Posted By Dan Greenfield on Sep 18, 2021 | 1 comment

BATMAN DAY: Holy Mondadori!

In the Before Times, when travel was much simpler than it is now, I’d make sure to always go comics shopping in whatever country I was visiting.

My favorite? Italy, where I scored some great Silver and Bronze Age Batman comics that had been translated from English.

Well, today is Batman Day and this year, DC is leaning hard on the anthology Batman: The World, which features new stories from creative teams around the globe that take place in their respective locales.

This got me thinking about Italian Batman comics — particularly those published by Mondadori, from 1966 to 1970. The comics feature translated stories, original material and tales starring or co-starring other heroes (Brave and the Bold translations, for example).

US and Italian editions

The covers themselves are a fascinating mix: Some have totally new art produced by Italian illustrators, others are adaptations/redesigns of American covers, others repurpose or recreate splash pages or other illustrations, while still others are a mish-mash of all of the above.

More than anything, they’re colorful. (They’re also larger than the U.S. comics of the ’60s and ’70s.) Most of the mags have solid primary- or secondary-color backgrounds, which really make the imagery pop — and in some cases the Italian versions are more appealing than the American originals.

US, Italian editions

Anyway, dig these 13 COVERS, which will most certainly brighten your Batman Day.

Alla moda!

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I actually snared this when I visited Italy.

This one too.

And this one too. How lucky was I?

Red was very popular.

Such an improvement on the Pirate Catwoman outfit!

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MORE

— BATMAN and SUPERMAN’s Greatest Italian Comics Mysteries! Click here.

— COMICS: ITALIAN STYLE — For the Love of Giallo. Click here.

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Source: Some images from collezionismofumetti.com.