Batman and Joker Merged Amid Green HA Text — Print & Oil Painting

The crop is the first decision and the most aggressive one. A single head fills the frame edge to edge, cut off above the brow and below the chin, so that the mouth alone spans nearly the full width of the picture. Nothing is contextualised, and nothing needs to be.

That head is split vertically down the middle. The left side is white greasepaint over a lined face with one orange-ringed eye staring straight out; the right side is dark teal cowl with a hollow black socket and the base of a pointed ear at the top corner. The two are stitched rather than blended, and the seam runs visibly down the nose.

The mouth is shared. A red-lipped grin of large yellowed teeth stretches beneath both halves, which means the cowled side is smiling too, and that single continuity is the whole of the picture's argument.

Behind it the word HA has been set in bright green block capitals at several sizes, packed tightly on black like wallpaper. It carries no perspective and no depth, so it works as pure noise pressed against the back of the skull. Part of our DC Universe collection. The acrylic merged face does the same thing with a brush, and the fractured split face lets the seam come apart.