In 2008, DC Comics reprinted the story in a deluxe hardcover edition, which featured new coloring by Bolland, with a more subdued palette than the original.

Artist Brian Bolland conceived the idea for the story after watching the 1928 film The Man Who Laughs, which features a character named Gwynplaine (played by Conrad Veidt) whose rictus grin inspired the visual design of the Joker.

[3] DC editor Dick Giordano's invitation led directly to Bolland working with writer Alan Moore to create a plausible background story for the Joker.

He also recounted that "by the time Alan had finished Watchmen he had fallen out with DC to a certain extent... in the end, he only continued to do Killing Joke as a favor to me".

The original editor, Len Wein, left the company, and was replaced by Dennis O'Neil, a "very hands-off sort of guy", with whom Bolland only recalls having one conversation about the book.

[4] Bolland envisaged the flashback sequences in black and white, and instructed Watchmen colorist John Higgins to use "muted November colors".

He was upset when he saw the finished comic had "garish... hideous glowing purples and pinks... and my precious Eraserhead-esque flashback sequences swamped in orange".

Desperate to support his pregnant wife, he agrees to guide two criminals through the chemical plant where he previously worked so that they can rob the playing card company next to it.

Though traumatized by his ordeal, Gordon retains his sanity and moral code, and insists that Batman capture the Joker "by the book" to "show him that our way works".

Batman dodges a series of booby traps while the Joker tries to persuade his nemesis that the world is a "black, awful joke" that is not worth fighting for, and it only takes "one bad day" to drive an ordinary man insane.

[7] The torments that the Joker puts Commissioner Gordon through are meant to serve as "proof that there is something buried deep within each lunatic, a nugget of insanity, that is simply waiting for the right moment to spring forth".

Grant Morrison acknowledges the ambiguous nature of the story's ending, which they believe is a part of its enduring appeal, with the original script providing no further information.

[13] Alan Moore has said that, despite the perceived ambiguity, his intention for the ending was for Batman and the Joker to simply share a moment of lucidity before their endless cycle began again.

[15] In 1996, John Ostrander and Kim Yale wrote a story entitled "Oracle: Year One: Born of Hope" which appeared in The Batman Chronicles #5.

[16] In the story, Booster Gold is charged by Rip Hunter to go back in time and save Barbara from being shot by the Joker.

In 2010, writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Cliff Chiang collaborated on a one-shot story called "Ladies' Night", which was published in the anthology series The Brave and the Bold.

Like "No Joke", the story heavily implies that the heroines cannot alter Barbara's fate, despite their desire to do so, instead giving her a final night on the town before she loses the use of her legs.

[17] When DC Comics relaunched its continuity in 2011, many of Batman's stories were erased from history or altered, but the events of The Killing Joke remained intact.

Although she resumes her work as Batgirl one year after recovering her mobility, she continues to have posttraumatic stress disorder when exposed to gunfire that could result in receiving new spinal damage.

The cover quickly drew criticism for highlighting a dark period in the character's history, especially when juxtaposed with the youthful, more optimistic direction of the series at the time.

[20] Novelists Christa Faust and Gary Phillips wrote a novel adaptation of Alan Moore's story, published on September 25, 2018, by Titan Books.

[37] Gordon's paralysis was later retconned into a temporary event that lasted only three years[38] in DC Comics' 2011 line-wide title relaunch, The New 52, which saw her restored as the first and only Batgirl.

[41] Van Jensen of ComicMix said: "Each time I read The Killing Joke I'm amazed all over again at how Alan Moore and Brian Bolland teamed to pack such intensity, ferocity and humanity into those pages".

Wooldridge of Batman in Comics called the graphic novel "an incredible story, with Moore at his best and awe-inspiring art by painter Brian Bolland".

[49]Bolland gave his own thoughts on Moore's response in 2008: "The Killing Joke was not a project instigated by Alan, nor was it, as far as I know, a labour of love for him, and it doesn't usually appear in a list of his greatest works.

[53] Critic Mark Vogler wrote that The Killing Joke provided the Joker "with a sympathetic back story as it presented some of the villain's most vile offenses".

Author Brian Cronin notes that "many readers felt the violence towards Barbara Gordon was too much, and even Moore, in retrospect, has expressed his displeasure with how the story turned out".

[58] Author Sharon Packer wrote: "Anyone who feels that feminist critics overreacted to Gordon's accident is advised to consult the source material ... Moore's The Killing Joke is sadistic to the core.

Brown noted The Killing Joke as an example of the "relatively unequal violence female characters are subjected to" in the major DC/Marvel Comics industry.

A printing of the story with Higgins' original colors on gray matte newsprint paper is also available in Absolute Batman: The Killing Joke.