By various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1086-1
I’m assuming that all of us here love comics (otherwise why are you here? Did you think I was talking about stand-up comedians?) and that we’ve all had the same unpleasant experience of trying to justify that passion to somebody. Excluding your partner (who is actually right – the living room floor is not the place to leave your D*&$£! funny-books) most people have an entrenched and erroneous view of strip art, meaning that at some time you have tried to dissuade them from that opinion.
If so this collection might be the book you want to use the next time that confrontation occurs. Collected here in pristine black-and-white are tales that redesigned the Dynamic Duo and set them up for global Stardom – and fearful castigation from fans – as the template for the Batman TV show of the 1960s. It should be noted however that the producers and researchers did get their initial glimmerings from the comics stories of the era preceding the “New Look Batman†as well as the original movie serial of the 1940s.
So what have we here? At the end of 1963, Julius Schwartz had revived much of DC’s line -and the entire industry – with his modernization of the Superhero, and was asked to work his magic with the Caped Crusader. Bringing his usual team of creators with him, he stripped down the core-concept, bringing a modern take to the capture of criminals, downplaying all the Aliens, outlandish villains and daft transformation tales, even overseeing a streamlining/rationalisation of the art style itself.
The most apparent change to us kids was a yellow circle around the Bat-symbol, but more importantly the stories themselves changed. A subtle menace had re-entered the comfortable and abstract world of Gotham City. The revolution began with Detective Comics #327 (cover-dated May 1964) and was formalised in the first tale in Batman #164 (June 1964). ‘The Mystery of the Menacing Mask!’ was written by John Broome and pencilled by Carmine Infantino; a baffling “Howdunnit?†that was long on action and peril, which underlined the renewed intention to emphasise the “Detective†part of the title for the foreseeable future. To ram the point home a new back-up feature was introduced, “The Stretchable Sleuth†Elongated Man. This comic was to be a brain-teaser from now on.
In Batman, action and adventure were paramount. ‘Two-Way Gem Caper!’ pitted Batman and Robin against a slick criminal named Dabblo, but the villain wasn’t the star of this tale. Almost as an aside, a new Batcave and Wayne Manor were introduced plus a sleek, new compact Batmobile, more sports car than super-tank. This story was written by Ed “France†Herron and drawn by Bob Kane with Joe Giella inking the contents of both Batman and Detective in a bid to generate a recognisable uniformity to the stories. A new semi-regular feature also debuted that issue. The Mystery Analysts of Gotham City was a club of Detectives and Crime-writers who met to talk about their cases. Somehow it always resulted in an adventure such as ‘Batman’s Great Face-Saving Feat!’ (also the work of Herron, Kane and Giella).
‘Gotham Gang Line-Up!’ completed the transformation of Batman. Written by Bill Finger and pencilled by Bob Kane, the mediocre crime-caper from Detective #328 is remarkable for the plot-twist wherein faithful butler Alfred sacrifices his life to save the heroes, and Dick Grayson’s aunt Harriet moves into the mansion. From this point the adventures fall into a pattern of top-of-the-line comic tales punctuated by utterly exceptional tales of drama, mystery and action. These would continue until the TV show’s success became so great that it actually began to inform the kind of story in the comics themselves.
This cheap’n’cheerful Showcase Presents… compendium collects all the Batman and Robin yarns from Detective Comics #327-342 and Batman 164-174 (38 stories in all) written by Broome, Herron, Finger and Gardner Fox, with pencil art by Bob Kane, Infantino and Sheldon Moldoff. The inks are by Joe Giella, Sid Greene and Murphy Anderson.
Other story highpoints include ‘Castle with Wall-To-Wall Danger!’ (Detective #329), the eerie ‘Man Who Quit the Human Race!’ (Batman #165), ‘Museum of Mixed-Up Men’ (Detective #331 and guest-starring the Elongated Man), ‘Zero Hour for Earth!’ (Batman #167) and the captivating sci-fi chiller ‘Deep-Freeze Menace!’ (from Detective #337). If you’re a fan of costumed villains The Riddler, Penguin and Joker all make appearances, and it was during this time that the miniseries-within-a-series concept was pioneered as the mysterious Outsider struck at Batman again and again through a succession of subordinates.
No matter how much we might squeal and foam about it, to a huge portion of the world Batman is always going to be the “Zap! Pow!†caped buffoon of the 1960s television show. It really was that popular. But if you can make a potential convert sit-down, shut up and actually read these wonderful adventures for all (reasonable) ages, you might find that the old adage “Quality will out†still holds true. And if you’re actually a fan who hasn’t read this classic stuff, you have an absolute treat in store…
© 1964, 1965, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.
To continue to credit Bob Kane with drawing those Batman stories does a disservice to the artist actually responsible, Sheldon Moldoff. Kane drew nothing after 1940, and precious little before then. He was the ultimate master in making a lot out of very, very little. Great businessman, terrible artist.