A HAZY SHADE OF BATMAN

AN OVERVIEW OF DC's COLLECTED EDITIONS OF
BATMAN MATERIAL FROM THE BRONZE AGE (1970-1983)

A BRIEF HISTORY OF COLLECTED EDITIONS

In 1986, DC Comics published a 336 pages strong and oversize (6.8" x 10.2") anthology paperback titled Superman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told. Selected by "a special committee at DC", it contained 18 stories spanning the years from 1940 to 1986 and was intended to coincide with the Man of Steel's 50th anniversary.

It was a publication format pioneered back in 1974 by Marvel Comics and their smash hit Origins of Marvel Comics in collaboration with Simon & Schuster. Subsequently followed by many themed Marvel anthologies throughout the 1970s and early 1980s (e.g. Bring On The Bad Guys, 1976), there was nothing comparable from DC until that 1986 Superman stories collection.

The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told (1989)

The Superman collection was followed three years later, in 1989, by an identical anthology in order to celebrate Batman's 50 years in publication: The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, published by Warner Books, collected mutiple stories from 1940 to 1981 on 343 pages. It was a nice, if somewhat fanciful collection of Batman stories which, for the largest part, had not been accessible to the vast majority of readers and fans for a while. As such, the trade paperback collecting reprints was a welcome treasure trove.

But even as DC was putting out its Superman and Batman anthologies, Marvel had already successfully tried out a new reprint formula: launched in 1986, the Marvel Masterworks also focused on one specific superhero (or group of superheroes) but - rather than being anthology collections - reprinted their material in chronological order of publication, starting out at the very beginning.

Marvel put the Mastwerworks series on hold in 1994, and before continuing them in 1997 (and publishing them to this day), introduced their Essential Marvel series in 1996.

The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told (1989)

Unlike the Masterworks, which were (and still are) hardcover books printed in full colour on heavy glossy paper, the Essentials reprinted classic material in black & white on paper which was highly reminiscent of the cheap newsprint used in the 1960s and 1970s. Each volume contained around 20-30 issues of a classic Marvel title in sequential order, running up to a staggering pagecount of between 450 and 650 pages.

Showcase Presents Batman #6 (2016)

Back in 1989, DC had launched its own version of the Masterworks concept, calling the series the DC Archive. Reprinting early material in (mostly) chronological order, the Batman got his first volume in 1990, starting out with his very first adventures from Detective Comics. The series was cancelled in 2014, with Batman Archives #8 being the last Darknight-themed volume (published in 2012) and only just making it into the 1950s regarding the material reprinted.

More ground was covered in DC's Showcase format, which followed the formula set out by Marvel's Essential line and introduced in 2005. The Batman material reprinted here in black & white (both from Detective Comics and Batman) reached the year 1972 with its sixth volume in 2016, but it appears that DC has since discontinued the Showcase format.

The point to take away from this little snippet of comic book reprint publication history: while Marvel has always been good at this game, DC has more than once presented itself as truly struggling with the task - witness, for example, the by now third attempt to reprint the Golden Age (1940s and 1950s) Batman material, first in the hardcover Archives series (aborted), then the trade paperpack Chronicles (aborted), and now the oversize Omnibus series (ongoing and into the early mid-1950s, with volume 9 announced for December 2020).

For the Darknight Detective's 80th publication anniversary in 2019, DC's official publication was yet another anthology collection: Detective Comics: 80 Years of Batman. But looking sideways at Marvel's ever-expanding Masterworks collection, one might wonder how DC has made the classic Batman Bronze Age period (ranging from 1970 to 1983) accessible to fans and readers. What follows is the long and detailed answer, but the short reply would have to be: DC Comics (still) has no idea how to properly reprint their classic material, leaving fans with a plethora of collected series and lots of duplicates while still having to face missing issues and stories. And: there is a reason why Marvel excels and DC sucks at reprints.

DC's ILLOGICAL ANTHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO COLLECTED EDITIONS

While Marvel Comics (and other comic book publishers) have fully realized what their fans and readers really want when it comes down to reprints - namely to be able to (re-)read a certain series or a certain hero's adventures in the chronological order in which they originally appeared - DC Comics has stubbornly stuck to the anthology format.

An anthology is a collection of (chiefly literary) works chosen by the compiler; the term traces its origin back to a Classic Greek word literally meaning "a collection of blossoms". While this works fine under certain circumstances, a series of anthologies from a large trove of material (such as Batman's comic book adventures) will inevitably produce both duplicates and gaps at the same time: some "blossoms" will be reprinted time and time again, while other material will never be selected. For extensive reprints, it becomes a highly illogical approach and burdens the reader in more ways than one.

