RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books What was the first Batman comic you read? And/or what got you hooked?

This is actually possibly a two-part question. If you were like me, the first Batman comic you read immediately got you hooked.

But if that first issue you read isn't the basis for your loving the character, what issue or set of issues closed the deal for you and made you a die-hard Batman fan?



My first batman comic was BATMAN 241, with the cover story "At Dawn Dies Mary MacGuffin" by O'Neil and Novick/Giordano. The Robin backup by Rich Buckler also helped close the deal, a story dealing with demonic possession. And the reprint story from BATMAN 5 in 1941, "The Case Of The Honest Crook" by Finger and Kane. All these three combined got me hooked from the jump. And the R'as Al Ghul storyline in issues 242-245, mostly by O'Neil/Adams/Giordano, only increased my enthusiasm from there.

The two storylines that renewed my enthusiasm were the Englehart/Rogers issues in DETECTIVE 471-476 (1978-1979), and the BATMAN:YEAR ONE storyline in 1987. But certainly, there have been many other good Batman runs in between.

So where did you start?
And which do you enjoy most?

Actually, as I think of it, a book I was given as a Christmas gift in the early 1970's, BATMAN FROM THE 30's TO THE 70's, clinched it for me, giving me 4 decades of reprints in one volume.
In particular the 70's section, all from 1970-1971:
DETECTIVE 395 "The Secret of the Waiting Graves" by O'Neil/Adams/Giordano,
BATMAN 217 (Robin graduates high school) Robbins/Novick/Giordano,
DETECTIVE 402, "Man-Bat", Robbins/Adams/Giordano,
BATMAN 227 "The Demon of Gothos Mansion", O'Neil/Novick Giordano.

These classics from 1970-1971 let me know there was a run of great stories that just preceded the beginning of my Batman reading, and sparked a burning hunger in me for mail-order back issues. Most of these were only a buck or two at most when I began reading.

I was crushed when O'Neil and Novick/Giordano left BATMAN in 1975.
And it wasn't until 1979 when I first read the Englehart/Rogers DETECTIVE issues, and saw another comparable run to O'Neil's.

The first one read to me? I can't remember.

The first one I read myself: Daughter of the Demon. Talk about a perfect introduction to Batman comics: O'Neil, Adams, a retelling of the origin and Ras AL Ghul!

As for what made me a lifetime fan: The Adam West show. If it hadn't been for that I wouldn't have ever read the comics.

"Daughter of the Demon" from BATMAN 232 is one heck of a great issue to start with. As I recall, Batman had only crossed paths with Talia up to that point, and this was the issue that introduced her father as R'as Al Ghul.
There was one previous appearance in DETECTIVE COMICS 411, May 1971, by O'Neil and Bob Brown/Giordano.



I hadn't realized that BATMAN 232 was cover-dated the very next month, June 1971. There were also Ras Al Ghul/Talia stories in BATMAN 235, 240, and 242-245. So yeah, you got in at the very beginning, just a few issues before I started reading with issue 241. I think I first read 232 in the LIMITED COLLECTORS' EDITION C-51 reprint in 1977, with the highly poster-worthy Neal Adams wraparound cover.

As much as I love the Batman TV series, I don't think I ever saw it before 1975, so I'd already been reading comics for several years by then. But logically, the TV series was/is a cross-media promotion that unquestionably has a lot more visibility than the comics themselves, and is likely what led most readers to comics, before they ever saw an actual comic.

As I have mentioned before I vaguely remember watching Batman 66 first run. Having a relatively young mother she liked watching the show and I watched it with her. As a result of watching the show: when we were in the local grocery store I would see Batman comic books and she would buy them for me, figuring $.12 was a cheap story book to read to me that night.

Yep. Coolest mom ever.

Maybe that explains why, while I'm a year older, you got into comics a little sooner than I did.
Lucky you! My mom always discouraged my comics reading.

By an odd coincidence with our conversation, "Daughter of the Demon" is the title of a 1931 Fu Manchu movie (one of a series of films), that is playing on TCM right now. Undoubtedly, Dennis O'Neil swiped the story title from this movie.

Another title swipe I can think of offhand is Jim Starlin's for the Warlock story in STRANGE TALES 180, "1,000 Clowns".
I'm sure there are many titles from an era that preceded us that we don't know are not original titles.

I started just before year one. That was about issue 400. I stopped reading Bat comics after Knighfall. To me it felt like the best had been done and no future stories could even compare to that long great run of comics.

I recall there were two good single BATMAN issues by Jim Starlin right before BATMAN: YEAR ONE (1986-1987). And I was really excited that Dennis O'Neil, who had scripted a lot of the best Novick and Neal Adams stories from a previous great era, was now hired as editor of the Batman line of titles.

The last BATMAN run I followed after the era you're talking about was the Moench/Kelley Jones run in BATMAN 515-552 (circa 1995-1998). And the Elseworlds graphic novel series the two did together, on BATMAN: RED RAIN (1991), and the sequels BATMAN: BLOODSTORM (1994), and BATMAN: CRIMSON MIST (1999). And less impressive, but still nice Kelly Jones art, BATMAN: DARK JOKER, THE WILD (1993), and BATMAN: HAUNTED GOTHAM (1999-2000).

