Back Issue #150 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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NO. 150

APRIL 2024 $12.95

BATMEN OF THE 1970s ANNIVERSARY ISSUE!

™

IRV K C I V O N

DICK GIORDANO

WALTER SIMONSON

ALEX TOTH

82658 00515

FRANK ROBBINS

BOB BROWN

BERNIE WRIGHTSON

FRANK MILLER’S FIRST BATMAN STORY!

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PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION

WORKING WITH DITKO

JACK KIRBY’S DINGBAT LOVE

BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S

MAINLINE COMICS

CHRISTOPHER IRVING explores the superhero serials (1941-1952) of Superman, Captain America, Spy Smasher, Captain Marvel, and others, and the comic creators and film-makers who brought them to life! (160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-119-6

CLIFFHANGER!

STEPHAN FRIEDT & JON B. COOKE examine the independent that published KIRBY, ARAGONÉS, DITKO, ADAMS, GRELL, plus DAVE STEVENS’ Rocketeer!

JACK C. HARRIS recalls collaborating with STEVE DITKO on The Creeper, Shade, Demon, Wonder Woman, The Fly, & more, plus Ditko’s unused Batman design!

The final complete, unpublished Jack Kirby stories in existence: Two unused 1970s DC DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET tales, plus TRUE-LIFE DIVORCE & SOUL LOVE mags!

Collects JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY’s 1954-56 series BULLSEYE (the complete run), plus all the Kirby FOXHOLE, POLICE TRAP, and IN LOVE stories, fully restored!

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IT CREPT FROM THE TOMB

TEAM-UP COMPANION

KIRBY & LEE: STUF’ SAID

AMERICAN TV COMICS

Digs up the best of FROM THE TOMB (the UK’s preeminent horror comics history magazine), with early RICHARD CORBEN art, HP LOVECRAFT, and more!

MICHAEL EURY examines team-up comic books of the Silver and Bronze Ages of Comics in a lushly illustrated selection of informative essays, special features, and trivia-loaded issue-by-issue indexes!

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REED CRANDALL

Illustrator of the Comics

HERO-A-GO-GO!

Presents JACK KIRBY and STAN LEE’s own words to examine the complicated relationship of the creators of the Marvel Universe! (176-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $26.95 (Digital Edition) $12.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-094-6

JOHN SEVERIN

TWO-FISTED COMIC ARTIST

(1940s-1980s)

THE LIFE & ART OF

DAVE COCKRUM

History of over 300 TV shows and 2000+ comic book adaptations, from well-known series (STAR TREK, PARTRIDGE FAMILY, THE MUNSTERS) to lesser-known shows.

GLEN CADIGAN’s bio of the artist who redesigned the Legion of Super-Heroes and introduced X-Men characters Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Logan!

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(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $27.95 HC: $36.95 • (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-113-4

ALTER EGO COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS

Master of the Comics

MAC RABOY

History of Crandall’s life and career, from Golden Age Quality Comics, to Warren war and horror, Flash Gordon, and beyond!

Looks at comics' 1960s CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, and TV's Batman shook a mean cape!

Biography of the EC, MARVEL and MAD mainstay, co-creator of American Eagle, and 40+ year CRACKED magazine contributor.

Compiles the sold-out DITKO, KIRBY, and LEE issues, plus new material on each!

Documents the life and career of the master Golden Age artist of Captain Marvel Jr. and other classic characters!

(256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-102-8

(272-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $36.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-073-1

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Volume 1, Number 150 April 2024 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks COVER ARTISTS Bob Brown, Dick Giordano, Frank Miller, Irv Novick, Frank Robbins, Walter Simonson, Alex Toth, and Bernie Wrightson COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg

AbyN M BcArT eated

Bob Kane, er Fing with Bill

PROOFREADER Kevin Sharp SPECIAL THANKS Roger Ash Paul Levitz Terry Austin Ed Lute Jim Beard Elliot S. Maggin Eric Breen Brian Martin Alan Brennert Frank Miller Ed Catto Luigi Novi Mark Chiarello Dan Riba Art Cloos Joe Rubinstein DC Comics Walter Simonson Jon B. Cooke Jerry Smith Mark Evanier Jim Starlin Ramona Fradon Steven Thompson Mike Friedrich Mark Waid Michael T. Gilbert Dan Greenfield Dedicated to the Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Memory of Heritage Auctions Bob Brown Tony Isabella Dick Dillin Dan Johnson Dick Giordano Michael Wm. Irv Novick Kaluta Frank Robbins Rob Kelly Alex Toth James Heath Lantz Bernie Wrightson

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PHOTO GALLERY: BACK ISSUE’s 20th Anniversary Celebration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 BACKSEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 FLASHBACK: Irv Novick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 ART GALLERY: Michael Wm. Kaluta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 FLASHBACK: Bob Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 FLASHBACK: Frank Robbins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: O’Neil and Robbins’ Batman Anti-Drug Comic . . 33 PRINCE STREET NEWS: The Great Unseen Batman Artists of the ’70s . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 FLASHBACK: Dick Giordano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 ART GALLERY: Dick Dillin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 FLASHBACK: Bernie Wrightson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 ART GALLERY: Jim Starlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 ART GALLERY: Ramona Fradon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 FLASHBACK: Alex Toth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 BACKSTAGE PASS: Walter Simonson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 FLASHBACK: Frank Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 BACK TALK: Reader Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 BACK ISSUE™ issue 150, April 2024 (ISSN 1932-6904) is published monthly (except Jan., March, May, and Nov.) by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Back Issue, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $97 Economy US, $147 International, $39 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover artwork from various Batman covers and interiors. Batman TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All editorial matter © 2024 TwoMorrows and Michael Eury, except Prince Street News © 2024 Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING

Batmen of the 1970s • BACK ISSUE • 1

BI contributors gathered on June 17, 2023, after the BACK ISSUE 20th Anniversary Panel at Heroes Convention in Charlotte, NC. (front row, kneeling) John Morrow, Chris Irving, Dewey Cassell, Eddy Zeno, Ed Catto, Glenn Whitmore. (center row) Michael Eury (holding BI cupcake), John Schwirian, Ed Lute, Bryan Stroud, Wayne Brooks, Doug Zawisza, Chris Marshall, Jarrod Buttery. (back row) Jim Ford, Brian Martin, Zack Smith, Joe Norton.

Were you there? BACK ISSUE celebrated its 20th Anniversary on June 16–18, 2023 at Heroes Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Many of this magazine’s writers and contributors, past and current, gathered for a BI panel moderated by publisher John Morrow and featuring designer Rich Fowlks and editor-in-chief Michael Eury. Some of you readers attended the convention and panel as well. Many of you had supportive things to say about the magazine and about ye ed, for which I am humbled and grateful. To top it off, each of the BI contributors got an iced (is there any other kind?) cupcake, with an edible “BACK ISSUE 20 Years” logo created by the other Morrow in TwoMorrows, the wonderful Pamela Morrow.

2 • BACK ISSUE • Batmen of the 1970s

BACK ISSUE has become more than just a magazine about Bronze Age comic books. We’re a band of brothers and sisters, and our union—and some cases, reunion—at HeroesCon was a sheer delight. You’ll see that joy in our faces in the photos on this and the following page. A special thank-you to our good friends at Heroes Convention, the kind and generous hosts of BACK ISSUE’s 20th Anniversary Celebration. Photos accompanying this feature are courtesy of Jarrod Buttery, Ed Catto, Michael Eury, Chris Irving, Ed Lute, Rich Fowlks, John Morrow, and Rose Rummel-Eury.

Batmen of the 1970s • BACK ISSUE • 3

“Backseat Driver” (editorial) by Michael Eury

by M

An editor should never play favorites, suggests conventional wisdom. But Batman is a topic that always excites me—and many of you, as the increased sales of BACK ISSUE’s Batmanrelated editions have shown over the years. Yet this is no mere fan fixation on a popular character. Batman of the Bronze Age is deserving of deep and repeated study. The character had previously epitomized the wild excesses of the camp superhero age. As the ’60s gave way to the ’70s, Batman’s return to his so-called “creature of the night” status not only reinvigorated the Darknight Detective (“Darknight” was a one-word adjective at DC Comics in those days), it was part of the entire comic industry’s movement toward more realistic character interpretations. Despite the “darkening” of Batman, in the 1970s a kinder, gentler Caped Crusader could still be found on Saturday morning television and in the pages of DC’s TV spinoff title, Super Friends. Those interpretations came to us via talented writers, artists, and editors who were simply doing their jobs back in the day but whose Batman contributions inspired future storytellers, continuity, and even film adaptations. It all started in the comic books, though, whose pages we flip through with intellectual curiosity and lifelong affection. This issue, BI’s Bat-signal once again illuminates the ebon skies of Gotham City with our spotlights on a handful of artists—the Batmen of the 1970s—whose work is worthy of a more thorough

exploration than what we’ve provided in previous issues. Many writers and artists have joined us this issue to share their anecdotes about the talented titans whose sterling efforts enliven each and every page of this expanded special edition. Our cover provides a glimpse at the artwork of our Batmen of the 1970s. Each image is from the original art culled from the archives of Heritage Auctions, colored anew by Glenn Whitmore and assembled in our 100-Page Super Spectacular tribute layout courtesy of cover designer Michael Kronenberg. Art sources: Bob Brown (Detective Comics #428, page 1; Dick Giordano inks), Dick Giordano (Detective #435 cover), Frank Robbins (page 6/panel 6 of the unpublished Batman anti-drug comic that’s chronicled in this issue’s “Greatest Stories Never Told” feature), Irv Novick (Batman #221, page 3; Giordano inks), Walt Simonson (1984 Batman/Manhunter specialty illo), Alex Toth (Superman Annual #9, page 22/panel 6), Bernie Wrightson (Batman #320 cover), and Frank Miller (cover art for The Complete Frank Miller Batman vol. 1). In addition to articles about those artists’ contributions to Bat-lore, inside this issue you’ll find galleries spotlighting three other Batmen of the 1970s, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Jim Starlin, and Dick Dillin, plus Batwoman of the 1970s Ramona Fradon. In the meantime, I direct you to these previously published editions of BACK ISSUE, where you will find articles and material about many of the other Batmen of the 1970s (and 1980s):

BATMEN IN BACK ISSUE Gene Colan (BI #50) Alan Davis (BI #73) Steve Englehart (BI #51, 113) José Luis García-López (BI #50, 113) Michael Golden (BI #24, 50, 72) Alan Grant (BI #22) Mike Grell (BI #50) Bob Haney (BI #7, 66, 73, 87) Tom Mandrake (BI #50)

Frank Miller (BI #50, 73) Doug Moench (BI #72, 116, 123) Don Newton (BI #19) Denny O’Neil (BI #3, 7, 10, 50, 113, 143) David V. Reed (BI #50) Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin (BI #51, 113) Batman and related publications TM & © DC Comics.