DC Comics initially put out a fine anthology series centering on specific decades of Batman stories in the late 1990s and early 2000s, of which Batman in the Seventies and Batman in the Eighties cover a nice selection of Bronze Age material. But when the time came to reprint Batman's adventures from that period, as featured in Batman and Detective Comics, in a more comprehensive way, DC made the awful decision to organize their Batman collections by creative talent rather than by narrative continuity.

Batman in the Seventies (2000)

Batman in the Eighties (2004)

The fundamerntal shortcoming of this approach is the indifference and lack of understanding on the part of the publisher that writers and/or artists frequently changed. The resulting anthology will therefore only feature the work involving a certain spotlighted creative talent (e.g. writer A or artist B), and while that work will be presented in order of publication, such a reprint volume will not feature an uninterrupted sequence of issues because writer A or artist B may have worked on issues #22 and #24 but not issue #23. This is no problem for stories which are told and concluded in one issue, but Batman was one of the first characters where DC followed Marvel's lead with regard to continuity and on-going plots, which happened occasionally as of the early 1970s and then extensively in the early 1980s.

The following overview by year shows the resulting gaps as well as duplicates and triplicates of DC's anthological approach, and also illustrates how following storylines very often involves having to switch from one collected edition to another.

1969

Batman #217 (December 1969, on sale 21 October 1969), written by Frank Robbins, pencilled by Irv Novick, and sporting a Neal Adams cover, kicks off the comic book Bronze Age for Batman, a period characterized by the disbanding of the Batman & Robin team as Dick Grayson goes to college and Bruce and Alfred move from Wayne Manor on the outskirts of town to the Wayne Foundation in Downtown Gotham.

Batman #217 (December 1969)

It was a drastic move even by comic book standards. After all, the Batcave had become a set piece in the perception of Batman as a popular culture icon, not the least cemented into place by the frequent views offered to the millions of people watching the 1960s cult television series - and the trademark call of "Robin, to the Batcave!"

But then maybe that was precisley what writer Frank Robbins had in mind at the time. "Batmania" was over for good, and by the end of the 1960s a number of talents at DC comics had to almost reinvent the Darknight Detective from scratch in order to pull the character from the debris of the "camp" era when the comic books followed the TV series as closely as they could in order to cash in on the popularity - which they did, at least for a while. When the TV show ended, so did the good times for the Dynamic Duo in their original medium.

From this point on, Batman stories generally start to have a more "serious" tone, often linked to a “back to the (darker) roots” transition, leaving behind the camp humour and sci-fi silliness of the 1960s for good - and the Batcave would not be opened up again until Gerry Conway handed Bruce Wayne and Alfred (and Dick) back the keys in Batman #348 (June 1982), which made for an incredible 131 issues (and twelve and a half years in real time) without the original Batcave.

This starting point, Batman #217, was reprinted in 1999 in the collected edition Batman in the Sixties. Although out of print, both new and second hand copies can still be found without major problems; Batman in the Sixties is also available in digital form.

1970

DC’s flagship title is published monthly throughout 1970, whereas Batman skips the months of April and October, resulting in 10 issues that year (of which two are “Giant Size” all-reprint issues with 1950s material). It is here that Dennis O'Neil's starts his iconic run on Batman together with Neal Adams in Detective Comics #395 (January 1970, on sale 26 November 1969).

O'Neil's was looking to make the world of superheroes feel closer to the real world, moving characters from spanky clean and sunny surroundings with intermittent but passing super villain threats to a world of gritty street level problems which wouldn't go away even after the super villain was down. O'Neil modernised Wonder Woman and Green Arrow that way, but when it came to the Batman, his approach was a markedly different one: It wasn't so much about updating but rather about restoration, about peeling off layer upon layer of primary-colour gloss which had been slapped onto the character in 30+ years, until the original work of art became visible again.

Taking up a cue from writer Bob Haney and artist Neal Adams who had portrayed Batman in a very sombre way in Brave and the Bold #79 (August/September 1968) - and which was quite unlike the regular stories in Batman and Detective Stories - Denny O'Neil undertook a deliberate effort to move the Darknight Detective away from the completely worn out campy vein of the TV series (which ended in 1968) and to once again return the character to his darker and grittier roots as a mysterious night-time vigilante:

"I went to the DC library and read some of the early stories. I tried to get a sense of what Kane and Finger were after." (O'Neil in: Pearson & Uricchio 1991)

This take on the Batman by Dennis O'Neil was perfectly reflected by the artwork of Neil Adams, and it would resound for decades and leave an indelible mark not only on the character but indeed comic book history.

