Posted By Dan Greenfield on May 14, 2025 | 4 comments

Who They Are and How They Came to Be!

By WALT GROGAN

A while back, 13thD’s Grand Poobah, Dan Greenfield, asked if I wanted to freshen up the “Batman’s Hot-Line” banner that adorns the site’s Batman-centric articles.

I agreed, of course, but after looking at the piece, which originally acted as the letter-column header for Detective Comics, I wanted to keep it basically the same. You know what they say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” (BTW, an article showcasing my favorite lettercol headers will be coming in the future.)

Nevertheless, because the site features the art of Batman illustrators from across the generations, I thought that it could be a bit more representative, so I decided to add a few more headshots from some of my favorites. And yes, I was trying to shoot for 13, but the remaining four would have been so small, that it just didn’t make sense.

Lo, and behold, though, when Dan unveiled the new header, many of the site’s readers turned the nine headshots into a guessing game of “Identify the Artists” — so much so that Dan was asking me where I pulled them from! (Dan adds: I could ID the artists, but not all the sources!)

Well, I suggested it might make a good article for the site, Dan agreed, and here we are.

Here’s a breakdown of the artists and from what issues (and promo art) each headshot was pulled from:

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Bob Kane (1940). Without Bob Kane, there would be no Batman, so Bob had to be represented. I really love this headshot primarily due to Batman’s squished chin! It’s magnificent! I couldn’t find any original art showcasing it, so I pulled it from the cover of an issue of Detective Comics. This particular shot is from a corner bullet that debuted on the cover of Detective Comics #38 (April 1940), which also featured the debut of Robin, the Boy Wonder!

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Jerry Robinson (1941). This headshot was also from a corner bullet, this time either by Jerry Robinson or Jerry inking Bob Kane as he did on the cover itself. I’ve always been a fan of the happy, smiling Batman, so I had to work one in, and who better than Jerry (and maybe, Bob) to represent that version? This shot debuted on the cover of Detective Comics #55 (Sept. 1941) although I pulled it from the original art of a later issue.

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Carmine Infantino (1966). Well, this one was easy, it’s part of the art from the original lettercol header! The only thing no one is quite sure of is who inked it. Was it Murphy Anderson or Joe Giella? Maybe, as Shaquille O’Neal is fond of saying, “We’ll never know!” What we do know is when the Hot-Line header with Carmine’s art debuted — Detective Comics #336 (Feb. 1965).

Now here’s the wild thing! Who do you think designed this? If you guessed future DC Comics writer, Cary Bates, well you win Perry White’s cigar! You see, DC held a contest for readers to design the header and Cary’s design won! Check it out!

Crazy, huh?

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Curt Swan and George Klein (1967). When I think of Batman in the 1960s, my go-to is Curt Swan and George Klein from World’s Finest Comics. There was just something cool about Superman, Batman, and Robin being friends (and it always seemed to me like Superman must have helped Batman build out the Batcave. Superman is super-smart, after all! This head was taken from the cover of World’s Finest Comics #168 (Sept. 1967). I flipped Batman’s mouth as it looked a little wonky after I straightened it out.

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Bob Brown and Joe Giella (1970). One of my favorite and mostly unsung Batman artists is Bob Brown, so, I knew I had to include him. This headshot, with inks by Joe Giella, was taken from the splash page of Detective Comics #401 (July 1970). Plus the issue boasts a Neal Adams/Dick Giordano cover!

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Alan Kupperberg and Neal Adams (1972). I really love cover sidebar headshots and several of the early-to-mid-’70s titles indulged this passion, notably Detective Comics and Justice League of America. Both Detective and JLA featured a headshot that on the surface appeared to be the same but ended up being slightly different. Check out Detective Comics #420 and beyond for one of them. The option I chose debuted on the cover of Justice League of America #99 (Jun 1972) by Nick Cardy.

That headshot certainly gives off a Neal Adams vibe, but surprisingly, Dan tells me that Adams inked this shot over Alan Kupperberg’s pencils and, since he has more of the story, it’s time for him to drop in and give us more info.

(Dan adds: Kupperberg had said in at least one interview that he had pencilled the head and Adams inked it. His brother, our pal Paul Kupperberg, agrees that it looks like his late brother’s work.)

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Frank Robbins (1972). Frank Robbins is one of those “love him” or “hate him” type of artists! Fortunately, I love his crazy, quirky, kinetic, wildly imaginative and impossibly contortive style on Batman, and on Marvel’s Captain America, and The Invaders! Therefore, he made the cut! This shot is from Detective Comics #426 (Aug. 1972), featuring a cover by Mike Kaluta!

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Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin (1986). Well, I couldn’t add a bunch of Batman heads without including one of Dan’s favorite artists, Marshall Rogers! Heck, he’s one of my faves too! And boy did he draw a mean Hawkman in a Detective Comics backup! This one is from Secret Origins #6 (Sept. 1986), which sports an awesome Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez cover!

If you read the sidebar caption on the left-hand side of the page, you can see how perturbed writer/editor Roy Thomas appeared to be with the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths!

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Jim Aparo (1988). This head was pulled from the promo art for the A Death in the Family storyline from 1988. Jim has always been one of my favorite Batman artists, so I knew I had to include him!

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And to finish things off, here are my colors on the Nine Faces of Batman’s Hot-Line:

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MORE

— Dig the All-New BATMAN’S HOT-LINE! Click here.

— BATMAN, WE ARE THE GREATEST: The Best Comic Book That Never Was. 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.