Out of the Past
"BATMAN IN BRITAIN"
Reviewing Batman 1968 Annual published by Atlas Publishing & Distributing Co. Ltd. in 1968 in Great Britain.
Copyright © 2008, Glenn Walker
I discovered this nearly one-hundred page hard cover treat on my recent trip to London. My friend Ian was hiding it away with his many other toys and joys in the guest room I stayed in. The bright red cover is adorned with a pic of Adam West from the 1966 movie - "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!"
The inside front and back covers feature cartoon portraits of Batman, Robin and Superman, the Batman symbol, the Joker and the Penguin, an odd-looking Riddler and a Catwoman with a badly illustrated Julie Newmar face. These are in the same green ink base that many of the interior stories are in. Others are in sepia tones with only two full-length stories in full color.
How to Be The Batman
Batman loses his memory and must be dragged down memory lane via Batcave trophies to get it back.
The First Batman
The first of three full color stories tells the tale of Thomas Wayne's original Bat-Man costume. It's an examination of one of the Batcave trophies that probably no longer exists in continuity. Fun read.
The Second Boy Wonder
You think there are too many Robins running around loose now? Well, here's the story of Freddie Loyd, the second Boy Wonder... or is it?
The Strange Costumes of Batman
Self-explanatory, we see the white Arctic costume, the gold pretending-to-be-a-gold-statue costume, the glowing one, the glider-wing suit, the underwater one, the space-suit from a future adventure but the main thrust of this story is about the costume to only be used in the worst emergency - a Batman costume with a red-dotted bird on its chest.
Am I Really Batman?
An amnesia story.
The Origin of the Bat-Cave
American Indians figure into the backstory of Batman's headquarters.
Tales of the Bat-Signal
A one-pager that tells all about the world's most famous signal device.
The Human Firefly
Another of the full color stories, this one shows the origin of the Firefly, a fun and once lost member of the Batman Rogues Gallery. If memory serves, he's been brought back recently, bearing no resemblance to this icon of a more innocent time. Clever and fun.
How the Super-Family Came from Krypton to Earth
This one is a two-page full color spread showing the courses that Superbaby, Supergirl, Krypto, Anti-Superman and tons of kryptonite took to get to the Earth. Also included are fun facts about Argo City, red and green kryptonite, Anti-Superman and Superbaby's first super-deed.
Batman Sets Superman a Riddle
An odd one-pager that shows the bizarre games the World's Finest duo used to play with each other in the oh-so-innocent fifties. Those wacky superheroes!
The Man Who Ended Batman's Career
Perhaps this British annual is where Starman writer first saw the so-called 1950s Starman story. Other than the historic point of reference for Starman fans this is also an early appearance of the sinister Professor Milo. Here Milo makes Bruce Wayne afraid of bats, so to continue his fight against crime he adopts a new identity - Starman. Though retaining Robin as his partner, Starman employs a number of interesting gadgets like the Star-plane, the Stararang, Star-darts, the Star-signal and his secret headquarters, the Star-Loft. It's fifties fun with a wink toward today in James Robinson's Starman.
How Superboy Learned to Fly
A funny one-pager to close out the book in which Superboy learns to fly using balloons, gets dizzy and strikes oil trying to land. Silver Age silliness at its best.
All in all this volume is a wonderful walk down memory lane, a treat for the new or old fan, a glimpse of the days when comics were simpler, and much more fun.