Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jan 12, 2026 | 0 comments

MORRISON MONDAYS meets BATMAN ’66 WEEK — again!

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Welcome to BATMAN ’66 WEEK, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the beloved TV show starring Adam West! Over the last week, we’ve been presenting daily tributes and features, leading up to Jan. 12 — the premiere date itself — where we’ve rolled out a brand-new TOP 13 BATMAN ’66 EPISODE COUNTDOWN, voted upon by a panel of the most knowledgeable Bat-experts around. Click here for the COMPLETE INDEX. — Dan

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By BILL MORRISON

If there was a religion based on the 1966 Batman TV series, today would be the equivalent of Christmas. 60 years ago, on January 12, 1966, the ABC television network delivered a big, Bat-present to fans of the Caped Crusader, and we celebrate that groovy, campy gift to this day.

For my part, I’m observing the anniversary by sharing some original artwork from my Batman collection and highlighting 13 astonishing artists who drew the Dynamic Duo in the spirit of the TV show. (I also voted in the TOP 13 BATMAN ’66 EPISODE COUNTDOWN.)

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1. Joe Giella. In May of 1966, after the phenomenal success of Batman on TV, DC Comics resurrected the newspaper strip that had ended 20 years earlier in 1946. The revived strip mirrored the campy tone of the TV show, taking full advantage of Batmania. The comic books in which the Caped Crusaders appeared, mainly Detective Comics and Batman followed suit a few months later.

These daily strips are from the “Joker on Parole” and “Jolly Roger” storylines and were drawn by Joe Giella. Joe was known primarily as a great inker in the comics, but these 1966 strips prove that he was also a magnificent penciller!

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2. Bob Oksner. If there had been a Batman comic book based on the TV show in 1966, Bob Oksner would have drawn it. He was an extremely versatile artist, and could draw comics in a realistic adventure style that was in the same league with fellow DC artists like Neal Adams, Jim Aparo, and Curt Swan. But he was just as adept at drawing humor comics, and DC kept him busy throughout the ’50s and ’60s on funny books like Leave it to Binky, Miss Beverly Hills of Hollywood, and Angel and the Ape, as well as titles based on comedians and sitcoms such as The Adventures of Bob Hope, Sgt. Bilko, and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

In September of 1966, Batman and Robin guest-starred in Issue #97 of DC’s long-running humor comic, The Adventures of Jerry Lewis, drawn by Oksner, and that’s the closest thing we got to a comic based on the Batman TV show in 1966. The Caped Crusaders, as portrayed in this issue, are obviously mirroring their campy TV counterparts in both the Arnold Drake script and the Oksner artwork.

Before The Adventures of Jerry Lewis #97 even appeared on newsstands, the TV show featured the first-ever Bat-climb window cameo… with Jerry Lewis.

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3. Michael Allred. In 2013, after years of legal entanglements, DC Comics published an ongoing comic series based on the 1966 Batman TV series, titled Batman ’66. Most of the covers for the series were drawn by one of the grooviest artists around, my pal, Mike Allred. Here are six Allred covers, two from the series proper, three from the Batman ’66 Meets The Man from U.N.C.L.E mini-series, and one from the Archie Meets Batman ’66 crossover.

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4. Sandy Jarrell. The villain of the issue in Batman ’66 #21 (along with the Penguin) was Lord Death Man, who first appeared as Death Man in Batman #180 in 1966. Sandy Jarrell was the artist for this issue, and also drew an unpublished homage to Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson’s famous original cover. Since Batgirl replaced an injured Robin on a trip to Japan in Jeff Parker’s script, Sandy drew another version featuring Death Man kicking Batgirl into an open grave instead of the Boy Wonder. Also in my collection are two published pages from the issue featuring Batman and Batgirl in battle with a horde of Lord Death Man’s ninjas.

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5. Jonathan Case. The original interior artist for the Batman ’66 series was Jonathan Case, and after an absence of several issues, he returned for the penultimate 29th print issue to draw the thrilling story, “Catwoman Comes About.”  I love the way he captured the likeness of Julie Newmar, and he displayed a wonderfully energetic storytelling skill in this tale.

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6. Michael Avon Oeming. Taking a break from his work on the long-running Powers series, Michael Avon Oeming drew Batman’66 #22, featuring the Penguin. Michael created his pages in tier segments, and here are various tiers from the issue.

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7. Ty Templeton. I had the pleasure of working with the amazingly versatile Ty Templeton at Bongo Comics on several Simpsons stories and features, and have since been in awe of his talent. Ty drew the Caped Crusaders in many issues of The Batman Adventures and The Batman and Robin Adventures in the Bruce Timm animated style, but here he shows his knack for likenesses in this art from an issue of Batman ’66 Meets The Green Hornet. Like Michael Avon Oeming, Ty also drew his pages in tier segments.

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8. Dave Johnson. Michael Rennie appeared on Batman as the Sandman, one of two guest villains (the other being Julie Newmar as Catwoman) in Season 2’s The Sandman Cometh/The Catwoman Goeth. Batman ’66 #5 introduced the “Dozierverse” Sandman to the comics page, making eight DC characters with that name by my count! Johnson is known for his brilliantly designed covers, and this cover is a fine example. He introduces Sandman as the villain of the issue in a circular vignette that mimics the giant spotlight above, while also showcasing Batgirl, who makes her series debut in this issue.

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9. Alex Ross. Once DC began publishing a comic based on Batman, we all knew they had to do an issue that revisited the Season 2 episodes that featured the Green Hornet and Kato, A Piece of the Action/Batman’s Satisfaction. What we got was not just a single issue, but a whole mini-series sequel, written by Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman, no less, with incredible covers by Alex Ross and interior art by Ty Templeton! Here are two of Alex’s dynamic cover prelims on a single sheet.

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10. Kevin Maguire. The iconic cover to 1987’s Justice League #1 by Kevin Maguire has been parodied countless times, often by Maguire himself. Here is the pencil art for a print by Kevin, parodying the JL cover and featuring much of the cast of the Batman TV show.

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11. José Luis Garcia-Lopez. During the run of the Batman TV show, famed science fiction author Harlan Ellison pitched an episode that would revive Batman’s Golden Age nemesis, Two-Face. However, producers deemed the villain too scary for the kid portion of their audience, and the outline was shelved. Nearly half a century later in 2015, Ellison’s story was resurrected for the one-shot comic, Batman ’66: The Lost Episode.

The long overdue story was adapted by the superstar team of Len Wein (script) and José Luis Garcia-Lopez (pencils) with inks by Joe Prado. Since this gorgeous page by Garcia-Lopez is just the tight pencils, I assume Prado did his inks digitally or on a blueline.

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12. June Brigman. This beautiful and entrancing drawing of Julie Newmar as Catwoman was the result of an art trade between me and my friend, June Brigman. I definitely got the better end of the deal!

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13. Tom Richmond. Finally, here are two incredible caricatures of Adam West and Julie Newmar in costume by my pal, MAD Magazine maestro, Tom Richmond! I also own a page that Tom drew when I was Executive Editor at MAD. The story featured MeTV horror host Svengoolie getting frustrated when his horror films keep getting mashed up with old TV show reruns. This page has the Batman show crossing over with Tod Browning’s Dracula.

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Want more MORRISON MONDAYS? Come back next week! Want a commission? See below!

Want more BATMAN ’66 WEEK? Click here.

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MORE

— The TOP 13 BATMAN ’66 EPISODES — RANKED. Click here.

— The BATMAN ’66 Debut Episode You DIDN’T See. Click here.