Monday, July 27, 2009

Mining for Gold(en): Batman in "The Tomb of the White Bat!"

Between Man-Bat and Micronauts, Michael Golden also got to supply the pencils for a handful of Batman stories for the "Dollar Comics" issues of Batman Family. To be honest, those few stories rivaled the Steve Englehart/Marshall RogersTerry Austin stories (that were running at the same time in Detective Comics) for sheer, flat-out coolness. Not only did the talented Mr. Golden supply the pencils, but none other than Denny O'Neil wrote them and (can you believe this?) P. Craig Russell provided the incredible inks! These long-forgotten masterpieces have to be seen to be believed, and you, you lucky Groove-ophile, are in for a treat! From Batman Family #19 (May 1978), here's "The Tomb of the White Bat!"
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10 comments:

  1. Josh ReynoldsJuly 27, 2009 at 2:16 AM

    I love it when they toss a bit of supernatural shenanigans into Batman like this. Plus, giant bats (that talk, no less) are cool.

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  2. KeithJuly 27, 2009 at 9:13 AM

    That looks cool

    Off topic from Batman, but have you seen the Wonder Woman animated movie? I watched it this weekend.

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  3. IzbotJuly 27, 2009 at 5:14 PM

    Batman Family was a great title full of incredible art. Golden did a few Batman stories (one teaming him up with Ragman) as well as Man-Bat and Demon stories. Rogers and Chaykin did Man-Bat stories there, too. Later Bat Fam was folded into Detective Comics and the quality continued: Don Newton, Jim Starlin, Craig Russel, Jim Aparo, Steve Ditko, more Rogers, Golden.

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  4. Edo BosnarJuly 28, 2009 at 6:03 AM

    Always appreciate it when you post more bits of the uncollected works of Golden (now there's a great publishing idea!) And I definitely agree with Izbot, Batman Family was indeed a treasure-trove of great art, with great stories as well.

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  5. AnonymousJuly 30, 2009 at 10:29 PM

    I wrote to DC asking for a Fourth World Appocrypha. It would have the GOLDEN and ROGERS issues of MR. MIRACLE; the NEWTON issues of NEW GODS; the PEREZ issues of JLA/JSA/NEW GODS; the APARO issues of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD: BATMAN MR. MIRACLE and there are one issue of DC COMICS PRESENTS: SUPERMAN MR: MIRACLE and one issue of FLASH ORION. So far nothing, but I do hope you publish them

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  6. The Groovy AgentAugust 1, 2009 at 1:01 PM

    Haven't seen the Wonder Woman 'toon yet, Keith, but it's on my list of "things to do" along with the new Green Lantern one.

    Mucho more Golden headed your way, Groove-ophiles, especially stuff from BatFam. In fact, I hope to post tons o'BatFam stuff in the coming months--unless DC finally wises up and does a trade version first. ;D

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  7. leesaAugust 17, 2009 at 4:10 PM

    Great stuff!

    I hadn't quite realized how much Golden's earlier stuff was so reminiscent of Neal Adams. Looking at the thumbnails made me realize Michael was very inspired by those amazing 1970s Batmans by Neal.

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  8. HEHDecember 7, 2009 at 9:19 AM

    Batman, one of the few characters whose costume looks good in any environment, clime, or setting.
    He can even keep his cool in snowy situations.
    This story is gorgeous and I'd not seen it before. Thank you for sharing the tale (no snowjob either)

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  9. BOBJuly 9, 2011 at 12:08 AM

    Great Golden work! I wonder if you can post his one of the greatest work he ever done were Avengers Annual nbr 10 with Chris Claremont and Batman Special nbr 1 with Mik W Barr. His artwork are still behold to look on.

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  10. macsnafuJuly 20, 2011 at 10:09 AM

    Batman Family #19 was special to me, as it was one of the earliest Batman comics I picked up off the rack at a local grocery store. Great cover and lead story, plus 64 pages with Batman, Robin, Batgirl, and Man-Bat. Great memories!

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.


All other commentary and insanity copyright GroovyAge, Ltd.

As for the rest of ya, the purpose of this blog is to (re)introduce you to the great comics of the 1970s. If you like what you see, do what I do--go to a comics shop, bookstore, e-Bay or whatever and BUY YOUR OWN!