as a collected edition. I can't imagine how different that experience would have been reading them issue by issue. How did the format affect that story?

Ram V: It still came out in the same cadence. It was still issue one of mine, then issue one of Dan's.

But part of our endeavor was that we wanted the reader to become a detective. We wanted them to start piecing the puzzle together because they're the only ones who have both sides of the coin.

You could see that happening in real time. People would get issue one and say, “Okay, this is what's happening.” Then they'd get issue one of the other book and go, “Wait a minute. I think this is what's happening.”

You could see theories form and get debunked over time.

I love that kind of stuff, where stories and their format play with you. They get you to engage with them in different ways.

Why Batman's Mortality Matters

One of the defining themes of Gotham Nocturne is mortality. Bruce Wayne is getting older. His body is beginning to betray him. He has to confront the fact that, unlike many of the heroes around him, he is fundamentally human.

PBC: You've explored mortality in other work, including The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, and it's a major theme in your Batman run. Why was Bruce's mortality something you wanted to explore?

Ram V: The thing I always loved about Batman was the fact that he was just a regular human being.

Yes, he's a billionaire. Yes, he has technology. But fundamentally, he's made of the same messy cellular structure that all other human beings are made of, and he has no ingrained power.

To me, that remains the core of Batman.

My thesis for Batman is that he's such an interesting superhero because he's surrounded by people who aren't like that. Wonder Woman was the child of a god. Superman is an alien.

The most interesting thing about Batman is that he's a regular person trying to show everyone around him that you can be more. You don't have to be limited by being human.

One of the limitations of being entirely human is that you get old and your body breaks down. You start thinking about how much time you have left. Can you fix all of the problems you wanted to fix before your time on Earth is done?

Without those concerns, why is he Batman?

He could just be any one of 15 other superheroes you could think of. I think the core of Batman is the fact that he contends with his mortality every day and continues to be someone who inspires regular human beings to feel like, “No, I can be more. I can accomplish things that people wouldn't usually assume I could.”

That's a fundamental core of the character. I don't see how you can do an entertaining Batman story without engaging with that on some level.

Selling Ram V's Batman in One Sentence

PBC: If you had to sell your Batman omnibus to a new reader, how would you describe it?

Ram V: If you love a dark, operatic, Gothic Batman with detective and mystery and some supernatural elements, this is my story for you.

One of the most exciting parts of the upcoming omnibus for us at Panel Bound Comics is our exclusive cover.

PBC: What did you think about our cover choice?

Ram V: I love it.

One of the things I really love about this series is the covers across the board. I think your choice for the cover of the omnibus is such a perfect one because they capture the feeling of the run perfectly for me.

About Ram V

Ram V is an Eisner Award-winning writer known for his work across creator-owned and DC Comics titles, including The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, Swamp Thing, Detective Comics, New Gods, The One Hand, and The Six Fingers, among many others.

His work frequently explores mythology, mortality, identity, and the relationship between people and the stories they tell.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Watch the full interview on our YouTube Channel!