Remembering Artist Dick Sprang

Remembering artist Dick Sprang on his birthday (July 28, 1915 - May 10, 2000) with a couple of covers with the Dynamic Duo going medieval...Detective Comics #89 (July, 1944) featuring the Cavalier, and Batman #32 (December-January, 1945/1946), as Batman and Robin go back in time to meet the Three Muskateers.

Early Detective Comics

A couple of early Detective Comics (#26 and #28, April and June, 1939) both by Fred Guardineer, showcasing the types of stories in comics in those days, cops fighting crime (oh, but the issue between started something....as you can see here). 

Remembering Artist Tim Sale

Remembering artist Tim Sale on his birthday (May 1, 1956 - June 16, 2022) with a couple of his covers featuring Batman and Commissioner Gordon, as the two prepare to fight crime in Gotham, in Detective Comics #779 and #784 (April and September, 2003).

Batman Fights Time

Batman and Robin are literally under the gun as time winds down (and we get daylight saving time), here with this suspenseful cover to Detective Comics #375 (May, 1968) by Irv Novick.

The End Of Batman Family

Batman Family ended with issue #20 (October-November, 1978) but, Robin, Batgirl and Man-Bat all migrated to Detective Comics (along with Batman) starting with Detective Comics #481 (December-January, 1978/1979), with both covers by Jim Starlin.

Detective Comics was the one that originally was scheduled to end due to low sales, but it was decided that the title the company was named after should still be published by the company!

Remembering Artist Dick Sprang

Remembering legendary Batman artist, Dick Sprang on his birthday (July 28, 1915 - May 10, 2000) with a couple of covers where the Dynamic Duo face the Penguin!  

Those covers being Detective Comics #99 (May, 1945) and Batman #38 (December-January, 1946/1947).

Batman Day 2023

Celebrating Batman Day in 2023 with a more recent classic cover, this, the Darwyn Cooke variant of Detective Comics #37 (February, 2015), with a very tired Bruce Wayne, resting after a hard night's work, being taken care of by his friend and butler, Alfred Pennyworth.

Remembering Artist Dick Sprang

Remembering Batman artist Dick Sprang (July 28, 1915 to May 10, 2000)...

...with the Detective Comics covers featuring Batman and Robin's 1940s battles with the Joker....

...because we all need a smile today!

Detective Comics #85 and #91 (March and September, 1944)

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Detective Comics #102 and #118 (August, 1945 and December, 1946)

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Detective Comics #128 and #149 (October , 1947 and July, 1949)

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He did some stunners for Batman as well, but we'll cover those later!

Batman Day 2022

Celebrating Batman Day with an iconic image of Batman and Robin from Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson, which was a poster available at the height of Batman's popularity during the 1966 Batman TV series.

This visual proved so popular, that it served as the inspiration (with slight modifications) for two different collections of Batman stories: Batman From the 30s to the 70s (1971) and Tales Of The Batman: Carmine Infantino (July, 2014), along with the image being reprinted in Limited Collectors' Edition #C-44 (June-July, 1976) and Batman In The Sixties (March, 1999). 

But, it was originally a fold out pin-up in Detective Comics #352 (June, 1966), where Batman and Robin faced off against Mr. Esper (who would later return to cause the calamity that helped form Titans West!).

Batman Around The Globe

Batman was an incredible force in fighting crime in Gotham...but what about the rest of the world?

Well, inspired by the Batman, various other people across the globe took to wearing costumes and fighting crime in their own countries as well.

Here are their stories.

The Batmen Of Many Nations

It all started in Detective Comics #215 (January, 1955) by Edmond Hamilton, Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris, when international heroes came to Gotham to meet their hero, Batman (including the Knight and Squire of England who first appeared in Batman #62, as well as the introductions of the Musketeer from France, the Legionary from Italy, the Gaucho from Argentina and the Ranger from Australia).  

These heroes would then help Batman against Knots Cardine, a gang leader, who had escaped from Batman.  During the course of the case, it appears Batman was killed, and Robin and the Batmen go to catch the killer, where they find Batman and Knots, who had taken the place of the Legionary, thus having Batman come up with the plan to fake his death to isolate the hood.

The Club Of Heroes

The international heroes gathered again in World's Finest Comics #89 (July-August, 1957), by Edmond Hamilton, Dick Sprang and Stan Kaye, under a Curt Swan/Stan Kaye cover, where the heroes would get a headquarters thanks to philanthropist John Mayhew...if they could select a chairman, which they choose to do by whomever is the most successful this week.  

