Director Nolan didn't base this Batman installment on any one comic book, but seems to have drawn from several graphic collections. A viewer's guide.
Batman: The Long Halloween (1996), by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
Not exactly the blueprint for The
Dark Knight, but close. This collection (originally a 13-issue series)
finds the Caped Crusader early in his crime-fighting career as he works
with Lieut. Jim Gordon and DA Harvey Dent to bring a lunatic to
justice — a calendar killer called Holiday. It also details the events
that lead up to Dent first calling himself Two-Face.
Batman: The Killing Joke (1988), by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland
Perhaps the definitive take on
the Clown Prince of Crime, this graphic novella presented a vision of
the Joker as an anarchic storm to be weathered (and who admits to
recasting his own biography all the time). And it amplifies one of the
themes from another Bat-essential book, Arkham Asylum: that Batman and
the Joker are both insane men who've made insane choices.
Batman: Year One (1987), by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli
Miller, the creator of
the landmark The Dark Knight Returns, focuses his narrative skills on
Batman's origin story, detailing Bruce Wayne's first baby steps out of
the Batcave. Year One establishes the bond between Batman and Gordon:
Batman rescued Gordon's infant child. And that trust anchors the finale
of The Dark Knight with a deep resonance.
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