Comic Books
BATMAN ’66 #1
Put on your go-go boots and get ready to “Batusi” back to the Swingin’ 60s as DC Comics reimagines the classic Batman TV series in comics form for the first time! These all-new stories portray The Caped Crusader, The Boy Wonder and their fiendish rogues gallery just the way viewers remember them.
In this first adventure, The Riddler’s out to steal some valuable artwork from under the noses of Gotham’s police. But Batman gets help from an unlikely source: a certain femme fatale dressed in feline finery!
DIGITAL FIRST!
Written by Jeff ParkerArt by Jonathan Case
Cover by Mike Allred & Jonathan Case
Price: $3.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 3.1%
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| User | Added | Spoilers | |
| glcfarmboy | 08/01/13 | No | Read Review |
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This looked kind of interesting.
Maybe I’ll wait for the trade…
This comic is made for Guided View with cool transitions and color swaps and sound effects and things. If Private Eye can be listed as a digital comic why not this?
Listen to this week’s show. We discuss that question specifically.
I was wondering when this series would show up here on iFanboy. I’ve read the first two digital issues and it is FANTASTIC (yes I used all caps to spell fantastic – that’s how much I mean it).
After a lot of issues of face cutting offs, robins dying, fathers grieving in the current Bat titles, it’s nice to sit back and read a light-hearted Batman book – one that makes you feel good and laugh, but not in a campy way where you are you going, “Oh man, this is some stupid shit.” No, this series walks that thin line between “camp” and “enchantment”.
There’s already 2 digital issues? I bought the first one and loved it for all the reasons you said but I must have missed #2. Also I’m a little surprised this costs$3.99. Does it have a backup or something that wasn’t included in the digital version or is this just DC starting to do what everyone else does and charging $3.99. I’m not complaining about pricing( a very tired subject imo) I’m just curious.
@hanson724, I think this is an instance where complaining about the pricing is pretty valid. Unless there are more pages than usual, 3.99 for a book many people have already purchased digitally kind of stinks. I know it makes me sound cheap and old to complain about 4 bucks, but I don’t care, I am cheap and (relatively) old. I’m undecided as to whether or not to get this just because of the price, but when people purchase it they are telling DC, Marvel, etc. that it’s okay, and I don’t want to do that.
Yep, issue 2 came out last week. Even better then issue 1. And I if you can read this series digital – part of the charm is the way the art changes within the static panels from page to page – which will be lost in the print version.
Go digital on this one my friends.
Regarding the price, apparently the book is 40 pages. I believe it may include the first two digital issues.
@Master Destructo: It does: the Riddler story and the Catwoman story.
I think complaining about the pricing on this is a little backwards. If you’ve already read it digitally, why would you want it again? I don’t have any fancy e-reader, and I am happy to pay $3.99 for 30 pages of content. 3.99 for 20 pages of content is what bums me out. If you are going to buy this in print, can’t you just wait a couple weeks and not buy the digital version?
I really wasnt complaining :). I already have it on digital I was just curious is all. If it contains the first 2 issues thats great Since that last post I’ve bought #2 from comixology and can’t wait to read it when I get home.
@ghostmann Usually I dont buy digital but this is awesome. If this is the future of digital comics I’m excited for it. You get a truly different experience from print.
I thought this would include the first 3 digital issues. The print versions of both Legends of the Dark Knight and Adventures of Superman contain 3 digital issues.
@hanson – yep, I have a feeling this series is going to change the face of Digital Comics.
Oh, and if I may provide one pointer – when reading this digital make sure your reader is set to have “NO PAGE TRANSITIONS” when you read your comics. You know like “fade” or “scroll” when you flip pages. If your reader is set to either of these you wont get the awesome effect of the magically changing art! =)
I’m happy to hear this is more pages, so I’ll retract my earlier comment–aside from the old and cheap remark, that remains true–I look forward to reading this.
Actually it’s the first three installments. I originally posted it was just two. My mistake.
@Paul – What? There’s a third installment out? Well shit, I’m off to download that mother.
peace
Ok, I’m back. I can’t find the third installment on the DC page or anywhere else. You sure it’s out yet?
@Ghostmann good lookin out! This was awesome on the iPad! First digital I spent $ on, and it was well worth it. Loved the way it read. Never could have done that with paper. Story was pretty cool too, but the ride is what stood out. Best digital I read yet, and I’d read more if they read this well instead of the clunkiness of most I’ve read.
Wow!!! A comic that actually looks fun. I guess Josh will be skipping this one
I am just going to collect this digitally but I am curious how they will transition this to print.
I feel like it would make for a great pop-up book.
That’d be a lot of fun!
Absolutely in love with the digital version… trying to decide if I want to double dip.
Stoked for this!
Love the digital book. I’m double dipping and buying the print too. Triple dipping if you count the SDCC exclusive cover I have coming too. I know I’ve got it bad but I’ve been waiting 40 years for this!