Neal Adams (BI #3, 7, 10, 50, 143) Jim Aparo (BI #7, 50, 73) Mike W. Barr (BI #7, 50, 73, 95) Norm Breyfogle (BI #22) Rich Buckler (BI #50, 87) John Byrne (BI #50) John Calnan (BI #50) Nick Cardy (BI #7, 13) Ernie Chua (Chan) (BI #50)

ichael Eury

4 • BACK ISSUE • Batmen of the 1970s

Batmen of the 1970s:

IRV NOVICK The ‘Mark’ of Kane No More

by E d

Catto

Batman history gets rewritten all time—both the character’s backstories as well as the “truth” about creators’ contributions and visions. Comic historians love to analyze and argue about how it all happened. A simple review might summarize Batman as a character that started out as a pulpy vigilante but morphed into friendly policeman, eventually enjoying adventures with space creatures on other planets. Many fans then point to Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ efforts rebooting the Caped Crusader as a nocturnal avenger in the ’70s and Frank Miller’s grim-and-gritty ’80s reboot. A more nuanced look at it all would credit the character’s return to his pulpy roots starting in 1964 with the “Mystery of the Menacing Mask” in Detective Comics #327, which introduced Batman’s “New Look.” Artist Carmine Infantino’s visual revamp of the character was sleeker and more stylized, in direct contrast to the simpler “all-ages” look of Batman it replaced. But in January of 1966, the entertainment world changed as ABC premiered the live-action Batman TV show. The comics shifted again, and struggled to catch the lightning-in-a-bottle of the campy Adam West–starring program. Soon the bloom came off the rose. TV’s Batmania was short-lived. And then there was a yearning from fans and professionals to shift back to the “New Look” Batman that had been interrupted. And that’s the place to start analyzing artist Irv Novick, as it was here that his career intertwined with the man from Gotham City.

Blind As a Bat Writer Frank Robbins’ “Operation: Blindfold!” in Batman #204 (Aug. 1968) helped the Darknight Detective transition from Batmania-frenzied camp to a moodier atmosphere. Irv Novick, illustrator of this riveting cover, penciled his first Batman interior tale in this ish, beginning a long run on the character’s adventures. TM & © DC Comics.

Batmen of the 1970s • BACK ISSUE • 5

THE ‘REAL’ RETURN OF THE DARKNIGHT DETECTIVE

“Two things happened simultaneously in 1968 to put Irv Novick on the Bat-map,” says comics writer Mark Waid. “First, newly appointed art director Carmine Infantino was determined to shake up the company; at the time, DC had very well-defined editorial fiefdoms where editors owned their talent, and it was Carmine’s intent to break down those walls.” Infantino knew that Irv Novick would be an ideal artist that could render Batman’s adventures in a sleek, nocturnal style, yet still stay “on brand” in the waning days of the camp era. “Before 1968, Novick was pretty much held captive by war comics editor Robert Kanigher, who occasionally threw him a Wonder Woman cover or an historical adventure series like the Shining Knight or Robin Hood but would rarely allow him to stray into, say, Mort Weisinger’s or Julie Schwartz’s books,” says Waid. “Second, after 29 years, DC finally came to a new arrangement with Bob Kane where Bat-stories would no longer be produced by his studio, freeing up DC to assign other freelancers to Batman and Detective on a regular basis,” Waid explains. “Novick, then, became the first non–‘Bob Kane’ artist to draw Batman—first on covers, then on interiors beginning with issue #204’s slam-bang ‘Operation: Blindfold!’ And, boy, did he leave his mark—along with Neal Adams, Novick defined the character’s look throughout the 1970s and 1980s, bringing back the ‘Darknight Detective’ angle on the character and putting him back in the shadows where he belonged.”

Bombs Away MLJ’s (later Archie Comics) starspangled sentinel the Shield, as rendered by a young Irv Novick (inset, in an undated photo), on the cover of Pep Comics #3 (Apr. 1940). TM & © Archie Publications, Inc.

“He [Novick] also began working intermittently in advertising but that wasn’t steady so he started drawing for DC, hired by editor Robert Kanigher, who had written many of the stories he’d drawn for MLJ. Kanigher was the DC war editor, so Novick became a war artist, his work appearing in Our Army at War and all the DC combat titles, and occasionally in the romance books during the occasional periods when Kanigher worked on them. Kanigher had a reputation for being rough on artists, but he loved Novick’s work and, according to Irv, they never had a cross word in all their years of working together.” For many years, Novick drew for DC and also freelanced for Boys’ Life magazine and for the Johnstone-Cushing JUST WHO WAS IRV NOVICK? By 1968, Irv Novick was a seasoned professional with a long advertising agency. In the mid-’60s, the agency offered professional career in comics and advertising. But where did him a full-time position and he briefly left comics. Novick was unhappy in the job and he come from? Kanigher was unhappy to His career started in the lose one of his two favorite “I think Irv Novick’s work on the MLJ superheroes, the Golden Age at the Harry A. artists, Joe Kubert being Chesler shop. Novick soon imaginative layouts, character design, and storytelling the other. With Kanigher’s became one of the main artists inspired more about the language of comics than most intervention, Novick landed for MLJ’s superhero comics, realize. He was taking chances and it was fun to see. a then-unprecedented freeco-creating the very first And as he returned to comics at DC with a slick, refined lance contract with DC. It patriotic superhero (predating approach that’s most associated with him, he set the included many perks not Captain America), the Shield. standard for many who followed.” available to other artists and His other superhero work – Mike Pellerito guaranteed him the company’s included the Hangman, Steel President and Editor-in-Chief of Archie Comics, highest rate and steady work. Sterling, and Bob Phantom. which was originally called MLJ Comics When he finished one job, he Foreshadowing his ’70s had to immediately be given work, Novick, with writer Harry another. Kanigher had no Shorten, co-created the Scarlet Avenger, a pulpy hero with echoes of The Shadow and Batman. trouble keeping him busy, though other artists complained Debuting in 1940’s Zip Comics #1, millionaire/inventor Jim Kendall that assignments promised to them would sometimes be wears his green suit as he fights crime, but tops it all off with suddenly diverted to Irv. Former DC president Paul Levitz shares similar insights. a bulletproof red cape and mask. Kendall could have gone the Elon Musk route, but instead uses his electronic-propelled car in his “Carmine valued him enough that he was the only artist war against the underworld. This masked crusader also employed put on payroll with benefits in those years,” recalls Levitz. “I suppose as a necessary part of luring him from his advertising gadgets like a magnetic ray, hypnosis machine, and paralysis. By 1946, MLJ Comics would refocus on its humor titles. work (he still did some, but he may have had a staff gig The company changed its name to reflect its bestselling teen somewhere when Carmine recruited him). He was probably humor character, Archie. Superhero artist Novick left MLJ the senior comics artist working for DC in my editorial days and turned to advertising art and illustrating comic strips, (not sure if he or Jack Kirby did their pages first, and Joe Simon was editing and not drawing). Notwithstanding that, including McClure Syndicate’s soap opera strip Cynthia. Mark Evanier chronicled part of Novick’s life on his he had a thoroughly modern style, moving his camera well and composing pages imaginatively.” long-running News from ME blog (from October 15, 2004). 6 • BACK ISSUE • Batmen of the 1970s

NOVICK AND THE CAPED CRUSADER

Irv Novick technically started his long contributions to the Batman mythology penciling five issues of Teen Titans in 1967. Robin was prominently featured, although a Batman cameo would pop up occasionally. But clearly this was regular Titans artist Nick Cardy’s time to shine. Novick, being the professional that he was, seemed to consciously bend his work to the style established by Cardy. Novick formally entered Gotham City with high-profile cover duties for both Batman and Detective Comics in 1968. While his early work was still firmly ensconced in the Infantinoestablished house style, Novick turned up the volume. Novick’s covers were compelling and urgent. They were rich with story information but never felt crowded. Every Novick cover raised readers’ eyebrows in surprise or disbelief. Novick’s Batman also was featured on the cover of World’s Finest Comics #181 (Dec. 1968), but this could never be considered Novick’s finest Batman illustration. On this odd cover, riffing off the famous story “The World’s Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, Superman and Batman are frantically running away from a man with a leashed leopard. The two-part “Operation: Blindfold” in Batman #204 and 205 was a cheesy story with a convoluted plot, but Novick’s covers grabbed readers by the throat and never let go. He hadn’t quite hit his stride on the interior pages. This art was subdued by Joe Giella’s inking, but the beginning of greatness was evident. Over the next year, Novick’s interior pencils on Batman kept pushing stylistic boundaries every issue, a gradual build from the tired Batman stories of the prior years to a more dynamic and engaging version.

