The legendary first computer-generated Batman graphic novel returns — authentic, untouched, and reborn with a companion making-of collectible set. In 1990, Batman: Digital Justice broke history as the first computer-generated Batman graphic novel. Published by DC Comics, it sold worldwide, became the #2 best-selling comic at the time, and marked a turning point in the future of comics, art, and the coming of age of the personal computer and the world we live in today. The world changed, and Batman was there to guard us against the internet and the evils within. Technology and progress always have their way, but like in the legend of the comic, the Digital Batman was there to help us through the journey. And what a journey it has been. 

Now, 35 years later, we’re bringing the original book back not only to celebrate the anniversary for those who are old enough to be there and witness it all, but also for the new generations that were not born yet. I'm no prophet, but I was born thinking ahead, and the time has happened since the story was written and the book was published, and the proof is all there. From drones to computer viruses and digital crime and the fear of computers taking over the world -and they did, and yes, and like always, humans find the way to evolve and benefit from it all.

“I’m no prophet, but I was born thinking ahead. The story was written, the book was published, and the proof is all there: drones, computer viruses, digital crime, and the fear of machines taking over the world. And yes, it happened. But as always, humanity finds a way to evolve and benefit from it all. We are entering a new revolution. Everything is changing fast again. But remember: we’ve been here before. History repeats itself, and Batman: Digital Justice was ahead of its time. The Making Of book tells that story in full — the risks, the breakthroughs, and the wisdom gained along the way.”

— Pepe Moreno

It has to be something special. Retro yet futuristic, really, so where do you land? think Floppies and a floppy drive of one MB each. The Macintosh and the dawn of desktop publishing. So here is something extraordinary and special that I like and hope you like it too. This 35th Anniversary RETROGRADE edition exists because of you — the fans who believed in this story then, and who continue to keep it alive today. I’m honoured to welcome you back into this Digital Gotham, and grateful to share this moment with you. 

Thirty-five years ago, Batman: Digital Justice was released to the world. At the time, it was called an experiment — a leap into uncharted territory where art, story, and technology collided. We were exploring the future with the very first fully computer-generated graphic novel for Batman.

(Author’s Note — Pepe Moreno)

WELCOME BACK TO THE FUTURE, and one of my favourite subtitles of all of my comics that, in one way or another, predicted the future. Not because I possess extraordinary powers, but because I’m an artist and can envision the future, weaving it into the story. Like a time machine, my mind travels through time with ease, but I have yet to figure out how to take my body with me. Anyway, it was all there, printed and published decades ago.  

“I’m no prophet, but I was born thinking ahead. The story was written, the book was published, and the proof is all there: drones, computer viruses, digital crime, and the fear of machines taking over the world. And yes, it happened. But as always, humanity finds a way to evolve and benefit from it all. We are entering a new revolution. Everything is changing fast again. But remember: we’ve been here before. History repeats itself, and Batman: Digital Justice was ahead of its time. The Making Of book tells that story in full — the risks, the breakthroughs, and the wisdom gained along the way.”

“One day it’s the future, and before you know it, it’s retro again.”

— Pepe Moreno

What you now (will) hold in your hands is a faithful reprint of that original 1990 edition — produced directly from the archival files preserved by DC Comics. But it is also something new: a celebration of how far we’ve come, and a reminder of how bold ideas can resonate decades later. Well, the idea is to reprint the original as it was in its original run. In other words, an identical replica to the original with matching paper and construction, and of course, the art of the pages of the book. 

Batman: Digital Justice wasn’t just a comic — it was a leap into the future. Born in the cyberpunk era of the 1980s, alongside Andy Warhol's experimentation with the Amiga and the rise of Blade Runner culture, it captured the raw, jagged beauty of early digital art. This 35th Anniversary edition is more than a reprint — it’s a time capsule and an invitation to relive the dawn of digital storytelling while looking ahead to the future we’re still building.

The Making Of — An Encyclopedia of the Experiment

In the Making Of, I go full encyclopedia mode — every process, every mistake, every breakthrough. I document, annotate, and illustrate everything I went through with excruciating detail. It was a wild, beautiful adventure, and I’m thrilled to share it with you.

This companion volume doesn’t just retell the story — it reconstructs it. Every sketch, every tool, every technical limitation, and creative hack is explained and shown. You’ll receive the behind-the-scenes blueprints, early tests, design notes, raw files, and the context that transformed an experiment into a milestone. Everything is illustrated and laid out for history.

If you love craft, process, or the untold mechanics of digital art, this is the book for you — an archival, illustrated deep dive that preserves the moment and the method for future readers and makers.

I felt like I was in the midst of a circus of juggling what the world was like and what it was going to be like. Please don't ask me how I got there, but I'm of the notion that the universe had something to do with it. Whether cursed or chosen, I was the only one there, and I had to do it, so I said yes to DC and to the future. My Indiana Jones vs. the Matrix (before both were even written) - my journey began.

I told the story in the making of the book companion book, but I wanted to show how the scene was and what it looked like. This picture was taken at the time and for the book, and as you can see, there's a Mac two if you can remember, etc.) I started with an Amiga, and that's a significant part of the story you'll see in the making-of book.

This pages are excerted from my Pepe Moreno Sketchbook recent publication punlication where i narrate the process opf all my best kbow works including of course Batman: Digital Justice and the best knbown of my works. Everybody from that generation in comics knows the book, but the new y generation born less that 35 years ago do noy. THE SKETCH BOOK ITSELF IS OFFERED AS A BONUS REWARD.

