Over at WIRED.com's UNDERWIRE blog, Scott Thill interviews acclaimed writer Neil Gaiman about "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?", his two-part story with artist Andy Kubert, which concludes today in DETECTIVE COMICS #853. The entire interview is worth a close read, but here's a sampling, as Gaiman reminisces about The Dark Knight:

Wired.com: Reading Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? one gets the idea that Batman has lived in your heart for a while.

Gaiman: When I was 5, I was in a car with my dad and he mentioned that there was this Batman TV show in America about a man who dressed up in a costume and fought crime. The only bat I ever knew was a cricket bat, so what I thought he looked like was rather odd, based on that. Months later, the series hit the U.K., and I remember watching and being affected by it. Really worrying, genuinely worrying, on a deep primal level, "Will he be OK?" That is the way it was with every deathtrap. If I missed the end of an episode, I'd get my friends to tell me he was OK.