EMPTY-NESTING NOVICK

By the end of 1969, Batman mythology was ready to take another important step forward, and Irv Novick was there to make it come alive visually. One might argue that it all started in Batman #216 (Dec. 1969). “Angel or Devil” by writer Frank Robbins and Novick introduced readers to Alfred’s niece and brother. They are in Gotham City to perform with the Old Avon Players, a Shakespearian troupe. In reality, it turns out that they are also in town to steal an original manuscript of Romeo and Juliet from Wayne Manor. Novick’s cover art is an invigorating showcase for the Caped Crusader, crashing through a Wayne Manor window and interrupting a hooded murderess about to kill Alfred. This tale is full of action and panache. Novick presents the sleek, thoroughly modern man-about-town side of Bruce Wayne, one who is enthusiastic about a night at the theater as much as a night of crimefighting. Of note in #216: Novick illustrates Wayne Manor’s Shakespeare bust. In the Batman TV series, the bust’s head would hinge backwards to reveal a button that was used to open a secret bookcase leading into the Batcave. Here it is used to hide the Shakespeare manuscript.

Stand Back! This is a Job for Irv Novick! Starting in 1968, DC’s new art director, Carmine Infantino, wisely began utilizing Novick’s talents as a cover artist, including (top left) Wonder Woman #176 (May–June 1968) and (top right) Captain Action #1 (Oct.–Nov. 1968), the Ideal Toy tie-in comic that guest-starred the Man of Steel in its premiere issue. (bottom left) Irv once again drew Superman for the cover of World’s Finest Comics #181 (Dec. 1968), also featuring one of the artist’s earliest stabs at Batman. (bottom right) In addition to his brief stint penciling Teen Titans, for the Batman/TT team-up in The Brave and the Bold #83 (Apr.–May 1969), Novick actually trumped interior and regular series artist Neal Adams in snagging the cover berth for this startling story. All characters and titles TM & © DC Comics, except Captain Action TM & © Captain Action Enterprises.

Batmen of the 1970s • BACK ISSUE • 7

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Batmen of the 1970s:

BOB BROWN The Brown Bat

by S t e v e n

Thompson

The brown bat is an endangered species of mouse-eared microbat found in North America. From 1968 to 1973, the Brown Bat was also a fairly realistic version of Batman that has rarely been seen since. Along with Irv Novick and Jim Aparo, veteran comic-book artist Bob Brown was one of the main Batman illustrators of that period, and yet all anyone tends to remember these days is the flashier, now-iconic pencils of Neal Adams, often paired with inker Dick Giordano.

FROM SHOW BIZ TO GOTHAM CITY

‘Two Titans’? In this case, it’s penciler Bob Brown and inker Dick Giordano— although writer Frank Robbins was pretty titanic, too! Courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com), original art to the splash page of Detective Comics #428 (Oct. 1972), from which this issue’s cover blurb for Bob Brown was taken. TM & © DC Comics.

Who was Bob Brown? Born in Syracuse, New York, in 1915 to showbiz parents, he and his younger brother and sister followed in the family tradition from an early age, performing as a song-and-dance team for years. In time, he went solo as a dancer and even earned a successful screen test at 20th Century Fox. Any plans he may have had to become a movie chorus boy were scuttled when his number came up in the draft at the age of 25. At that point, he enlisted so as to join the Army Air Corps. Over time, Bob survived 35 combat missions over Japan, earning multiple medals and commendations along the way. After the war, his interests turned to art and he attended the Hartford Art School and the Rhode Island School of Design on the generous GI Bill. He worked at first for an ad agency, but by that point comic books had become a major publishing industry and new artists were constantly needed. Brown contributed artwork to publishers Fox and Timely before being recalled to duty as a captain in the Reserves. At that time, he served in Newfoundland with the 52nd Air Rescue Squadron. Then, as he himself put it, it was “back to the ol’ drawing board.” Brown’s first regular gig was drawing DC’s popular “Vigilante” stories in Action Comics. He guided Vig for 33 issues beginning in late 1950. He would later take over DC’s Revolutionary War–era frontiersman title, Tomahawk. In between, Bob also drew the entirety of the first issue of the long-running Rawhide Kid title for Atlas (Marvel). By the time he arrived in Detective in 1968, I had already been a fan of Brown’s work for several years, first discovering him as the artist on the coverless Challengers of the Unknown comic books mixed in with all the Blackhawk issues at the barbershop where I got my hair cut every two weeks in the mid-’60s. He was still drawing the new Challengers of the Unknown issues at that time, as well, and I started buying them. Superboy was an early favorite of mine, so I was glad when he started drawing it, too, especially in issues inked by Wallace Wood! I have only ever owned two pages of Batmen of the 1970s • BACK ISSUE • 19

original comic-book art and one of them was a Superboy page cowl in others. He makes the cape awfully short as well. by Brown and Wood. [Editor’s note: Check out BACK ISSUE #142 The issue’s ludicrous plot has Batman staging an unnecessarily for more info about Brown’s Superboy art.] elaborate hoax to ensnare a snake-like supervillain called As far as the Caped Crusader goes, I was having a love/hate Copperhead. Our hero arranges for both Wonder Woman relationship with Batman comics in the late 1960s. Drawn to them and Batgirl to show up, loudly and publicly proclaiming their like so many others a couple of years earlier during the phenom- undying love for him. Wonder Woman flies in under her on enon that was Batmania, I couldn’t help feel the old baitpower—no invisible plane needed—while Batgirl flies in and-switch when we got a gorgeously drawn cover via her personal mini-Batplane (??). The plan backby, say, Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson, or Carmine fires when both women really do fall for him and Infantino and Joe Giella, only to have the insides hilarity—almost lethal at times—ensues. be by “Bob Kane.” Even then, I suspected some It’s a cringe-worthy story, really, as well as an chicanery as what we now know as Chic Stone’s inauspicious debut for Bob on Batman. But things Batman didn’t look like Sheldon Moldoff’s were about to quickly change. Just a month or Batman or Frank Springer’s Batman and none so later, Detective Comics #378 (Aug. 1968) saw of them looked the least bit like Dick Sprang’s the debut of Frank Robbins as writer of Batman, Batman in the 80-Page Giants. and with him debuted what would be—with a In 1968, though, DC was going through some few switch-outs on the inker at times—his new big changes, one of which was that instead regular art team, Bob Brown and Joe Giella. of the generic “Bob Kane” credit, editor Julius Robbins was new at DC, although he had Schwartz began regularly crediting the actual been in the comics business almost since it bejoe giella artists and writers on Batman stories, beginning gan. Mainly, he was known for the dynamic writ© Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. with Frank Robbins—newly hired from the ing and art on the long-running, Milton Caniff– newspaper strips—and artist Bob Brown. inspired newspaper aviation strip Johnny Hazard. He continued Brown’s initial take on Batman actually came in The Brave on Hazard even as he started tentatively at DC writing Lois Lane and the Bold (B&B) #78 (June–July 1968) when he both penciled and The Flash, then settled in for his acclaimed regular runs on and inked a typically wacky Bob Haney story, “In the Coils of both Superboy and Batman. the Copperhead.” Although undoubtedly familiar with the One should definitely not underestimate the importance of character, it’s clear that the artist had trouble drawing Batman’s inker Joe Giella to the Robbins/Brown team. Whatever flaws face, with too much nose showing in some shots and too much Brown had in drawing Batman only months before were nowhere in evidence in that first Robbins story. This is undoubtedly due to Giella, whose precise and assured inks helped define and tame the so-called “New Look” Batman drawn by Infantino earlier in the decade. Away from comics, Bob Kane himself reportedly even used Giella as a ghost artist. Brown, like the Sponge Man character he had co-created (with Batman co-creator Bill Finger) a few years earlier in Challengers of the Unknown, seemed to quickly soak up everything he needed to learn about the Dynamic Duo and was almost immediately on top of things.

MOVING AWAY FROM CAMP

The Robbins/Brown stories began to appear just as the classic, campy 1966 TV series was ending, and as such they at first fell somewhat in between the goofy and the Darknight Detective era soon to explode via Neal Adams. Looking at Brown’s stories now as a group, they represent a period that modern readers are unlikely to ever see again, as a very human, smart, and clearly sane Batman solves actual crimes in his beloved Gotham City rather than being entangled in massive, months-long, and increasingly convoluted “events.”

Brown Gets Around (main) Bob Brown art on a Don Rico–written Marvel oater page from Rawhide Kid #1 (Mar. 1955). (inset) Brown’s Challengers of the Unknown covers and interiors, bridging the artist’s flair for adventure strips with a superhero flavor, paved the way for Bob’s eventual transition to Batman. Cover to CotU #53 (Dec. 1966–Jan. 1967). Rawhide Kid TM & © Marvel. Challengers of the Unknown TM & © DC Comics.

20 • BACK ISSUE • Batmen of the 1970s

In the Coils of Camp Bob Haney’s zany Batman/Wonder Woman/ Batgirl team-up in The Brave and the Bold #78 (June–July 1968) uncharacteristically portrayed the heroines as ga-ga over the dreamy Darknight Detective… but in addition to introducing the venomous Copperhead, the issue also heralded Bob Brown’s first Batman art. (Neal Adams would begin working his gothic magic on Batman in the very next issue, the legendary Batman/Deadman team-up in B&B #79.) TM & © DC Comics.

