Aurora cinema massacre may have been inspired by a Batman comic book strip, it emerged on Friday.

The bloodbath is a chilling copycat of a 1986 Batman comic strip which features a deranged gunman opening fire in a cinema.

In the second issue of The Dark Knight Returns, written by Frank Miller – the creative mind behind Sin City and 300 – gunman Arnold Crimp opens fire in a pornographic theatre, killing three people, after listening to Led Zepplin’s classic track Stairway to Heaven.

Aurora cinema bloodbath is a chilling copycat of a 1986 Batman comic strip which features a deranged gunman opening fire in a cinema

Text from the page reads: “Arnold Crimp fingers the cold steel thing in his pocket and stares at the movie marquee and does not throw up.

“He thinks about Led Zeppelin and how they are trying to kill him.

“He had not known about Led Zeppelin until Father Don on TV had explained it last night.

“Father Don said that Led Zeppelin hid a prayer to Satan in their song Stairway to Heaven.

“They hid it very well. They recorded it backwards.

“Arnold Crimp took the album from the record store where he worked until they fired him this afternoon and transferred Stairway to Heaven to tape.

“Then he played the tape backwards. He played it forty-seven times until he was absolutely certain that Father Don was right.”

Arnold Crimp then walks into a cinema, which is screening a pornographic film called My Sweet Satan, and opens fire.

James Holmes motives behind the massacre are unknown, but if he was a fan of the Batman comics, then he may well have read the issue featuring Arnold Crimp’s killing-spree.

The comic itself is still in print, and on Friday it was available in book shores, priced $20.