THE BOY WHO LOVED BATMAN, The True Story of How a Comics-Obsessed Kid Conquered Hollywood to Bring the Dark Knight to the Silver Screen. This is the new memoir written by Michael Uslan that will be coming out later ( No exact release date has been issued yet. But please stay tuned to the Bat-Blog because, "we're on it!" ). Now, some of you might think, "Hey, I recognize that name". Well, Michael Uslan has been the Movie Producer of all the BATMAN Movies. Yes, this is the guy responsible for bringing the Dark Knight to the big screen! In this new biography he shares the story of growing-up in the 1950's & totally being obsessed with comic books, especially Batman ones. He also shares his 10 year fight to get Batman to film. It sounds like a great story! Once we get more information we'll keep ya updated.
Important Side-Note:
A friend on Facebook just told me the release date will be around August 8th ( Thanks Torsten )
It looks like our buddy "Brohawk" aka David Williams has been pretty busy since we talked to him last. Check this out, he has published a brand-new hardback book of his amazing artwork titled "Brohawk's Weapons of Choice, The Art of David Williams". This cool "Book Promo" video was created ( see down below ) to promote it. He will have some copies at San Diego Comic Con 2010 at the "Big Wow" booth #4902 so look for him there or visit his website by clicking HERE!
As a totally obsessed ( yes, crazy ) Batman Toy Collector one of my favorite areas in the genre are "foreign items". They're pretty hard to find here in the US & they're always interesting. Here's a few examples: This 1st item is a Vintage Movie Poster for the 1960's BATMAN film. But what make it unique is that it's from Italy & the language is completely Italian...awesome! I love the graphics on this thing. Now, the next 2 pictures show some cool Batman books from around the globe. The 1st book was published in France ( Yes, it's all in French, ha ha ) & it reprinted some Golden Age stories from 1943-44. It was released as a hardback around 1989, during the Tim Burton movie craze. The next book is a paperback & one of the things that make it extremely interesting is the size of the book is very very weird. It has a standard width, but it was made to be extremely tall ( or very long ). The next great thing about it is that it's from Uruguay! It was published around 1968 & is extremely RARE! So, I guess I'm gonna ask all Bat-Blog Fans who live outside the USA if they have any "foreign bat-books or toys" in their collections to please send us some photos. Thanks!
Jerry Robinson is one of the living legends of American comics. As a member of the original Batman team, he created the first and most iconic of all super-villains, the Joker, and co-created Robin, the Boy Wonder sidekick. During the Golden and Silver Ages of comics, Robinson worked on every comic book genre there was. His artistry also extended beyond comic books into editorial cartooning and popular syndicated newspaper strips such as Still Life and Flubs & Fluffs, as well as magazine and book illustration, fine arts, academia, and humanitarian affairs. Robinson has been an influential teacher, an important curator of cartooning art exhibits, and a tireless champion of artist's rights. This rich, fully illustrated collection of his work was written in collaboration with the artist himself. Written by N. C. Christopher Couch; illustrated by Jerry Robinson; introduction by Pete Hamill; foreword by Dennis O'Neil. It will be released as a hardback edition with dust jacket, 8" X 11" in size, & will have around 220 full-color illustrations. This book sounds really awesome & I'm very excited about it....should be pretty cool!
We just received an email from a Bat-Blog Fan named Justin & it was loaded with a bunch of cool pics! Justin said that he has been a Fan of the Dark Knight since age 5 & he is now 19. The thing he really enjoys is collecting the Batman Trade Paperback Books ( Graphic Novels ), Hardback Books, & Comic Books. Here are some photos he sent of his collection. Because of space limitations I couldn't publish them all but these do give you a really good idea of what an awesome library he has. On a side-note, I like how he has a Post-It Note attached to the shelf, near the Batman books, that reads, "DO NOT TOUCH!", that's funny! Thanks Justin for sending in these photos & sharing your collection with us. You have some great stuff! As always, I want to invite all Bat-Blog Readers to share your pics of anything Batman-related. It can be a Vintage Toy Collection, a photo of you meeting Adam West, your recent Bat-Birthday Party, whatever!
I was gonna write a book review on the new Batman/Superman novel “Enemies and Allies” By Kevin J. Anderson that just came out. But my friend Christopher Huff already did so why should I? Actually I have not read the book yet & since I feel kinda lazy today I thought I'd just link his review here, ha ha. I mean, he wrote one that's just as good as mine would be, OK, actually a lot better! A long time ago, ever since hearing about this book, I have been pretty curious about it & hoped it would be good. Almost all the reviews I have come across lately all say that's it's really interesting. The story is set in the 1950's so there's a lot of "Cold War period" stuff to deal with & you get a lot of "vintage style" story-telling. It just sounds like it would be really cool! So, this book is going on my wish list. Now, Christopher wrote a really great review & I'm asking everybody to please check it out by clicking HERE!
