By Bill Finger, Don Cameron, Joseph Greene, Dick Sprang & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-414-9
Debuting a year after Superman, “The Bat-Man†(and later Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented National Comics as the market and genre leader of the nascent comicbook industry, becoming the epitome of swashbuckling derring-do and keen human-scaled adventure.
This fourth scintillating deluxe hardback chronicles Batman yarns from Detective Comics #87-102 (cover-dated May 1944-August 1945) and is particularly special since it almost exclusively features the artwork of unsung genius Dick Sprang, revealing how he slowly developed into the character’s primary and most well-regarded illustrator during a period when most superhero features experienced a gradual downturn and eventual – albeit temporary – extinction.
Sprang even drew the lion’s share of the stunning covers reproduced here – the remainder being divided between Jerry Robinson, Bob Kane, Jack Burnley and inker George Roussos…
No less crucial to the Dynamic Duo’s ever-burgeoning popularity were the sensitive, witty, imaginative and just plain thrilling stories from an exceedingly talented stable of scripters such as Joe Greene, Don Cameron, Edmund Hamilton, Mort Weisinger, Alvin Schwartz and original co-creator Bill Finger: all diligently contributing as Batman and Robin grew into a hugely successful media franchise.
One final point of possible interest: Sprang actually began drawing Batman tales in 1941 and editor Whitney Ellsworth, cognizant of his new find’s talent and the exigencies of the war effort, had the 26-year old former Pulp illustrator frantically drawing as many stories as he could handle, which were then stockpiled against the possibility of one, some or all of his artists being called up.
Thus many yarns were published “out of orderâ€, and when read now it might seem as if Sprang’s style occasionally advanced and regressed. It’s no big deal – I just thought you’d like to know…
Sprang pencilled, inked, lettered and coloured most of his assignments during this period, aided and abetted by his wife Lora, who used the professional pseudonym Pat Gordon for her many lettering and colouring jobs on Superboy, Superman and Batman stories.
After a fond reminiscence from Sprang himself in the Foreword, the dramas begin to unfold in Detective #87’s ‘The Man of a Thousand Umbrellas’ written by Joseph Greene.
The Penguin had a bizarre appeal and the Wicked Old Bird had his own cover banner whenever he resurfaced, as in this beguiling crime-spree highlighting his uncanny arsenal of weaponised parasols, brollies and bumbershoots.
As World War II staggered to a close and home-front fears subsided, spies gradually gave way to more home-grown threats and menaces. Issue #88 offered a nasty glimpse at true villainy when ‘The Merchants of Misery’ – also by Greene – pitted the Dynamic Duo against merciless and murderous loan sharks preying on poverty-stricken families, whilst ‘Laboratory Loot!’ by Don Cameron in #89, saw the return of flamboyant crime enthusiast The Cavalier, forced to join temporarily forces with Batman to thwart petty gangsters stealing loot he’d earmarked as his own…
Detective Comics #90 featured ‘Crime Between the Acts!’ (Greene) as the Caped Crusaders followed a Mississippi Riverboat full of crooked carnival performers from one plundered town to another, before Edmond Hamilton scripted a terrifically twisty tale in ‘The Case of the Practical Joker’, wherein some crazy and wisely anonymous prankster began pulling stunts and have fun at the Harlequin of Hate’s expense.
Greene revealed ‘Crime’s Manhunt’ in #92, with a particularly nasty band of bandits turning to bounty hunting and turning in all their friends and associates for hefty rewards. Once they’d run out of pals to betray they simply organised jailbreaks to provide more crooks to catch: a measure the Dark Knight took extreme umbrage with…
Bill Finger scripted the next two issues beginning with ‘One Night of Crime!’ in #93. Ed Kressy laid out the art – which leads me to suspect that this was one of the earlier Sprang inventory tales – and the story itself is a cracker: a portmanteau human interest yarn in actuality starring the ordinary folk who got on a Gotham Tour Bus just before it was hijacked by brutally casual killers. Cue Batman and Robin…
‘No One Must Know!’ in #94 was another poignant and moving melodrama with the Gotham Gangbusters tracking a pack of thugs to the little hamlet of Meadowvale, where they recognised the village’s most decent, beloved and respected patriarch as an escaped convict…
Next comes an originally untitled yarn here dubbed ‘The Blaze’, written by Mort Weisinger and outlining the short and fantastically impressive career of a brilliant criminal mastermind who organised all Gotham’s gangsters and almost outsmarted Batman. Almost…
In #96 Cameron and Sprang showed their flair for light comedy with ‘Alfred, Private Detective!’ as Bruce Wayne’s dedicated manservant finally realised his ambition to set up as a crime-busting Private Eye – with bombastically mixed success – whilst in #97 ‘The Secret of the Switch!’, by Greene, offered a baffling mystery when a dead criminal confessed from beyond the grave and led the Caped Crusaders into a deadly trap.
A bored banker tried to become an idle philanthropist in #98’s ‘The King of the Hoboes!’ (Cameron) but found that his money was too big a lure for a couple of crafty conmen – until Batman stepped – in whilst the perfidious Penguin’s cool, cruel and preposterous scheme to commit ‘The Temporary Murders!’ (#99 and Cameron again) proved once more that the Darknight Detective was far too slick for him…
Issue #100 featured ‘The Crow’s Nest Mystery!’ by Cameron, Jack Burnley & Charles Paris (although the art seems more reminiscent of young Winslow Mortimer to me) with Batman and Robin exposing a cunning smuggling scam in a spooky old house, after which a desperate mother left her appallingly badly-behaved babies with Bruce and Dick in ‘The Tyrannical Twins!’
The hilarious result was the exposure and capture of a gang of ruthless jewel thieves and a near nervous breakdown for long-suffering babysitter Alfred in a wry cracker from Cameron and Sprang before the Joker returned to close this volume on a spectacular high note in #102’s ‘The House that was Held for Ransom!’ (written by Alvin Schwartz) wherein the Clown Prince of Crime astoundingly abducted a recluse’s mansion, lock stock and barrel, and led Batman a merry chase to near disaster before his eventual, inevitable defeat…
These spectacular yarns provide a perfect snapshot of the Batman’s amazing range from bleak moody avenger to suave swashbuckler, from remorseless Agent of Justice to best pal to sophisticated Devil-may-care Detective in timeless tales which have never lost their edge or their power to enthral and beguile. Moreover, this supremely sturdy Archive Edition is indubitably the most luxurious and satisfying way to enjoy them over and over again.
© 1944, 1945, 1998 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.