Okay, everyone remember Batman & Robin #3 a few weeks ago? It was the last chapter of a beginning arc featured Commissioner Gordon, a break-out, a Circus, a villain who enjoyed abusing people in order to 'improve' them, a member of the Bat-Family in peril, and the use of a household game (Dominoes) as an accessory to murder.
These traits are all shared with Alan Moore & Brian Bolland's Batman: The Killing Joke, which features THIS iconic panel:
Later rendered in beautifully improved colour by Brian Bolland, thus:
And here, now, courtesy of Rich Johnstone, is the kicker. Behold, the cover to Batman & Robin #3.
See the trick yet? No? How about I show you it with the dressing...
Beginning to get an idea? Now, we flip the cover horizontally...and vertically...and we get the following...
Now compare that to the first image of this post. Look at the staring eyes. Look at the red hair. Look at the grasping gloves with the fingers in more-or-less the right position. Look at the green titles, forming a double-set of menacing teeth in the purple grin.
Quitely says that it's an unintentional illusion, that he may try to create a more deliberate continuation of it later. I don't believe the former statement. Batman & Robin #1-3 could easily be described as "Batman Minus Joker", with the great man's presence haunting the events rather than actively taking part in them. To that end, it seems almost as if with Batman lost in time, the Joker becomes a discorporate spirit...