Friday Fun BATMAN "Bat-Climb featuring Santa Claus"

Let's kick off Friday Fun's Yuletide season with the ultimate team-up: Kris Kringle...

...and the legendary Dynamic Duo, Batman and Robin!

One of the hallmarks of 1960s Batman series was the "Bat-Climb", where the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder would encounter celebrities or characters from other shows as they scaled the wall of a building with their Bat-Rope (using a set turned sideways so the actors were merely pretending to be climbing.)

In this second-season episode ("The Duo is Slumming", featuring the one-shot villain Puzzler), airing right before Christmas in 1966, the Dynamic Duo meet Kris Kringle, played by an uncredited Andy Devine.

(After all, the producers didn't want kids to think Santa wasn't real...)
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(as a Holiday Gift for the Pop Culture Maven You Love)...

Batman
the Complete 1960s TV Series

Did You Join the Annual Summer RetroBlog Blogathons?

If you didn't, you missed...

...the only never-reprinted Shang-Chi comic story ever, unseen for 40 years at

Pop Art Martial Arts!

A classic gothic romance/beach read at

True Love Comics Tales!

Plus: these three too-kool for school, never-reprinted, prose super-hero tales...all unseen since the 1960s at
Hero Histories!

The rebooted Silver Age origin of He Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men!
The Shadow!

The first novel featuring the Star Spangled Avenger!
Captain America: the Great Gold Steal!

And last, but certainly not least, the premiere novel featuring the Caped Crusaders and a trio of evildoers!
Batman vs 3 Villains of Doom!
Lucky for you, it's not too late!
Sit down now and start reading!

Are You Reading the Literary Sensation of Summer 2021?

Specifically, the never-reprinted all-original novel from over five decades ago...

... which combines the best of both the Caped Crusader's Silver Age comics and the legendary 1960s TV show in peerless prose?

If not, what do we have to do to convince you?

Now if that doesn't send you hurling headlong to at least take a look by clicking...

HERE

...you're not truly a Bat-Fan!

HOLY CAMP CLASSICS!!! Are You Ready for the Next RetroBlog Blogathon Entry?

Go back 55 years when BatMANIA swept the country, and join us as we relive...

...a Batman adventure unlike any other!

Scripted by pulp/paperback/comic book writer William Woolfolk under the pen-name "Winston Lyons", it's a fascinating mash-up of the TV and comic versions of the Caped Crusader, Robin the Boy Wonder,  and a trio of arch-villains!

You might note that The Riddler (who was the TV Batman's premiere nemesis, isn't in the story.

That's because the book was written before the show aired, and the Prince of Puzzles had appeared in only three comics stories before 1966!
He wasn't considered a major nemesis by comics fans or creators until after the show began!
Start the adventure now by clicking HERE!

Here Come the DARING and DIFFERENT RetroBlog Summer Blogathons...

Our annual summer tradition continues with a twist...PROSE!

Novels featuring superheroes/superheroines were extremely-rare before the 1960s.

Besides Big Little Books, the only books based on superheroes were several reprints (in hardcover) of pulp heroes Doc Savage and The Shadow and one original hardcover novel about Superman based on both the comics and the radio show.

In the 1960s, paperback publishers unleashed reprint series of every pulp superhero/adventurer they could get their hands on!

Doc Savage was joined by The Shadow (with reprints and a series of new novels set present-day), Operator 5, The Spider, The Phantom Detective, G-8 and his Battle Aces, and Captain Future, among others!

DC and Marvel had already been reprinting comics in b/w paperback form.

But Marvel decided to go the next step, joining with Doc Savage's publisher Bantam Books to create two novels, not based on previous comic stories!
DC joined in with a couple of novels, an adaptation of the 1966 Batman feature film and an original novel!

We'll be re-presenting one of Marvel's titles, Captain America: the Great Gold Steal by Ted White in July!

(If the response is good, we'll run the other 1960s book, Avengers vs the Earth-Wrecker by Otto Binder, next summer!)

August will see Batman vs the Three Villains of Doom by Winston Lyon (William Woolfolk) once more available for fans to read after 55 years!

Note, it's an interesting amalgam of the comic and TV Batman with elements of both!
If that one attracts an audience, the novelization of the '66 Batman movie, Batman vs the Fearsome Foursome will be next!

Both will be re-presented at Hero Histories.

Next week we'll have the exact dates and info on our other, comics-oriented Summer Blogathons

Give Your Loved One a Batman Christmas!

Want to give your Batman-obsessed loved one (and we all have at least one) a "Batty" Christmas?

Combine the blu ray (or dvd) set ...

...with a not-available-in-stores digitally-restored reproduction of a 1966 Carmine Infantino/Murphy Anderson promo piece...

...created in 1966 to hype the then-new tv show!

Ironically, the visual looks more like a huge flat-screen tv than the small cathode-ray tv tubes of the 1960s!

Available in a variety of formats to fit both decor and budget!

Happy 80th, Batman!

Technically, last Saturday was Batman's 80th Anniversary...

...so I'm a little late with this, but, believe me, it'll be worth it!

In 1969, a little-known chapter in Batman's history occurred...specifically when Batman (The Bright Knight)...

...reverted to THE Batman (The Dark Knight)

It's only been reprinted once, and only in black-and white!

But you, dear reader, can see it in all the four-color glory 1969 newsprint can present!

Part 1

Part 2

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3-D Batman TV Poster

Steve Ditko Does Man-Bat and The Batman!

See the only time Steve (Spider-Man) Ditko illustrated The Batman...

