Batman: The Killing Joke is a comic book by DC Comics and was first published on March 1988. The comic follows the fictional superhero and villain, Batman and Joker, and is an adaptation of the original 1951 story, "The Man Behind the Red Hood!" It was written by Alan Moore, with illustrations by Brian Bolland.
The story follows an unnamed man as he leaves his supposedly boring and normal life in order to pursue stand-up comedy. However, this turns out to be a disaster in many ways and sets up his transformation into The Joker. Despite trying to stay on the straight an narrow, the man is forced to engage in criminal activities, hat soon become a way of life for him, and put him at never-ending odds with the Batman. The morale behind the story is that "one bad day" can change the course of events for a person’s life.
This comic has gone down as one of the most prominent storylines for The Joker, having given his background and motives more context. Having been extremely well received, and even earning a Eisner Award for "Best Graphic Album" (1989), many consider it to be one of the greatest Batman storylines. Hilary Goldstein of IGN Comics regarded it to be "easily the greatest Joker story ever told" whilst James Donnelly of Pop Syndicate corroborated this stance by stating it was "one of the greatest comics of the 20th century, period".
