Batman Chronicles: Volume Five

Batman Chronicles: Volume Five

ISBN: 9781401216825

Writer: Bill Finger

Art: Jerry Robinson & Bob Kane

Collects Material From: Batman #8-9, Detective Comics #57-61, World’s Finest #4, from 1942.

So here’s my second review of a Batman Chronicles, which feature chronological reprints of all appearances of Batman. I probably mentioned it in my post regarding Vol. 4, but the DC Chronicles are a great, economical buy. As far as I know they are the best value for money Golden Age reprint series on the market and one of the very few that are printed on a regular schedule. I’m glad DC are exploiting their Golden Age heritage in this format, because all of the GA marvel reprints are expensive hard backs on a slightly more erratic print roster. Nice one DC.

This volume has been one of the most enjoyable to date. Volume Four I found a little lacklustre, but with Five, Mr. Finger is back on track and Mr. Robinson is as clear and iconic as ever.

Early in this volume we’re introduced to a brand new villain, the never before seen Penguin. One of the most interesting things about these reprints is that, when reading them, you can see just how little these incredible characters have had to be changed over the years. Yes, of course, some of Batman’s rogues gallery have been updated, the Joker in particular, but the Penguin is essentially the same character from his first appearance until now. Some of that is because he is at heart a crime boss rather than a psychopath, and crime always pays. But the timeless concept combined with Robinson’s strong visuals give us an idiosyncratic, reusable character, who unlike many other disposable criminals from this era, has stayed with us in the public imagination. I particularly enjoyed Finger’s opening description of Penguin as a funny little man with a benevolent face. It’s a pity that that benevolent face isn’t used more today as a way for Penguin to disarm potential competitors or victims, but he is more commonly imagined with sharp, hawkish features. He is one of the great Finger/Robinson creation.

A common approach to stories in this volume is the “Weird Mystery” tale. Examples are “The Four Fates” where we are left to wonder whether the deaths of a group of criminals are coincidence or the result of a curse (including a relatively sophisticated twist ending for a 1942 comic.) There’s also “Professor Radium” which deals with a scientist able to kill and apparently resurrect his victims with a touch, and “The Superstition Murders” about a murderer and stage play based around common superstitious beliefs (such as black cats, broken mirrors and walking under ladders.) Perhaps it’s this differing approach to the story telling formula which freshened up this volume in comparison to the previous, but either way these are interesting and original stories that fit in to the Batman Universe perfectly. As to whether the “Weird Mystery” leaning was an editorial decision or Finger’s own sense of the times, I don’t know, but previous volumes also include this kind of tale, just not to the extent that this volume exhibits.

Iconic cover of Batman #9. Reprinted in this
volume and used for the cover. By Jack Burnley.

There are a couple of Joker appearances peppered through the book, one of which stands out above the others, “The Cross Country Crimes” is the first anarchic scheme for the Joker. His previous crimes use gimmicks only as an assisting element to the crime itself, but in this story, the crimes themselves become the gimmicks as Joker is symbolically writing his name across the USA by committing robberies in specific locations. This is the first Joker escapade that hints at the deranged nature of his criminal activities, which unfortunately isn’t followed up in later Joker tales within this book, but I’m hoping it’s a precursor to lunacy in later volumes. It’s a tightly plotted tale, even if some of the clues are a little stretched and should be required reading for anyone interested in the history and evolution of this character.

Another Joker tale “The Case of the Costume Clad Killers” features one of my favourite splash pages ever. The story and art deliver in all the right places, it’s not however, a classic Joker story and doesn’t bear special mention in comparison to any other strip in this book. But that splash page is a classic. I’m sorry to say that I couldn’t get an image of it for this blog page, but if I do find one I promise I’ll add it. (OK, I’ve found an image and added it below, but unfortunately it's a low quality fiche scan, you can still see the general composition and layout though.)

Detective Comics #60 Splash Page. Art by Jerry Robinson (Fiche Scan)

We have an over-sized joker, with classic Robinson features, dressed as Napoleon, leering over a pint-sized Batman & Robin. The imagery is perfect and the composition leaves absolutely nothing to be desired. Robinson uses the angle of the Joker’s head, his line of sight and his pose to lead the audience’s eye from the main element of Joker in his Napoleonic uniform, down to the miniature figures in the foreground, which are structured into a triangle with the axe weilding thug at the apex, the triangle in turn, leads the eye back up to the Joker’s head. In other words, Robinson expertly forces a double take on to us. Genius. I may well be wrong about this, but I’ve never seen this image referenced in any later comics by other artists. Which is shame, because if Alex Ross had painted it, I’m sure it would be considered an iconic Joker piece.

Lastly on this volume I feel obliged to tell you that, if like me, you’ve always wanted to see Batman beat up Hobos or kill an evil and destructive giant white whale with a spear, well, this is the comic for you.