"We went back to a grimmer, darker Batman, and I think that's why these stories did so well (...) Even today we're still using Neal's Batman with the long flowing cape and the pointy ears." (Giordano in: Daniels, 1999)

Maybe that's why only Batman stories from 1970 which were drawn by Neal Adams have been reprinted in collected editions so far (not surprisingly, Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams #2, published in 2004, contains all of them).

The result of an approach which reprints issues according to creative talent (in this case Neal Adams) in an anthology format can clearly be seen: no less than 14 of the year's total of 20 issues of Batman and Detective Comics (not counting the reprint Giant Size issues) have not been reprinted by DC so far.

Detective Comics #395

Batman #219

Detective Comics #400

Detective Comics #404

1971

Detective Comics is published monthly throughout 1971, whereas Batman skips the months of April and October, resulting in 10 issues that year (of which two are “Giant Size” all-reprint issues featuring material from the 1950s).

Again, as with the previous year, the reprinted material from 1971 to this date only includes Batman stories drawn by Neal Adams - all of which are featured in Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams #2.

And another result of the anthology approach becomes apparent here as well: the “cumulative reprinting” of certain key issues, illustrated by the introduction of Ra’s al Ghul in Batman #232 and a pivotal Two Face appearance in Batman #234, both of which are reprinted in no less than four different collected editions each.

So while 1971 Batman material has been reprinted in no less than 10 different collected editions between 1989 and 2020, there still is a total of 14 (not counting the reprint Giant Sizes) issues of Detective Comics and Batman from 1971 which are not accessible through collected editions to this day.

Detective Comics #407

Detective Comics #408

Batman #232

Batman #237

1972

Detective Comics is published monthly throughout 1972, whereas Batman changes its publication schedule in mid-year and now skips a total of four months, namely January, March, July and November. For the year 1972, however, this still results in a total of 10 issues of Batman.

This is the first year of Batman’s Bronze Age period which has material reprinted in collected editions which did not involve the artwork of Neal Adams.

While this does reflect a broader approach with regard to creative talent (certainly a good thing for fans), it does, however, also clearly show the shape of complications to come - which is reflected in the fact that no less than four different collected editions are needed to access the seven reprints from 1972.

This contrasts sharply with the fact that no less than 12 (not counting the one Giant Size) issues of Detective Comics and Batman from 1972 have not been reprinted to this day.

And again, the “cumulative reprinting” which is so typical of multiple anthologies on one subject, is in evidence, with Batman #243 and #244 reprinted in no less than three different collected editions.

Batman #240

Batman #244

Detective Comics #429

Batman #246

1973

Detective Comics is published monthly up until the April 1973 issue, then skips a month and continues as a bi-monthly title, resulting in a total of 9 issues in 1973; as of the December/January 1973/74 issue, Detective Comics also changes to the 100 pages "Super Spectacular" format (adding lots of non-Batman material, some of it reprints).

Batman is published monthly with the exception of January, March, July and November, resulting in a total of 8 issues of Batman in 1973.

The chart for 1973 really says it all - and paints a clear picture of the incongruity of DC's approach to Brone Age reprints. While there are no less than 6 different collected editions (published between 1989 and 2017) featuring material from 1973, only a mere three issues have actually ever been reprinted - and to read them you will need at least two different collected editions. Which also means that two of these issues have been reprinted three times and one of them twice - and that fans and collectors are more than likely to end up with the same reprinted issue in more than one collected edition on their bookshelf.

All in all, one might be hard pressed to find a better example than the year 1973 to illustrate, in a nutshell, the absurdity of the anthological approach to Batman reprints.

Batman #251

Detective Comics #437

Batman #240

Iconic Batman posture by Neal Adams from Batman #251 - one of only three titles from DC's 1973 slim reprint pickings

1974

Detective Comics is published bi-monthly throughout 1974, as is Batman.

As the annual number of issues decreases to a total of 12, the percentage of those reprinted in collected editions goes up to two thirds. However, no less than 5 collected editions are required in order to read those 8 reprinted Batman features; it starts to get complicated, and DC’s lack of coherence in its reprint policy is begining to ask a lot from fans.

