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Look at that great Bernie Wrightson cover above, which I saw on Baggsey's Super Stuff in the Bronze Age blog last week. It reminded me that I bought this comic back in the day so I simply had to own it again. Straight onto eBay for me and before you could say how handsome I am, I'd bought myself a replacement copy to add to my collection. It arrived yesterday and I promptly read the two self-contained tales within. What a joy not to have to acquire the next issue to see how the stories concluded, but to have them all done and dusted in one comic.
I reckon comics should return to the format of self-contained stories, with only the occasional two-or-three-part tale every few months. And I also think that The Batman should be restored to being a crime-fighting detective instead of a barely-repressed psycho who might go off the deep end at any moment. Comics were fun back then, an element which is all too sadly missing from the medium nowadays. What say ye all, Crivvies - are you with me? Let your thoughts be known to your fellows in our captivating comments section. (Any time you're ready, chaps.)
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Not the best Batman story but what a cover, one of my favourites .
ReplyDeleteNor the worst either, McS, but I found it involving enough. Agreed, the cover is a belter.
ReplyDeletePersonally I loved the Batman stores when he was a detective, After the 60's TV show which played his being a detective for laughs, the character in the comic just lost his marbles. I've read a number of more recent graphic novels rather than comics and the influence of the crazy Batman from the movies is prevalent.
ReplyDeleteBring back the Bob Kane original!
Well, considering Bob Kane's version of Batman used a gun, T47, he could be pretty crazy then too. The detective Batman I prefer is the one from the late '60s, early '70s, when drawn by Neal Adams, Dick Dillin, Irv Novick, Frank Robbins, Jim Aparo, etc. A good mystery story is what I want, and they don't seem to do Batman stories like that any more.
ReplyDeleteThe Batman from the late 40's through the 50's was gunless and mostly detective stories. At a time when many TV shows are Police, forensic, or courtroom dramas you would think detective stories in the comics would be timely.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the plug for the SuprStuff blog , Kid. Much appreciated (as always).
ReplyDeleteThat's a good page 3 you reprinted showing how well Novick and Giordano worked together, and was a classic combination of skills. I suspect that Dick Giordano being the preferred inker for Adams was instrumental in ensuring that the Novick pencils got as close to an Adams rendition as possible. I wonder if the cover by Wrightson was drawn after the story was pencilled, or if the lower left-hand panel of Batman and the spooky villain served as inspiration for the cover.
Surprisingly, for all the early Batman tales I have, T47, they struck me more as crime-fighting stories than actual detective ones, though obviously there must have been an element of detection about them. Then there were those awful Sci-fi stories towards the end of the '50s, which probably also had a detective side to them. I still prefer the later ones which were contemporary with my youth. (Now where did that go to?)
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I know that DC used to do the cover first once upon a time, B, then get the writer to craft a story around the image, but whether or not this was the case here, I couldn't say. (I'm a smart cookie - I knew you meant to type '...was drawn BEFORE the story...') Either way, it's a belter of a cover and I'm glad to have it back again.
Thanks for updating the link to the SuperStuff blog, Kid. I think your blog is our #1 referrer as it is, the last time I looked at the google stats.
ReplyDeleteNo bother at all, B, though some of those stats will include visits by me, checking to see if there are any comments to read.
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