A bevy of Bronze Agers, from Irv Novick to Bob Brown to Frank Robbins — and MORE…
If you’re gonna pick a Batman artist from the Bronze Age, you’re gonna pick Neal Adams, Marshall Rogers or Jim Aparo, right?
But don’t forget all the others who chronicled the Darknight Detective visually from the early ’70s to the mid ’80s. Back Issue magazine hasn’t — publisher TwoMorrows and editor Michael Eury are planning a grand salute to artists like Irv Novick, Frank Robbins and Bob Brown for the mag’s landmark 100-page 150th issue, coming in 2024.
Even superstars like Alex Toth and Bernie Wrightson get a big look.
Dig the official description and the groovy retro cover:
April 2024 – 100 FULL-COLOR pages
Back Issue #150 is our oversized 100-Page Super Spectacular sesquicentennial edition, featuring Batmen of the 1970s! Exploring the work of Bronze Age Batman artists Bob Brown, Dick Giordano, Irv Novick, Frank Robbins, Walter Simonson, Alex Toth, & Bernie Wrightson. Plus: revisit Frank Miller’s first Batman story! Edited by Michael Eury.
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A few thoughts:
Batman #259, by Denny O’Neil, Irv Novick and Dick Giordano
— What a wonderful adjunct to the publisher’s The Batcave Companion and earlier Back Issues that focused on Batman and his family.
— The mag has a tentative release date of March 13, 2024 — just under a year from now. You can already pre-order it from TwoMorrows. Click here. (It will also be available at your local comics shop and through magazine sellers.)
— But wait there’s more! TwoMorrows has released the covers and descriptions for two other new Back Issues. Ish #148 is about DC Super-Stars of Space, including Adam Strange (click here for more info) and Ish #149 features ’80s indie heroes (click here).
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MORE
— The TOP 13 Most Iconic BATMAN AND ROBIN Images — RANKED. Click here.
— 13 THINGS to Love About BATMAN After 50 Years of Reading Comics. Click here.
March 31, 2023
Novick’s biggest problems, not of his making, were having some weak inkers (especially on his later runs) and having Neal Adams and Jim Aparo exist. Really, though, he’s up there with them, especially his early 70s stuff.
March 31, 2023
I always loved his work on both BATMAN and the FLASH.
March 31, 2023
Agreed. Novick was certainly aided early on by Dick Giordano’s inking. But I also think maybe his early ’70s work was helped by the scripts he received from artist-turned-writer Frank Robbins, and from Denny O’Neil, who I understand wrote fairly sparse scripts. It seemed like Novick’s later work had too many panels per page to do justice to the Batman’s visual presence (flowing cape, etc.) Maybe the scripts from Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, etc. were just a bit too wordy?
March 31, 2023
I would get so cranky whenever I would find a Frank Robbins fill-i issue on Batman, The Shadow or The Invaders…his art style reminds one of Milton Caniff, but without sense of anatomy.
April 2, 2023
What, no Bob Brown?
April 2, 2023
I guess you didn’t actually read the story. His name is in there three times — and he’s on the magazine cover too.