Batmania - Bats-Man!

The sign in the 60's that a thing was indeed worthy of serious consideration was whether it made it into the black and white pages of MAD Magazine. If Alfred E. Neuman found it interesting, then I knew I should also. In fact most of what passed for popular culture in the 60's and early 70's was filtered to me through the "Usual Gang of Idiots". And so it was with Batman the TV show. It hit like a shooting star onto the streets of America and blazed out almost as quickly but not before MAD took a crack at it. It rates a spot-on cover by Norman Mingo. 

The story is called "Bats-Man" and it was written by Lou Silverstone and drawn magnificently by Mort Drucker. It makes a glancing blow at the premise of the show by sowing discord between "Bats-Man" and "Sparrow the Boy Wonderful". It seems all that crimefighting is crimping poor Sparrow's love life so he plots to end the partnership in some mighty ferocious ways. To read this blast from the past check out this handy Bat-Link to Crivens! Comics & Stuff   operated by Kid a longtime reader and responder of this here Dojo. 

I personally read this story this time in MAD About Super Heroes from a few decades back. It sports a delightful Alex Ross cover but inside are all the Batman parodies done to that point along with Superman and others as well. It features an introduction by Batman himself, the late great Adam West. 

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All In Color For A Damn Sight More Than A Dime!

One of the most important events in the history of comics was the publication in 1970 of Robert Overstreet's first Price Guide. It was a work which he did with the crucial assistance of legendary fan Jerry Bails, and this incomplete but significant work transformed a ragged two-bit pastime into a full-blown hobby and and shiny new industry.


Robert M. Overstreet (Pick Your Poison.)
Whatever came from that, good and ill, can be traced very much back to the impact of "THE Price Guide".

The first Guide I bought was the fifth volume (found it on a newsstand), but it would be many years before I saw or bought another. Once I found comic shops, it became a regular thing. Since Gemstone took over publication of the Guide, I personally have lost some interest in it as an item itself. It has become like so many of the comic books it tracks so self-conscious of itself as a collectible that it undermines the charm of the activity it lionizes.

But I do rather love old Price Guides, the ones from the early days, when the format was still relatively simple and the text could be read easily by people of all ages and didn't require me to break out the magnifying glass I once upon a time reserved for the Oxford English Dictionary. The early guides speak to the fan in subtle but specific and effective ways.

Here are the first twenty-five of those early lovely covers, by some of the industry's true talents. The earliest three covers aren't much, but the ones that followed for many years are masterpieces in my estimation and it was a huge thrill waiting to see just what who would be featured and how the cover design, logos and all, would reflect the specific subject. Sadly the later covers become more and more bland as the material and logos become standardized.




Don Newton

Joe Kubert

Will Eisner

Carl Barks

Bill Ward

Wally Wood

Alex Schomburg

L.B.Cole

Norman Mingo

Don Newton & Jeff Rubinstein

Bill Woggin

C.C.Beck

John Romita

Ron Dias

L.B.Cole

Jerry Robinson

Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson

Alex Schomburg

Mark Bagley & John Romita

Carmine Infantino

Mike Parobeck

John Romita Jr.
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The Portable MAD!

Of all the many many MAD magazine covers, this one might just be my favorite. I had this paperback once upon a time. What's happened to it, I couldn't say.


Here's one of Norman Mingo's early goes at this iconic cover image.

These days I keep the MAD for Decades volume on my desk for those moments when I need a mental hiatus from the stress of the day. These tiny MAD snippets from across the years fill the bill nicely.


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