Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jun 15, 2026 | 1 comment

A groovy BIRTHDAY SALUTE…

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Hey, it’s the late, great Neal Adams’ birthday — he was born 85 years ago, on June 15, 1941 — and we’re having a three-for celebration! We’ve got the EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK at the cover of the upcoming Batman by Neal Adams: Absolute Edition Vol. 1 (click here), the EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK at the book’s complete table of contents (click here), and a really groovy faux Batman ’66 cover (below!) crafted by none other than our own Walt Grogan. Dig it! — Dan

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By WALT GROGAN

One of the nice things about the subject matter of this article is that I get to wax poetic, for a bit, about the 1966 Batman TV show and movie.

I unabashedly love the show and it’s hard to describe how much of a cultural milestone it became when it hit the airwaves in January 1966.

The whole country was engulfed in Batmania and it certainly buoyed the entire comic industry with companies trying to cash in on the craze! DC Comics, home to Batman, shoe-horned the Caped Crusader into every cover and piece of merchandise they could.

The show also raised the awareness of Batman globally. Adam West even appeared as Batman in a British safety advert to make sure kids looked both ways before stepping off a kerb! And he appeared in costume on a few of the variety shows that were popular at the time.

The show was so popular, many of the TV and movie stars of the day wanted to appear as guest-villains but they couldn’t be accommodated. And thus, the Window Meet-Up was born, where a Bat-climbing Batman and Robin would inevitably be greeted by a celebrity, often as the character from their own series, for a brief chat before climbing on.

But when the fervor died down and the show was cancelled in 1968, the Masked Manhunter’s primary home was back in the comics. Around the same time, artist Neal Adams — born 85 years on June 15, 1941 — spearheaded a new, more modern and realistic look for the Caped Crusader, aided and abetted by fellow artists Irv Novick, Dick Giordano, Bob Brown and, soon enough, Jim Aparo.

Adams, 1970

While Adams and his cohorts moved Batman away from the winking Pow! Zap! Bam! era, many fans wondered how he would have handled drawing the characters from the show, especially because he was clearly adept at drawing likenesses, as evidenced by his Ben Casey comic strip experience drawing actor Vince Edwards.

It was also well known that Adams wasn’t a fan of the show.

Well, almost 10 years ago, 13th Dimension’s Grand Poobah, Dan Greenfield, made that a reality by commissioning Neal’s now-famous piece of comic book Batman meeting TV’s Batman in a riff of “We Are the Greatest!” from Superman vs. Muhammad Ali!

I even turned it into a faux Brave and the Bold cover.

You would think that would be it, but lo and behold, another piece surfaced!

And I thought, “Wow, that would look great in color!” Dan, on his own, thought so too, and asked if I would do the honors.

For a piece like this, I wanted to give it the full treatment and thought the old DC Special comic would be the perfect place, even though the title started a bit after the show ended.

If I had seen this cover on the rack, I would have gleefully grabbed a copy and marched it right to the cash register!

And of course, I’ll finish this off with a vintage, “aged” version!

For more Neal Adams birthday celebration, check out the links below!

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MORE

— EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK at the BATMAN BY NEAL ADAMS: ABSOLUTE EDITION Cover. Click here.

— EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK at the Complete BATMAN BY NEAL ADAMS: ABSOLUTE EDITION Table of Contents. Click here.

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A 10-year-old Walt Grogan fell in love with the original Captain Marvel thanks to essays written by Dick Lupoff and Don Thompson in the paperback edition of All in Color for a Dime, released in 1970 and bought for him by his father off a paperback spinner rack in a liquor store on the South Side of Chicago. Walt runs The Marvel Family Web Facebook page devoted to all incarnations of the Fawcett/DC Captain Marvel and blogs about Captain Marvel at shazamshistorama.com.