A comic with a long publication history and a obsessive passionate fan base offers nearly limitless opportunities for historical overviews. Last month, I linked to a gallery of Batmobiles.
This month’s clever gallery, at Zillionarts, is a collection of 70 years of Batman covers. (Not all of them, obviously–a representative selection.) For each decade, there’s a brief potted history of new developments in the comic. Some of these are more helpful than others. (For example, we learn that “In the years following World War II, DC comics adopted a postwar editorial direction. The impact of this editorial approach was evident in Batman comics during the postwar period.”) Overall, though, it’s a good representation.
Also in Bat-news, The Idler (slogan: “refusing to apologize for the things we enjoy”) featured Batman Week earlier in the month, with posts on the TV shows, movies, books and video games. I particularly liked Lindsey Malta’s “Batman: A Memoir in Media”:
In comments to that post, Idler writer Gavin Craig offers up a suggested reading list to Gotham’s favorite hero. Plenty of reading to get through the rest of winter!