There was only one Batman and one Robin in those days, and each month they faced a new mystery, new danger, and new challenges for their detective minds. And in the case of the Robbins/ Brown stories, most of which held the lead feature in Detective Comics, it was all usually wrapped up in 15 pages or less (with a Batgirl or Robin solo story rounding out the issue!). Well, not the first Brown Bat-story. It was actually a two-parter. Part One appeared under a signed Irv Novick cover in Detective Comics #378 (Aug. 1968). “Batman Drop Dead…Twice” starts out as a generation gap drama (a running theme in early Robbins Batman stories) paralleling the predicaments of Dick Grayson and a teenage hoodlum as they both run away and end up rooming together in a cheap hotel. Turns out the other kid, Chino, has a plan to get in good with mobsters by disguising Dick as the Boy Wonder so he can bait and kill Batman. The story finishes up in Detective #379 (Sept. 1968), with “Two Killings for the Price of One,” which features loyal butler Alfred disguised as Batman in one scene. Keeping in mind that the last new episode of the Adam West Batman TV series had just aired in March, and the show was still in reruns as these first Robbins/Brown issues appeared, it’s natural that a bit of TV camp such as that was still hanging on, but that would soon change. Not by the following month, though, in which we have a young woman claiming to be Mrs. Bruce Wayne show up at stately Wayne Manor one morning. Robbins, who apparently wrote full scripts for his artists rather than what’s come to be known as the Marvel Method, generally had quite clever and exciting stories, with good characterization, and opportunities for Brown to draw the Dynamic Duo in both action and repose. One unfortunate exception is “The Fortune Cookie Caper” in Detective Comics #383 (Jan. 1969), with its orangecolored Asians and variations on the politically incorrect “Engrish,” Robbins seemed to be having so much fun with in his now-infamous, two-part Flash story set in Japan. That said, the story presents a lovely double-page, excitingly laid-out fight scene that Brown draws with only six large panels.

Robbins wasn’t the only new writer at DC either. Over-hyped “events” in comic books are all too common these days but were actually rare until the 1970s. In 1969, though, Bob Brown was involved with a genuine “I’m glad you’re highlighting event—Batman’s 30th anniversary Bob’s work in BACK ISSUE. issue of Detective Comics, #387 (May 1969). Under yet another Novick The attention is well-decover, the task of drawing the anserved.” niversary story within fell to Brown, – Mike Friedrich and this time he was not teamed with Former Batman writer his usual Batman collaborator. and creator of Star*Reach Mike Friedrich (called “DC’s current teenage rage”) was one of the younger writers DC had started to bring in after decades of the same aging creators. Mike tells BACK ISSUE, “This story was very early in my career. I seem to remember that editor Julius Schwartz and I discussed the Batmen of the 1970s • BACK ISSUE • 21

Bad Day for Batgirl Brown circled back to DC in 1976, but unfortunately for a short while as he passed away in January 1977. His final contribution to the Bat-mythos was his cover (and interior art) for the “Batgirl” feature in Batman Family #10 (Mar.–Apr. 1977).

“Those were wonderful, welldrawn comics that I really enjoyed. I didn’t give these guys [like Brown] enough credit for the solid work they did at the time.” – Dan Riba Director for Batman: The Animated Series and other DCU animated films and series

TM & © DC Comics.

with me because I did these plots. They didn’t have to co-plot the stories, which saved them time when they drew them.” According to writer and comics historian Mark Evanier, Bob’s work at Marvel was regarded as old-fashioned. “It wasn’t so much that Brown couldn’t take a more modern approach to his work as that he just plain didn’t understand what that meant. Editors kept showing him the work of new artists, he told me. They’d say, ‘This is what we want now,’ but Brown couldn’t grasp just what it was he was supposed to learn from the examples, which often struck him as displaying weak anatomy, poor perspective, and other fundamental errors. It was almost like they were telling him that, ‘Kids relate to crude artwork,’ and he knew it wasn’t that.” After a few years, Bob Brown returned to DC. The artist’s final take on anything Bat-related came in Batman Family #10 (Mar.–Apr. 1977). It’s a 17-page Batgirl story entitled “Those Were the Bad Old Days” and billed as “her first full-length adventure.” At this time, Barbara Gordon was a sitting member of Congress who still somehow managed to slip away to become Batgirl on a regular basis. In Bob Rozakis’ fun story, she sneaks away to fight the Cavalier and her own old enemy, from her “million-dollar debut” a decade earlier, Killer Moth. The most interesting thing about this story, though, is that it brings Batwoman— Kathy Kane—out of retirement. Alas, Brown’s top-notch pencils are herein hampered by a decidedly lackluster inking job from Vince Colletta. Sadly, that Batgirl story came out around the time of the artist’s death at age 61 from leukemia in January 1977. At that time, he had been slated to become the new regular Wonder Woman artist (also along with Vince Colletta), but was only able to complete a single issue, Wonder Woman #231 (May 1977), before taking ill. Although Brown was already gone by the time the following issue hit the stands, lag time being what it is in publishing, that comic’s letters column erroneously pointed out that he was well on his way toward recovery from an illness that had hospitalized him. Tony Isabella again: “As brilliant as Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams could be, I think credit for the revival of Batman around this time should also go to writer Frank Robbins, editor Julius Schwartz, and artists Bob Brown and Irv Novick.” By all accounts, Bob Brown was a wellrespected artist among his peers and a genuinely nice human. His artwork is deceptively simple, but in the end always leaves its mark. It’s tough to find comic-book artists like that these days. This Brown Bat is long extinct. STEVEN THOMPSON has been writing about comics, movies, TV, and radio since 1988. He has worked in various capacities on more than 150 books and magazines to date. He currently writes a regular column in TwoMorrows’ Comic Book Creator and maintains multiple blogs online.

26 • BACK ISSUE • Batmen of the 1970s

Batmen of the 1970s:

FRANK ROBBINS Batman and Robbins

by B r i a n

Martin

Frank Robbins was a seasoned comic-strip veteran when he arrived in Gotham City. Born in 1917 in Boston, Massachusetts, writer-artist Robbins took over the Scorchy Smith comic strip in 1939, and then created a panel play of his own, Johnny Hazard, in 1944. Robbins would continue to produce that feature until its demise in 1977. Near the end of the 1960s, interest in adventure strips had begun to wane, so Robbins came calling at DC Comics looking for work. Initially writing for the Superman titles, it did not take long for Robbins to transition over to writing tales of the Darknight Detective.

ANYONE FOR TENNIS?

No Gentleman, This Ghost Chains can’t stop the Spook—one of the Bat-villains created by writer Frank Robbins—from closing in on the Gotham Guardian. Detail from the cover art for Detective Comics #434 (Apr. 1973), by illustrator Michael Wm. Kaluta. TM & © DC Comics.

Before we get to the main thrust of this article, let’s deal with the elephant in the room. “Heck, Batman looked like a joke. Worse since, sheesh, can’t remember.” “I personally hope to see a Robbins-illustrated story every few months.” “In almost every picture, Batman looks as if he has spent the day greasing the Batmobile.” “And the art—wow! Supreme!” “The unfortunate part of the story was that Robbins attempted to illustrate it.” “Let Frank Robbins have the script and art permanently!“ “It stinx!” Robbins—never short on the liberal application of black ink—drew only five Batman stories, all in Detective Comics, beginning with #416 (Oct. 1971)—then #420 (Feb. 1972), 421 (Mar. 1972), 426 (Aug. 1972), and 429 (Nov. 1972), for those keeping score at home—but as you can see from the above quotes from actual letters pages, the fan reaction to Robbins’ Bat-art was… intense, to say the least. Every story he illustrated garnered these sorts of reactions. And it didn’t stop with Batman. Leaving DC not long after chronicling his last Caped Crusader tale in 1974, Robbins moved to Marvel, where he drew a stint on Captain America. Beginning with issue #182 (Feb. 1975), he would pencil nine of the next 11 issues. The author of most of those tales, Steve Englehart, tells BI, “I loved Frank’s art when I was a reader. When he did Batman, or Man-Bat, I accepted it for what it was, and didn’t worry how he stacked up against Neal Adams or Gil Kane.

Batmen of the 1970s • BACK ISSUE • 27

Where Do You Stand? Bronze Age DC readers either loved or hated Frank Robbins’ Batman artwork. (left) On the splash page for Detective Comics #416 (Oct. 1971), the writer/artist pits his co-creation, Man-Bat, against the Caped Crusader for a return bout. (right) Batman’s last will and testament? Robbins’ harrowing splash to his “Killer’s Roulette!” tale from Detective #426 (Aug. 1972). TM & © DC Comics.

“But when he took over Captain America, he replaced Sal Buscema, who’d been the only Cap artist for several years—and he did it in the middle of the Nomad arc, so it was definitely not a clean transition. As a writer, I powered through, keeping the story as involving as I could make it, and hoped that would carry people along. But the readers definitely noticed, and most of them were not thrilled. I would say it was the glaring difference between him and Sal that led to that, and not so much his actual art. It was a no-win situation for him.” [Editor’s note: Sterling Steve is referring to the classic Captain America story arc where Cap, disillusioned over US politics, relinquished his star-spangled uniform for a new crimefighting identity as Nomad. See BI #20 for our coverage.] Robbins’ next major series was the Roy Thomas–written The steve englehart Invaders [see BI #37—ed.], which he penciled from the first issue, Giant-Size Invaders #1 (June 1975), then most issues of the Invaders series that followed until #28 (May 1978). “Prior to Invaders, I was only minimally aware of Robbins’ work on Johnny Hazard and Batman,” Thomas himself reveals. “I thought he had an interesting style, but it was rather quirky. “When Marvel’s editor-in-chief pushed Robbins at me as the penciler of The Invaders, I was a bit skeptical,” Thomas continues. “But I was told he knew the WWII period and would be an asset, and [Marvel art director] John Romita, Sr. was a big fan of his Hazard work… so I didn’t fight it. However, I felt he would need a somewhat different look in order to meet with approval from Marvel’s readers, so I got Vince Colletta to ink him, with instructions to make Robbins fit a bit better with the Marvel mainstream. Frank never complained to me that I can recall. As soon as Vinnie quit to go to DC and I put on Frank Springer, an inker roy thomas who made Robbins look more like Robbins, the sales declined.” Frank Robbins’ style was certainly different than the other artists Super Festivals. handling Batman at the time. Making it even more distinctive was the fact that he inked all of his Detective work. Love them or loathe them, there was no missing the few stories Robbins illustrated.

