Starting August 1st, 2009, the TOONSEUM at The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh will have a special art show titled TOM RICHMOND:The MAD ART OF CARICATURE. Basically, since 2000, Tom has been one of the main artists for Mad magazine. This show will feature tons of his original artwork & the reason I'm posting it here is because there will be some Batman drawings shown too. Plus, I'm a huge fan of comic art & it's my blog, ha ha! But seriously, if you live in the area ( Pennsylvania ) then you should check it out because I bet it's gonna be a real treat to see. The show runs until October 4th. For more information, please be sure to visit their website by clicking HERE!
OK, I swear that I don't mean for the Bat-Blog to be all "Adam West - Batman Day" today, it just worked out that like that, ha ha! But I had to post these 2 new photos I found because I'm really proud of them. A friend of mine, named Chuck, who's an extremely talented artist & sculptor, makes these totally amazing 1966 Batman Cowl Replicas that I consider to be Masterpieces of ART. I'm really trying to be sincere here when I say that & I'm not trying to be sarcastic or anything, I mean, just look at the photos! Chuck made this by hand & it's almost better, no, it is better, than the original ones they made for the 60's TV Series. The attention to details, in every way, is totally insane! It's just completely beautiful! I seriously wish I could afford one of them. In fact, I would buy 2. One to put in a glass display case with security guards watching it 24 hours a day & the other to wear every single moment of my life!
Well, it looks like Adam West revamped his personal website & one feature of it is a STORE area where you can buy autographed items. He has his biography paperback book titled "Back To The Batcave" on sale, signed of course. Then there's a brand-new DVD movie called "Adam West Naked". Here's what the site says about it, "A brand new 2-Disc DVD produced by and starring Adam West. It contains over 3 hours of footage in which Adam goes episode by episode, recounting his personal memories and telling never-before-heard stories about his experience creating the iconic 1960’s Batman TV series. Amusing and intimate, this DVD immerses fans in the world of the classic Batman series in unparalleled depth. The classic Batman speaks alone to you, the viewer, in a variety of amusing settings, whispering in the attic, or astride an imaginary horse at his home. This DVD is a must for any true Batman fan. It will be signed and personalized on the DVD jacket any way you wish." Now, the DVD movie sells for $50.00 which isn't too bad considering that it's both autographed & has about 3 hours of wacky entertainment. Oh yeah, you can visit his site by clicking HERE!
Recently, DC Comics President and Publisher Paul Levitz accepted an award on behalf of DC from the Guinness World Records, recognizing DETECTIVE COMICS as the longest-running comic book periodical in the United States. Pretty cool, huh? The event took place yesterday afternoon at the DC booth, with Paul accepting the award from Guinness’ own Craig Glenday, VP, Publishing and Editor in Chief. Shown up above is the very 1st issue of this classic comic book title & then next to it is issue #27, the very first appearance of Batman! Congratulations to DC Comics for their award!!
Anyone who read comic books in the 1970's or 1980's has got to remember all the Hostess Cupcake, Twinkies, & Fruit Pie ads starring some of their favorite Marvel & DC Superheroes. They ran these all the time & I totally loved them! First, it wasn't like a regular advertisement. They made it look like another page of the comic book to trick you into reading them. Second, they were always such fun because the hero would use Hostess Treats as a way to confuse the criminals. Apparently, if you throw packaged Fruit Pies at crooks or bank robbers their brains just totally short-circuit & they go nuts for the fruit filling! But, I mean, who can blame them? At the time they had Cherry, Apple, & Peach! My personal favorite was Cherry. As a little kid I used to completely love them & I would beg my Mom to buy some at the store, ha ha! ( Be sure to click on the ad up above for a more readable version. You'll be glad you did because it is quite the adventure ).
Dean Trippe is an extremely talented comic book artist, graphic designer, & cartoonist. He's also a friend of mine...well, on Facebook & MySpace anyway, ha ha. In this video you can watch him start with a blank sheet of paper, do some roughs, the pencils, then totally ink a complete sketch drawing of Black Canary & Batman. It's pretty interesting to watch! At least I think so & I hope you do too.
