So Burt Ward got top credit at least once.
So of course it’s during my brief blogging sabbatical that the biggest, most amazing comic news of all time is unleashed upon us. No, not that Marvel apparently had to outsource for a new cosmic character since, you know, they didn’t have enough of them. And no, not that DC’s “Event Formerly Known As WTF Certified Month” seems to be about 75% “Special Surprise Guest Star Month” so far.
No, it’s all about a new Batman comic based on the 1960s TV show starring Best Batman, Adam West. And, naturally, mustachioed Joker:
It’s a digital-first comic, with a print edition to follow, and features the work of writer Jeff Parker, artist Jonathan Case, and cover artist Mike Allred.
Not that I’ve been keeping close tabs on reactions thus far, but from what little I’ve seen people seem to very positive about this development…quite the change from a couple of decades back, when folks were getting the vapors over the fact that a guy who made comedies was going to direct a Batman movie starring a comedic actor and oh my God it was going to be the campy ’60s Batman TV show all over again, will comic fans never get respect? (Of course, the resulting film was sufficiently “dark” and “gritty” to keep those fans happy, though really it’s just as amusingly peculiar and goofy and, um, well, campy as the rest of the Burton oeuvre.)
Anyway, I’m thrilled about this new Batman ’66 comic, and can’t wait for it. When it comes out, if it’s not the best-selling comic of the 21st century thus far, then we will have failed as a civilization. Not that you should feel any pressure or anything, Jeff ‘n’ Jon.
Of course, I realize not everyone has achieved sufficient enlightenment to realize the beauty of Adam West Batman, and thus come with me back to the mid-1960s, via this January 8-14, 1967 copy of the TV Weekly insert from the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, coincidentally enough discovered in a comic collection we were processing just last week:
That’s a swell Dragnet cover, yes, but let us look to the letters page therein, where someone wrote in to complain that his favorite TV show was getting the hook because it could not compete with a certain Caped Crusader:
Wow. Just imagine how this guy would react to the idea of “Bronies.”
Well, let’s see here, what was going on Thursday night at 7:30:
Just look at that. How is anything going to compete with the triple-blast of the Joker and the Penguin and Venus? Sorry, Jericho and, apparently, Daniel Boone.
And sorry, D., but this moronic adult thinks the 1960s Batman TV show is a thing of beauty, and I’m glad to see it still being appreciated, all these years later.
BONUS BAT-HATER CONTENT, courtesy that atomic bomb in a human body, pal Andrew, who passed along this Letter of Comment from the April 1st, 1966 issue of Life Magazine, reacting to a recent cover feature on the Adam West Half-Hour Costumed Adventure Theatre television program:
Holy Dramatic Overreaction, Batman!
Always wanted 60’s Adam Westy-Bats (seen in Planetary) to just be out and about in the modern comic world.. all shark repellant and chivalry and somehow ending up on top all the time!
Um, *actually*, Los Angeles Herald Examiner TV Weekly, the main refrain on the Dragnet theme is best transcribed as “DUM-DE-DUM, DUM-DE-DUM-DE-DUM”.
This basic mistake and the unflattering caricatures of ‘Frinon’ show that you are not true Dragnuts. *Sigh*.
This has enticed me to buy my first digital comic!
There’s a 1966 film called “Strip”, a cinema-verite documentary of a London strip club, and guess what’s on the TV in the girls’ communal dressing/eating/smoking/doing pretty well everything else room? Mind you, British TV only had three channels back then.
And even then, Jericho couldn’t get a break!
“Oconomoc” strikes me as an overly complicated sound effect.
What, no love for “Let’s Go To The Races” ?
Actually, you’ve simplified it. It’s actually Oconomowoc.
Oconomowoc would be, in fact, a perfect sound effect for Walt Simonson, if it had a few more letters.
Oconomowococococ!
That would’ve fit perfectly in Simonson’s Thor.
@Derooftrouser – no one ever hums the main body of the theme. They hum the opening 5 seconds – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx5GwULPU90
I vote with tv guide.
Not a ‘Dragnut’ – I love the term – but certainly a fan. :)
Sorry, with the LAHETVW, not w/TVG.
Great news about the Batman 66 comic! It gives me hope that the Batman tv show might graduate from the TV Guide listings to a nice shiny DVD/Bluray release. I like the movie, but I love the series more.
I think I read somewhere that Adam West has already recorded commentary tracks in case it doesn’t happen in his lifetime. What can be holding it up now I wonder?
The sooner that every copy of that 1966 show is turned into guitar picks, the better off the world will be.
dave, noooooo
Sooo excited about a Batman 66 comic! That’s close enough to owning the shows. Crossing me fingers for some Vincent Pricey Egghead.
And that really is one handsome Dragnet cover!
When this comes out in print, my mom’s getting a comic book for a present. For her, Batman IS Adam West! (Man, I wish the TV rights could get sorted out! This needs to be on Blu-Ray NOW!
I thought the press release was a piece of work in how it lauded the show and promoted the heck out of all this new junk while completely ignoring the continuing unavailability of the show itself on home video.
Search on http://www.tvshowsondvd.com for a good write-up several years ago about why the series may never appear on disc. It’s a lot more than just Warner Bros. & Fox.
I’ve seen exactly one episode of 60’s Batman, and it was the episode where he and Robin at some point get moulded into surf boards, and Batman does something with needles and the surf board mould explodes, freeing them, and there’s a surfing contest in which both Batman and the Joker wear themed swim trunks over their full outfits.
60’s Batman always stuck with me though, just because I was so amused by how generally light-hearted it seemed, even as it was utter cheese.
I wonder if the comic will address the Julie Newmar/Lee Merriwether/Earth Kitt paradox. (Still miss you terribly, Ms. Kitt. …Oh, wait, “Kitt!” OH MY GOD I JUST GOT THAT!!)
There may never be a way to get the series on OFFICIAL disc, but the TVLand airings of “Batman” have been the stuff of bootlegs and torrents for years now.