28 • BACK ISSUE • Batmen of the 1970s

THE SECRET SOCIETY OF NOT-SOSUPER VILLAINS

When he wasn’t applying his controversial pencil and brush to those few aforementioned Batman tales, Frank Robbins was writing many other Bat-stories for editor Julius Schwartz, where he peppered Gotham City with his own brand of reprobate to plague the Darknight Detective. Robbins wrote his first tale featuring the Caped Crusader and the Boy-almost-Teen Wonder in Batman #204 (Aug. 1968). In this tale, which continued over into the next issue, the Dynamic Duo face off against a criminal mastermind known as the Schemer. In short order, Robbins penned tales would pit our heroes against the Planner (Batman #206), the Mastermind (Detective #381), the Armorer (Detective #382), and the Masquerader (Detective #390). These were all villains of a cerebral persuasion that had no super powers, though the Masquerader did sport a costume. True, most of Batman’s famous foes do not possess additional abilities, but they all have distinctive costumes, weapons, and MOs. For the majority of the stories he wrote, Robbins’ villains had none of these, and a number were in the similar vein of criminal schemers. Robbins’ first use of Batman’s traditional Rogues’ Gallery was the recently created Mr. Esper (from 1966’s Detective #352), who he pitted against our heroes in Batman #209 (Feb. 1969), though he did not sport colorful attire. Immediately after, in the next issue, Robbins makes a rare concession to the iconic Batman foes with an appearance by Catwoman, though she was slightly changed, using a new costume of Robbins’ design that would not last long. The tale does not quite qualify as white-knuckled suspense as Selina Kyle takes a group of recently paroled women and outfits them to look just like her while purring with multiple rolled “R”s as often as possible. The Scarecrow rustles back to life in Detective Comics #389 (July 1969). Supposedly reformed, his scheme involves everyone being deathly afraid of the sight of Batman, including the Caped Crusader himself when he sees his reflection! In Robbins’ final Batman tale, in Batman #254 (Jan.–Feb. 1974), the Getaway Genius (introduced in 1965’s Batman #170) is the featured felon. Robbins also used…. well, actually, that was it! There may be a couple of reasons for the dearth of iconic villains. First of all, as moves were made to return Batman to his darker roots, most of the stories Robbins created were at least tangentially mystery stories, and bright, bold villains may have been perceived as flying against that theme. Then there was the 1966–1968 Batman TV series. Robbins began his Bat-scripting when that one-time television smash was ending and as DC was trying to distance itself from the show’s campy tone. Since one of the most remembered aspects of the show was over-the-top portrayal of the villains, those characters’ near exclusion from the Batman comics of the time was probably not an oversight.

YOU MADE ME!

We would be remiss if we did not examine the villains that were created during Robbins’ tenure, including such memorable adversaries as the Spook! Introduced in Detective #434 (Apr. 1973), the Spook sported a full-length shroud, complete with cowl. He could escape any jail and sold crooks “insurance,” saying he would free them if they were incarcerated. Appearing in multiple Batman stories written by Robbins, the Spook would do his best to maintain an air of mystery, at one point convincing the forces of law and order that he had died years before in the electric chair. The cowled cad would appear quite often even after Robbins left Gotham. Then we have…. um…. the Ten-Eyed Man. Yes, the villain who lost sight in his eyes, but gained it in the tips of his fingers. Now, don’t laugh! When Bats realizes that he has inadvertently allowed the villain to escape, he laments that he has unleashed “the most dangerous man alive” on Gotham! Debuting in

Go Down Gambling Robbins’ Batman in original art form: page 7 from Detective #426. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. TM & © DC Comics.

Batmen of the 1970s • BACK ISSUE • 29

The Versatile Bat-scribe (left) Robbins’ use of the Caped Crusader’s sleuthing skills paved the way for Irv Novick’s mysterious cover for Batman #212 (June 1969), which included a rare (for the day) cover appearance of Commissioner Gordon. (right) Robbins’ Ten-Eyed Man made his second appearance in Batman #231 (May 1971). Cover by Adams. TM & © DC Comics.

sports and engaging in dangerous activities in order to write about them. He soon asks to meet Bats so he can masquerade as him for a night and write about the experience. After some sparring, Batman lets him!

story is examined in depth in this issue’s Giordano article. But its basic premise shows that Robbins was aware of the character’s diametrically opposite effect on the criminal element.

A NATURAL THING

Aside from his general handling of the Darknight Detective and his contributions to the character’s transformation into THE Batman, Robbins had a little quirk that has always kind of bothered me. His Batman seemed to get knocked around, or even knocked out, an inordinate amount of the time… frequently by less-thanstellar opposition! By my far-from-official count, in 19 of the 66 Bat-stories written by Robbins, Batman is knocked out, trapped, or foiled by this type of opponent. Robbins’ Batman also makes silly errors such as kicking over a trash can at an inopportune time, bringing in the wrong crook while forgetting to gather evidence, and, as mentioned, leaving the tag on his costume! Other Bat-writers around this time, O’Neil in particular, revealed a Darknight Detective who did sometimes fall prey to ordinary criminals and their traps, but it did not happen with the frequency that it did when Robbins was at the typewriter. Nevertheless, Frank Robbins’ role in the Bronze Age evolution of the Batman should be given its proper due. His depiction was usually as dramatic as that of the other creators of the time, and he crafted some darn fine tales of our favorite Gotham City resident. In fact, tracing Robbins’ stories from start to finish would probably give the inexperienced reader quite an accurate portrait of how Batman progressed from the campy Caped Crusader to the grim Dark Knight.

The nature of the Batman sometimes lends the character to stories with a supernatural twist; writer Denny O’Neil’s “The Secret of the Waiting Graves” (Detective #395) and “Ghost of the Killer Skies” (Detective #404) are prime examples. While Robbins’ stories occasionally stretched the limits of credibility, they mentioned the occult only in passing. Michael Kaluta’s creepy cover to Detective #427 (Sept. 1972), with a cackling marionette holding a smoking gun over Batman’s sprawled body, previews Robbins’ tense page-turner inside. This tale and Batman #236’s (July 1973) “Wail of the Ghost-Bride!” are the only times the supernatural crept into a Robbins script. Throughout his tenure as a Bat-scribe, Robbins would work into tales such elements as Batman’s photographic memory, his propensity for preparing himself for any eventuality as he approached a confrontation with that issue’s adversary, and his desire to seek out and solve mysteries rather than just become involved in them when they were presented to him. Bruce Wayne, on the other hand, settled into his playboy image, though Robbins did not use Batman’s alter ego very often. It took Robbins a long time to adopt the trope of Batman’s visual presence striking fear into the hearts of criminals. In most of his stories, the various miscreants were more than willing to fight back when first confronted by the dark, cloaked figure. After all is said and done, Robbins’ best Batman story— maybe his most perceptive use of the character, and one of this writer’s favorite Batman stories—is the third story in Batman #250. “The Batman Nobody Knows!” is a deceptively simple piece in which Bruce Wayne is on a camping trip with a trio of city kids who each have their own impression of what the mysterious Batman looks like. Drawn by Dick Giordano, the 32 • BACK ISSUE • Batmen of the 1970s

SEMI-TOUGH

The writer would like to thank Steve Englehart, Michael Eury, Roy Thomas, and John Wells for their assistance in preparing this article. BRIAN MARTIN is an office manager from Oakville, Ontario, Canada, who has, strangely, never fantasized about being the Ten-Eyed Man.

Just Say No! by E

d Lute

Years before US First Lady Nancy Reagan made that anti-drug motto a cultural catchphrase, the Caped Crusader took a stand against the illegal drug trade in an unpublished comic book story written by Denny O’Neil and illustrated by Frank Robbins. TM & © DC Comics.

In 1971, Marvel Comics and DC Comics both released groundbreaking and memorable anti-drug storylines in The Amazing Spider-Man #96–98 and Green Lantern #85–86, respectively. These were landmark issues in comic-book history because they employed comic storytelling to warn about the dangers of drug use. The depiction of drug use, whether portrayed as recreational or not, was taboo in comics of the era under the enforcement of the Comics Code Authority. As such, these were novel, daring stories that not only warned readers about the dangers of drugs but also helped the CCA transition toward accepting such subject matter. There was an additional comic book that might have had just as important an impact in discouraging readers from this horrible epidemic. It was a ten-page anti-drug story featuring two of DC’s premier superheroes, Batman and Robin, produced for a planned 1974 DC anti-drug comic book that failed to be published. It had art by Frank Robbins, one of this issue’s spotlighted Batmen of the 1970s, and was written by Denny O’Neil, no stranger to this magazine’s pages. BACK ISSUE spotlights the unpublished tale itself and supposes what might have been if this story had reached Bronze Age readers’ hands.

RIDDLE ME THIS: WHAT IS GOTHAM CITY’S DEADLIEST ENEMY?