This post is just a simple "image dump" where each picture is pretty self-explanatory. They are all totally funny in their own way but I guess the 1st one needs a little explaining. My good friend Dave was recently traveling through Oklahoma when all of a sudden he's like, "Oh My God! Stop the car! We gotta get a photo of this funny mailbox for Tommy's Bat-Blog!!". Ya'see Dave & a buddy were driving around near Stillwater, OK when all of a sudden they saw this mailbox for BAT MAN. Actually, at one time, it was for "BATEMAN", but the "E" fell off, ha ha ha! ( Thanks Dave for sending the wacky photo, I love it! ). Oh yeah, the comic strip FULL FRONTAL NERDITY is kinda small here but if you click on it you can see a larger, more readable, version...please do so because it's pretty funny! Plus, you might wanna visit that cartoonist's website because most of his stuff is just really great.
Our good friend "Batmobile Billy" sent us a photo from his iPhone recently of his trip to Toys-R-Us in Oklahoma City, OK. It looks like there are some new Mattel BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD Action League Figures on the shelves & if you go to Toys-R-Us they have an exclusive "Arch Rivals Battle Pack" with 6 special figures ( Be sure to click on the photo up above for a larger version & it's the package in the middle ). Now, these are the smaller-type action figures that I guess are made for very little kids. But, we adult bat-toy collectors really love these too because they're so gosh darn cute! Thank you for sending the cool pic Billy & if any other readers learn about any new pieces of Batman Merchandise ( anything Bat-related! ) then please send us a message. Our e-mail button is always on the top right-hand side of this website.
Just a quick post to let all Tim Burton Fans know that his website to promote his new art book is finally open! The title of the book will be "The Art of Tim Burton" & will be made in both hardcover & deluxe edition. When you go there you can preview a few pictures. It's sort of at the "teaser stage" where they don't really show that much but it should be bursting out pretty soon. While there be sure to look for the picture of The Joker, it's crazy!
OK, It's finally time to announce the winner for our recent Bat-Blog Contest where we are giving away three 1:50 Scale Hot Wheels, The 1966 Batmobile Car with Trailer Hitch, The Bat-Boat with Trailer, & the Classic '66 Bat-Cycle Motorcycle!! But first I would like to thank our good friend THE BATFAN for donating these 3 gifts. Without his amazing generosity this contest would not have existed. So, Thank You BATFAN! I would also like to thank everyone for entering. These toys must be pretty well liked because we received record responses! As you should know the contest ended last night, at midnight, & a little after that I put a ton of numbers in a hat. After mixing them up for quite awhile one number was randomly picked from the batch. The lucky winner of the latest Bat-Blog Contest is...Steven M. of Westville, NJ!! Steven, please be sure to contact us soon so we can confirm your mailing address & get these mailed to you. In fact, I already have them very carefully packed & when you get them you're gonna cry! They are really beautiful, seriously! Now, everybody else please stay tuned to the Bat-Blog because we have some more contests lined up that you will not want to miss. For the very next contest I'm thinking about doing a mini-one where it's real quick & will only last a few days. Then we're gonna have a really BIG one with some extremely cool items. Also, Thanks Again to BATFAN & all the people who entered!
OK, most Batman Fans & Game Geeks are totally excited about the brand-new, soon to be released, BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM Video Game. So far all of the game play videos & trailers have looked really amazing! One character, a villain, that everybody is really starting to love is Harley Quinn! Of course we're talking about the girlfriend of The Joker! So, as sort of a celebration, I created these 2 Harley Quinn Wallpapers you can use to brighten your desktop or use as a background in a MySpace layout...enjoy!
Recently I have been thinking about how this year, 2009, is the 70th Anniversary of one of the greatest comic book characters ever, Batman! The weird thing is that DC Comics ( Warner Bros ) has not been hyping that fact very much. Oh, they have mentioned it a little but there's NO huge fanfare like I would like to see. So, then later I got to wonder what was THE very very first appearance of Batman? I'm not talking about Detective Comics # 27 where they introduced the character. I started to wonder if they showed him in any other way as sort of an introduction or teaser. Well, here it is! The graphic you see up above is the VERY FIRST TIME anybody, mainly children, got to see the Dark Knight! This image is from the 1939 issue of Action Comics # 12. It hyped the fact that there would be a brand-new superhero added to their lineup & said to look for the May issue of Detective Comics! Now, you really have to wonder...what did kids think when they 1st saw this small image of the Caped Crusader for the very first time? Wow! That must have been really cool!!Looking at the sale figures for that book they must have loved it, ha ha!
