Best Batman comics?

[Starbeast]

I can recommend two excellent Batman collections of comic book reprints.

Batman in the Seventies

Great collection of dark and brooding tales illustrated by many artists including my favorite Batman artist, Neal Adams.

The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told

A fantastic collection of very strange and interesting stories of the mighty Batman.

I was overjoyed to see one of my favorite tales (drawn by Neal Adams), called "The Batman Nobody Knows" (1973)

The story: Bruce Wayne listens to children talk about their personal ideas about what the caped crusader is really like. When they finish, Bruce surprises them by making an appearence as Batman.

[robo2]

some suggestions
batman in the 40's to batman in the 80's (one graphic novel for each decade) - fairly good outline of batmans history
batman by neal adams volumes 1-3 - all of neal adams batman work in 3 hardcovers - classic stuff although it is a bit pricey
tales of the demon
dk returns and dk strikes again
year one
gothic
blind justice
the cult
venom

[Starbeast]

Originally Posted by robo2

Batman by Neal Adams volumes 1-3

- all of Neal Adams Batman work in 3 hardcovers - classic stuff although it is a bit pricey

Nice to meet you Robo2.

Thanks for the info about the Neal Adams collection. I'm going to look into that. Here's a couple more BATMAN suggestions.

Batman/Spawn - Quite a fantastic team-up.

Batman: Dreamland - The caped vigilante discovers AREA 51.

[Graves]

A death in the family and it's follow up are kind of important- though the art isn't my favourite. I like the Loeb stories although I agree that Hush was the exhausted point in that style. I really like Kingdom Come which about the aftermath of JLA and 'the end of the world'- it's mainly about Superman, but Batman is the coolest part of it (and I don't follow JLA.)
Kevin Smith Batmans are easy to read, but a little annoying, nice action. There are a few Batman animated stories that are winner. The Red Hood (or something to do with Red Hood) is worth watching, and the original Batman of the future feature (not the series) is really good.

[robo2]

if i could only by one batman graphic novel it would be year one, just better than dark knight returns, in my opinion

[cyrusDCmonster]

read any Batman story by Scott Snyder.
the black mirror and the court of owls/night of owls stories were great.
as a long time bat fan i'd recommend:
-The Killing Joke
-The Long Halloween
-Dark Victory
-Haunted Knight
-A Death in the Family
-Knightfall (3 volumes here)
-No Mans Land (4 volumes with a re-release)
-Under the Hood
-Arkham Asylum
-Battle for the Cowl
and i'd recommend reading the entire Grant Morrison run
(Batman son of the demon-Batman INC)

[Jake Reynolds]

I quite enjoyed Night Cries, as it was an unusual outing and I thought the palettes were great. Some of the Elseworlds are entertaining too, if outright ridiculous, but in all honesty apart from Killing Joke you've already covered the cream of the crop. Arkham Asylum (Serious House...) is my favourite, love the manic art style. BTW, Killing Joke was the only graphic novel Heath Ledger drew from as far as I know.