In order to read the reprinted material in chronological order, one first needs to turn to Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told #1 (2005) for one issue, then switch to either Tales of the Batman: Len Wein (2014) or Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams #3 (2006) for another issue, before switching to Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin (2013) - at least this collected edition provides two consecutive issues (Detective Comics #440 and #441). After that, yet another different volume needs to come down from the bookshelf: The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told #2 is from 1992 and a sequel to the first collected edition from 1989, not the confusingly similarly titled Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told #1 from 2005.

Confusingly similar titles are, however, the least of worries for anyone wishing to read the 1974 reprints in chronological order, because The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told #2 (1992) only offers one issue. For the next one - Detective Comics #442 - there are no less than 4 different collected editions to chose from, although sticking with Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin (2013) is the best option as this volume also reprints the next issue: Detective Comics #443. For Detective Comics #444, however, yet another switch is necessary - most likely to Tales of the Batman: Len Wein (2014) which was already in play earlier, although it is also reprinted in Legends of the Dark Knight: Jim Aparo #3 (2017).

Again, the absurdity of the anthological approach pursued by DC for the Bronze Age Batman material becomes painfully evident - painful also because although the reprinted material is far from complete one needs to acquire at least 5 separate collected editions in order to be able to read those 8 reprinted main Batman features.

Detective Comics #439

Batman #255

Batman #257

Detective Comics #444

1975

Detective Comics and Batman are both published bi-monthly until the April 1975 cover date, at which point both titles revert to a monthly publication schedule (Batman #261 is cover dated March/April, Batman #262 carries a cover date of April). This change is accompanied by reverting both titles from their 68-page “Giant” format back to regular comic book format as of Batman #263 and Detective Comics #446 (which also spells the end for reprints of short Batman stories from both titles from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s in order to fill those 100 pages).

Of the total 21 issues across both titles, however, a mere 6 have been reprinted in collected editions by mid-2019, a fact once again entirely due to DC’s decision to organize their Batman collections by creative talent rather than by narrative continuity: Whilst writer Len Wein and artist Jim Aparo are covered, most Batman features in both titles during 1975 were penned and pencilled by others (most notably writer David Vern and artists Ernie Chan), but as their work has not (yet) been collected, fans wanting to read up on those talents’ lengthy runs will need to turn to the original comic books. DC has announced a collected edition with Batman work by José Luis García-López for late 2020, which then might reprint Detective Comics #454.


	Batman #260		Detective Comics #448

1976

Detective Comics and Batman are both published monthly throughout 1976, but although this was a year of fun issues with many done-in-one and some done-in-two storylines (as well as being the year when barcodes starting appearing on covers and Detective Comics went through no less than two title logo changes), 1976 is at the current moment (2020) almost non-existent in DC’s collected editions.

Once again, this is entirely due to the fact that DC structures and organizes its reprints, for the most part, by artist rather than by narrative continuity, although Detective Comics #457 (reprinted in no less than three different collected editions) with its classic Dennis O’Neil story “There is no Hope in Crime Alley!”, penciled by Dick Giordano, doesn't fit that formula - neither O'Neil nor Giordano have had their Batman work featured in an anthology volume so far.

Only three other issues of Detective Comics from 1976 have been reprinted to this date (with no Batman issue at all), making this possibly one of the most frustrating years for Bronze Age Batman fans, even more so than 1975. It is this period in the publication history of Batman which really shows how badly DC is handling its collected editions and reprint material.


	Detective Comics #457		Detective Comics #464

1977

Batman is published monthly, while Detective Comics goes back to a publication schedule of being bi-monthly until the May 1977 cover date when the publication schedule is changed to 8 issues a year, i.e. “monthly with the exception of January, April, July and October” (as labelled by DC).

Of the total 20 issues of Batman and Detective Comics published in 1977, 11 have been reprinted. Some only feature in one collected edition (e.g. Detective Comics #468 or Batman #293) while others, once again, have been almost reprinted to death. Case in point for 1977 is Detective Comics #474, the second appearance of Deadshot (after he previously appeared in Batman #59, June-July 1950) and published in no less than 5 reprint collections between 1988 and 2019.

DC’s policy of organizing collected editions by artist rather than by narrative continuity provides an especially irksome situation where the Batman feature of Detective Comics #468 is reprinted in Legends of the Dark Knight: Marshall Rogers (2011) but without its cover – which was drawn by Jim Aparo and is hence reprinted, on its own, in Legends of the Dark Knight: Jim Aparo #3 (2017).

