Marshall Rogers: Brightest Days And Darkest Knights by Jeff Messer and Dewey Cassell (book review)

Comicbook artist Marshall Rogers (1950-2007) was admired by fans for his work on the ‘Detective Comics’ comicbook as written by Steve Englehart and inked by Terry Austin, let never got on well with DC Comics editorial staff, mostly because of his take on the Dark Knight. Bear in mind this was back in 1977 and house style was still prevalent with particular characters. A book on his work has been long overdue and TwoMorrows have released this one, ‘Marshall Rogers: Brightest Days And Darkest Knights’ by Jeff Messer and Dewey Cassell. It is a combination of interviews and a lot of artwork.

From his sister, Suzanne, we get a lot of his back history and his death at 57 mirrored that of his father with heart congestion who died at a similar age. Rogers studied architecture at degree level and this reflects in his work and his sense of design. Looking at his pencilwork, its obvious he drew very tightly. Seeing his pencilwork does confirm this.

Writer Steve Englehart’s analysis of his first run on Batman in Detective Comics # 471-477 is something also covered in Comic Book Creator # 37, but here its in more depth. As he was a few months from going to Europe with his wife, Englehart had to resort to full scripts and the hope that he wouldn’t have a journeyman artist and was finally pleased when he saw the final issues months later. His conversation points out what Marshall added to the scenes. Rogers liked to work from full scripts and his inker Terry Austin liked to embellish so they were a good combination although DC’s Joe Orlando continually had them over the coals about their work but too late to have anything changed. Englehart’s comments on DC Comics’ corporate state and reluctancy to associate creators with their runs on the comics is something I hope has changed with management. I still have these comicbooks, currently marooned in a place I can’t get at because of my wrist tendon injury which is still repairing itself but I can see the reprints going. That being the case, you need to go after ‘Batman Dark Detective TP’ which is still at a reasonable price if you haven’t read them.

Marshall Rogers was also the starting artist on the last continuing ‘Batman’ newspaper strip, written initially by Max Allan Collins who had to leave because a different syndicate didn’t want him to do anything but ‘Dick Tracy’. Rogers was off after the third story because he couldn’t keep up with the deadlines. The information here from Dewey Cassell fills in a lot of information. Looks like I’m not the only one saying these should be released in a book format so we can see them.

More informed is a 2005 radio interview on ‘Nuff Said’ with its host Ken Gale interviewing Rogers in depth. His thoughts on events at the Kent State University where 4 students were killed and 20 injured by the National Guard while he was there gives a depth we had over here compared to what was shown on US TV. If he hadn’t done an all-nighter to reach a task deadline and was asleep, he would have been with his friend delivering his task who got shot in the arm. There’s very few interviews with Marshall Rogers and this 2½ hour interview is here is quite extensive.

At the end of the book, there is a complete booklist of Rogers work. With the reprints, he often did new covers which means you might have to be selective. I think I was most surprised how much he did before and after his job at Atari. If he signed his work ‘Marshall’ he pencilled and inked. If he only inked, then it was ‘Rogers’.

This is an honest book about Marshall Rogers covering his faults as well as good stuff. Don’t leave it too long before getting a copy.

GF Willmetts

August 2025

(pub: TwoMorrows, 2025. 159 page hardback. Price: about £25.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-60549-130-1)

check out website: https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=95_93&products_id=1856