Tony Abbott’s Latest Tool For Combatting Illegal Immigrants

This…will obviously lead to this…

and then this…

Batmobile At ACMI

Here’s a couple of photos that I took.

Batman Meets Fatman

No really…

The Batmobile must be pretty wide to fit Batman, Robin and Fatman on the front seat.

Obviously the Batman writers were taking the piss here…

This is another “unique” Bat-story of the 1950s that shows just why most people disregard this era of the Caped Crusader’s career.

Perhaps DC should put out a collection of Weird Tales from Gotham City. It could be filled with all the stupid stories from the 1940s, 50s and 60s such as the one above. It could feature the ‘many strange transformations of Batman, like the stories where he turned into a giant, merman, gorilla etc. There could also be a section on all the many times Batman travelled back in time, fought aliens or met others that he inspired such as Fatman, Batboy, Mogo the Bat-gorilla, Batmite, Ace the Bathound, Batman Jones etc. I’m not sure it would sell many copies although I am sure some people would pick it up just for a laugh.

Batman – The Funny Man Crimes

I haven’t posted many comic book stories for a few months and with good reason. Both DC and Marvel have cracked down on these sorts of posts in recent months and lots of stuff that has been online for years has disappeared.

This story does feature some quite ugly art work, especially one of the drawings of the Joker on the last couple of pages. Some of the work evokes Dick Sprang but if I hazard a guess I would say Jerry Robinson was the main artist for this story.

Batman Teaches How To Safely Cross The Road

This is something that I originally posted on my other blog way back, but whoever posted it onto Youtube had it taken off. Back in the original incarnation of Sesame Street Filmation used to animate little segments featuring Batman and Superman. These segments had the superheros trying to teach important things to kids in the same spirit as Sesame Street.

Here we have Batman teach Robin about the safest way to cross the street. Unfortunately he doesn’t seem to be worried about the Joker, who has been knocked over by a truck and fallen down a man hole. Poor Joker!

The Valley Of Giant Bees!

When people complain that the Batman TV show was really camp and unjustly tarnished the image of the Caped Crusaders I think that they are forgetting that there was a bit of camp in the comic book too. Especially in the 1950s when Batman was not allowed to battle arch villains like Two Face and the Joker.

Here is perhaps the campest of camp stories that demonstrates how dumb the book became in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Robin is practising for next year's Sydney Mardi Gras

Superheroes & Schlemiels Exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Australia

From May there is an interesting exhibition at the Jewish Museum featuring the comic artwork of various Jewish creators. I’m not sure if this is the same exhibition that Jerry Robinson put together in New York a couple of years ago, although apparently it has been curated by the Musee d’art et d’histoire du Judaisme in Paris and the Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam.

 As should be well known many of the comics creators from the Golden Age were Jewish. From Stan Lee and Jack Kirby who created the Marvel Universe, to Bob Kane who ‘created’ Batman, to Harvey Kurtzman who was important to both EC Comics and MAD.

 The exhibition is at the Jewish Museum of Australia, 26 Alma Road, St Kilda, from May 3 – August 30. I believe the cost is $10 ($5 concession) but you get $2 off the ticket price if you present a valid Metcard. More details can be found at the Jewish Museum website.

Killer Moth

Speaking of cool action figures, one of my favourite Bat-rogues has finally been moulded into plastic. I really have to get my hands on this Mattel DC Universe Killer Moth action figure. It really looks pretty good.

I do have Corgi’s Killer Moth Mothmobile that they released a few years ago. Not sure how successful the model was, but it was in my opinion, the best in the entire Corgi Batman vehicle line.

I suppose we have Scott Rogers from the Killer Moth Appreciation and Preservation Society blog to thank for the Killer Moth figure. Perhaps I could get him to persuade the Four Horsemen to make an Eraser or Copperhead figure?

The Eraser Who Tried To Rub Out Batman

I have a soft spot for Batman’s lesser known villains, especially those who can be classified a being losers. Everyone knows the Joker, Ra’s Al Ghul, the Penguin, Two Face and the Riddler, but how many casual fans know the Getaway Gimmick Genius, the Black Spider, the Spook or Crazy Quilt? I also admit to being a fan of Killer Moth and Firefly too. However the villain that I want to focus on here is someone who had no chance of being more than a one-shot rogue, even though his ‘m.o.’ was pretty cool. While his shtick of erasing any evidence of another crook’s crime could have made him a worthy member of Batman’s rogue’s gallery, Lenny Fiasco’s costume was just too silly, while the story was just stupid. Still, I think Eraser would make for a pretty neat action figure.

Copperhead, Calculator and Calendar Man

A few days ago I posted Copperhead’s debut story from The Brave And The Bold. Here is his Who’s Who page from about 1986.

As an added bonus here is the Who’s Who page of the Calculator, who has recently become a very important villain in the DCU (minus his crime outfit) and the Calendar Man who is still regarded as a joke.

As a special extra bonus, here is Calendar Man’s Missing Villains’ File from the mid-1970s which was in Batman Family.