Added To The Collection - Batman From The 30s To The 70s HC

This is a book that I've wanted to have in my comic collection for a long time. Not just because it reprints fifties era Batman stories, but because it's a nice collection to have as a Batman fan in general. I've been looking for a good deal on eBay for awhile and finally got one, as I won the auction for $15. It's in great shape for both its age and the price I won it for. The dust jacket is complete, with some wear, but no major tears. The pages are yellowed at the edges, but are pretty white inside the book. None of the pages are missing and they are still bound rather tightly to the spine. Here is a list of the fifties era Batman stories that it collects:

"The Man Behind The Red Hood!" from Detective Comics #168

"The Origin of The Bat-Cave!" from Batman #205

"Superman's and Batman's Greatest Foes!" from World's Finest Comics #88

"The Man Who Wrote The Joker's Jokes!" from Batman #67

"The New Crimes of Two-Face!" from Batman #68

"The Crime Predictor!" from Batman #77

"Two-Face Strikes Again!" from Batman #81

"The Voyage of the First Batmarine!" from Batman #86

"Batman - Indian Chief!" from Batman #86

"Ace, The Bat-Hound!" from Batman #92

"The Batwoman!" from Detective Comics #233

"The Challenge of Batwoman!" from Batman #105

"Bat-Mite Meets Mr. Mxyzptlk!" from World's Finest Comics #113

"The Second Batman and Robin Team!" from Batman #131

"Bat-Girl!" from Batman #139

"Bat-Mite Meets Bat-Girl!" from Batman #144

"Prisoners of Three Worlds" from Batman #153

As I am well into my fifties Batman collection by this point, there are only two stories I don't already have in issues or reprints. That's fine by me, as it is a great book to own in and of itself.

Added To The Collection - Batman #s 102 and 154 and Detective Comics #s 295 and 297

Picked up another batch of coverless comics this time around, the covers to which I'll post below.

Batman #102 has a story that looks to be a lot of fun entitled "The House of Batman," where Batman gets his own crimefighting base in the city. The first story of Batman #154 features the second Batman and Robin team, one of my favorite fifties era gimmicks. Detective Comics #s 295 and 297 both feature giant creatures and there's a good chance you'll see one of them reviewed as part of something I have planned for October.

(And yes, I realize the irony of posting the covers to coverless comics)

Added To The Collection - Batman #218 and 259 and Batman Family #4

Continuing the single issue catch up, I recently picked up two Batman Giants and an issue of Batman Family.

Batman #218 - Subtitled "The Strangest Cases From Batman's Crime-File," five of the six stories reprinted in this issue are from the fifties era. Spanning from 1953 to 1960, the stories are: "Batman and Robin's Greatest Mystery" (from Detective Comics #234), "The Hand From Nowhere" (from Batman #130), "The Man Who Couldn't Be Tried Twice" (from Batman #118), "The Body in The Bat-Cave" (from Batman #121), and "The League Against Batman" (from Detective Comics #197).

Batman #259 - Apart from a brand new Batman story featuring the original caped crusader, The Shadow, this issue reprints three fifties era Batman stories: "The Great Batman Swindle" (from Detective Comics #222), "The Strange Costumes of Batman" (from Detective Comics #165), and "The Failure of Bruce Wayne" (from Batman #120). Interesting to note is that the Shadow story was dedicated to Bill Finger, who had passed away in January of 1974, with this issue hitting the stands in August of that year.

Batman Family #4 - I bought this one because it reprints "Batman Meets Fatman" (from Batman #113). 'Nuff said.

Added To The Collection - Detective Comics #s 317, 318, and 320

Before my Signet paperback kick, I bought three issues of Detective Comics off eBay.

I reviewed #317, the second and final appearance of the Flying Bat-Cave, on the blog last week. #318 features the second appearance of Cat-Man (there's a hyphen for ya Pat!) in Detective Comics. All I need is #311 and I'll be set to do a Cat-Man week. The purchase of #320 was based solely on the cover and I think you can see why.

Added To The Collection - The Best of the Original Batman

Following last week's acquisition of the Batman vs. The Joker Signet paperback is the first in the series. While the other two reprint collections in the series (the second release having been an original prose novel) each have a villain theme, this one is just a collection of early fifties Batman stories. The only exception is the first story in the collection, "The Legend of The Batman" from Batman #1. The other stories are: "The Web of Doom!" from Batman #90, "Fan-Mail of Danger!" from Batman #92, "The Crazy Crime Clown!" from Batman #74, "The Crime Predictor" from Batman #77, "The Man Who Could Change Fingerprints!" from Batman #82, and "The Testing of Batman!" from Batman #83. I'm particularly looking forward to reading "Fan-Mail of Danger!" after seeing the goof panel reprinted in the introduction to Batman In The Fifties. The book itself is in great condition, especially the cover apart from the bent corner. With this one on the shelf, that makes two down and a Penguin to go.

Added To The Collection - Batman vs. The Joker

This is probably the most interesting addition to my fifties Batman collection to date. At the height of Batmania in 1966, Signet Books began publishing pocket book collections of Batman comics. The first was a general Batman collection, the second was actually a novelization, the fourth was a collection of Penguin and Catwoman stories, and the third, pictured above, was obviously a Joker collection. As the size is reduced, each page usually has two panels, with the stories complete except for covers. This collection reprints five fifties and sixties Joker stories: "The Challenge of The Joker" from Batman #136, "The Joker's Winning Team!" from Batman #86, "Joker's Millions!" from Detective Comics #180, "The Joker's Journal!" from Detective Comics #193, and "Batman-Clown of Crime!" from Batman #85. Of these five, two have been reprinted elsewhere and the other three haven only been reprinted in this collection. As for the actual copy I picked up, the outside covers are a bit worn and dirty, but the reproductions inside are clear as a bell. Perfectly readable and, in the case of the blog, reviewable.