I like a lot of the LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT shorter runs of 1 to 4 issues by different creators. Ones I remember with particular fondness are by Gulacy (issues 11-15), Brent Anderson (31), Craig Russell (42-43), Arthur Ranson (52-53), Ted McKeever (74-75), Michael T Gilbert (94) and others. Admittedly hit and miss though. But I liked not being committed to an exhaustively long storyline, and it was nice to see Batman runs by a variety of hands and writing/art styles. I'd say the one I liked the best of those was the Poison Ivy 2-parter by Russell. And the Ranson story in 52-53.

After that, I've either purchased or just flipped through new runs by guys like Jim Lee, Jeph Loeb and Grant Morrison, but just walked away disappointed and disgusted. Except for the first issue by Jim Lee I made the mistake of buying, I got a bad vibe looking at most of these and didn't actually lay down money for the others.

Basically, if you dig enough, there's a few good stories still being published occasionally, I guess. But it gets to be such a chore, and getting ripped off by having to pay for the bad ones, to find the few good ones, that I gave it up at some point.

Another of my favorite Batman stories is in BATMAN 347, scripted by Roger Slifer, with art by Trevor Von Eeden. A story about two petty criminals, one trying to get the other to join him on a robbery heist, and the other afraid of being caught by Batman. The two thugs exchange stories about the remarkably fearless and almost supernaturally ever-present way Batman has intervened to capture criminals they knew in their own neighborhood. The story also has some intelligent and remarkably sentimental moments and political twists.

A fill-in issue that I found far better than the Moench/Colan/Alcala run that it was published in the middle of.

“ The Remarkable Ruse of the Riddler!” I’m showing my age here as this comic appeared in Batman 171. The story was significate for not only influencing the tone of the camp BATMAN TV show of the sixties it was also the story the first two episodes were based on. Also the first Silver Age appearance of the Riddler. It is a much sought after copy by many comic fans!

Well, you may see it as making you look old, but 1965 isn't much further back than the 1971 and 1972 first reads of me and G-man. Looking up BATMAN 171, it was also as you said listed as the first Silver Age appearance of the Riddler. It's cool that your first BATMAN issue was a story that played such a big role in the Batman TV series.

Looking it up, I saw this was reprinted a few times, including a trade collection of stories that were all adapted in the TV series, a collection titled BATMAN: THE TV STORIES (2013).

Most of the BATMAN stories from that era were reprinted in 52-page or 100-page issues, so in a way I grew up with those stories too.


My first Riddler story was BATMAN 263, back in 1975, by O'Neil, and Novick/Giordano, that I thought handled the Riddler character in both a playful and intelligent way. A kid at the zoo tells Riddler a joke, and he is so delighted he gives the kid a 100-dollar bill!



Toward the end of the 1970-1975 era of BATMAN and DETECTIVE that I love best.

From BATMAN 234, August 1971, the opening splash page:



One I long ago enlarged to 11 X 17" size and framed to put on the wall.

It perfectly captures everything I love about the character. Adams for me remains the quintessential Batman artist. With Novick, Giordano, Aparo and Rogers all doing nice creative renditions within that framework.

I don't know if any of you are aware, but former Fox News reporter/White House correspondent James Rosen is a big Neal Adams fan, and an artist, with a particular affection for Adams' BATMAN run. A quote by Rosen (from a Washington Times article, before he worked for Fox News) is excerpted on the back cover of BATMAN ILLUSTRATED BY NEAL ADAMS, vol 3 (2005).

In better days a year or so ago, Rosen was interviewed by Tucker Carlson, and actually drew a page on air during the interview, in a Neal Adams style.

I really liked Rosen, and felt he was being groomed for eventually replacing Brett Baier or some other anchor, until his career abruptly ended with allegations. Which much as I liked the guy, I believe the allegations, because it was apparently well known among female employees not to get stuck in the elevator alone with Rosen, and there were many sexual harassment allegations. He is married, so that makes it even more low, that he was a married guy putting the unwanted moves on multiple other women.
But despite his bad judgement that ended his career, he is a Batman fan who no doubt shares our Batman comics subculture, and probably many of our favorite issues.

I dug up the Rosen interview from March 17, 2017, so he departed from Fox more recently than I recalled. This clip shows him drawing a variety of things, from renditions of famous people to comics characters in a Neal Adams style.

Rosen was also on Tucker Carlson's show interviewed a previous time on Jan 24, 2017, though he didn't draw any pages during that interview. I'd forgotten that he does good voice impressions of people, such as Trump, Obama, and former Senator Richard Lugar.

How you doing these days, Larry? Hope all is well.

Yeah, I hope Llance is okay. I certainly understand he has greater concerns right now than posting on these boards.

BATMAN 227. Both the classic Neal Adams cover and the O'Neil/Novick/Giordano story, "The Demon Of Gothos Mansion", both cemented my early enthusiasm for all things Batman.

When at some point I realized it was a new version of the classic DETECTIVE 31 cover, I loved it even more. Done in 1971, it was possibly the first "tribute cover", long before the term was coined.