Mad Thinker Reads……….

Batman by Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson as much as humanly possible.

M.T.

Troll Hunter (Film)



I’m not about to turn this blog into a film review site, but I saw one today that is definitely worth a mention.

I don’t intend to offer a review, all I really have in mind is to make people aware that it exists, because I was entirely ignorant of it until two days ago.

Troll Hunter is a Norwegian Language film that takes place in modern day Norway. It’s filmed in a faux documentary style, with a linear narrative. The story concerns a government conspiracy, which is hiding the existence of Trolls from the general public, this is stumbled upon by a group of film students when they encounter an aging, jaded, government employed, Troll Hunter.

I have a deep desire to see giants in films. And these Trolls are HUGE. The image above is not an exaggeration of what you’ll see on screen and there are plenty of them to look at. Combine that with above par special effects and a small but talented cast and you have a thoroughly enjoyable 100 minutes of cinema.

Mad Thinker Watches……..

The Troll Hunter.

You should too.

M.T.

One Month Later

Well, it’s been over a month since my last post. How can that be, I read so many comics and I love writing this blog, so what’s going on?

The truth is two-fold. Firstly, I’ve been busy. Yeah, yeah, I know, that’s no excuse whatsoever, so I offer you a second reason. Let me paint you a picture:

I love writing about comics. I love comics. I really love good comics. I don’t enjoy writing about comics that I haven’t enjoyed and I’ve read a lot of comics over the past month that have not entertained me as much as I hoped they would. This began when I looked over my previous posts and realised that they were nearly entirely devoted to older (Gold, Silver and Bronze Age) comics with practically nothing concerning Modern Age recent releases. So for the past month I’ve given my reading time over to recent books. But I also felt that it was a little pointless writing about whatever Alan Moore or Warren Ellis or any other high profile creator has put out over the last few months, because reviews and discussions of their works are abundant on the internet. So I was specifically looking for relatively main stream books that weren’t produced by industry giants.

I’m not going to mention what I’ve read (apart from two books which I’ll name later.) because pretty much every comic I’ve ever read is better than I could produce, so I don’t want to slight the chaps that keep the industry ticking over. Let’s just say that I got through plenty of books from a range of publishers, from the very large to the smaller indies and none of them grabbed my attention enough for me to write a post about them. Most of them were OK, a few were awful, one was really good, but I intend to purchase it as a trade when it’s released and I’ll talk about it then. But apart from that last one, none of them offered anything new to the medium. Which is kind of ironic of me to say when you consider that most of the comics I read were created decades ago.

So where does that leave us. Am I suggesting that the entire industry has stalled and that everything good to come from comics already exists. Well, that was my first knee jerk reaction of a thought. But no, I don’t think that that is the case. So what is going on?

I do tend to gravitate toward comics that are older than I am. Most of my favourites tend to be created before the early 80’s (there are plenty of exceptions though.) So when I’m reading comics to review there is a period from roughly 1935 to 1985 that I can cherry pick from. That’s a fifty year window for me to select high-lights from. Huge scope for success. Particularly when you consider that most of the comics are already considered noteworthy so I don’t often have to trawl through dozens of issues to find one gem. The gems are usually packaged in a well presented trade to facilitate my reading pleasure. But over the last month I’ve limited myself to a much smaller window. Frankly, a tiny window when you consider the number of books produced in that half century time frame. If anything, in retrospect it’s amazing that I found even the one book that was exceptional in the one month period of reading. So no, comics are alive and well, still evolving and still able to impress at least this Grumpy Sod.

But, I do have one big complaint with one particular limited series. Doc Macabre, written by Steve Niles with art by Bernie Wrightson and published by IDW. The story and art itself I have no problem with, in fact Wrightson’s art is particularly good, but the three issues have a page count of only about 15 pages of story each, and this is a $3.99 book. What you actually get is a 2 issue limited series or possibly a one off special that has been spread over 3 issues and as far as I can see, the only reason for this is to take more money out of your pocket. This really annoyed me. I don’t lay the blame at anyone’s feet in particular, although it surely rests with either writer or publisher. But practices like this in no way benefit us, the consumers. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t buy it, but you should be aware of what you’re paying for. Dirty, dirty rascals.

However, you know me, I dislike ending on a negative note so I’d like to mention a fantastic series published by Dark Horse. The only thing I’ve read over the last month that hit all the bases for me was Doctor Solar: Man of the Atom, written by the superb Jim Shooter and drawn by the previously unknown to me Roger Robinson. Jim and Rog have provided me with four issues of comic excellence and at only $3.50 with 22 pages of story (take note IDW) except for the first issue which was the same price but with a hefty 48 pages, including a classic re-print of the first Doctor Solar appearance. Super. Recommended. I’ll discuss this series further when in trade paperback, me thinks.

Mad Thinker Reads……

Pretty much anything, regardless of quality.

MT