Among Michael Uslan art auctioned is sketch from 1980 showing his choice for the Joker

PHILADELPHIA – Here’s the Joker!

Film producer and comics fan Michael Uslan, who acquired the rights to make Batman as a movie in 1979, knew nearly a decade before Tim Burton’s 1989 “Batman” was released who the Joker would be.

It came in a burst of inspiration in 1980 from the pages in the New York Post: a publicity photo of Jack Nicholson from the “The Shining” in which he hacks through a door and announces, “Here’s Johnny!”

Uslan knew immediately he’d found his clown prince of crime. Using black marker, a red pen and Wite-Out, he turned Nicholson into the DC Comics villain.

The sketch went up for auction Monday until Dec. 3 through ComicConnect.com, along with several other pieces of art and comics that Uslan has collected.

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