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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 8, 2019 23:51:34 GMT -5
I got a recent edition of The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told from the Pomona library a few days ago because it reprints my favorite Catwoman story, and I haven't read it for a while. "The Secret Life of the Catwoman" is awesome! And this particular reprint is super-awesome because it looks like the colorist actually read the text and saw the caption where it says "red Persian cat" and colored the cat in question correctly! I've seen this cat several different colors over the years and it's nice to see it colored correctly! Very nice Golden Age art from Lew Sayre Schwartz and Charles Paris. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 15, 2019 23:57:02 GMT -5
Geez Louise! I love this story so much! I read it again last night because sometimes, it gets in my head and I can't get it out until I read "The Gorilla Boss of Gotham City!" again! |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2019 1:06:15 GMT -5
Geez Louise! I love this story so much! I read it again last night because sometimes, it gets in my head and I can't get it out until I read "The Gorilla Boss of Gotham City!" again! So do I, it's pretty crazy and it's has that goofy Silver Age Silliness ...  |
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 18, 2019 23:20:11 GMT -5
I bought Batman #42 digitally from Comixology and I felt obligated to talk about one of the stories because I love these 1940s Batman stories that unconsciously get into the whole thing about what it is to be a Gothamite! The Catwoman story is pretty good (Selina pulls off a whole string of theme crimes based on famous literary cats, like Puss in Boots and Dick Whiittington's cat), but it's the second story I want to talk about. It's called "Blind Man's Bluff!" and it starts with a shipwreck. There's only two survivors, two Gothamites, one a GCPD policeman and the other is a generic rat-faced, pencil-moustached, fedora-wearing Gotham City gangster. They're floating along in a lifeboat and they're pretty sure they're goners. So they start talking and, as they are Gothamites, they pretty quickly start talking about Batman. So what are the chances that one of them has figured out Batman's secret identity? If you're ever read a Batman comic book, you know it's pretty close to 100%. That's right, Batman is a kind of a hobby for the policeman, and he thinks he's figured out that Batman is really … millionaire Bruce Wayne! Duds Neery, the gangster, being a Gotham underworld figure, would really like to take down Batman, but, alas, they're about to die from exposure or sharks or starvation. Oh wait! There's a rescue ship! So they get back to Gotham City and they're recovering at the hospital when the newspaper reports that Bruce Wayne has been temporarily blinded when running into a burning building to save a child! Fortunately the optic nerve was only singed, says the DCU medical practitioner, and Mr. Wayne's sight should be back to normal in three days. So the cop wakes up at the hospital in the morning to find that Duds has checked himself out! The cop thinks Hmm, I wonder if this has anything to do with me telling that generic rat-faced, pencil-moustached, fedora-wearing Gotham City gangster that Bruce Wayne is Batman! So he goes to Wayne Manor to tell Bruce Wayne that the gangster knows he's really Batman and is going to try to get him while he's blind. "Me? Batman?! Preposterous!" laughs Bruce Wayne, along with his ward Dick Grayson. And then we have about ten pages of 1940s DC secret identity hijinks as Batman uses every ridiculous trick in the book to charge around Gotham City dressed as Batman while totally blind and somehow not being killed four or five times per page. Very inventive, those Golden Age Batman writers. One of the great things about this story is just how stubborn Duds is! The other thugs are saying "Didja see that, Duds!? He ain't blind!" And Duds is like "Ah, it's just another one of Batman's tricks, ya bunch of dopes!" Another great thing is that it's another story with somebody who has figured out that Bruce Wayne is Batman! Like the Mirror Man! The next time DC wants to do another Ras al Ghul story, or another story about another nut who's killing the sidekicks because they think it makes Batman weak, DC should scrap that garbage and do one about all those dudes that know Bruce Wayne is Batman but are outcasts because no one believes them. They should form a secret-identity revenge squad and strike back at everyone who laughed at them! And you gotta love the idea of a couple of Gothamites, wasting away in a lifeboat, thinking death is imminent, passing the time talking about who they think Batman really is! This one's highly recommended! |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2019 10:20:12 GMT -5
