So it turns out, as a way of uber-preparation for his performance in “The Dark Knight,” actor Heath Ledger kept a “Joker diary” during the month leading up to production. And some of its contents seem to have given Bat-scribe Grant Morrison the willies.

The writer recently sat down with MTV’s Jennifer Vineyard to discuss the parallels between Ledger’s performance and the Joker he’s envisioned in works such as “Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth” and “The Clown at Midnight” (”Batman” #663). Here’s a taste:

In [the diary], there’s a list of what would make the Joker laugh – including AIDS, landmines, geniuses suffering irreversible brain damage, brunch, and sombreros. “It gave me this chill,” Grant Morrison said, because it was word-for-word what Morrison had written in one of his Batman stories…

…As a response to his own “Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth,” Morrison had continued his themes of the duality of Joker and the Batman in “The Clown at Midnight.” Having established with “Arkham” that the Joker had a sort of “super-sanity” and that he shifted between personalities,” Morrison explored the idea further in “The Clown at Midnight,” by showing that each time the Joker escaped, one of those new personalities would emerge.

“It’s a really good story,” Morrison said, “but because it was prose, people didn’t want to read it.”

Except, apparently, Heath, who saw Morrison’s list and put it in his Joker diary. “He actually had a whole list — blind babies, doctors, accidents — really horrible stuff,” Morrison said. “Heath wrote it all down. So yeah, I can see there’s a lot of [‘Arkham’ and ‘Midnight’] in his Joker.”

Very cool and savvy move on Ledger’s part. I’m one of the readers who doesn’t engage too well with Morrison’s work, but on a purely conceptual, off-the-page level, I’ve always felt his vision of the character was something of a definitive.

Furthermore, I think Ledger hammered it out on the big screen in a big, exciting way. He carried across that “super-sanity” with striking clarity. In my review, I noted that Ledger’s “inflections, maniacal throughout the film until…fade into the background as he spews sincere, borderline reasonable philosophy.” You recall the mob meeting: “You’re insane.” “No I’m not. I’m not.”

It just goes to show that this is a performance working on more levels than even the most triumphant reviews seemed to suggest. And with every record-breaking dollar it seems the Oscar moves closer to his posthumous grasp.

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