Seems i learnt to read before i went to school, and that was partly via DC Comics. Our local shop had the classic round comic rack and my big sisters were always buying me them. Strangely, they were never Marvel, only DC and the titles i'd invariably gor for would be World's Finest for the brilliant Curt Swan team-ups of Supes and Bats, and Batman.
We're talking 1966 to 1970 here, ground zero for the campy version of the character. But, when you're 4 to 8 you're not aware of anything like that.
What you are aware of are brilliant thrills and spills, tons of action and bizarre characters - usually drawn by the excellent Carmine Infantino.
No more so than here in my favourite issue of the comic, one that perfectly illustrates when i'm waffling on about.
To read it now its VERY duff - the Joker hires a midget to play pranks on the Batman. And that's it.
But the 4-year-old me loved it, the cover especially. Can remember just studying this image endlessly. It was so much better than the (not Infantino) art inside and i was fascinated by the look on the lil' guy and his fake nose.
By the way, the other thing about this title that struck a cord back then and still resonates to this day, is this eras logo. I loved it dearly and was so impressed by the clever way his shoulder and cape is at that angle.
Just looking at it now really gets an emotional response from me. Odd eh?
I'm looking up some information on this issue because I'm about to hang/display it in my office and saw that you love it as much as I do if not more! It's a great issue and there aren't any credits in it! Luckily there is no limit to the Bat-Fans out there and I found it online. Anyways thanks for your comment on this and if you like you can check out my blog at onestopgeekshop.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Steve