“It stalks the streets of Gotham City… an enemy so quiet, so deadly, that no man can come to grips with it,” reads the splash page of the unpublished Batman story titled “The Deadliest Enemy of Gotham City!” With an opening and title like that, you’d probably think that the Joker, Riddler, or Penguin was facing off against the Caped Crusader. However, Gotham City was going to encounter a more lethal menace than those from

Batman’s legendary Rogues’ Gallery. Batman’s burg is in the grip of an actual danger that real towns and cities across the USA and world were facing (and continue to face)—illegal drugs, and their devastating effects. The story starts with Hudson University student Dick Grayson interviewing high school students on a college-recruitment effort. Some of the students are acting strangely. To find out why, Dick changes into the colorful garb of his alter ego, Robin, the Teen Wonder, and tails a student named Pete Montesi. He discovers that Pete is not only addicted to drugs, but there is a turf war brewing between Pete’s supplier, Jack Martin, and a rival dealer, Mickey Whalen. Robin recognizes Jack as someone that he, as Dick, tried to recruit for college earlier that day. Robin is about to step in to stop what looks to be a major tussle when Batman, his crimefighting partner, swoops in before things get started. When Robin questions why Batman was fighting small-time drug dealers instead of bigger threats, the Caped Crusader replies, “I’ll fight anything that does the kind of damage that drugs do... the kind that leaves lives smoldering ruins. I want a world full of people... not zombies!” With those words, Batman informs readers of the damage that drugs can do, not only to a single person, but to society as a whole. The Darknight Detective fights to stop the drug suppliers and helps Jack to see that dealing drugs is wrong, and that he has been used by his supplier, who didn’t care about him. As the story ends, Jack hopes that it wasn’t too late for him to change his life for the better by attending Hudson U. Although “The Deadliest Enemy of Gotham City!” was at times preachy in its message, it did not overdo it, speaking to the readers instead of speaking down to them. It was also a realistic take on how suppliers use young adults to get their products onto the streets and hook people. Batmen of the 1970s • BACK ISSUE • 33

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Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

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MEN WITHOUT FEAR, featuring Daredevil’s swinging ’70s adventures! Plus: Challengers of the Unknown in the Bronze Age, JEPH LOEB interview about his Challs and DD projects with TIM SALE, Sinestro and Mr. Fear histories, superheroes with disabilities, and... Who Is Hal Jordan? Featuring CONWAY, ENGLEHART, McKENZIE, ROZAKIS, STATON, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, & more! GENE COLAN cover!

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Batmen of the 1970s:

DICK GIORDANO Changing Batman, One Comic At a Time

by M i c h a e l

Eury

Flip through the significant Batman stories of the 1970s and early 1980s, and chances are Dick Giordano was involved, in some fashion. One of comicdom’s most beloved creators, Richard Joseph Giordano (1932–2010) received encouragement to draw by his mother, “Pina,” an amateur illustrator herself. By the early 1950s, Dick had broken into the comics field as an artist, sometimes using a “Richi” (no “e” at the end) Giordano byline. He found no end of penciling and inking work at Charlton Comics, the all-in-one publisher that handled every aspect of production— including printing—under a single roof in Derby, Connecticut. There, Dick drew hot rod, romance, and Western comics, their stories’ realistic settings and characters helping the young illustrator hone his talents. On these projects, Dick particularly developed a flair for drawing automobiles and beautiful women. He was a Charlton editor by the mid-1960s, overseeing the company’s line of “Action Heroes” (Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, the Question, and other characters later acquired by DC Comics). Giordano jumped ship to DC’s editorial department in the late 1960s, and from Charlton brought with him several influential creators, namely writers Denny O’Neil and Steve Skeates, and artists Steve Ditko and Jim Aparo. In the 1970s, Giordano—either as a freelance artist or through his affiliations with Continuity Associates or his own company, Dik-Art—inked and occasionally penciled hundreds of pages and covers for several publishers, mainly DC, mentoring numerous up-andcomers who quickly graduated from assisting Dick on his inking assignments to work of their own. Advertising, merchandising, movie posters, book covers, and custom comic assignments were also commonplace for Dick. And many of those assignments involved Batman… Which is where we begin our story.

‘There Is No Hope in Crime Alley!’ Dick Giordano’s iconic cover for Detective Comics #457 (Mar. 1976). Thank you and good afternoon, it doesn’t get any better than this. TM & © DC Comics.

Batmen of the 1970s • BACK ISSUE • 39

DICK GIORDANO, BATMAN INKER

Let’s start with what you probably already know: Dick Giordano was one of the (if not the) chief Batman inkers of the early Bronze Age. Neal Adams may be heralded (and rightly so) for his role in returning Batman to his gothic roots, but many of Adams’ now-classic stories were inked by Giordano. Dick’s artistry not only complemented Neal’s (“That almost looks like I did it,” Adams commented about Dick’s inking), it also helped Neal’s work reach completion on deadline. Batman editor Julius “Julie” Schwartz regularly tapped Giordano to ink the other Bat-artists in his stable, including Irv Novick and Bob Brown, also spotlighted in this issue. “Julie would often call me and ask if I had enough work,” Giordano remembered. This provided a consistent look to the pencilers’ work, not unlike Schwartz’s similar use of Joe Giella to ink several different Batman pencilers of the 1960s.

Dick almost always brought out the best in these and other artists he delineated. He was a master of “spotting blacks”—that is, selecting the areas in line art to become solid black. His facility with blacks appropriately cloaked the Darknight Detective in nightfall, no matter who penciled the story. Former Giordano assistant and background inker Terry Austin tells BACK ISSUE, “Dick was the gold standard for the portrayal of Batman, as far as the powers-that-be at DC were concerned. He penciled and/or inked all the Batman style guides and merchandising because they knew that Dick would do fixes to make sure that Batman was always the same visually from project to project, regardless of the penciler.” “Dick did what Dick did,” notes one-time Giordano assistant Joe Rubinstein. “He brought power and elegance to the line, and because he drew so well he would help that along as well. I don’t think he did it any differently on Batman that he did any other book, though I’m sure he enjoyed the heavy blacks in the long-cape brushwork.” Former DC publisher Jenette Kahn reflected of Giordano’s reputation, “No one makes your pencils look better, an artist would say.”

DICK GIORDANO, BATMAN ARTIST

But Dick Giordano was no stranger to solo Batman art, from covers to the occasional interior story. Terry Austin, who was hired by Giordano in the late summer/early fall of 1974 to begin a threeyear stint as Dick’s background inker and assistant, tells BI, “I thought that Dick’s pencils were a cut above those of Irv Novick, Bob Brown, Dick Dillin, and even the layouts by John Buscema that seemed to be the standard fare we were inking at the time, so I obviously wanted to do a good job for him on the projects that were personal enough for him to pencil, such as Dracula, the Elongated Man, Stephanie Starr, and yes, Batman.” Let’s take a closer look at a handful of Dick’s Batman contributions as a penciler/inker. The first time his Batman art really caught my then-much-younger eye was the cover of Batman #247 (Feb. 1973), the Christmas 1972 edition. It was the type of cover you’d expect from editor Schwartz’s office, a grab-ya-by-the-throat “How’s he gonna escape from this?” shocker. In this case, it’s a bomber threatening Gotham City on New Year’s Eve, lording over the captive Batman, who’s tied to the “Happy Deadly New Year!” ball that’s being dropped over the town square.

Nice Day for a Fright Wedding Before we deep-dive into Dick Giordano’s Batman solo art, let’s take a moment to marvel at his inking of Neal Adams. A shocking She-Bat reveal from Detective Comics #407’s (Jan. 1971) “Marriage: Impossible.” Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Comics.

40 • BACK ISSUE • Batmen of the 1970s

Giordano’s cover composition here is extraordinary. The ball with the bomber and Batman hurtles downward, jutting into the image area from the upper right and almost tricking the eye into feeling movement. For the background, Dick pulls back the “camera” to reveal the panicked populace below, stunned by the dangerous scenario playing out overhead. Framing the frenetic scene are skyscrapers whose perfectly rendered perspective further ratchets up the excitement by conveying the dizzying height from which Batman is falling. Topping it off, to the lower left of the image is a “DG” signature with the “G” inside the “D,” a Giordano trademark of the time and a signature I’d learn to look for in the future. softer, more accessible, than Neal’s interpretation. The interiors of the issue are a Giordano tour de Dick’s Batman could eerily brood in the backforce. Dick inks Irv Novick on #247’s lead ground shadows, but comfortably step tale, “Merry Christmas,” writer Denny forward into the light when needed. O’Neil’s six-page crime story where “For me, Dick’s interpretation of a “Christmas star” provides Batman Batman seemed a little more human with a timely assist. Giordano next and approachable than some of slides into the role of full illustrathe other artists of the same time tor—pencils and inks—for O’Neil’s period,” agrees Terry Austin. “I continuation that follows, “…and could envision myself going up a Deadly New Year!” This 17.5to Dick’s Batman if I was in a jam, page tells the full story of the issue’s whereas I would have been way captivating cover image. Giordano’s too intimidated to approach Neal’s concise storytelling and crisp Batman and ask him for directions renderings make this a riveting to the nearest subway (or even terry austin page-turner. Dick mimics a few the nearest Subway)…” of Neal Adams’ Batman poses, “Once Neal was out of the keeping the Caped Crusader tethpicture, [Dick] definitely brought his own ered to the house style of the day. But Giordano’s flair, melding Neal’s dynamism with his own Batman isn’t quite Adams’ Batman, nor is it Adams long-standing dramatic storytelling approach,” and Giordano’s Batman. Dick’s Batman seems observes comics writer Mark Waid, who, as a DC

Having a Ball (left) A New Year’s Eve nightmare for our hero on Giordano’s engrossing cover for Batman #247 (Feb. 1973). (right) Dick’s mastery of blacks made him perfect for the shadowy version of Batman popularized by his partner, Neal Adams. From Batman #247. TM & © DC Comics.