All the Batmen (except the Ranger, who sat this issue out) are in contention for this, as is Superman, but Superman seems to fail, needing rescue by Lightning-Man, who accomplishes the feats Superman couldn't.  Lightning-Man does succeed in winning the chairmanship, but doesn't....as Batman exposes Lightning-Man as Superman, given a split personality by an orbiting Kryptonite meteor!  Since Superman technically won, he keeps the chairman seat.

Remember, these heroes all met years before the Justice League of America fought Starro!

Now, Green Arrow had his own version of these heroes in "The Green Arrows Of The World" in Adventure Comics #250 (July, 1958) by Bill Finger and Jack Kirby, but they didn't appear again in the 20th century, and Roy Thomas and Todd McFarlane revived the Batmen Of Many Nations as the inspiration for the Global Guardians in Infinity, Inc. #34 (January, 1987), adding the Wingman to their ranks, having them work for Doctor Mist.

Grant Morrison revived them in Batman #667 (August, 2007), and had them return under a Batman, Incorporated title, adding many more members to the group, as well as fleshing out the characters that were already there!

Holy Football, Batman!

In this Golden Age classic of Detective Comics #82 (December, 1943), under a cover by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson, Batman and Robin kick around the old football to face....the "Quarterback Of Crime!".

Remembering Artist Win Mortimer

Remembering Golden and Silver Age artist, Win Mortimer (May 1, 1919 - January 11, 1998) on his birthday...

....with some of his covers featuring Superman and Batman!

Detective Comics #110 (April, 1946) and Action Comics #119 (April, 1948)

Detective Comics #116 (October, 1946) and Action Comics #167 (April, 1952)

Detective Comics #138 (August, 1948) and Action Comics #162 (November, 1951)

Detective Comics #188 (October, 1952) and Action Comics #155 (April, 1951)

World's Finest Comics #32 (January-February, 1948) and #41 (July-August, 1949)

Detective Comics #155 (January, 1950) and Action Comics (February, 1951)

Detective Comics #233 (September, 1955) and Action Comics #170 (July, 1952)

Detective Comics #207 (May, 1954) and Action Comics #180 (May, 1953)

World's Finest Comics #52 (June-July, 1951) and #60 (September-October, 1952)

World's Finest Comics #71 (July-August, 1954) and #78 (September-October, 1955)

Batman Vs The Atomic Man

Back in the 1950s, everything was a "menace", and flourished on "atomic" power...

...and, the Batman comics of the time reflected society's thoughts, but none moreso than an early 1960s issue of Detective Comics, wherein Batman faced the Atomic-Man!

The Menace Of The Atomic Man

In Detective Comics #280 (June, 1960 with no identified writer, but art by Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris, and cover by Moldoff), The story begins with the Atomic-Man taking out the float business of Henry Hayes, who calls in Batman and Robin to help save him.  

Batman, using the distinct features of Atomic-Man's ears, places him as Paul Strobe, an engineer Batman put in jail seven years ago as he defrauded Hayes, and his partners Barker and Jenkins.  Strobe vowed revenge, and invented his atomic goggles which allowed him to transmute items by staring at them (but his goggles only worked for two hours before needing recharging).

With this knowledge, Batman and Robin went to protect Barker's business (now a shipping mogul).  Sadly, that did not go well, with Batman having to make a daring escape from the now floating ship (that Atomic-Man had made lighter than air).  

Still, trying again, Batman and Robin confronted Atomic-Man as he attempted to destroy the art of Jenkins, moving up Atomic-Man's timetable, turning Batman's cowl to glass to expose his identity.  Batman still stopped the Atomic-Man, and removed his helmet once its two hours of power was up.  Feeling he at least revealed Batman's identity, Batman corrected him, as Batman said he had seen Strobe turn other things to glass, so was wearing make up to hide his own identity!

Usual story for that era of Batman
(filled with invasions and transformations, but, amazingly, Atomic-Man didn't make another regular comic appearance (unlike many of these obscure Batman villains, who at least made it to Batman's Lego Movie, though he did make it into Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon, in "A Bat Divided!").

What If There Were Two Versions Of Batman

Dealing with the death of Batman.  Seems odd but true, hinted at in this issue of Detective Comics, but not something come about in the normal way.

Spoiling the secret hinted at on the cover....so, read on only if you dare!

The Strange Death Of Batman

In the main part of the story of Detective Comics #347 (January, 1966) by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella, the Dynamic Duo faced off against a new foe, the Bouncer.  The Bouncer was a criminal metallurgist, who created a suit out of a special combination including metal and plastics that he called Elastalloy, which allowed him to rebound off of any material.

