A MORRISON MONDAYS 60th Anniversary Special! By BILL MORRISON Younger Batman fans may not realize this, but there was a time before Archive Editions, Chronicles, Compendiums, Absolute Editions, Deluxe Editions, Showcase Presents, and a seemingly endless stream of Omnibus volumes, when you could count the number of reprint books featuring the Caped Crusader’s classic comics adventures on one hand, with two fingers to spare. Those books were Signet’s Batman, Batman vs. The Joker, and Batman vs. The Penguin — all released in 1966, to take advantage of the TV show-driven Batmania. Aside from the Batman Annual comic books and the occasional 80-Page Giants, these paperbacks were the only access a young Bat-fan had to the Dynamic Duo’s classic exploits until the 1970s (except for the original comic books, of course). Sure, they were in black and white, and OK, the fact that the panels were cut and pasted to make them fit the paperback format was a little janky, but even so, they were great! They were all we had! Today, things are a bit different. Thanks to decades as a working cartoonist, I now have a personal library that takes up an entire room in my studio and is filled mostly with reference books and volumes about comics history, with a generous amount of square footage devoted to books that just collect classic comics. And those three well-thumbed paperbacks, along with the two Batman novels that also came out in ’66 — Batman vs. 3 Villains of Doom and Batman vs. the Fearsome Foursome (covered nicely in Jim Beard’s recent article) — are at the core of my collection. Next to these books on the shelf, I have a half-dozen similar paperbacks, published in 1988-90 by the UK’s Titan Books under the series name “Caped Crusader Classics,” that are sort of reissues of the Signet books, mixed with some new volumes that are in the spirit of the originals. The first one, Batman and Robin, is a reprint of Signet’s Batman but minus two of the stories. Similarly, the next two books in Titan’s series, Batman vs. the Joker, and Batman vs. The Penguin are reprints of the original Signet editions, but each have one story missing. However, the original version of Batman vs. The Penguin ended with a Catwoman story (completely devoid of the Fine Feathered Fink,...
A MORRISON MONDAYS BONUS! Including the later Titan editions… By BILL MORRISON For this week’s MORRISON MONDAYS column, I took a deep dive into Signet’s 1966 Batman paperback anthology collections, which were for years the only such books you could get your hands on. I also covered the UK Titan Books editions, which came out in 1988-90. But no such exploration would be a complete without a thorough table of contents. We here at 13th Dimension aim to please, so for the curious completist, here are the contents of all nine paperbacks — compiled by yours truly. Dates are original publication dates: — BATMAN (Signet, 1966) “The LEGEND of The BATMAN – WHO HE IS AND HOW HE CAME TO BE!” from Batman #1, Spring 1940 “The WEB OF DOOM!” from Batman #90, March 1955 “FAN-MAIL OF DANGER!” from Batman #92, June 1955 “THE CRAZY CRIME CLOWN!” from Batman #74, December 1952 – January 1953 “THE CRIME PREDICTOR” from Batman #77, June – July 1953 “The MAN WHO COULD CHANGE FINGERPRINTS!” from Batman #82, March 1954 “The TESTING of BATMAN!” from Batman #83, April 1954 — BATMAN vs. THE JOKER (Signet, 1966) “THE CHALLENGE OF THE JOKER” from Batman #136, December 1960 “The JOKER’S WINNING TEAM!” from Batman #86, September 1954 “The JOKER’S MILLIONS!” from Detective Comics #180, February 1952 “The JOKER’S JOURNAL!” from Detective Comics #193, March 1953 “BATMAN – CLOWN OF CRIME!” from Batman #85, August 1954 — BATMAN vs. THE PENGUIN (Signet, 1966) “The PARASOLS of PLUNDER” from Batman #70, April – May 1952 “THE GOLDEN EGGS! from Batman #99, April 1956 “The PENGUIN’S FABULOUS FOWLS!” from Batman #76, April – May 1953 “The RETURN of the PENGUIN” from Batman #155, May 1963 (First Silver-Age Penguin appearance!) “The SLEEPING BEAUTIES OF GOTHAM CITY!” from Batman #84, June 1954 — BATMAN AND ROBIN (Titan Books, 1988) Same contents as Signet’s BATMAN, minus “FAN-MAIL OF DANGER!” and “The TESTING of BATMAN!” — BATMAN Versus THE JOKER (Titan Books, 1988) Same contents as Signet’s BATMAN vs. THE JOKER, minus “The JOKER’S WINNING TEAM!” — BATMAN Versus THE PENGUIN (Titan Books, 1988) Same contents as Signet’s BATMAN vs. THE PENGUIN, minus “The SLEEPING BEAUTIES OF GOTHAM CITY!” — BATMAN Versus CATWOMAN (Titan Books, 1989) “The KING of the CATS!” from Batman #69, February – March 1952 “The SLEEPING BEAUTIES OF...
