First Tale Of The ... Batman

Back in Febuary, i started a little feature where i would look at the first ever appearance of certain characters.
I started with the Joker - then promptly forgot about it.
Remembered it now though, so lets take a look at the Big Guy shall we?
Detective Comics 27 has his first appearance, after the cover, right there on the top most panel of page 1, albeit in the shadows.

Directly under that we meet Bruce for the first time, puffing away on his pipe, chatting with his friend Commissioner Gordon and wearing a very natty Rupert The Bear style suit.
Right from the word go we've got the bored socialite, who hangs around with Gordon simply because he's got nothing better to do.
Also established straight away is the folk are aware of "The Bat-Man", who Gordon is merely puzzled by - no mention of him striking fear into wrong doers or being a vigilante at large.
So we get into the story and its a pretty by the book mystery, with no hint of the more fantastical tales that are just around the corner.
Batman makes his first proper appearance on page 3 and its a corker, with him standing there cross-armed.

Interesting to note what there's from the start - the cowl, the scalloped cape and boots. What's not there yet are the gaunlets with the three spikes, instead he's just got regular gloves. And a weird, rounded belt buckle thing.
As i say, a by the book tale. Aside from the costume details, its also interesting to see what and what's not there:
No mention of what city its set in,
Batman uses a bog-standard car,

and there's no mention yet of a Wayne Manor or Batcave. Instead we get this, he goes "home to his room" and "a little later" emerges in costume.

Embryonic, but still huegly entertaining, stuff.

RIP Jerry Robinson

Blimey, there i am waffling away and i don't realise a true giant has left us.
It doesn't matter about the arguing whether he created Robin or not, or if it was him that chose to base the Joker on Conrad Veidt, or anything else.
Fact is, he was a brilliant artsit, responsible of many, many iconic images.
RIP Jerry, your legacy will live on.

Batman & Captain America

This one-off written and drawn by John Byrne is one that i never see mentioned anywhere.
And i really don't know why.
Like his work on that Superman/Batman Generations serious, Byrne's knowledge and love for the early day versions of superheroes really comes across and here he's used the terrific idea of teaming up the WW2 Bat n' Cap.
Of course, he had to use both their nemesis' in the Joker and Red Skull and they're good firing off each other.
But, for me, its the art that's the real attraction and i guess the tale with a lesser artist just wouldn't be as good.
Byrne's Joker is obviously a nod to Sprangs:

His Bats is more the 50's square-jawed version, but really is terrific:

and his design of the Nazi War Wheel is excellent:

I was going to put up the stunning multi-level Batcave as my top moment but, really, its this simple image of the four versions of the two heroes that does it for me:

Brilliant stuff.
BAT-RATING: 7

Top Five Artists - #2 - Marshall Rogers

So, SO unfairly over-looked is Mr Rogers. Maybe because he didn't spend time on the title, but his time on it, while teamed with inker Terry Austin, produced some classic, iconic art.
Waaay ahead of his time, Marshall was giving us the "draped cape hiding all form" shot:

He could do the long ears thing without making it look silly (take note Sam Keith):

And did a brilliant Joker:

Mr Rodgers, you truely deserve the number two slot

This month in... 1983

Not done one of these in a while, so lets take alook shall we?
Afraid to say, beyond that fantastic cover, its a real bunch of piffle; a tale pitting the Bat against the Joker amongst Mayan pyramids that could've come straight from the 50's - especially as Joker uses that era's Joker Copter.
What makes it even more depressing is that we've got the fabulous team of Don Newton and Alfredo Acala drawing. They're of course reknowned for their brilliant, moody art and, with the jungle scenes here, they're sure in their element.
But, as usual for this time, the colouring is atrocious and does their work no favours whatsoever - would love to see the original B/W pages of their run on the title.
Only in one place does the colouring come anywhere near close to being ok:

But then that's offset by having to depict the Joker Copter:

The only other thing of note in this issue is Batman seeing Jason Todd as Robin for the first time. But, again, piffle:
The night before the events on the pyramid, the blond haired Jason,alone in Wayne Manor, stumbles across Dick Grayson's old Robin outfit. At the climax of the tale, all seems lost, when Jason swings in to save the day, the explanation of how a kid living alone stumbles across the costume then gets down to South America just in the nick of time is: "I found this spare costume in ROBIN'S CLOSET. Then i died my hair BLACK and... Well, I... I kinda found enough cash in your drawer to buy a ticket to SAN MATEO."
Dear oh dear.

Batman 52 - #1

Got to say, not been too great a fan of the Batbooks the last few years, not really liking the way the characters been going and the developments made.
So been looking forward to the reboot and kinda hoping it'd go back to basics - my prefered, comfort zone area for the guy.
What do i think then?
Really rate Scott Synder after his work on Detective just lately, as he was focusing on the, er, detective side of the character.
Which i'm happy to see he continues here. A nice, stepping in point with Bats brawling with a bunch of classic characters before getting into the mystery.
Could do without the accessing the Bat-Computer via a contact lens and the EMP Mask - with this sort of technology, how can anyone below the biggest of super villains be a challenge for him?
Don't know Greg Caullo's work at all, and i see there's been a bit of bitching on him having th gig, but what's the problem?
Reckon he's terrific, with a real Jim Lee look to his art, and his versions of the iconic villains are brilliant - Scarecow being tops, followed by the dripping Two face. Dunno about a curly Joker though.
All in all, great start.

More shots of the new Catwoman

Now with very Julie Newmar cat ears. Looking good.