Legendary comic book artist Tim Sale passed away recently, leaving behind a legacy including iconic Batman works like The Long Halloween.

Legendary comic book artist Tim Sale passed away this week at the age of 66, and the comic book industry expressed their love and admiration for the artist across social media. Sale leaves behind a fantastic creative legacy including iconic Batman works like The Long Halloween, a landmark mini-series that has inspired animation and live-action movies.

Sale's distinctive artwork also provided iconic runs for many Marvel Comics characters as well, including Spider-Man and Captain America. Tim Sale's best comic books reflect his inventive style and boundless creativity, delivering lasting interpretations of the greatest characters in the superhero genre.

Haunted Knight collects several of Sale's earliest Batman comics, including Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special #1, Batman: Madness A Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special #1, and Batman: Ghosts Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special #1. These early 1990s stories show Sale carving out his own style from the beginning.

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Sale shows how he combines classic comic book line work with a visual sense that interprets the story in imaginative ways, in particular "Ghosts," a story that takes Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol as its inspiration to drive a message home to Batman about living his life beyond the mask.

Sale often leans on a 1960s sensibility in his best DC and Marvel Comics work, but in Captain America: White, he shows how adaptable he is by going back to the 1940s. This mini-series revisits Captain America and Bucky Barnes' origins in World War II and lets Sale take on a slightly more angular style.

Sale's inventiveness emerges in his use of charcoal and ink wash in his line work, creating a wholly unique look for the book, which took many years to complete. The first issue, Captain America: White #0 published in 2008, and the series was finally completed in 2015.

Sale often exaggerates bodies in his best comics, giving the Joker an almost unhinged jaw. In Hulk: Gray, he brings a chunky, monstrous look to the colossal Marvel series. His Hulk recalls Jack Kirby's original character in its blockiness but distinguishes itself in the thinness of the line.

The story goes back to the Hulk's origins, allowing Sale the opportunity to reimagine classic Marvel Comics moments in his unique style. Sale's use of color, often simple but always dramatic, works extremely well here.

Superman: For All Seasons brings Sale's signature bodywork to the Man of Steel. His take on the classic superhero remains singular, giving Superman a dramatic chin and stout appearance that harkens back somewhat to the Fleischer animated cartoons from the 1940s.

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This 1998 mini-series easily stands among the best Superman comic book story arcs for its unique use of changing seasons to reflect different periods in Superman's life. It continues Sale's legendary collaboration with writer Jeph Loeb, with the two contributing a staggering array of memorable comics for both Marvel and DC in a relatively brief period.

Daredevil: Yellow kicks off the so-called 'color' trilogy from Marvel Comics series by Sale and Loeb. This early 2000s mini-series begins with Sale going back to Matt Murdock's comic book roots in his original yellow costume, an outfit that only lasted the first seven issues in the original run from the 1960s.

Sale's ability to switch back and forth between small, intimate panels and huge canvas-like pages works perfectly in this series, which oscillates between Murdock writing a letter to Karen Page and remembering his earliest fights.

Dark Victory deals with the fallout from The Long Halloween. This 1999 mini-series expanded the roster of characters, giving Sale a chance to bring his unique interpretation to classic characters like Robin. His iconic silhouettes of Batman, creating the hero from negative space, count among the best takes on the Dark Knight.

The series follows Batman as he struggles with Two-Face, among his greatest comic book villains, as he tears Gotham apart in a war Sale renders with simple, brutal efficiency.

Sale's linework often reflects a cleaner, simpler aesthetic common to the 1960s, which made him the perfect choice for Spider-Man: Blue. This outstanding 2002 mini-series, among the best Spider-Man comic book story arcs ever, features Peter Parker reminiscing on how he fell in love with Gwen Stacy.

Sale's style fits in perfectly with the flashbacks to the 1960s stories drawn by John Romita Sr. and serves as a showcase for Sale's ability to straddle the past and the modern at the same time.

Catwoman: When In Rome remains a key comic book waypoint for the classic character. Sale reinterprets her in this 2004 limited series as essentially Audrey Hepburn from Roman Holiday, a take that became instantly iconic and lasting in its impact on later iterations. He also drew inspiration for his redesign from French fashion designer René Gruau.

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This comic book, among Sale's many collaborations with Loeb, also introduces the concept that mobster Carmine Falcone is in fact Catwoman's father, an idea later picked up in The Batman.

Superman Confidential combines two great and late comic book talents. Sale joins forces with Darwyn Cooke to present an updated look at Superman's origin in this brief series from 2007. This lesser-known series delivers an outstanding reimagination of Superman's beginnings, made with as much love and care as All-Star Superman, among the best Grant Morrison comic books ever.

The first story arc from Sale and Cooke depicts Superman's first and unfortunate encounter with Kryptonite and deals with his confronting his own uncertain mortality.

The Long Halloween ranks among the best Tim Sale comics ever as well as the best Batman comics of all time. This complex mystery distills the essence of Batman as a detective as he investigates a series of bizarre murders early in his career. Sale's distinctive scriggly line work creates an instantly iconic silhouette for the Dark Knight.

The book's influence on later comics, animated movies, and live-action speaks to its quality, and Sale's takes on Batman's Rogues Gallery remain as memorable now as they were in 1996.

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DARBY HARN is the author of the sci-fi superhero novels Ever The Hero, The Judgment Of Valene, and Nothing Ever Ends. He talks all things pop culture on The Shelf Warmers podcast.