Before we begin this post we would like to state that our heart goes out to everyone affected by the recent tragedy in Aurora, Colorado. This senseless form of violence is beyond tragic and we hope/pray that everyone, especially the ones who lost Friends & Family Members, find some form of Peace in their lives in the coming days. We are thinking about you and care deeply about what you are going through.

Right after the tragedy that unfolded at “The Dark Knight Rises” Movie Premier in Aurora, Colorado, Chip Kidd was contacted by ABC News as a “Batman Expert” and asked if he would do a short TV interview. Of course he was honored to do so and also hoped for an opportunity to extent his deepest sympathies to the families who were touched by this event. Like all of us, Chip was shocked beyond belief about everything that happened that day. It all seemed so completely surreal.

Up above is a photo of Chip Kidd as he appeared on “World News with Diane Sawyer” on July 20th, 2012. This is the episode where he was being interviewed by ABC TV News Reporter, Dan Harris. Please keep in mind that this is in no way an attempt at any form of publicity on Chip’s part. He did the interview, which was edited down quite a bit for the segment, and he wanted to issue a statement clarifying what he originally said in the full-complete interview because his remark that aired on TV might be taken out of context. To hear the edited version please be sure to click this LINK for the comment that aired on Television ( Dan Harris’ segment starts at about the 15:46 mark and Chip Kidd appears around 16:05 ).

Then, please be sure to read Chip Kidd’s personal statement down below:

“Just a little clarification about the ABC News appearance last night (Friday, July 20). I was contacted by the network earlier in the day about doing a short interview with them regarding the tragedy in Colorado, as I am viewed as a ‘Batman Expert’ (which is fine, no complaints there). By chance, I had a ticket to the 2:20pm IMAX Lincoln Center showing of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and planned to get there at least an hour ahead of time, and they were interviewing people standing in line. So, the timing and situation were perfect.

I spoke with Dan Harris for a good 20 minutes while they filmed, and showed (and gave) him copies of ‘Batman: Death By Design’, ‘Rough Justice’, and ‘Batman Collected.’ He was very professional and engaged, asked smart questions, I liked him a lot. Of course, there was no guarantee any of it would end up on the broadcast. I totally understood that. What did actually make the cut was me saying that I was still going to the movie despite what happened. Period.

That’s disappointing, because I went on to say that the horrible events perpetrated in Aurora were and are antithetical to everything the character and idea of Batman stands for: anti-gun, anti-killing. I do wish they had kept that in, so I’m emphasizing it here. In fact, there is a fight scene about halfway through the movie (which is well worth seeing, btw, and definitely in IMAX) in which Batman and Catwoman are duking it out with armed mercenaries on a Gotham rooftop. Catwoman disarms one of them, picks up his gun and points it him. Then Batman swats it out of her hand and screams ‘No guns! No killing!’ Right on. I also said, ” that the discussion really should be about tougher gun control laws, not cartoon violence in fantasy films.” Anyway, I thank ABC and Dan for including me, however briefly.” - C. K.