That's a great book and thanks for reviving it. Hoosier X |
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 23, 2019 17:16:04 GMT -5
I've been reading Batman Annual #3 again! I've had this for a little over a year and it seems like I'm always pulling it out of the Batman boxes to read one story or other. Last week, I pulled it out and I've been reading the stories one by one, not quite every night, but pretty close to it. "The Gorilla Boss of Gotham City!" is in here! The one where actor Paul Sloan goes nuts and thinks he's Two-Face! The Joker story is not one of the best, but it gets lots of points for being pretty OK and for being one I've never seen reprinted anywhere else. No, it's not "The Joker's Utility Belt!" But I have two reprints of that! The glorious debut of the second Mad Hatter! I love this story! Jarvis Tetch is such a looney, even for a Gotham City bad guy. And there's poor Mirror Man! "Bruce Wayne is Batman! Bruce Wayne is Batman!" "Oh no, not this again!" said the warden. "Put him in the 'Bruce Wayne is Batman' wing!" And also The Human Firefly and the Mental Giant of Gotham City! Some glorious oh so glorious Dick Sprang art! And some Sheldon Moldoff! And some Lew Sayre Schwartz! (And maybe a few lines here and there by Bob Kane. Just kidding! Except for his name!) This book is highly recommended for people who love 1950s Batman. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2019 22:26:01 GMT -5
Geez Louise! I love this story so much! I read it again last night because sometimes, it gets in my head and I can't get it out until I read "The Gorilla Boss of Gotham City!" again! I too luv it so much! |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2019 20:02:30 GMT -5
I've been reading Batman Annual #3 again! I've had this for a little over a year and it seems like I'm always pulling it out of the Batman boxes to read one story or other. Last week, I pulled it out and I've been reading the stories one by one, not quite every night, but pretty close to it. "The Gorilla Boss of Gotham City!" is in here! The one where actor Paul Sloan goes nuts and thinks he's Two-Face! The Joker story is not one of the best, but it gets lots of points for being pretty OK and for being one I've never seen reprinted anywhere else. No, it's not "The Joker's Utility Belt!" But I have two reprints of that! The glorious debut of the second Mad Hatter! I love this story! Jarvis Tetch is such a looney, even for a Gotham City bad guy. And there's poor Mirror Man! "Bruce Wayne is Batman! Bruce Wayne is Batman!" "Oh no, not this again!" said the warden. "Put him in the 'Bruce Wayne is Batman' wing!" And also The Human Firefly and the Mental Giant of Gotham City! Some glorious oh so glorious Dick Sprang art! And some Sheldon Moldoff! And some Lew Sayre Schwartz! (And maybe a few lines here and there by Bob Kane. Just kidding! Except for his name!) This book is highly recommended for people who love 1950s Batman. Those early Batman Annuals and the 80 page Giant Size related issues are pure JOY! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 23, 2019 22:08:50 GMT -5
I got The Dynamic Duo Archives, Volume Two, from the library a few weeks ago and I've been making my way through Detective Comics #334 to #139 and Batman #168 to #171. I've read most of these stories and I thought I'd read the Riddler story in Batman #171. but "The Remarkable Ruse of the Riddler!" didn't look at all familiar! I must have totally missed this somehow. I liked it a lot! The Riddler gets out of prison (where he's been since Detective Comics #142 in 1948!) and wants to start matching wits with Batman again. But Batman if preoccupied with capturing the Molehill Gang! So the Riddler teams up with Batman and Robin to clean up the Molehill Mob! After that's taken care of, the Riddler is back at it, using a recently inherited fortune to make Batman look foolish before he eventually turns back to crime. Wonderful wonderful Sheldon Moldoff art where everybody looks like broken marionettes thrown to the ground! |
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Post by Prince Hal on Nov 25, 2019 13:42:24 GMT -5
Great description of Moldoff's art, Hoosier X !  (from Detective 368) |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2019 16:30:38 GMT -5
I want this comic to be real...  -M |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 22, 2020 23:48:25 GMT -5
