GOTHAM TRIBUNE: You Can Have This Statue (Update: CONTEST OVER)

(UPDATE: SOLVED!)

I have a gorgeous Sean Murphy Batman Black and White statue. It’s yours if you are the first to answer one question, fully and completely. No joke.

Here’s the deal: DC Collectibles provided us with the 50th edition of the megapopular Batman Black and White statue collection. This one’s pretty dynamic, with Batman in a particularly acrobatic pose. Anyway, it’s great looking. But I just don’t have a good spot for it — SO YOU CAN HAVE IT. If … and only if … you are the first to answer one question correctly. It’s a hard one. But I’ll give you a few clues.

A promo shot. Not the one I have.

A promo shot. Not the exact one I have.

First, the rules:

I will only accept answers emailed to DanG@13thDimension.com. Only. Not on Facebook or Twitter or in the comments section or with a skywriting airplane. Only at DanG@13thDimension.com.

You get one chance. But if nobody gets it right by midnight leading into Dec. 1, I’ll give everyone another chance based on more clues. First complete answer wins. I am the final arbiter of the correct answer. Period.

Here’s the question:

WHY DO I CALL THIS COLUMN GOTHAM TRIBUNE?

Here are examples of what I will not accept: “It’s the name of a newspaper.” Or “It’s because you work for a newspaper.” Et cetera. No. It has to be about why I chose Gotham Tribune specifically. What is the significance of that name?

With me so far?

CLUES:

At my old blog I called the column the Gotham Post as a riff on the New York Post, where I hang my hat in daylight hours. But when I went independent with Cliff, I wasn’t going to take the name with me. 13thD and the Post have nothing to do with one another. So I needed a new name. I wanted to keep it a newspaper name because, y’know, I’m old-school like that. But that’s all I’ll tell you on that score.

The answer can be found in at least one book of reprinted Batman stories that is currently in print. We’re talking Golden Age here.

If you take part, you acknowledge all of the above and all of the below:

The fine print: This statue has been removed from its box. So don’t freak out if the tape has been sliced. This way you know the statue has been inspected. It will be sent to you in the original packaging.

Also: This is supposed to be fun. So if you get it and there’s a minor scratch, don’t be a jerk about it. Enjoy this in the vein in which it was intended. If, on the other hand, it’s legitimately broken, send me a picture and I’ll buy you a new one. They’re not that expensive.

Also also: Don’t beef if you didn’t see this at the same time others did. I can’t fix the world’s clock. This is supposed to be fun. This is not an entitlement program. We’re not lawyers here. We’re writers trying to have a laugh.

Cool?

Good luck!

So anyway, I had the opportunity to talk to the guys who run the statue program, Kevin Kiniry, who is DC Collectibles’ VP, Creative Services, and Jim Fletcher, the Design Director, Creative Services. I asked them how the Murphy statue came about. Kiniry said the team picks about six to eight statues to work on every year.

“Sean Murphy has been an amazing collaborator with us in the past on different projects,” he added. “So he got super-inspired by this idea and gave us that crazy, amazing, dynamic pose of Batman and it was a challenge to make sure we could then create it in 3D. It was a really exciting, kind of edgy future feeling version of Batman.”

Fletcher added that they went through a list of people they wanted to get to for the line.

“We reached out to him and he sent in a couple of sketches, including the one we made a statue of … and it came out great.”

Added Kiniry: :We wanted to make sure that we were showcasing artwork of people who are really pushing the boundaries of where Batman is going and what he could be.”

The statue is available in stores and online. It retails in the Batcave of $80.

From the Batcomputer: There’s the surprisingly consistent Batman Black and White #3 tomorrow. There’s Batman/Superman #5. There’s Batwing #25 (a Zero Year tie-in.) There’s Forever Evil #3 — an event I have been enjoying greatly.

But my Batpick this week is Detective Comics #25. Gordon, man. Gordon. (EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW here!)

Cover for the digital combo pack

Cover for the digital combo pack

Author: Dan Greenfield

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2 Comments

  1. I shall not be the proud winner. Thought it might have something to do with intrepid girl reporter Vicki Vale, but I thumbed through my reprints and her paper also boasted double initials (Gotham Gazette)!

    Fun competition and it did give me a few enjoyable hours of leafing through my reprints.

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    • Glad you had fun, KarenO! That’s awesome — and why I decided to make it kind of a treasure hunt!

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