And what a terrific way to enclose it all: a RETRO Drive, complete with an actual disk as if it came straight from 1990. It’s part time capsule, part art object, and part documentary. Inside, you’ll find digital extras, interviews, and materials that extend the story of Digital Justice into its modern legacy.

I always wanted to do this with all my books, and that's actually what I'm doing, but this one had to be more special and more like "hardware". So here's one of the designs chosen so far. I chose white in the book, but I also wanted it in black, given the Dark Knight story. However, I wanted contrast then, and I still like it now. It looks cool and is totally collectible (light not included yet).

Pepe Moreno is a world-renowned author, artist, designer, and gaming entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in traditional and digital art forms and entertainment media. He is a digital pioneer and is best known as the creator of Batman: Digital Justice, the first-ever digital graphic novel and the second-best-selling in the history of comics. He has also been responsible for many other industry firsts, and his works, such as Rebel, Gene Kong, and Generation Zero, have been published in magazines and newspapers worldwide. He is the President of Digital Fusion Inc., a design and development studio in Los Angeles, and the driving force behind BeachHead (BeachHead 2000), one of the longest-standing cult video game titles of the last three decades. His creative impatience and integrity bring about an art aesthetic that is uniquely his own, both in content and form, and his artwork is sought by collectors all over the world. Whether digital or analog, it is the sum of it all that defines PEPE's art and brand. Must as well tell you about myself. It must have all started at some point, but to me, it was simply that I had the initiative as a child. My mother, who was not particularly educated back in those days in Spain, got me a pencil and a piece of paper, and started my journey to what I am and I do today.

(Author’s Note — Pepe Moreno)

When Batman: Digital Justice was finished, I knew something had happened. The world reacted immediately — and enthusiastically. With this book, I proved to myself and to others that technology could be a blessing, not a burden. If you project your vision with conviction, you can change the way people perceive stories, images, and the future itself. History would be the judge — and history soon proved it right.

Even then, I was already exploring the new frontiers of CD-ROM, interactive games, and digital comics. But Digital Justice was the necessary bridge — the step between analogue and digital — at the moment when the desktop revolution was about to happen.

Sometimes someone will ask me... 

"When did I learn how to draw?" and my answer is, "I never learned how to draw." ... "I was born drawing," and the rest is history to continue to be made...

— Pepe Moreno

This video came up on YouTube and was quite a revelation as to what my art looked like to other people... 

In the 1980s, Max Headroom was the rage — a symbol of the digital future the world was racing toward. Batman: Digital Justice was part of that same wave, tapping into the cultural current that imagined technology as both promise and threat. Some of us could see the future with crystal clarity, even if the technology wasn’t fully there yet. It became our job to show that future as if it already existed, to make it real with the tools at our disposal.

No the book did make to the cover of time magazine, but t was covered in many technology magazines a long with every mass media publications in everyy language around the world. The Time magazine cover was done to illustrate the story of the book, and yes, we got permission from Time magazine to do it (same company, different division)  

Back in the 80s, when the golden age of comics was in full swing, I was right there with legends like Moebius, Richard Corben, and Liberatore. But then computers began creeping into our world, and a few of us strayed into the unknown — the future. I lived through the entire transition: from traditional comics to digital comics, and later into video games. All of it became part of the cyberpunk pop history of the seventies and eighties. Every decade demands change, and that was the shift back then. Out of that moment came Batman: Digital Justice. And if you look closely, it feels eerily similar to where we stand today with Artificial Intelligence. The future was then, and the future is now again.

It was the pop era of digital art. Just a block from my loft on Bleecker Street in New York, Andy Warhol’s studio was buzzing. They filmed him experimenting with an Amiga, making a digital portrait of Debbie Harry from Blondie. At the same time, I was doing the same — only further ahead, technologically and artistically. We were the technical punks, the first wave of cyberpunk, fueled by Blade Runner and William Gibson’s novels. That’s when it all started, and why all my books orbit around time travel and predicting the future.

So what about the book's aesthetics? The jagged edges, the pixelated look — where does that come from? 

That’s precisely the point. Digital Justice captured the aesthetic essence of its time — raw, jagged, and alive. It came from pushing early digital tools right to their limits. It wasn’t polished, but that was the beauty of it. It reflected both the promise and the imperfections of a new technology as it sought to find its voice. What people now call the “retro look” was truly a moment in history.

What you’ll hold in your hands today — if you don’t already own it — is more than just a reprint. It’s a time capsule and an invitation. Think floppies and one-megabyte drives. Think of the Macintosh and the dawn of desktop publishing. This 35th Anniversary edition celebrates not just that era, but also the future we’re still building.

— Pepe Moreno

BAMAN ORIGINAL PROMOTIONAL VIDEO. When it was all set and done, something very different had happened, and here is a video production by yours honestly (minus the music for YouTube policy) of a video back then and with the technology of the time. Animating anything was not easy, but as fibky as it was, it was state-of-the-art back then. CLOSING VIDEO.

It was an adventure and a journey that I will never forget. I traveled to continents and corporations all over the world with the companies, and the places revealed clues to the technology solutions I was seeking. It was an Indiana Jones adventure, but in the pursuit of knowledge and solutions to puzzles, I got myself into. That I will never forget…

While on tour in Europe (Belgium) with my fiancée, and at Golden Apple in Los Angeles. I signed literally thousands of books worldwide, and it wasn't a dream.