Sorry I haven't been around much! I got really busy in November and it just didn't let up. And I started working for the census part-time this week, so it looks like I'll continue to be pretty busy until March or even later. I'm still reading a few comics right before I go to bed, but I haven't had time to post about them. I'm still working on my project to read every Golden Age appearance of the JSA. And I started reading the Ditko Spider-Man issues again! Hopefully I'll have time to post about these comics, as well as Golden Age Dr. Fate, Mike Murdock Era Daredevil, Gene Colan's Iron Man in Tales of Suspense, and some of the other comics I've been reading over he last few months. But what really inspired me to start commenting again was a bunch of Golden Age Batman stories I've never read! I bought the Batman Archives, Volume Four, last night. It reprints the Batman stories from Detective Comics #87 to #103, 1944 to 1945, and though I've read a few of these before, most of these stories are completely unknown to me. We start with Detective Comics #87, with a Penguin story! It's called "The Man of a Thousand Umbrellas!" I really love the Golden Age Penguin! He appeared so often that he was practically a supporting character as well as a villain. I've read A LOT of olden Age Penguin stories, but somehow I've never read this one. usually when the Penguin gets out of jail, Batman and Robin just sort of wait for him to start in again with his latest round of penguinanigans, but this time, Bruce and Dick have their own pro-active scheme! Bruce dresses up as an old man who repairs umbrellas and he starts traveling around Gotham in a wagon being dragged by an old horse and he advertises cheap rates for his services. Somehow this plan works in drawing out the Penguin! … and soon we're off on another wild Penguin crime wave! It's OK! I'm always happy to read a Golden Age Penguin story that I've never seen before. But it's no "Bargains in Banditry" or "Parasols of Plunder" or "The Blackbird of Banditry"! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 23, 2020 0:06:43 GMT -5
If I have time over the weekend, I hope to write a few paragraphs about how I made the recent Joker movie work in my own Gotham City head canon.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jan 23, 2020 10:16:44 GMT -5
If I have time over the weekend, I hope to write a few paragraphs about how I made the recent Joker movie work in my own Gotham City head canon. We've missed you around here, Hoosier! Hoping you'll be back, same Bat-thread, same Bat-memories! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 23, 2020 23:05:37 GMT -5
Last night I read the Batman stories in Detective Comics #88 and #89. The story in #88 was about a cruel loan shark and I felt more than a little unsatisfied with it. I thought I wouldn't have very much to say about it. So I read the next one, and it features the Cavalier! I love the Cavalier to pieces! So I figured I write a few lines about the loan shark story and then a few paragraphs about the Cavalier. But guess which story I've been thinking about all day? The story is titled "The Merchants of Misery" and the villain is an underworld figure called Big-Hearted John. He's no generic ferret-faced pencil-thin-moustached fedora-wearing Gotham gangster. Big-Hearted John is a big fat guy with a derby and a cigar. And a racket that reminds me of the loan shark in a Rodney Dangerfield routine. But there's nothing funny about Big-Hearted John! What a racket it is! He preys on the poor and the desperate. He charges 1000% interest. If your kid is sick or you can't pay the rent, go to Big-Hearted John. Soon, all your dough will go to John and his evil gang of generic ferret-faced pencil-thin-moustached fedora-wearing Gotham gangsters. When you can't pay, he'll threaten your wife and kids, he'll threaten to get you fired and eventually you'll be just another murder headline in the Gotham City Gazette. Of course, Batman and Robin notice and think that's a lot of loan shark murders! And after 11 to 13 pages of dressing up as a poor laborer who needs money and then causing trouble for Big-Hearted John and his generic Gotham gangsters, Big Hearted John falls off a building and is killed and the case is closed! After thinking about it all day, I believe Big-Hearted John is the worst Batman villain of the Golden Age! And I don't mean that he's a terrible villain (though he sort of is). I mean that he is an awful awful person and plumbs the depth of Gotham City villainy and is so low and so depraved that he is more villainous than the Joker, the Penguin, Two-Face, etc. put together. Because he is targeting Gotham's poor. The Joker in his earliest appearances is a cold-blooded murderer, but he is targeting the city's wealthy and challenging people who can afford to pay for the best security and who can expect the full protection of the police. The Penguin kills a few of his fellow gangland cronies in "Bargains in Banditry." And some of the villains I'm talking about never killed anybody. But Big-Hearted John. Oh, what a fiend! When you can't pay, he sends his thugs to lynch you at a construction site. This story made my stomach hurt a little. I'm starting to think it's one of the best stories of Batman's Golden Age for packing such a punch. |
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