Added To The Collection - A Great Lot of Coverless Batman Comics

One of the funnest aspects to comics collecting is that of the hunt, and eBay is tailor made for the experience. The watching, the bidding, and, of course, getting proxy outbid at the last second. Every so often you end up winning a real gem and this is one of those times.

I'm more of a reader than a collector, so I tend to go after books in the lower (and cheaper) grades. I like to have complete books, but if I can get a coverless book in great condition, that's good enough for me. I came across a lot of ten coverless issues from the fifties and early sixties periods, with an opening bid of $9.99. Four of the issues were complete and specified:

Batman #135 ("The Menace of the Sky Creature")

Batman #156 ("Robin Dies At Dawn")

Detective Comics #283 ("The Phantom of Gotham City")

Detective Comics #284 ("The Negative Batman")

The auction also mentioned four issues of Batman and two issues of Detective Comics, no specifics, each missing the first and last couple of pages. I couldn't make out the issues from the image as they began on the third page, but overall, it looked like a deal to me. I ended up being the only one to bid and won it at starting price. When the issues arrived and I began figuring out what the mystery comics were, they turned out to be better than the ones I knew about:

Batman #103 (The first Silver Age issue of Batman)

Batman #114 ("The Bat-Ape")

Batman #124 ("The Mystery Seeds From Space")

Batman #126 ("The Menace of the Firefly")

Detective Comics #231 ("Batman, Junior")

Detective Comics #251 ("The Alien Batman")

The Batman issues have two stories complete out of the three, but that's fine with me. This was the far and away the best $10 I ever spent on comic books.

Added To The Collection - Batman #s 233 and 254 and Batman Family #3

Hey folks, sorry about the lack of story reviews at the moment. I wisely decided to start blogging again while on vacation in Maine and surprisingly, I haven't had much time to devote to the longer story reviews. Not to worry though, as the weeks coming up will be packed full of story reviews from all across the fifties era. Today I thought I'd make a quick post about some reprint issues I recently picked up. Copies of the original issues, even those right before the New Look Era began, seem to have been going up in price lately. Since I've been able to acquire all of the 80 Page Giant Batman issues, I thought I'd turn my attention to the other Batman giants DC published featuring fifties reprints.

Batman #233 - This was a 64 page giant issue featuring stories with a focus on Bruce Wayne, such as "The Murder of Bruce Wayne" and "Bruce Wayne's Aunt Agatha". Maybe I should do a Bruce Wayne week sometime.

Batman #254 - This was a 100 page giant and an interesting one in that it featured a story from each decade Batman had been published in up to the 70s, when the issue was published. There was only one reason I wanted this issue, however, and it of course concerned the fifties era reprint. From Batman #145 and the year 1962 to be exact..."The Son of The Joker". I scoured eBay for weeks trying to pick up the original issue until I discovered that it had been reprinted in a much more affordable issue all along. It's a story featuring one of my favorite gimmicks from the fifties era, The Second Batman and Robin Team, and if you recall my hint last week, this is the gimmick I alluded to. I'll be reviewing a trio of Batman II and Robin II tales soon and having read "The Son of The Joker" already, I can say it has one of the greatest panels to ever be printed in a Batman comic.

Batman Family #3 - When it comes to Batman reprints, this issue's a home run as far as I'm concerned. You have the second appearance of Batwoman, the first appearance of Kite-Man, and a classic Golden Age Dick Sprang story in "The Year 3,000". And for the fans of Batwoman and Bat-Girl out there, not to worry, I will be giving them their due spotlight in the future; I just don't want to hit all of the major issues of the era too soon.

Added To The Collection: Batman #s 122 and 123, Detective Comics #321, and World's Finest Comics #123

Check off another issue in my quest to collect every appearance of Bat-Mite. The Batman issues are not originals, but Pizza Hut reprints from 1977. They seem like random choices, but hey, I'm not about to complain about cheap fifties Batman reprints.

Added To The Collection: Detective Comics #s: 289, 310, 313, and 325

I was searching eBay for a Detective Comics issue featuring Bat-Mite, when I came across an auction for four issues of Detective Comics from the early 60's. It was a stroke of luck that I found it; there were only 30 minutes left to go. The issues vary from VG+ to GD- condition, which was perfect as I tend to look for books in VG condition. 

Added To The Collection: World's Finest Comics #180

The latest addition to my comic collection is a VG+ copy of World's Finest Comics #180. While it isn't from the fifties, the Batman story reprinted within is: "The Batmen of All Nations" from Detective Comics #215. This is a Batman story I've always wanted to read, now even more so with the Batmen of All Nations' appearance during Grant Morrison's Batman run. I didn't think I'd be able to read it for a long time as it's quite pricey and until last week, had never been reprinted as far as I knew. I was surprised to find while surfing Comic Book DB that it had in fact been reprinted in an issue of World's Finest Comics, which I quickly ordered off eBay. I already have this week's reviews planned, but you can definitely expect a review of the story next week. Now if they'd only reprint "The Bat-Ape"...