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Can you guess what's misleading about the above cover, Crivs? Well, Robin doesn't appear in any of the interior tales (I'm glad to say) so he really shouldn't be on the cover, now should he?! Some great 'cases' in this Limited Collectors' Edition, though it's a shame the original didn't have more pages and include 'The Secret Of The Waiting Graves' as that's a pretty strange story. I don't think I owned this one back in the day so it's good to finally be able to get my hands on this brand-spanking new DC Facsimile Edition in perfect condition.
Do you have a favourite among these five classic strips, effendis, or do you love them all equally? Great stories and great art - what more could any rabid reader want from a comicbook? The comments section awaits!
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Hope you are keeping well my friend.This is a fantastic collection of Batman comics.All very different storywise but with Adams in 2 you cannot go wrong.Irv Novick was vastly under-rated in my opinion, and he drew a great Batman.My copy was extremely well read and tatty but it did not prevent me from enjoying the stories.Robin being absent was another bonus and for me this is the essential Batman;Ghosts,haunted houses,castles.werewolves,mysteries etc.The editor chose wisely in his selection.For me Batman facing aliens,robots and gimmicky villains are a complete turn-off so my interest in the character only developed in 1969 or so when the entire DC line(or so it seemed to me) went House of Mystery/Secrets/Scooby Doo crazy and every title including Teen Titans,Challengers,JLA etc seemed to become weird mystery/Ghost tiles.Loved them of course.Great post.
ReplyDeleteCould be keeping better to be honest, Triple F, though I won't bore everyone with the details. Yeah, Batman really came into his own once Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams started on the strip and you're right about Irv Novick (and Dick Giordano), who were brilliant on Batman. And what about that Bernie (or Berni as he was then) Wrightson strip - awesome, isn't it. Glad to say I've got the original ST issue in which it was first published. Great comment (as usual).
DeleteI've not seen this one before but it's a cracker of a collection. My favourite is "Red Water Crimson Death" . Although I have most of the originals I may need to pick this one up .
ReplyDeleteThey're all good stories, McS, though I have a fondness for 'The Demon Of Gothos Mansion!', which I first saw (as far as I recall) in the Batman From The '30s To The '70s book - though I now also own the original issue, purchased a goodly number of years back.
DeleteDon't you like Robin, Kid? I always saw myself as Robin rather than Batman when I was young which is strange because normally I would want to be the main protagonist in any other schoolboy game. Robin is not as bad as Bat-Mite surely?
ReplyDeleteI was probably indifferent to Robin when I was younger, M, but once I saw how good the Batman stories were when he functioned on his own, I retroactively took a 'dislike' to him. That's probably overstating the case, but I realised that Batman's exploits were better without Robin.
DeleteThese are all cracking stories, Kid. If pushed for a favourite, I would choose Red Water, Crimson Death for the realism and dynamism of Neal Adams artwork. That period 1971-1973 was the apex of Adams' work on Batman and I feel privileged to have been collecting Batman comics as a teenager in that era. I think Adams' work pushed Jim Aparo and Irv Novick to produce their finest work at that time as well, and once Adams exited the DC comics scene, that competitive edge disappeared from their work, which was still great, but less detailed.
ReplyDeleteI picked up an original copy of this Limited Collectors Edition not too many months back for around $15, so will probably pass on the facsimile this time around
That's a good price for an original, B, considering the facsimile is $14.99, but it has whiter pages and brighter colours so it's nice to have for that alone. Like I said in the post, if only it had included 'The Secret Of The Waiting Graves', it would've been perfect.
DeleteIt's strange that DC never reprinted Secret of the Waiting Graves within the pages of a Limited Collectors Edition, although it has been reprinted multiple times elsewhere at standard comic size, of course. I recall that DC reprinted Detective 395 in their Millennium comic series back in 2000, which is the closest to a facsimile edition that exists, AFAIK.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that DC will republish Limited Collectors Edition C-25 before too long, which contains Ghost of the Killer Skies, another great Batman/Adams tale
Yeah, it was also reprinted in Dynamic Classics #1 (and only) as well as the Millennium ish you mentioned, plus various collected editions. I've also got several reprintings of Ghost Of The Killer Skies, but another one won't hurt.
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