The Bouncer was able to best Batman and Robin multiple times, before Batman had figured out a way to beat him, using science to stress the material of the villain's costume (and gun), which prevented them from bouncing, allowing Batman to be victorious against this baffling bad guy.

What If

Here's where readers are suddenly introduced to Gardner Fox, the man who had penned this very tale!


The writer of the tale takes you through his thought process for the issue, but then takes the reader along a different path...one where Batman's plan was not successful, with the Bouncer killing Batman with his gun. 

Robin mourns his mentor, with the Justice League promising the lad that they will bring in the villain, but Robin does it on his own anyway, instead of finding the elastic limit of Elastalloy, he gives it elastic fatigue.  Robin defeats the villain, but is still alone....until he hears the voice of Bruce Wayne! 

 

It is the Silver Age introduction Batman of Earth-2, who, since his Robin had grown up, came to Earth-1 to now be a mentor to young Robin, bringing along the Earth-2 Alfred as well (Alfred had been thought to be dead at this time).

Now, this was still early in the history of the multiple Earths, taking place between the 3rd and 4th JLA/JSA team-ups, and certainly before readers had been introduced to the grown up Earth-2 Robin...

....but, a real interesting little tale allowing Gardner Fox to quietly sneak a little of the DC Universe into Batman's Detective Comics.

Detective Comics Stars Besides Batman Robin Batgirl and Man-Bat

Batman was the main feature in Detective Comics for so long, but every once and a while, the rest of some of Batman's family of crime fighters got to be a feature there as well.

Here, we look at the three main members of the "Batman family"; Robin, Batgirl and Man-Bat, and their runs as individual characters as back-ups in Detective Comics.

Robin

Young Dick Grayson premiered as Batman's Boy Wonder in Detective Comics #38 (April, 1940), but Batman really wasn't letting him stretch his legs on his own for a long time (at least in Detective, Robin did have a back-up in Star-Spangled Comics)...

....not until Detective Comics #386 (April, 1969)!  It must have worked, as the high school aged Robin returned again in Detective Comics #390 and #391, then moved to Hudson University as a freshman college student for #394, #395, #398-#403, then was a back-up in Batman for a bit, before returning for Detective Comics #445, #447, #450 and #451, then a brief stint with 20 issues of Batman Family, before that title merged with Detective Comics, picking up the Robin stories again with Detective Comics #481 to #495.

Now...


....more than a few of those tales of Robin were shared with the Batman family member who had the most back-up appearances in Detective Comics....


...Batgirl!

Batgirl

Barbara Gordon made her debut in Detective Comics #359 (January, 1967), facing off against Killer Moth (with the daughter of Com. James Gordon deciding to keep at the hero business after that tale with her successes therein after accidentally becoming a heroine).

Batgirl's first solo tale premiered in Detective Comics #384 (February, 1969), with Barbara alternating the back-up spot with Robin, having issues #385, #388, #389, #392, #393, #396 and  #397, then sharing #400 and #401 with Robin, and back on her own continuous run with #404 to #424. 

Batgirl disappeared for a bit, but after two guest appearances in the Superman title and a tale with Supergirl in Superman Family, returned for 20 issues of Batman Family (mostly teaming up with Robin, but a few solo tales), then back to Detective Comics with #481 to #499, then #501, #502, a full length tale with Batman and Robin in #503, then back to back-up for #505, #506, #508 to #510, #512 to #519, the end of her solo run before the Crisis On Infinite Earths and the Killing Joke, other than one Batgirl Special.

While Robin had also spent his time working with various incarnations of the Teen Titans, Batgirl really just worked with Robin, private investigator Jason Bard, Commissioner Gordon and the last of the features to be mentioned here....


....Man-Bat!

Man-Bat

Kirk Langstrom first appeared in Detective Comics #400 (June, 1970), as a scientist who was looking to develop a formula to allow one to see in the dark (but instead unleashed a transformation in himself into the half-man, half-bat creature).


After assorted tales where Batman helped cure Kirk, and even his wife, Francine (who became the She-Bat), and two issues of his own title, Man-Bat had a couple of issues of being a Detective Comics back-up in #458 and #459 in 1976.  

Returning for the last 10 issues of Batman Family as a solo feature (though adding Jason Bard to the mix in the last issue), Man-Bat moved over to Detective Comics with the rest, but only for issues #481, #485 and #492 (and much more on Man-Bat is available here!).

Still, these three filled up pages, having interesting stories, but also keeping alive the feeling of Batman in Detective Comics!