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Batman Bronze Age Appreciation Thread
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403 posts in this topic

21 hours ago, Zonker said:

To make it challenging, I am going to offer a list excluding anything Neal Adams or Marshall Rogers touched, and excluding any of the Joker appearances.  Virtually all those books will show up on various Best Of lists.  In no particular order, here is a Top 10 list of possibly-overlooked bronze age Batman:

1. Detective Comics #437 Arche Goodwin's first issue as editior, and the first appearance of the new Manhunter (written by Goodwin, art by a young Walt Simonson).  Jim Aparo draws Goodwin's Batman story, the first example of an Aparo Batman story outside of the Brave & Bold.  Great cover by Aparo, including the return of the Golden Age cover logo.

2. Batman #247 Denny O'Neil scripts a Christmas / New Year's story, with a cover and interior art mostly by Giordano (Irv Novick pencilled the introductory pages).  During this period, when they included Robin in a storyline, he was mostly useless ("Robin, the Boy Hostage"), but this story is the exception with Batman & Robin working well together.

3. Brave & Bold #197 One of a handful of comics stories written by TV scripter Alan Brennert, this one features the Golden Age ("Earth-2") Batman with Catwoman, Scarecrow, etc.

4. Batman Family #18 The Batman story is written by Denny O'Neil and drawn by Mike Golden and P. Craig Russell.  Also features the first solo Huntress story (Helena Wayne version).

5. Detective Comics #470 This is actually the 2nd issue of Steve Englehart's run, and 1 issue prior to the arrival of Marshall Rogers.  Features the first appearance of Silver St. Cloud, and the reveal of the new Bat-Cave as a secret sub-basement under the Wayne Foundation building.  Pencils by Walt Simonson, inks by Al Milgrom.  Would have been a classic if they had gotten Terry Austin to ink.

6. Batman #344 In 1982 Giordano briefly edited all the Batman books, and managed to get out of Gerry Conway some of Conway's best work as a scripter.  Almost all of their year's worth of stories are worth reading, and this one has some of Gene Colan's earliest Batman art, a seldom-seen Joe Kubert Batman cover, and the elevation of Poison Ivy as a major Batman villain.  Robin makes a great entrance as well to save the day.

7. Detective Comics #443 Archie Goodwin's final issue as editor, and a 20-page team-up between Batman & Manhunter with Walt Simonson artwork, and one of the best collections of reprints seen in the 100 Page Super-Spectaculars, including the Golden Age Spectre and Green Lantern (with Alex Toth art), the origin of the Creeper (Steve Ditko), and a Golden Age Batman & Robin story with Jerry Robinson art.

8. Batman #312 Len Wein brings back the Calendar Man, and artist Walt Simonson gets to design numerous Calendar Man costumes for the various calendar-inspired crimes. ( As you can tell, I'm a big Simonson fan.)

9. Swamp Thing #7 Bernie Wrightson's Bronze Age Batman story, in the midst of the original Wein/Wrightson Swamp Thing run.

10. Detective Comics #457 O'Neil re-tells the Batman's origin, and introduces Leslie Thompkins in a bit of a retcon.  Giordano pencils, inks and draws the cover.  This one has aged particularly well over the years, I think.

This is MUCH better than what I was expecting to get, thank you so much for taking the time to put this together!

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'Tec 457 came out when DC raised their cover prices from .25 to .30.  I remember the not-so-mild shock when I hit the spinner rack.  But I made sure to get my copy of 457, and it's one of the most memorable issues of the era -- with fittingly nice artwork by Giordano.

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On 10/27/2020 at 12:21 PM, Zonker said:

To make it challenging, I am going to offer a list excluding anything Neal Adams or Marshall Rogers touched, and excluding any of the Joker appearances.  Virtually all those books will show up on various Best Of lists.  In no particular order, here is a Top 10 list of possibly-overlooked bronze age Batman:

1. Detective Comics #437 Arche Goodwin's first issue as editior, and the first appearance of the new Manhunter (written by Goodwin, art by a young Walt Simonson).  Jim Aparo draws Goodwin's Batman story, the first example of an Aparo Batman story outside of the Brave & Bold.  Great cover by Aparo, including the return of the Golden Age cover logo.

7. Detective Comics #443 Archie Goodwin's final issue as editor, and a 20-page team-up between Batman & Manhunter with Walt Simonson artwork, and one of the best collections of reprints seen in the 100 Page Super-Spectaculars, including the Golden Age Spectre and Green Lantern (with Alex Toth art), the origin of the Creeper (Steve Ditko), and a Golden Age Batman & Robin story with Jerry Robinson art.

 

Honestly, you can't go wrong with the Goodwin edited run on Detective, all the way through.  Since you were asking about Batman issues, I won't even mention the incredible Manhunter series by Goodwin & Simonson, other than the amazing conclusion in 443 where it ties in with Batman.  But the other issues:

438: A nice Aparo story that acts as something of an epilogue to the original Ra's al Ghul storyline.

439:  Great Adams cover

440: ... they can't all be winners...

441: Howard Chaykin art and (arguably) first Harvey Bullock

442:  Alex Toth Batman story.  A horribly underrated issue.

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5 hours ago, jimjum12 said:

Thanks to @Real Frantic One for this recent add. A few years  ago Batman 219 was showing up in debates about the beginning of the Bronze Age in the Batman mythos. I liked it because of the move to the Penthouse and Robin heading to college. It was certainly a departure from status quo. I always looked at the Bronze Age as the point where comics went PG-13 . This copy was very reasonable and it took me a minute to figure out why the grade was so harsh ... but on close inspection you can see what looks like a light exposure to a grayish spray paint ... otherwise it's very fresh;' GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)(thumbsu

 

BATMAN 219 ... CGC 8.0.jpg

Love love love this cover. I bought a 9.0 last year. Get 'em while they are still inexpensive. Neal's covers are starting to go through the roof in high grade. Especially the Detectives around this period. I bought my #251 in 2013 for $115. 9.0 o/w. I wish I had bought ten of them now.

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7 hours ago, Jasonmorris1000000 said:

This was the first comic I ever sent into CGC.  I originally thought It was like a 9.0.  Hahahhhahhhhhhhahhhaaa!  I'm sooooooo much better at grading comics now.  I have a feeling it's probably worth more raw.  At least you can read it that way.

Detective Comics #402.jpg

I'd have expected at least an 8.0 on that one... What killed it ? GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)(thumbsu

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12 minutes ago, jimjum12 said:

I'd have expected at least an 8.0 on that one... What killed it ? GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)(thumbsu

There's worn edges and some of the corners are a little round.  Now I scan books to look at them before I send them in.  My eyesight is getting worse.

Detective Comics #402.jpg

Detective Comics #402.jpg

Edited by Jasonmorris1000000
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7 hours ago, Jasonmorris1000000 said:

This was the first comic I ever sent into CGC.  I originally thought It was like a 9.0.  Hahahhhahhhhhhhahhhaaa!  I'm sooooooo much better at grading comics now.  I have a feeling it's probably worth more raw.  At least you can read it that way.

Detective Comics #402.jpg

I have a 9.2 of this issue. What a great cover. I always wonder why some collectors insist they have to be able to read their books. Virtually everything is online now. I read all my encapsulated books online. Keeps me from getting chicken wing grease and dumping coffee all over them. LOL!

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5 hours ago, Jasonmorris1000000 said:

There's worn edges and some of the corners are a little round.  Now I scan books to look at them before I send them in.  My eyesight is getting worse.

 

 

Join the club brother. :preach:

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