It hardly gets any worse, but unfortunately this is not the only example of an editorial policy which does not only not care for continuity or integrity of the material reprinted, but simply doesn't seem to care at all; there's no less than 30 issues of Batman not reprinted between issues #260 (original cover date January 1975) and #291 (September 1977) to date.


	Detective Comics #472		Batman #294

1978

Batman is still published monthly, while Detective Comics starts out as monthly with the exception of January, April, July and October (i.e. eight issues a year) but then reverts to bi-monthly as of Detective Comics #476 (March/April cover date).

At this point, things get even more complicated: The main Batman feature (17 pages) of Batman #303 is not collected, but the “Unsolved Cases of the Batman” back-up feature (8 pages) is (in the 2019 Legends of the Dark Knight: Michael Golden). The table shown here, however, only lists collected main features of the two Batman titles, and for 1978 there are no less than 13 - yes, thirteen - collected editions. This is due to the by now all too familiar phenomenon of a few issues being reprinted multiple times, such as Detective Comics issues #475 and #476, which are reprinted in no less than 6 - yes, six - different collected editions.

Detective Comics #475 / Batman #305

1979

1979 is the first year for which DC’s collected editions provide a comprehensive and almost entirely complete reprinting – and most of it in just two volumes, thanks to a stable roster of writers and artists.

While Batman is still published monthly, Detective Comics continues to be published bi-monthly but, because it is merged with the previously ongoing Batman Family title, becomes a “Dollar Comic” with 68 pages as of issue #481. Due to this merging of titles, the cover dates become a bit confusing; even though Detective Comics #480 had a “November/December 1978” cover date, the new "Dollar Comics" Detective Comics #481 has a “December/January 1979” cover date.

The Batman run is almost complete (missing only issue #311) in Tales of the Batman: Len Wein (2014), while Detective Comics #483 through 487 are all reprinted in Legends of the Dark Knight: Marshall Rogers (2011), missing only the first two issues of 1979 (both of which are featured in two other collected editions).

The one that (almost) got away from DC's 1979 collected editions: Batman #311, written by Steve Englehart and pencilled by Irv Novick with inks by Frank McLaughlin.

It will be featured in a new collected edition, Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart, announced by DC for publication in 2020.

1980

1980, just as the previous year, has a comparatively good coverage: of the 22 total issues of Batman and Detective Comics, only three have not been reprinted to this date.

Batman is still published monthly, whereas Detective Comics continues to be published bi-monthly up until the April 1980 cover date issue, from which point on it too regains its monthly publication status, while retaining its “Dollar Comic” format with 68 pages until the November 1980 issue when the format reverts back to the standard 36 page count.

Once again, however, the proliferation of collected editions is staggering, with no less than eleven publications (ranging from 1989 to 2020) featuring reprints from 1980. Luckily for the fan, Tales of the Batman: Don Newton (2011) includes almost all issues of Detective Comics, while most of the Batman issues can be found in Tales of the Batman: Len Wein (2014), complemented by reprints featured in Tales of the Batman: Marv Wolfman #1 (2020).

Detective Comics #488

Batman #330

1981

Both Batman and Detective Comics are published monthly throughout 1981, and it is the third year in a row enjoying almost complete coverage in DC's various collected editions, with only one single issue missing (Batman #336).

However, the material from a total of 23 issues of Detective Comics and Batman is scattered throughout no less than 13 collected editions published between 1988 and 2020, and the results of this haphazard approach to structuring reprint material is illustrated in an exemplary way by Detective Comics #500.

That anniversary issue contains, amongst other features, two main Batman stories, but while “To kill a Legend” is reprinted in no less than 5 collected editions (Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, 1988; Batman in the Eighties, 2004; Tales of the Batman: Alan Brennert, 2016; Detective Comics: 80 Years of Batman, 2019; Detective Comics: Batman 80th Anniversary Giant, 2019), “What happens when a Batman dies?” is reprinted only in one (Tales of the Batman: Carmine Infantino (2014).

Three collected editions provide the bulk of the 1981 material, but a minimum of four separate collections is required for continuous reading.

Batman #336

The one that got away from DC's 1981 collected editions: Batman #336, plotted by Bob Rozakis, written by Roy Thomas and pencilled by José Luis García-López (with inks by Frank McLaughlin).

DC has announced a collected edition with Batman work by José Luis García-López for late 2020 which is also to include Batman #336.