This and Private Eye both have me ready to go digital for a select few titles.
Wondering when I’ll make the leap.
I thought Marvel sh/c/would’ve done something digital in a format like Karl Kesel’s Captain America newspaper strip or that DC sh/c/would’ve done something digital with a format like Wednesday Comics by now.
Any other digital comics anyone wants to recommend?
High Crimes from Monkeybrain (available through Comixology). Three issues to date, 99 cents a pop. The fourth issue should be out sometime soon I’d imagine.
Here’s the description from the Monkeybrain site:
Living in the bleak majesty of Kathmandu, Zan Jensen is an American expatriate on the run from a scandalous past. Working for a fly-by-night adventure consulting service, Zan escorts tourists and thrill-seekers up the Himalayas’ tallest and deadliest peaks. Along with Haskell Price, fellow climbing guide and mentor, the two partner up in a more sinister line of work: high-altitude grave robbing.
Stripping the bodies they find left at deadly altitudes of personal effects and right hands, Zan and Haskell shake down the families and friends of the dead for a hefty body return fee. When Price stumbles across the decades-old corpse of Sullivan Mars below the peak of Mount Everest, it puts the partners in the crosshairs of a global mystery that someone is all too willing to kill to keep secret.
A friend recommended this one to me after he read it digitally, It was an absolute hoot!
Laugh out loud funny, full of easter eggs for fans of the 60’s show and chocked with genuinely awesome action scenes. It was great fun to see the Frank Gorshin Riddler and the Julie Newmar Catwoman again (can’t wait for Cesar Romero’s Joker!) and every line of dialogue could be read with the slow, tempered voice of Adam West running through your mind. Of course! How clever…
Thoroughly enjoyed this, grinned from ear to ear throughout the entire issue. Lovely stuff. POTW.
Yep, this was pretty great, glad I decided to pick it up, made me laugh a lot and it really feels like it could have been an episode of the tv show.
PotW! (Beating out my favorite New 52 bat-book Batman and ______ and Beyond, two books I love.)
This may … may … make this “I’ll never read a comic in digital format” dinosaur to give this comic in its original format.
SO happy this book is out!
Did anybody else get a copy where the color plates aren’t lined up correctly? I saw a preview on Comic Book Resources that had this problem and my issue looked this way as well. I don’t know if it was supposed to look like this or not, but it looks bad.
My guess is if the CBR preview had it, it is intentional. Mine had it.
But i enjoyed it, i didn’t think it took anything away from it.
It reminded me of the common alignment issues of old comics like one that would have been printed in 66, I think that was the goal.
It’s meant to emulate the 4-color printing process that would have been used for a comic dating to 1966. That sort of overlap would be common.
@Master Destructo:
Yes, that is what I thought as I paged through the book while in line at the LCS, then at-home reading it.
I think this effect works great for this style of comic, and in some cases, flashbacks, dream sequences, and homages, etc. But I wouldn’t want more than a book or two a month that I read to go “back” to this style of coloring.
The retro style certainly does have its place, and this comic is it!
Thanks for answering, I was all ready to take it back to my store tomorrow! It’s a little hard on the eyes.
So, it wasn’t an error that the book had those double lines that made me think my eyes were failing? Cool issue, but I didn’t like that effect, at all.
Not an error. It was in the digital version I got last week and the week before.
I get why they did it, but I also don’t care for it.
My eyes were killing me for a bit. Thought it was a 3D book at first!
That’s what I thought of, some terrible old GI Joe 3-D comic I had which was brutal to look at without the glasses.
my eyes experienced the same effect, i thought to myself this would be perfect for some 3d glasses.
Not quite as funny as the show, but paced with a feel for the television series. Good, but not great!
I really hope the DVD/Bluray release gets announced at SDCC, as it’s been rumored. My parents taped a bunch of episodes on VHS back in the 80s for my brother and I, and those tapes are so worn out now.
@ Master Destructo:
Check if your cable provider carries the ME Network. They play 2 episodes of Batman every Saturday night, and at least one on Saturday morning.
Love everything about this. Story, art and coloring. The digital format is clearly superior as Spidey. Plus cheaper. For all you stubborn Flintstones holding on to your stone printed copies, give the digital a chance. It’s the future and it’s sublime. 😉
I’m more of a lemon guy, myself.
(Get it? “Lime” … “Lemon” ……)
(Better still: “Riddle me this, Batman: When is citrus low? When it is sublime!”)
@Sitara – I’m absolutely pro digital comics, I think its a great way to get comics into the hands of as many readers as possible, as well as to help the environment.
However, as a fan, there are a couple of reasons why I don’t buy them. Some of this will expose my lack of technical know-how and for that, I’m deeply sorry.
