Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Batman-Infantino/Swan/Anderson-1992


A bit of a departure here as this is a full comic book (minus ads) from only twenty years ago and most definitely copyright by DC Comics. It's also the longest post we've made. This was a special issue of BATMAN published in Canada in connection with a department store chain called Zeller's in order to promote literacy. What makes it immensely interesting to the old-time collector is the art. The cover, also seen here, is by Carmine Infantino, the man who revamped the Caped Crusader with his "New Look" in 1964. The interiors are even better, reuniting the Swanderson team of Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. None of these folks were getting regular work from DC by '92 with Swan pretty much put out to pasture after the mid-eighties revamp of Superman by Byrne and Wolfman. And I love their take on The Joker! Very different than what we've come to expect! This was not your typical nineties Batman. No, this was the sixties Batman, somehow making one last miraculous appearance...in Canada.


























7 comments:

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

This one is terrific not only because of the artists that worked on it. I like all the way they tried to squeeze a little Canadian content and Zellers promotion into the whole thing. They only missed out of having him appear at the Calgary Stampede. That one is the outdoor rodeo. The Edmonton Rodeo is held indoors. Every Batman fan knows that.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

And the RCMP only wear the red outfits for ceremonial reasons. They look like regular cops when they work the day job.

R.A.M.'67 said...

What a discovery! Fine artwork from the three veterans, especially with the latter-day Swan jazzing up his layouts.

Love it when Batman hog-ties the Joker!

sdestefano said...

This, to me, is sublime.

Toni N. said...

I agree, is an excellent example of Silver Age Batman style but published in 1992, Fantastic!

Randy Dahlk said...

Unfortunately, possibly the ugliest example of the Batmobile ever...

Neil A. Hansen said...

Such a great job on the supporting characters as well as the leads. Easy to understand visually, too.