What specific batman comics are the new movies directed by Christopher Nolan based upon?

Mostly Frank Millers Batman:Year One (a great read if you get the chance!), also Frank's Dark Knight Returns (possibly the greatest Batman story ever told!). Certainly the way the character Jim Gordon is played by Gary Oldman is taken directly from Millers classic Year One story.

Their are also influences from Denny O'Neil's Batman stories of the '70's. "The Man Who Falls" deals with Batmans training and is similar to much of the beginning of the movie (and was given as an extra in the deluxe edition of Batman Begins that I bought), but also Denny's Ra's Al Ghul stories. Denny O'Neil actually created the character of Ra's and used him in stories too numerous to mention!

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's "The Long Halloween" shares a lot of the atmosphere of the movie especially Bruce's run-ins with gangsters and the Gotham Underworld.

The Dark Knight seems to follow this path too as "The Long Halloween" also features the transformation of Harvey Dent into Two-Face just like the new movie is going to (really!!).

That is pretty much it! Should keep you going for a while if you are planning on catching up!

Can't wait for the new movie!!

Batman Begins Is Based Mostly on

Batman Year One By Frank Miller (Gordon's personality, using Bats as a weapon with a sonar, The Term Holy War to refer Batman's vision, Characters like Flass and Loeb, And The Corruption in Gotham)

Batman The Man Who Falls (Batman's training, Ducard also appears, though he is not Ra's Al Ghul)

The Long Halloween ( Batman's personality to some extent, and the somber feeling of Gotham)

The Dark Knight

Batman 1 Which contains The Joker's Two first appearances.

The Long Halloween Explains how Harvey Dent Became Two-Face.

No, It's not based solely on that, The only Part of The Dark Knight Series by Frank Miller has been Year One. Most of The Dark Knight Series deals with an Old Batman (50 maybe 60years old) Except of Batman Year One and All Star Batman and Robin, and there is Batman/Spawn which is set during in the middle.

The Frank Miller series of Batman was a revival of the original series. For a period of time, readership and other qualities of the comic suffered and Frank Miller came in to work on the series. It is one of the first comics/graphic novels that Miller became famous for. It was a limited series starting in 1986, consisting of 4 issues. However, there was a sequel published in 2001 called The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Here is a link to the history of the Dark Knight series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Knight_Retur...

Christopher Nolan has said that he was inspired by a story from one of the Batman comics called " The Man who Falls"

a story from Detective Comics #27 by Bill Finger Bob Kane called "The Batman" and the Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. w/ the The Dark Knight I'm guessing he's still sticking to those same inspirations particularly stories by Loeb and Sale( Dark Victory) as well as the stories by Frank Miller.

If Nolan's Batman movies are based on anything than it would probably be Frank Miller's stuff. Some of which was fine but others were not so good IMO.

they are not "based" upon anything, but are inspired by batman: year one, batman: the long halloween, batman: the man who falls, batman: dark victory, batman: the man who laughs, and the killing joke. the mood is inspired by frank millers dark knight stories, but not the plot, cuz this is a younger batman. also, the first 2 appearances of the joker in comics, the first one being "batman #1"