1) I worry that the file type will eventually become obsolete, meaning that I’ll eventually have to re-buy all my comics.
2) I worry that if my computer crashes (or the DC system crashes) or whatever then I’ll lose all my comics.
3) I like to take comics around with me and since I have neither a smartphone nor a tablet I’d likely be stuck staring at a computer screen.
4) I enjoy the tactile sensation and, yes, the smell, of comic books.
Having said that, I’m currently trying to get a web comics site up and running, so I’m not a total Luddite.
@mgriffith – You are a genius. ORANGE you glad someone else gets the gag? Though you may yet RUE the day you began having so much PUN. I’m GRAPEFRUIT to you for amusing me so. 😀
@APoetSomedayAPoetSomeday:
He-he-he-HEEE-heh heh!! You are the Cesar Romero to my Frank Gorshin!
@apoet What’s up bud. Read Prey finally. WOW. A really great story and I’m glad I gave it the dedication it deserved. Thanks (AGAIN) for the rec. On to digital, I TOTALLY like paper better, but this comic (thanks to the recomendation from Ghostmann) was awesome on the iPad. My first digital purchase. For comics I just to want to try out or not keep, a cheaper digital copy could have a place in my life, but I wont pay full price. I bring my comics with me too, and comics suck on a smartphone (IMO), I love the smell, enjoy the reading experience, big on covers, and like that I control access and can resell, share, ect,but this comic was dope digital. It was funny, my wife saw me reading on the eye pad and immediately started talking about how great an idea it was, “then you wouldn’t need all those boxes.” I think I need to be more incognito next time.
@WAC1 – HaHa! I think digital great for all those reasons. I never thought of digital as an option for ‘trial’ books, but that’s a great point.
– One of these days, one of us will recommend something the other doesn’t like, then we’ll be all “I want my money back!” lol.
But seriously, so glad you liked ‘Prey’ – it is one of my favorites. Doug Moench was an excellent Batman scribe (who adapted well to the changing demands of the periods in which he wrote the character as well). His run with Kelley Jones on pencils was a great favorite of mine when I was a kid. Did you ever read the two-parter ‘Faceless?’ that was badass. Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon and Alan Grant were all ace 90’s Batman writers.
Next, you should do ‘Terror’ – Which is the sequel to Prey. It isn’t as good, but it has at least one legit scary Hugo moment that will make you go “WHAT!?” out loud and startle your sleeping partner (from personal experience). Again, so glad you liked it.
@Mr griffith – “A joke a day keeps the gloom away! HaHaHaHaHaHa!”
Some of those Legends of the Dark Knight arcs are classics, and most are worth reading.
WAC1 and I are forever talking LOTDK. We’re both huge fans of that series, in addition, we’ve both been collecting them lately and recommending different arcs to each other.
It was an awesome series (and an excellent idea for a series). The new version of LOTDK is OK and usually worth a read (the last issue was awesome), but it is also lacking something.
LOTDK fills in so many continuity blanks as to be totally indispensable to the modern day Bat-fan. What was your favorite LOTDK arc?
@ apoetsomeday Here’s another digital plus that I just discovered: the new LEGENDS series is digital first with most issues broken up into 3 .99 cent parts. So if you only wanted to read the Rafael Albuquerque story and not the rest of an upcoming paper issue, then its only .99 instead of 3.99. You only get what you “want” but its still digital, but I could see that working for me as well. Terror is on the list, but last time I went to the shop, he had his newer LOTDK issues under a bunch of other boxes and I was pressed for time. I did pick up Terminus, which was great to my taste. Very dark, and Vertigo”ish”. I also read Masks, which is sort of a twisted story and reminded me a little of RIP, ended up better than I expected. faces, siege, duty (with comissioner Gordon and Joker), and a few others I haven’t read yet, but I will let you know how they are. I finally put my Prodigal run together and will be reading that soon, followed by a run of Moench/ Jones issues. I’m looking forward to the one with Swamp Thing. It’s crazy how he wrote so much good Batman at such different times.
Faceless sounds familiar, but I’m not sure if I’ve read it, got it in the box, or have only heard if it.
A favorite LOTDK arc? Wow. That’s a tough one. They are all so different. Snow, Gothic, and Prey would be front runners, but there are so many awesome fringe arcs that are 1-3 issues that are wonderful for their uniqueness like Ted McKeevers “Engines”. I’ve only been reading them for a few months and I could only imagine how someone who read the entire series would feel picking. You have a favorite so far?
@WAC1, I was actually asking Mr. Griffith, but a) great answers and b) I’ll give it a go.
I used to read LOTDK when I was little, so ‘Clay’ by Alan Grant and Quique Alcatena was a big story for me. Its one of the earliest ones I remember reading, along with ‘Freakout’ and ‘Haunted Knight’. As for favorites, ‘Blades’ is up there, as are ‘Prey’, Siege’, ‘Snow’ and ‘Venom’, but its so hard to choose just one!