Batmen of the 1970s • BACK ISSUE • 41

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THE BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S

MAINLINE COMICS

by JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY Introduction by JOHN MORROW

In 1954, industry legends JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY founded MAINLINE PUBLICATIONS to publish their own comics during that turbulent era in comics history. The four titles—BULLSEYE, FOXHOLE, POLICE TRAP, and IN LOVE—looked to build off their reputation as hit makers in the Western, War, Crime, and Romance genres, but the 1950s backlash against comics killed any chance at success, and Mainline closed its doors just two years later. For the first time, TwoMorrows Publishing is compiling the best of Simon & Kirby’s Mainline comics work, including all of the stories with S&K art, as well as key tales with contributions by MORT MESKIN and others. After the company’s dissolution, their partnership ended with Simon leaving comics for advertising, and Kirby taking unused Mainline concepts to both DC and Marvel. This collection bridges the gap between Simon & Kirby’s peak with their 1950s romance comics, and the lows that led to Kirby’s resurgence with CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN and the early MARVEL UNIVERSE. With loving art restoration by CHRIS FAMA, and an historical overview by JOHN MORROW to put it all into perspective, the BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S MAINLINE COMICS presents some of the final, and finest, work Joe and Jack ever produced. NOW SHIPPING! (256-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $49.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-118-9

ACIFIC COMICS P COMPANION

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Author STEPHAN FRIEDT shares the story of the meteoric rise of the Schanes brothers’ California-based imprint PACIFIC COMICS, which published such legends as JACK KIRBY, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, STEVE DITKO, NEAL ADAMS, MIKE GRELL, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and DAVE STEVENS. From its groundbreaking 1981 arrival in the fledgling direct sales market, to a catastrophic, precipitous fall after only four years, THE PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION reveals the inside saga, as told to Friedt by BILL AND STEVE SCHANES, DAVID SCROGGY, and many of the creators themselves. It also focuses on the titles and the amazing array of characters they introduced to an unsuspecting world, including THE ROCKETEER, CAPTAIN VICTORY, MS. MYSTIC, GROO THE WANDERER, STARSLAYER, and many more. Written with the editorial assist of Eisner Award-winning historian JON B. COOKE, this retrospective is the most comprehensive study of an essential publisher in the development of the creator’s rights movement. Main cover illustration by DAVE STEVENS. NOW SHIPPING! (160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-121-9

ALTER EGO COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS

By overwhelming demand, editor ROY THOMAS has compiled all the material on the founders of the Marvel Bullpen from three SOLD-OUT ALTER EGO ISSUES—plus OVER 30 NEW PAGES OF CONTENT! There’s the STEVE DITKO ISSUE (#160 with a rare ’60s Ditko interview by RICHARD HOWELL, biographical notes by NICK CAPUTO, and Ditko tributes)! The STAN LEE ISSUE (#161 with ROY THOMAS on his 50+ year relationship with Stan, art by KIRBY, DITKO, MANEELY, EVERETT, SEVERIN, ROMITA, plus tributes from pros and fans)! And the JACK KIRBY ISSUE (#170 with WILL MURRAY on Kirby’s contributions to Iron Man’s creation, Jack’s Captain Marvel/Mr. Scarlet Fawcett work, Kirby in 1960s fanzines, plus STAN LEE and ROY THOMAS on Jack)! Whether you missed these issues, or can’t live without the extensive NEW MATERIAL on DITKO, LEE, and KIRBY, it’s sure to be an AMAZING, ASTONISHING, FANTASTIC tribute to the main men who made Marvel! NOW SHIPPING! (256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $35.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-116-5

WORKING WITH DITKO by JACK C. HARRIS

WORKING WITH DITKO takes a unique and nostalgic journey through comics’ Bronze Age, as editor and writer JACK C. HARRIS recalls his numerous collaborations with legendary comics master STEVE DITKO! It features never-before-seen preliminary sketches and pencil art from Harris’ tenure working with Ditko on THE CREEPER, SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, THE ODD MAN, THE DEMON, WONDER WOMAN, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, THE FLY, and even Ditko’s unused redesign for BATMAN! Plus, it documents their work on numerous independent properties, and offers glimpses of original characters from Ditko’s drawing board that have never been viewed by even his most avid fans! This illustrated volume is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the creative comic book process by one of the industry’s most revered creators, as seen through the eyes of one of his most frequent collaborators! NOW SHIPPING! (128-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $24.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-122-6

by STEPHAN FRIEDT & JON B. COOKE

Batmen of the 1970s:

BERNIE WRIGHTSON Gotham Macabre

by J a m e s

Heath Lantz

Bernie Wrightson. The name brings chills up and down the spines of comics fans of all ages. Throughout his career, acclaimed horror artist Bernie (originally credited as “Berni”) Wrightson offered readers the macabre and eerie. Given that his style brought life to creatures and beings that populated the shadows and the darkness of night, his art fit in perfectly with the world of Batman in the Bronze Age. Wrightson’s stunning images told the stories of 1988’s Batman: The Cult and The Weird, along with covers and interiors for various Bat-comics in the BACK ISSUE era and beyond. Yet, the most memorable comic starring the Bat wasn’t even part of the Caped Crusader’s DC Comics titles. Co-creators Len Wein and Wrightson’s Swamp Thing #7 brought its titular muck-encrusted creature to Gotham City, leading to his first encounter with Batman. BACK ISSUE will shine the Bat-signal on this creepy tome, its effects on the Masked Manhunter’s canon, and Bernie Wrightson’s other Batman material in this article. You’ll anger Swamp Thing if you don’t read this, Batfans.

CAREER MACABRE

At the risk of sounding like a Stephen King novel... Bernard Albert “Bernie” Wrightson had always had art in his blood. Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, young Bernie read EC horror comics. According to Wrightson in an interview with Jon B. Cooke, if a comic cover had been particularly disturbing to him, he’d buy it at the local candy store. Haunt of Fear #27 was one particular issue he read to tatters while hiding it from his mother, who would have torn the book to shreds had she discovered it in the house.

Do You Dare Enter… Gotham City? Batman hitches a ride on a haunted stagecoach and the Master of the Macabre hitches a ride into the DC Universe on Bernie Wrightson’s chilling cover for Detective Comics #425 (July 1972). TM & © DC Comics.

Batmen of the 1970s • BACK ISSUE • 59

Batwomen of the 1970s:

RAMONA FRADON

fondly remembered stint on Plastic Man, Fradon was the penciler of DC Comics’ Super Friends tie-in title. Her accessible, likeable version of Batman and Robin charmed a generation of young readers. Shown in this special gallery page are a Batman pencil sketch by Fradon (courtesy of Heritage) and several of her Super Friends covers featuring the Darknight Detective.

In the early Silver Age, Ramona Fradon (born 1926) broke comics’ glass ceiling to become one of the industry’s few female illustrators, earning fans as the artist of Aquaman (in Adventure Comics) and as the co-creator of Metamorpho, the Element Man. She also illustrated Batman’s first Brave and the Bold team-up, co-starring Green Lantern, in 1965’s issue #59. During the 1970s, in addition to a short but

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Batmen of the 1970s:

ALEX TOTH Quality Over Quantity

by D a n

Johnson

Of all the artists that helped define Batman in the Bronze Age, the one who produced the fewest comic book pages featuring the character was Alex Toth. Despite this scarcity of Toth Bat-art, for many people of a certain age, when they think of Batman, they think of Toth’s take on the character.

LEAVING HIS MARK

Before Toth ever drew Batman, he worked on two characters that bear mentioning. The first helped inspire Batman, and that was Johnston McCully’s Zorro. The co-creators of Batman lifted several elements directly from Zorro, including the hero hiding behind the guise of a bored man of wealth to throw suspicion off of himself and having a faithful manservant who acted as an aide and confidant. Walt Disney’s Zorro television series, which featured Guy Williams as the title character, gained popularity in the late 1950s that rivaled the Batmania that would follow a decade later. Zorro was a merchandising juggernaut during its heyday, and one of the most successful tie-ins was Dell’s Zorro comics. This series featured some of Toth’s most memorable work as he drew the adventures of the masked caballero. Dressed in black and leaping around as he fought villains, one could easily see the Batman in “the Fox’s” place. On the comics page, Toth gave Zorro grace and energy that just could not be captured on film. [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #138 for more on Zorro’s comic appearances.] It was akin to the same action that Batman was known for in his comic book adventures. Although Batman took many cues from Zorro, Toth proved the Caped Crusader had some impact on the Fox in return.

GIVE HIM SPACE

The Bronze Age’s Friendliest Batman Alex Toth’s versions of Batman and Robin—and DC’s other heavy hitters—were the “gateway” to comic books for many children of the 1970s who grew up watching Super Friends on Saturday mornings. Limited Collectors’ Edition (LCE) #C-41 (Dec. 1975–Jan. 1976) cover art by Toth, with Superman’s face being a rather notorious Curt Swan/George Klein paste-up. TM & © DC Comics.

Alex Toth’s ability to present action-packed illustrations with the fewest lines possible and without cluttering his work with unnecessary and distracting details led him to a successful career outside of comics: animation. In the early 1960s, Toth began working in this industry, which was booming thanks to television. His first work was on Cambria’s Space Angel, and he then settled in at Hanna-Barbera Productions. Toth’s style made him a natural character designer. He was great at giving characters distinctive looks but keeping them as simple as possible to make producing a weekly animated series easier. In addition, his time working in comics made him a perfect storyboard artist. After the debut of Adam West’s Batman, the television industry was looking for projects to cash in on the popularity Batmen of the 1970s • BACK ISSUE • 67

GOING OUT SWINGING

Batman in Metropolis Original art from Superman Annual #9, written by Maggin, inked and autographed by Austin, and penciled by our spotlighted Batman of the 1970s, Alex Toth. Courtesy of Heritage. TM & © DC Comics.

TO WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

In talking with Mark Chiarello about the cover Alex Toth did for him, the editor revealed something truly amazing and can only leave fans of Toth and Batman wondering what might have been. “Still wanting Alex to do a story for the series, I suggested he himself write a story,” Chiarello recalls. “He tried and tried, sending me a million little story ideas, but he said he wasn’t happy with any of them. Around that time, I was visiting him at his home in the Hollywood Hills, when he told me he had written a story that he actually liked. It centered on a villain getting the better of Batman and pushing the Dark Knight off of a tenement rooftop. An old, eccentric woman finds Batman and nurses him back to health. It was sweet, and funny, and adventurous... I told Alex I loved it and gave him the green light to draw it. Well, he never did draw it, he kept making excuses why he was being unsuccessful, so I suggested he at least draw a cover for the series, which he did.”

