Posted By Dan Greenfield on Dec 24, 2024 | 8 comments

Celebrating the 55th ANNIVERSARY of one of comics’ greatest Christmas tales…

Going all the way back to 13th Dimension’s first holiday season in 2013, we’ve celebrated annually Mike Friedrich and Neal Adams’ 1969 The Silent Night of the Batman, in my mind the most affecting of all Christmas comics stories.

We’ve run multiple columns, most recently a 2023 piece by our pal Peter Stone, Neal’s son-in-law, but this year — the eight-page classic’s 55th anniversary — we take you deeper than ever, thanks to Scott Dunbier of Act 4 Publishing.

Scott’s final Artist’s Edition for IDW, due in spring 2025, is the Neal Adams DC Classics Artist’s Edition, and it includes all the original art for this wonderfully warm Christmas tale. So, here are the eight pages, along with Scott’s commentary, as well as the published versions.

Merry Christmas!

— Dan

DC didn’t seem to understand what it had on its hands. Not even a mention of the story on the cover (also by Adams)!

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By SCOTT DUNBIER

“The Silent Night of the Batman”

Batman #219, cover-dated February 1970, released in November 1969, just in time for the holidays.

Mike Friedrich, Writer
Neal Adams, Penciller
Dick Giordano, Inker
Gaspar Saladino, Letterer
Julie Schwartz, Editor

A short story that features Batman as a supporting character to the spirit of Christmas.

It begins with a familiar motif — Batman being summoned by Commissioner Gordon via the Batsignal to police headquarters. It’s Christmas Eve, and rather than Gordon offering the case du jour, his motive is much more personal, inviting the Caped Crusader to be a guest at a holiday party.

A somewhat skeptical Batman decides to join in, for the briefest of moments, until the inevitable emergency occurs and he is called away to tend to his duties as the protector of Gotham. Or so he thinks.

The story is told on parallel levels; three vignettes that normally might involve Batman, interspersed with shots of our hero, Gordon, and a group of officers singing carols. To me, it harkens back to the perennial Christmas flick, It’s a Wonderful Life, the story of a man who doesn’t realize what a tremendous impact he has had on everyone in his orbit. This story follows a similar conceit; several incidents arise and Batman’s presence, his “spirit,” intervenes. As Gordon offers, it’s almost like Batman’s investment in Gotham City has paid off, allowing him a brief reprieve.

But, as an “art guy,” I’d be remiss if I did not spend some time talking about the craft and process. This is a rare opportunity to look at the work of Neal Adams up close and see it as never before. “The Silent Night of the Batman” is one of many stories that Adams drew for DC over the decades, but it is one of the few, less than 10, whose original art have remained together in one place, complete. That in itself is almost a Christmas Miracle.

First, looking through these pages, you need to realize that they are not black and white, not really. Each page has been scanned in color so you can see all the details, all the little nuances, that make original art so unique. Look at the first page, for instance, the story title is hand drawn, except for the Batman logo — it is a stat that has been cut out and pasted on. Scanning in color gives it the appearance of depth, rather than the flatness you would see if it was a black-and-white photocopy. Also, all the pages have various little bits of tape, blue pencil corrections, smudges, whiteout. These were created by people, by hand! It is a visual history of the journey these pages took from the writer’s typewriter to the artist’s drawing board, to the production department at DC Comics, and eventually to the printer.

Neal Adams was a master storyteller with wonderfully inventive panel layouts. Take the ghost-like image of Commissioner Gordon on Page 7 for instance, or the way he separated Batman and the officers from the events on Pages 3 and 4. And Adams’ pencils are complimented by his longtime partner Dick Giordano, giving weight to the art. And the lettering by Gaspar — one of the greats — is outstanding.

Being able to see these pages up close, as the artists created them, is one of the true joys of seeing original art.

This story is one of seven that will appear next spring in the Neal Adams DC Classics Artist’s Edition.

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MORE

— Dig This EXCLUSIVE INSIDE LOOK at the NEAL ADAMS DC CLASSICS ARTIST’s EDITION. Click here.

— NEAL ADAMS STORE’s Exclusive, Limited Edition ARTIST’S EDITION Volumes Now Up for Pre-Order. Click here.

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Scott Dunbier, who pioneered DC’s Absolute Editions and the Artist’s Edition concept for IDW, now operates his own company, Act 4 Publishing.