I’ve mentioned this before, but when I was a kid in the 1990’s, it was actually quite hard to get “little” comics (I also called them “proper” comics or “American” comics) in a newsagents.
We had comic stores in the UK then, of course, but nowhere near where I lived. Every week my parents would buy me a comic of my choosing from the newsagents, mainly to encourage me to read, but for many years I either got Brit comics like ‘The Beano’ and ‘The Dandy’ or else I got movie/TV tie-ins, like ‘I Love To Read Batman’ (which tied in to TAS and featured ‘cut out and keep’ files on Batman’s supporting characters and villains – which I dutifully collected and put in one of my Dad’s old office binders) or ‘Jurassic Park’ or whatever.
The newsagents eventually started stocking “proper” comics and from there, I was hooked. The trouble was that you’d never get a complete story. You’d get an X-Men story that would end on a cliff hanger and you’d never be able to get to the next part. My comics collection is full of ‘Part Three of Four’ with no others chapters. So, I read any Batman I could get my grubby mitts on, but usually out of sequence and order. As a result, it is only relatively recently (in the last decade or so) that I’ve been able to track down stories I missed, or never read the end of.
I got a lot of my Batman collection in trades, but recently got into single issues because many of my favorite stories have yet to be reprinted. Therefore I didn’t relate to some stories (like ‘Haunted Knight’) being from a particular series. I just read them and cherished them all.
How’d you get into comics?
PS – Lemme know about ‘Masks’ and ‘Terminus’. I’ll give you the skinny on ‘Shaman’ when next we speak.
Sorry @mgriffith for jumping in there. Terminus is basically about a junkie who runs into this haunted motel trying to hide from Batman. Its very Vertigo. Masks is about a post-coma Bruce in a hospital being told his whole Batman experience was the dillusion of an alcoholic. Of course its all a trick. Its a lot better than I thought it would have been. I picked up Clay the other day 🙂 looking forward to it.
How did I forget Blades? Thats DEFINITELY up there. Especially for it being a 3 parter.
Sounds like it was rough getting comics for you when you were young. I dtsrted in with X-Men in the early 90s. Reading all the Jim Lee stuff, watching the cartoon. I got into Batman shortly after with Knightfall which was cool because I got to learn lots of villains (I always knew the major ones from the old TV show and TAS). Then it was Image and Valiant pretty heavy. I had a shop around the corner til I was like 13. When it closed, I was off and on until about 5 years ago when a coworker lent me The Dark Knight Returns and I was sucked back in. I started reading Morrison’s Batman along with other stuff, and the rest is history. It blows my mind being an adult and buying and collecting books I want. They were always so expensive when I was young.
@WAC1 – It wasn’t rough getting the comics, but it was nigh-on impossible following the stories inside.
As a result, I always appreciated the books where the writers found subtle ways to clue you in on what had been going on in the previous issues. That old Stan Lee axiom of “every comic book is somebody’s first comic book” rings very, very true with me and modern books are missing out because they are ignoring this principle. We wouldn’t need as many reboots, creative shakedowns, relaunches, renumberings, jumping on points and so on if writers recapped the story as they went instead of just expecting us to buy every issue of every book the company publishes.
The 90’s X-Men cartoon was wonderful, I used to watch it with my Dad and my brother every Saturday morning. We’d all stubbornly refuse to do any housework of leave the house at all until we’d seen it and Spider Man. Reading the 90’s Jim Lee comics was cool also, because visually the book was recognizable to fans of the cartoon (although the cartoon took its story cues from Claremont’s epic run). I remember actually writing a fan letter to the X-Men when I was really little. It said that Gambit was cool and that Wolverine should probably “calm down a bit”. lol.
Morrison’s run re-ignited my interest in Batman as well. I’ve always loved the character, of course, but it was difficult for me to get regular books. Before I moved in 2011, I had to order all my books online and postage fees were sinking me. I only had the money to follow ‘Batman Incorporated’. Now, however, I live 10 minutes walk away from a Forbidden Planet Megastore, which I frequent every Wednesday. Its funny, because I moved in September 2011 and started following ‘The New 52′, for a long time I think they thought I was a newbie. One day, in passing, I made a reference to Neal Adams’ Batman and said something about Roy Thomas and they seemed a little shocked.
I should mention that both Marvel and DC publish ‘Collectors’ or ‘Anthology’ editions of major books, these books re-print three or four issues featuring a character. For example, the ‘Wolverine & Gambit’ book I used to buy would feature 1 recent Wolverine story, a Gambit story from a few years earlier and usually a classic 70’s Wolverine story. I used to buy those, but I got annoyed with them because the quality was never consistent.
I know what you mean about having your mind blown! I go online and I’m like…Wow, I can have ALL these books? That’s why I’m broke right now! lol.