1982

Both Batman and Detective Comics are published monthly throughout 1982, and that year serves as yet another excellent example to illustrate the shortcomings of DC’s approach to collected editions.

Initially focusing on artist rather than writers, the Tales of the Batman collected editions contained numerous ruptures of continuous storylines because even though Gerry Conway wrote almost all 1982 issues of Batman and Detective Comics, artists Gene Colan and Don Newton took turns to cover the workload of both titles (which carried a storyline which continued over between the two titles almost all throughout 1982).

"This type of collection, organized by artist rather than by narrative continuity, makes for occasionally frustrating reading, despite the pleasures of the individual issues. There are issues of Batman and Detective Comics not present here (i.e. not penciled by Colan) that flesh out the vampire arc. As presented here, it is full of holes, and the conclusion is sudden." (Burchby, 2011)

In-house ad from Detective Comics #515

These are problems which would never have occured had the issues been reprinted in simple chronological order - and the situation was a truly miserable affair until DC turned to featuring writers in the Tales of the Batman collected editions; Tales of the Batman: Gerry Conway #2 and #3 (published in 2018 and 2020) finally fixed the Batman year 1982 - except for Batman #347. Don't hold your breath for a reprint of that standalone story issue, though, as it was penned by "guest writer" Robin Snyder and pencilled by "guest artist" Trevor Von Eeden.

Also noticeable - once again - is the proliferation of reprint publications: there's no less than ten, and two issues (Batman #348 and Batman #353) are reprinted not twice, not thrice, but four times.

	Detective Comics #510		Batman #345

	Batman #350		Detective Comics #520

1983

Both Batman and Detective Comics are published monthly throughout 1983, the year commonly defined as the last twelve months of the Bronze Age period of comic books.

The reprinted material from 1983 is a motley collection spread out over no more than nine collected editions, yet still leaves out one fifth of that year’s issues – a problem which will not be cured until DC publishes a volume of Doug Moench’s work, who took over the scripting reigns from Gerry Conway mid-year.

Batman #355

Detective Comics #523

CONCLUSION

When it comes to collected editions of reprint material featuring the Batman post-Golden Age (i.e. after 1956), DC Comics took a wrong turn and just kept going.

A simple look at the bookshelf of someone who owns a few of these collected editions will already provide a first hint, as just the backs of these hardcovers display anything but coherence - quite unlike rival Marvel (who of course excels at the game of reprints), who managed to more or less maintain a uniform look of their Masterworks over the past twenty years.

The problem started when DC decided - after previously structuring reprints by a theme, such as "Batman in the Seventies" or stories featuring a specific villain - to publish collected editions which focused on artists.

What, one wonders, was DC thinking? That readers would enjoy the artwork so much that they wouldn't really care about the story?

Clearly, collected editions focused on artists are inherently flawed, as pencillers working continuously on a specific title were not the norm at DC during the Bronze Age (and neither were they over at Marvel, with a few exceptions, such as Gene Colan's run on the entire 70 issues of Tomb of Dracula). So while e.g. the two volumes of Colan's Batman artwork from 1981-1983 are nice, they present the reader with far too many gaps and holes in ongoing stories to be truly enjoyable. They are, essentially, useless, and once DC started to publish the Batman Bronze Age material structured by writers, they became obsolete. The switch to author-based collected editions has improved things greatly for the second half of the Bronze Age, but especially the early 1970s remain in a sad state, with quite a few good Batman stories waiting to be told again.

It is unlikely that DC will ever backtrack and start a Bronze Age reprint collection of Batman material in chronological order (as they have done with the Brave and the Bold material) - and if they did, many fans would be faced with the decision of whether or not to buy material they already own, scattered across a plethora of volumes of collected editions (as with the Brave and the Bold material).

It's almost as though the Joker is running the reprints editorial board straight out of Arkham - and the joke is squarely on the readers, the collectors, the fans.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BURCHBY Casey (2011) "Review: Tales of the Batman – Gene Colan, Volume One", in The Comics Journal, 28 October 2011

DANIELS Les (1999) Batman: The Complete History, Chronicle Books

PEARSON Roberta E. & William Uricchio (1991) "Notes from the Batcave: An Interview with Dennis O'Neil", in The Many Lives of the Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and His Media, Routledge

BATMAN and all related elements are the property of DC Comics, Inc. TM and © DC Comics, Inc., a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc.

The illustrations presented here are copyright material. Their reproduction for the review and research purposes of this website is considered fair use as set out by the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. par. 107.

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uploaded to the web 1 June 2020