...at our "brother" RetroBlog Hero Histories by clicking HERE!

Please Support Hero Histories

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Steve Ditko Omnibus

Volume 2

(which reprints this tale as well as new villain Baron Tyme's return story-arc vs The Demon, also illustrated by Ditko)

JERRY LEWIS MEETS THE SILVER AGE DC UNIVERSE!

When Jerry Lewis passed away recently, we decided to present the never-reprinted tales of...

"Batman Meets Jerry"

"Superman Meets Jerry"

"The Flash Meets Jerry Lewis"

and

"Jerry Meets the NEW Wonder Woman"

...all of which feature DC characters with current movies and/or TV shows!

Check them out!

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Artists and Models

Jerry's First On-Screen Comic Book Adventure!

With Shirley MacLaine as "Bat Lady"!

Adam West (1928-2017)

This is a post I hoped I'd never write...

Batman is dead.

Actually, Adam West, the actor who personified the character for a generation of fans (and many since) has passed away.

Many will discuss his portrayal of the Caped Crusader, but, I'd like you fans to see a project that, had it sold, could've gotten him back to the level of William Shatner in terms of overcoming the heroic stereotyping and re-establishing him as a full-time working performer.

Lookwell, created and written by Robert Smigel and Conan O'Brien in 1991.
Forgive me, but my eyes are too clouded with tears to continue...

Holy Halloween, Batman! Wertham Was RIGHT!

New Pics on Just Jared Say it ALL...

In Seduction of the Innocent, Dr Fredric Wertham claimed, "The Batman type of story may stimulate children to homosexual fantasies, of the nature of which they may be unconscious" and "Only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and of the psychopathology of sex can fail to realize a subtle atmosphere of homoeroticism which pervades the adventures of the mature 'Batman' and his young friend Robin."

There's a delightfully-snarky article about Wertham's conclusions HERE.

And catch the Halloween ep of Modern Family tonite on ABC!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

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Seduction of the Innocent

by Fredric Wertham

Prince (1958-2016) RIP

My favorite Prince music...

(Hope it stays up.
Warner Bros seems particularly obsessed with keeping this off the 'Net)

Give Someone a Batman Christmas!

Want to give your Batman-obsessed loved one a "Batty" Christmas?

Combine the new blu ray (or dvd) set...

...with a not-available-in-stores digitally-restored reproduction of a 1966 Carmine Infantino/Murphy Anderson promo piece...

...created in 1966 to hype the then-new tv show!

Ironically, the visual looks more like a huge flat-screen tv than the small cathode-ray tv tubes of the 1960s!

Available in a variety of formats to fit both decor and budget!

The World's Greatest Escape Artist(s) Meet...

...in a 1993 "Elseworlds" story set in early 1900s Gotham City.

The non-continuity tale re-imagines Batman (or "Bat-Man" as he's referred to) operating in a Victorian steampunk reality where science and the occult intermingle.

Besides Houdini, there are vampires aplenty, plus re-interpretations of several Batman characters including Alfred, Vicki Vale, and (surprise) The Joker.

The award-winning graphic novel is well worth reading, if you can find it.

Happy 75th Birthday, Caped Crusader!

It was 75 years ago this week that criminals first stammered "Th...th...th...BAT-MAN!"

Thank you, Bob Kane...and Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson & Gardner Fox.

Above art by Bob Kane, scanned from recently-discovered page proofs of Detective Comics #27 (1939), is his first appearance in a story.

(He's also on the first page of the tale, but in silhouette.)

BTW, those first-generation proofs as close as any of us will ever get to the long-lost original art.

Batman the TV Series on DVD/BluRay...FINALLY!

We're Leaping for Joy!

At last, the 1960s Batman TV series is being released on home video!

A complete series box set has been confirmed, with individual season sets a likely alternative for those who don't want to spend a fortune at one shot...

Ah, to relive the childhood memories of those long-lost days...

Now, where's the other Dynamic Duo of the 1960s...

The Green Hornet?

(and Kato, of course)

Why not a mega-set of the two shows?

Al Plastino (1921 – 2013)

Though most fans know his 1940s-60s work on DC's Superman and Batman...

...Al Plastino had quite a varied output, ranging from Golden Age comics to almost becoming Charles Schultz's replacement on Peanuts!

Mark Evanier has a nice pro/fan tribute to Plastino HERE.

And, you can read about a recent controversy involving Al's long-missing art for a Silver Age Superman story featuring the late President Kennedy HERE.

As for me, I'd like to link you to a tale from Plastino's early days...and a character he co-created, which unfortunately went nowhere.

The wild thing about The Rainbow, is that he was one of the first comic characters inspired to become a super-hero by reading a comic book!

Have a look HERE.

What I'm looking forward to at SDCC...

...with all the new merchandise from the 1960s Batman tv series...

...coming out, there's really only one thing left, an annoucement about a long-awaited DVD release, either as season boxes or a complete series set!

(And a simultaneous release of it's "brother" tv series...

...The Green Hornet, would be the icing on the cake!)

Midnight Movie Massacre at 'Dark Knight Rises'

I'm a bit freaked about the massacre in the Aurora, Colorado movie theatre during the midnight screening of Dark Knight Rises, so the regularly-scheduled post will not appear today.

DC announces one of their existing characters is gay...

Was Fredric Wertham right in Seduction of the Innocent?

 C'mon, you were thinking it...

The intolerant group One Million Moms thinks so...as seen HERE!

What I've done (and suggest you do) is click on the e-mail link on their page, but change the text of the letter to express your honest viewpoint.

Use their own e-mail for your opinion, not theirs!