Tim Burton directed the 1989 Batman movie & a lot of that movie's style was his own unique vision. For that reason a lot of Batman Fans also like his other films: Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Mars Attacks, & Charlie and The Chocolate factory, among others. He's about to come out with a live-action film of Alice in Wonderland that looks pretty cool! Well, he's also known as a serious graphic artist & dabbles in the fine arts every now & then. So, for that reason, he's gonna publish a book that will be coming out later called THE ART OF TIM BURTON. It's gonna be a hardback with over 400 pages & 1000+ illustrations. There will also be a Special Limited-Edition Copy too. This project was just announced directly from him & the details are sort of vague, for now. But be sure to stay tuned to the Bat-Blog because when we get more information we'll be one of the 1st places to let you know! Personally, I love his artwork & this book will probably be a "must-have" item. My birthday is coming up in January ( hint, hint ).
OK, anyone who's been reading the Bat-Blog for the last year or so knows how excited I have been about the gossip of a brand-new Batman book titled BAT-MANGA: THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN. It was being done by Chip Kidd who, a few years ago, came out with another great Batman book titled BATMAN COLLECTED. That book was amazing, so I knew this one was gonna be great too! Well, it has finally come out & it's even better than I dreamed about! It was released on October 28th, 2008. All I can say about BAT-MANGA is that it is extremely well-designed & a total delight to read! But, I can't just say that because that would be a totally lazy book review, ha ha! So, here's why the book is so awesome. First, for people totally unfamiliar with this title, in the 1960's there was a magazine in Japan for kids called Shonen King . During the crazy hype of the 1966 Batman TV Show ( Adam West & Burt Ward ) this company reserved the rights to do Batman stories. They did them for about a year & then they were gone. For years these wonderfully written & beautifully drawn stories were lost...until now! To do this book Chip Kidd teamed up with the photographer Geoff Spear & Super-Collector Saul Ferris ( Japanese translation by Anne Ishii ). Both Chip & Saul had a few issues of this super-rare magazine & while doing research found out that the artwork was done by Jiro Kuwata, the artist responsible for creating "8 MAN", a very popular Japanese character. Anyway, Kidd hired a Japanese translator & actually found the guy! To his regret he found out that all the original artwork had been lost to time. But, a neat thing about getting in touch with him was that they got to do an exclusive interview about his "Batman experience". So, working with Geoff & Saul, they photographed every issue they had their hands on. This actually turned out to be a "wonderful accident" because looking at the original magazines is pretty cool. Geoff did an amazing job photographing all the pages. The neat thing is that the photography is so extremely sharp that you can actually see the texture of the newsprint & it sort of gives you the experience of reading the actual magazine that children got to view in the 1960's. One other thing that's kinda neat too is that, back then, Jiro Kuwata was given total license to write anything he wanted. So, the stories are very unique & have a nice Japanese sensibility to them. Now, please keep in mind that this is manga so ya gotta "read it backwards". But, don't worry about that because after about 5 minutes you totally get used to it & the stories are really enjoyable. Jiro Kuwata was given permission to do anything he wanted so many of the villains ( except Clayface ) were created by him. They are really well thought out & have great names like Lord Death Man, Go-Go The Magician, Dr. Faceless, Professor Gorilla, & The Man Who Quit Being Human! Now, another great thing about the book is that it features some very sharp color photography of many Vintage 1960's Batman Toys...a total bonus! This is kinda where Saul Ferris came in. He has an amazing collection of super-rare Japanese Batman Toys. The photos are sort of sprinkled every few pages so while you're reading the stories you get a small break. Plus, You get to enjoy these lost pieces of Bat-History. It gives the book a nice rhythm & each time they popped up it was a very pleasant surprise! The book is created in 2 formats, hardback & paperback. The hardback has about 32 extra pages. It mainly has a few more toy photos & a section in the back that covers some stories written in Chinese! But, don't worry because everything has been translated into English so you can enjoy the whole experience. The retail price for the hardback is $60.00 while the paperback is $29.95. Right now Amazon is offering them as new releases at a cheaper price & I seriously recommend the hardback, just for the extras. Well, I hope this has been a decent review & it's a book I can highly recommend for ANY Batman Fan!
There's a brand new Batman Hardback Graphic Novel by DC Comics coming out on November 4th, 2008 that's simply titled "JOKER" and the amazing thing is that it is already getting a ton of hype & the reviews are all excellent. In fact, many people are calling this book the current generation's "The KILLING JOKE". Now, to be honest, I have not seen it yet except for a few pages. But from what I have seen so far it looks pretty cool! The JOKER book is written by Brian Azzarello with artwork by Lee Bermejo and Mick Gray. The cover art, by Bermejo, is shown up above. I also managed to get 9 preview pages so you can view the art & read the dialog...it looks pretty awesome if ya ask me. I can't wait to read it!!
Here's a picture sent in by a BAT-BLOG reader that I meant to share awhile back but like a moron put it in the wrong folder & didn't find it until now, ha ha. Sorry, Frank but thanks for a very cool picture of an original ad placed in a publication for bookstore owners to order books. It was an ad from the publishers of the now classic hardback book BATMAN FROM THE 30's TO THE 1970's! I had this book as a kid & still have it in my personal collection. It's one of my all-time favorite bat-items. It has some really great stories & wonderful graphics. In the picture up above you can see the large hardback book on the right, the ad is on the left side...nice! The artwork is done by classic Silver Age artist Carmine Infantino! Thanks again Frank for this piece of Bat-History!
