Tag Archives: Batman

Late Night Movie House of Crap: Bat-Surfing

24 Oct

October 24, 2012

I have a confession to make. Not everything I post in the Late Night Movie House of Crap is crap. I have a lot of affection for much of this stuff. Sure, King of Kong Island is garbage no matter how you look at it, but I absolutely love the old Superhero Serials. I’ve seen them all and watch them from time to time. True, there is more than its fair share of crap here (Konga, Paul Lynde as Superman, and A*P*E come to mind- why are there so many bad giant ape films?) but there are also some things I really like- the cheesiness of Mr. B Natural always makes me laugh and I love Doctor Who.

And then there is this.

The Batman TV show is unabashedly goofy and silly. Is it crap? To be honest it straddles the line, especially in the third and final season when the budget was slashed to none. But the first two seasons? I love it. I call it- and you can argue- genius.

But here is the pr0blem. This episode is my all-time favorite. It is HYSTERICAL from start to finish, yet also amazingly silly and, yes, dumb. Just look what happens in the span of 30 minutes, minus commercials:

Batman and Robin get turned into surfboards.
Batman and the Joker don their specialized surfing trunks.
Batman whips out his handy Bat-shark repellant for only the second time (the first was in the movie.)
The Joker has some strange plan to take over Gotham by winning a surfing championship.
And I repeat- Batman and Robin get turned into surfboards.

There is more, much more. I love the soundtrack to this one, and Batgirl is in the mix too, but the highlight is the surfing championship. I could tell you who wins but why spoil the fun?

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The Saturday Comics: The 1940’s Batman Newspaper Strip

13 Oct

October 13, 2012

Batman has been a comic book staple but since 1943 he has been a newspaper comic strip staple as well. There have been 5 different versions of Batman comic strips running in the daily papers, including one where he costarred along with most of the Justice League on a rotating basis. The best of them is the first, the 1943-1946 run.

If ever a comic strip almost exactly emulated its comic book inspiration, this was it. In fact it was created by many of the same people who did the comic book, like Bob Kane and Bill Finger. These strips are easily available, compiled in various books and volumes, so it was a little surprising that there was not too much available online. In fact, I found many more examples of the 1966-1974 version of the strip than I did this one. Batman was still published as late as 1991 and the last incarnation was also carried in Comic Shop News, a weekly free newspaper given out in comic book stores.

Oddly enough, from 1972 until 1974, the Batman strip did not feature Batman! Although Bruce Wayne was still a main character, the strip featured a new hero called Galexo. I have no idea why. Posted below are several examples of the excellent 1940’s run. If you are a Batman fan, you owe it to yourself to go out and buy these collections. The newspaper series is a lot of fun and the volumes inexpensive.

Click the thumbnails to enlarge.

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