The Batman Villains

The Batman Villains

Hey, Everyone! Kelly Anne Blount here and I have great news! I've been commissioned by Wattpad and DC Vertigo to share my favorite 80s horror villains and to get everyone über excited to read the new Vertigo title, SURVIVORS' CLUB. You can check out really cool SURVIVORS' CLUB content over at @VertigoComics' page right here on Wattpad!

As many of you know, I love writing horror novels. More specifically, I love writing horror novels, which chill you to your core and stir up something disturbing deep within. In order to create the villains that cover the pages of my novels, I draw on life experiences, books I've previously read, and film and television shows that have left an impression on me.

One of my earliest recollections of a proper villain took place while watching reruns of the Batman and Robin television series with my dad. The first time I laid eyes on The Joker, I was terrified! From his nefarious laugh to the creepy makeup he wore, The Joker really scared me. I was über grateful that Batman and Robin always managed to narrowly outwit The Joker and survive to fight crime another day.

When The Joker wasn't scaring the living daylights out of me Catwoman, Poison Ivy, or Bane took his place. Their images filled the pages of the comic books I read, the television shows I watched, and the playing cards I collected and carefully stored behind thick sheets of plastic in a three-ring binder.

Everything from playing Batman and Catwoman on the playground to creating my own stories about heroes and villains, the DC Comics characters, especially the villains of Batman definitely influenced my creativity as a child. The writers for DC Comics nailed the ability to create intelligent, petrifying, characters that somehow managed to evoke a sense of empathy while I was staying up late a night with a flashlight reading their stories under the covers or watching them on television or at the movies.

Over the past several years, I kicked my creativity into high gear and began writing novels. My first novel, Grishma, features a putrid and malevolent villain, who the book is named after. Readers love to hate Grishma! She's smart, conning, and pure evil. However, much like a Batman villain, there is more to Grishma than meets the eye. As the reader's follow the monster's destructive path throughout the first and second book (Ayla), they come to a shocking realization that not everything is as it seems and Grishma might have devastating secrets of her own, hidden by dark magic.

As I continued to write my second and third novels, my good friend, @AprylBaker7, urged me to join Wattpad. After checking it out, I signed up and began writing Captured. This is where my Batman villain inspiration really kicked in. Although not as outwardly cruel as The Joker or as violent as Bane, I created a character that from the outside seemed to have it all together, but on the inside was a wicked and spiteful young woman, filled to the core with jealousy and rage.

Channeling Heath Ledger's ability to horrify viewers as they watched him portray The Joker in The Dark Knight film, I tried to create a world of chaos in my character's lives. Their interactions were filled with hatred, love, and iniquitous behavior. Like The Joker, the behavior of the characters in Captured wasn't textbook. I strived to keep readers on the edge of their seats while reading my very first horror/dark thriller novel.

Another huge impact the amazing writers of the Batman comics, television shows, and films left on me, was the ability to effectively use a cliffhanger to draw your audiences in and leave them begging for more. As my readers know, this is definitely a skill that I've used throughout my horror/dark thriller novels, Captured and Under. This is a skill is also used by some of my favorite authors and it mirrors advice my friend Michael Grais, the co-writer of the original film Poltergeist, once shared with me.

As you can see, the villains from the Batman comics, television shows, and films created by the talented writers at DC Comics have majorly impacted my writing in hugely positive ways. The epic DC Comic writers continue to inspire me to add more action, create even more disturbing villains, and push to be the absolute best authors I can be and for this, I am forever grateful.

Thank you again to @Wattpad and DC Vertigo for selecting me to share my favorite Batman villains from the 80s horror impacted my life and my writing! It's a huge honor! I'm definitely a DC Comics fan for life and I can't wait to check out the new Vertigo title, SURVIVORS' CLUB! You can check it out over at @VertigoComics' page right here on Wattpad!

Hearts,

Kelly Anne Blount xoxo

P.S. Fun fact! When my dad was in college, he got to ride in one of the original Batmobiles! How cool is that?