74 • BACK ISSUE • Batmen of the 1970s

“I recall when he sent the artwork in for his cover, he was quite proud of it,” says Chiarello about the artwork. “Toth was never a boastful or egotistical guy, but I could tell that this particular cover had come out quite to his liking. Years later, when visiting Alex, I couldn’t help but notice that the cover art was propped up on a chair in the corner of his living room. Considering that it was the only piece of his that he had on display, I was quite flattered to have been the one to commission it.”

DAN JOHNSON is a comics writer and pop culture historian. He is a co-founder, editor, and writer for Empire Comics Lab (empirecomicslab.com) and RedLine Comics Studio. Dan has written for Antarctic Press, Campfire Graphic Novels, Golden Kid Comics, InDELLible Comics, Old School Comics, and ACP Comics, and is a writer for the Dennis the Menace comic strip.

Batmen of the 1970s:

WALTER SIMONSON Capes, Cowls, and Jaws of Iron

by J e r r y

Smith

Do you remember where you were when you first saw Walter Simonson’s Batman? I do. It was summer 1974. I was ten years old and my Kentucky family was on a fishing vacation in Minnesota. We stopped in a small Mayberry-type town to get supplies before heading to the lake. I went into the local drug store and beelined straight to the comics rack. There I saw it: Detective Comics #443, with that beautiful back-to-back Batman/Manhunter cover by Jim Aparo. When I paged through the story inside, nothing prepared me for the sleek, largerthan-life action of the epic Batman/ Manhunter team-up, the finale to Archie Goodwin and Simonson’s “Manhunter” saga. I want to impart to readers who weren’t there (and some who were) the game-changing nature of Walt Simonson’s Batman in the 1970s—and beyond. Walter Miller Simonson’s first published work for DC Comics hit stands the year before, in 1973’s Weird War Tales #10. “I did have some work before that,” admits Simonson, “but that was my first job where

Walt’s Batman Begins In 1974, Detective Comics readers were saddened to reach the conclusion of the cult fave “Manhunter” back-up scribed by the title’s editor Archie Goodwin, and illustrated by hot newcomer Walter Simonson. Yet “Gotterdammerung” in Detective #443 (Sept.–Oct. 1974) allowed Simonson to ply his inventive layouts to Batman for the first time as Manhunter met the Darknight Detective in this classic. Walt has since gone on to illustrate Batman special issues and projects for decades. (This is a scan from the Manhunter: The Deluxe Edition.) TM & © DC Comics.

Batmen of the 1970s • BACK ISSUE • 75

Archie’s Here! And Walt is, too! (bottom) Simonson art—including his dinosaur-shaped signature—on the table of contents for Detective #443, from the days when even a poor print job couldn’t dampen a fan’s excitement. (top) The issue’s Aparo-drawn cover. TM & © DC Comics.

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I got a check that cleared. My first published work in comics was actually a fan drawing in Magnus Robot Fighter #10 in 1965. That’s all I’m gonna say about that!” Back to Weird War Tales: “Cyrano’s Army,” written by Len Wein, is a six-page tale about a meek Frenchman who dreams of fighting back against the Nazis who invade his war-torn city. All of the Simonson artistic earmarks are there, including cutting-edge design work, unique panel layout, and standout characters. If you squint, you can see Simonson’s famous dinosaur-inspired signature at the bottom of the splash page. Says Walt, “‘Cyrano’s Army’ is the first published work I had in a comic where I was assigned the job by Joe Orlando, a professional editor in comics, and I did the job and got paid.” Believe it or not, Simonson’s very next project at DC won numerous awards and made him a comic-book household name… the Manhunter saga.

DETECTIVE COMICS #443 (Sept.–Oct. 1974) – “Gotterdammerung!”

As mentioned above, “Gotterdammerung!” was the explosive conclusion to the Manhunter backup stories in Detective Comics, written by comics editor and master storyteller Archie Goodwin. One of the most memorable stories in comics history, the saga centered on the adventures of the revamped Golden Age superhero Manhunter, alias Paul Kirk. These backup tales ran in Detective #437 to 443, culminating in this full-length Batman/Manhunter crossover. Manhunter has been well covered over the years by BACK ISSUE. [Editor’s note: Manhunter has been mentioned on a handful of occasions but got a deep-dive in BI #64.] The art and story whisk both characters around the world, to exotic locales and villainous secret headquarters. Simonson’s Batman is a marvel—lean and athletic, with flowing martial arts scenes and the look of an alpha predator. When asked about his approach to drawing Batman for the first time, Simonson observes, “Archie and I had figured that at some point we were going to do a Batman/Manhunter crossover. I was a big fan of Neal Adams’ Batman. At that time, I think artists in general worked more to keep characters on-model. There’d be a look for a character, and a lot of artists would try and capture that look.” Simonson points out that Batman, over the course of his career since 1939, has had a lot of different looks. “You had the Bob Kane and Bill Finger look, you had the Dick Sprang look, you had the Carmine [Infantino] look, you had Neal’s look, and the Batmans all looked rather different. When you drew Batman, you had a real range of possibilities of where you could go with the character at a time when that was probably less true of Superman or some of the other characters that were out there. But Batman had quite a range. So I drew a kind of neo-Adams Batman for Manhunter. He had long ears and a long cloak.” Indeed, the Batman/Manhunter pairing was so popular that Simonson returned to the characters with a final story after Archie Goodwin’s untimely death. In a perfect, mostly silent coda first published in Manhunter: The Special Edition in 1999, Simonson adds a tight, action-packed finale to the legacy of Manhunter—appropriately guest-starring Batman.

An Instant Batman Master (top) Starting here, on page 1 of “Gotterdammerung,” in nine extraordinary panels Simonson establishes himself as major Batman artist. Presented in both its original and remastered forms. Do you have a preference? (bottom left) From the moment Goodwin and Simonson first brought Batman and Manhunter together in ’Tec #443, Walt would return to the duo again and again, including fan sketches like one from 1980 (bottom right). Sketch courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Comics.

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Birthday Candle Blowout (top) The Simonson/Giordano art team reunited to illustrate Len Wein’s “Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker…!” in Batman #321 (Mar. 1980). (bottom) Detail from page 12, where the Clown Prince of Crime reveals his crazy, killer birthday cake! (inset) Yes, that’s a Simonson-drawn Batman figure leaping out of the magnifying glass on this amazing jam cover by a range of luminaries for Detective Comics #500 (Mar. 1981). And wait until you snoop inside to see Walter’s interior contribution to the issue (see sidebar)! TM & © DC Comics.

Captain Fear (1740), and Bat Lash (1880). Batman appears in a present-day face-off with Two-Face. The final, futuristic chapter takes place in 2070. The bottom line for Walt Simonson is that he just plain enjoys writing and drawing Batman. Walt clarifies, “I like Batman. In some ways, I’ve used the Batman stories I’ve done as experiments to just kind of broaden the sort of art that I do and try and maybe find some different avenue because Batman seems flexible enough to be able to handle that. And it’s been a lot of fun for me to take a crack at different styles and approaches to the character. It’s one of the things I really like about Batman, he does seem so flexible.” To many creators who work on Batman, the character seems to offer an infinite number of possibilities. If Walter Simonson had simply done the Manhunter saga, or “Once Upon a Time…,” he would be considered one of the finest artists who ever contributed to the character. Luckily, we have hundreds of pages of Walt’s Batman to treasure—as writer, artist, and colorist. For today’s reprint culture, with modern coloring and high-quality paper, readers can enjoy Simonson’s Batman tales for many generations to come. Thanks, Walt! The author would like to thank Mr. Walter M. Simonson for answering all these silly questions. Many thanks to Eric Breen for research assistance. JERRY SMITH is a freelance writer and nonprofit fundraiser from the wilds of Northern Kentucky. He can’t seem to stop purchasing comic books, both old and new.

84 • BACK ISSUE • Batmen of the 1970s

Batmen of the 1970s:

Santa Frank is Coming to Town

pinguino k / Wikimedia Commons.

FRANK MILLER by R o g e r

Ash

DC’s Super-Star Holiday Special—officially titled DC Special Series #21 (Apr. 1980)—was an enjoyable special issue. It included five stories showing how the Star of Bethlehem played a part in adventures featuring Jonah Hex, Batman, the House of Mystery, Sgt. Rock, and Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes. The issue would probably be largely forgotten today if not for the fact that the Batman story, “Wanted: Santa Claus—Dead or Alive!,” was penciled by a relative newcomer to comics named Frank Miller. While his name would be linked to the character later in the decade, this was the first time Miller worked on a story starring the Dark Knight. Miller, like most creators, paid his dues before hitting it big. His early work included a number of short stories for DC in titles including Weird War Tales and Unknown Soldier. He even drew a few of the infamous Hostess ads where the Human Torch and Spider-Man foiled villains’ plans with snack foods [see BACK ISSUE #130— ed.]. His first full story, and first published work at Marvel, was in John Carter, Warlord of Mars #18 (Nov. 1978). This was shortly followed by Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #28–29 (Feb.–Mar. 1979). He also began work on what was to become his defining series at Marvel with Daredevil #158 (May 1979). But stardom was still a few years away when Super-Star Holiday Special was published. The rest of the creative team on “Wanted: Santa Claus—Dead or Alive!” are writer Dennis O’Neil, inker Steve Mitchell, letterer Ben Oda, colorist Glynis Wein, and editor Len Wein. The big name here is Denny O’Neil, who, along

Merry Christmas, Batman Fans! Title page from Frank Miller’s first Batman story, “Wanted: Santa Claus—Dead or Alive!” From DC Special Series #21 (Apr. 1980). Script by Denny O’Neil, inks by Steve Mitchell. TM & © DC Comics.

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