Wired.com profiles Paul Pope

Wired.com recently profiled Paul Pope, whose Batman: Year 100 comes out in February:

Pope's Batman will battle his own villains. The series is set in a high-anxiety future, where totalitarianism has nearly snuffed out the remnants of humanity. America in 2039 is a police state, individual liberties have been curtailed, and there's a dark sense of impending doom. Roving police squads, Blade Runner-esque floating vehicles, and robotic watchdogs scan the skyline. A distressed-looking Batman is the only person Big Brother fails to track, and the superhero's mask symbolizes the last hope against a corrupt government encroaching on individual privacy. "He's someone with the body of David Beckham, the brain of Nikola Tesla, and the wealth of Howard Hughes, who is pretending to be Nosferatu," Pope says.

Pope's grim style is perfectly suited to drawing Batman. Legendary comics editor Bob Schreck, who has long overseen the Batman franchise for DC comics, calls him a "far-reaching visionary" and says it's inevitable that "one or more of his properties will hit the big screen. He's really just started."