Batman: One Bad Day – Clayface Hardcover – DC Comics

In-Store Date: August 1, 2023

Batman: One Bad Day – Clayface is a prestige-format hardcover from DC Comics, part of the acclaimed One Bad Day series that gives each of Batman's greatest villains a single, defining story. This volume belongs to Basil Karlo, the shapeshifting monster better known as Clayface, and it is one of the most quietly devastating entries in the line.

Written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing with art by Xermanico, the story follows Karlo out of Gotham and into Los Angeles, chasing the acting career his powers destroyed. Hollywood turns out to be just as rotten as the city he left, and as rejection piles up, Karlo begins reshaping the industry, and the people in it, in his own image. It is a tragic character study about a monster trying to become human again and discovering the town won't let him.

This case-bound hardcover collects the complete One Bad Day: Clayface one-shot at 88 pages, printed at DC's oversized prestige trim so Xermanico's expressive, melting linework gets the room it deserves. The book was nominated for an Eisner Award and remains one of the strongest single-villain stories DC has published this decade.

Essential for Batman collectors completing the One Bad Day hardcover set, fans of Kelly and Lanzing's character-driven writing, and anyone who appreciates a villain story with real pathos. Sold new and unread, ready for the shelf.