Batman’s first screen foray launched 81 years ago…
Columbia’s Batman serial debuted July 16, 1943, in the middle of the throes of World War II. Hence the villain, Doctor Daka (played by J. Carrol Naish) was the classic caricature of a Japanese evildoer. SPOILER FOR AN 81-YEAR-OLD chapter play, but Batman (Lewis Wilson) and Robin (Douglas Croft) save the day and a the 15-part series later helped inspire the 1960s Batman show.
(One death trap in particular was lifted for the series’ best episode — The Purr-fect Crime/Better Luck Next Time, featuring the debut of Julie Newmar’s Catwoman.)
Anyway, our pal Rob Kelly wrote a great piece on it a while back and you can click here to check it out. But for this year’s anniversary, we wanted to throw at you artist Lee Bermejo’s marvelously ominous tribute to Batman ’43, which he produced a few years ago:
Things have come full circle for Bermejo. His regular version of the Dark Knight…
… was aped in 2022’s The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson, and Bermejo’s got an homage to that flick coming out as a variant cover for August’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold #16:
If the Dude abides, so does the Batman.
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MORE
— 1943’s BATMAN Serial: The Highs and Lows of the Dynamic Duo’s Screen Debut. Click here.
— DC Recasts Famous BATMAN Covers With Screen Versions of the Caped Crusader. Click here.
July 16, 2024
Lee Bermejo is indeed one of the comic book industry’s best artists. I hope he continues to get work.