A MORRISON MONDAYS BONUS! Including the later Titan editions…
By BILL MORRISON
For this week’s MORRISON MONDAYS column, I took a deep dive into Signet’s 1966 Batman paperback anthology collections, which were for years the only such books you could get your hands on. I also covered the UK Titan Books editions, which came out in 1988-90.
But no such exploration would be a complete without a thorough table of contents. We here at 13th Dimension aim to please, so for the curious completist, here are the contents of all nine paperbacks — compiled by yours truly.
Dates are original publication dates:
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BATMAN (Signet, 1966)
“The LEGEND of The BATMAN – WHO HE IS AND HOW HE CAME TO BE!” from Batman #1, Spring 1940
“The WEB OF DOOM!” from Batman #90, March 1955
“FAN-MAIL OF DANGER!” from Batman #92, June 1955
“THE CRAZY CRIME CLOWN!” from Batman #74, December 1952 – January 1953
“THE CRIME PREDICTOR” from Batman #77, June – July 1953
“The MAN WHO COULD CHANGE FINGERPRINTS!” from Batman #82, March 1954
“The TESTING of BATMAN!” from Batman #83, April 1954
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BATMAN vs. THE JOKER (Signet, 1966)
“THE CHALLENGE OF THE JOKER” from Batman #136, December 1960
“The JOKER’S WINNING TEAM!” from Batman #86, September 1954
“The JOKER’S MILLIONS!” from Detective Comics #180, February 1952
“The JOKER’S JOURNAL!” from Detective Comics #193, March 1953
“BATMAN – CLOWN OF CRIME!” from Batman #85, August 1954
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BATMAN vs. THE PENGUIN (Signet, 1966)
“The PARASOLS of PLUNDER” from Batman #70, April – May 1952
“THE GOLDEN EGGS! from Batman #99, April 1956
“The PENGUIN’S FABULOUS FOWLS!” from Batman #76, April – May 1953
“The RETURN of the PENGUIN” from Batman #155, May 1963 (First Silver-Age Penguin appearance!)
“The SLEEPING BEAUTIES OF GOTHAM CITY!” from Batman #84, June 1954
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BATMAN AND ROBIN (Titan Books, 1988)
Same contents as Signet’s BATMAN, minus “FAN-MAIL OF DANGER!” and “The TESTING of BATMAN!”
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BATMAN Versus THE JOKER (Titan Books, 1988)
Same contents as Signet’s BATMAN vs. THE JOKER, minus “The JOKER’S WINNING TEAM!”
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BATMAN Versus THE PENGUIN (Titan Books, 1988)
Same contents as Signet’s BATMAN vs. THE PENGUIN, minus “The SLEEPING BEAUTIES OF GOTHAM CITY!”
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BATMAN Versus CATWOMAN (Titan Books, 1989)
“The KING of the CATS!” from Batman #69, February – March 1952
“The SLEEPING BEAUTIES OF GOTHAM CITY!” from Batman #84, June 1954
“The JUNGLE CAT-QUEEN!” from Detective Comics #211, September 1954
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BATMAN: RETURN OF THE JOKER (Titan Books, 1989)
Untitled first appearance of the Joker from Batman #1, Spring 1940
“The JOKER’S UTILITY BELT!” from Batman #73, October 1952
“BATMAN’S SUPER PARTNER” from Batman #127, October 1959
“The JOKER’S GREATEST TRIUMPH” from Batman #148, June 1962
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BATMAN AND SUPERMAN (Titan Books, 1990)
“The FEDERATION of BIZARRO IDIOTS!” from World’s Finest Comics #156, March 1966
“The MENACE of SUPERMAN’S PET” from World’s Finest Comics # 112, September 1960
“BAT-MITE MEETS MR. MXYZPTLK” from World’s Finest Comics #113, November 1960
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MORE
— Signet’s Lovable 1966 BATMAN Reprint Paperbacks Were All We Had — But They Were a Goldmine. Click here.
— THE BATMAN ’66 MOVIE AT 60: The Flick’s Groovy Novelization Is Anything But a Bomb. Click here.
August 17, 2026
Excellent write up!!
August 17, 2026
I had the first three and the two that Jim wrote about. I never saw the other 3 reprints in 88 and 89, the Batmania 2 era. Nice to know the original stories sources.
August 17, 2026
“Fan Mail of Danger” featured what Bob Kane always claimed was his biggest art blooper (though it wasn’t his… it was Shelly Moldoff’s). Afraid of a bomb being sneaked into the bat cave, Batman and Robin x-ray a stuffed bat that a fan has sent them. Without giving it any thought, Shelly Moldoff drew a picture in the x-ray machine of a baseball bat rather than of a flying bat. Except for George Brett, I didn’t think anyone ever had a stuffed baseball bat.
August 18, 2026
Excellent behind the scenes anecdote! Thanks, Michael!
August 18, 2026
The choice of stories are interesting – likely DC still had “stats”/”Negatives” on the original artwork