Sunday, June 03, 2007

Bat Creativity '67



You get a lot of complaints out of us oldtimers about how BATMAN comics went camp when the TV series was a runaway hit. What seldom gets mentioned, however, is that this was, in fact, a golden age of sorts for Bat-covers! Here, for example, are two of my all-time favorites. The insides were back to being ghosted by Sheldon Moldoff pretty much around this time but Carmine Infantino could still be called in for knock-em-dead covers for both BATMAN and DETECTIVE COMICS! I never realized it until tonight but these two unusually creative ones (retailers were supposedly not happy about the BATMAN one due to the logo being toward the bottom where it would be unseen on racks of the day) came out within a week of one another...forty years ago.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:53 PM

    I missed the "Joker House" cover of
    Detective Comics, but when I saw
    the Batman cover featuring the Blockbuster SMASHING the stone wall
    Bat logo, I HAD to have it. And I
    scraped the 12 cents together to
    buy it immediately.
    I went through a similar experience
    when I spotted the striking cover
    of Detective Comics #352 in the
    store display. I didn't have the
    cash on hand, so resolved to go
    back the next day and purchase it
    before all the copies sold out!
    A sudden overnight Green Bay snowstorm did not disuade me, but
    I neglected to tell my parents that
    I was biking through snow to the
    local Stop 'N' Go.
    I arrived, muscles aching from my
    strenuous ride. To my relief, all
    copies of that desired issue were
    still on sale!
    I returned, my brothers squealed on me, and my parents scratched
    their heads in wonderment at my
    strange behavior...and I carried
    my comic book treasure to my room
    to read and read it again.
    What a fanatic I was/am!

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  2. Anonymous7:05 PM

    Great story.
    Bought both of those at the newstand as a kid.
    A big part of my 60's memories are all those wonderul Infantino Batman and Flash covers.

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  3. Anonymous11:38 AM

    Carmine Infantino was a fantastic cover artist back in the day.

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