Here are 2 very interesting videos I came across recently. They're TV Commercials for the "Lending Tree" with a special guest voice, the actor Adam West...who we all know & love as Batman / Bruce Wayne from the 1966 TV series. Funny!
On the internet awhile back I came across some amazing Batman Promo items that I wish I would have known existed, back when they did the promotion. It seems that, at Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants ( in the Philippines ), they had special Chicken Buckets & Plastic Soft Drink Cups decorated with graphics of Batman, Robin, Batgirl, & Catwoman! I found these on the personal website of the graphic designer who designed them. His name is Brian & he's an extremely talented artist. The weird thing was that it combined a few different "themes of Batman", namely, THE BATMAN animated cartoon & "THE GOTHAM GIRLS". But, where's Poison Ivy & Harley Quinn? They were an internal part of Gotham Girls. Plus, Batgirl was NOT a Gotham Girl but a member of the Bat-Family...weird. But regardless, I would like to have these KFC buckets & cups though, they're pretty cool!
Just a quick post: If you go to GOOGLE SEARCH today ( July 24th, 2009 ) then they have a special Google Logo that celebrates both DC Comics & the San Diego Comic Con 2009! The artwork was created by none other than the famous comic book artist Jim Lee!! I like that it features both Batman & Robin, plus it's kinda cool how he drew Plastic Man!! Another weird thing is _ Where's Superman?!! Oh man, I wish I was at SDCC this year, ARRRGGHH!
If you're lucky enough to be going to the San Diego Comic Con 2009 today then please be sure to check out the BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD event on Friday at 10:00, Room 6DE. There will be a special "Batman: The Brave and the Bold Screening and Q&A". Gotham takes over San Diego as Diedrich Bader, the voice of Batman, returns to Comic-Con alongside John DiMaggio, the voice of Aquaman, and executive producer Sam Register, producer James Tucker, producer and story editor Michael Jelenic and voice director Andrea Romano. Fans will also get to catch the world premiere screening of the upcoming "Mayhem of the Music Meister" episode — featuring the voice of Neil Patrick Harris ( Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog ) as the Music Meister plus enjoy a lively discussion and Q&A with the show's dynamic creative team. From Warner Bros. Animation, Batman: The Brave and the Bold airs Fridays at 8:30 pm ET/PT on Cartoon Network. Batman: The Brave and the Bold Volume 1 will be released on DVD August 25. As a special reminder for people I have made these 3 Desktop Wallpapers featuring scenes from this special BATMAN: THE MUSICAL episode...enjoy! Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention, Warner Bros will be handing out free BAT-MITE MASKS at this event so please please be sure to pick me one up...because I'm a Loser & can't be there!! Thank You!
OK, we have already reported here at the Bat-Blog that BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD - VOLUME ONE Animated Cartoon TV Series will soon be released on DVD August 25th ( almost exactly 1 month from now ). Well, here is the cover art for VOLUME TWO that will come out on November 10th, I guess, just in time for Christmas. Now, both 1 & 2 will only have 4 episodes each. Looks like Warner Bros ( or maybe the Cartoon Network ) is trying to stretch out how they release these episodes. It seems logical to me that they might also release these later as a complete set titled "Season 1"...we'll see. This Vol # 2 will also feature the trailer for the PUBLIC ENEMIES: BATMAN/ SUPERMAN animated film that is set to be released around September 29th. Amazon has Volume 1 available for pre-order by clicking here:
On Saturday, August 8th, 2009 ( 5:00pm - 11:00pm ) in Albuquerque, New Mexico the TRILLION ART SPACE ( 2nd & Marquette ) will have an art show titled, "WHY SO SERIOUS?". The show will feature art work in many shapes, forms, & sizes but all of it will have a special focus on Batman and/or The Joker. There will be paintings, photos, colleges, etc... Shown here are just a few examples. The 1st photo shows the poster for the event. The 1st painting is a large car hood that has been painted almost Graffiti-Style with a portrait of Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight Batman movie ( Awesome! ). The next one is a Cubist-Style painting of the Joker that looks exactly like Pablo Picasso's famous self-portrait ( I love the parody here, good job, instantly recognizable ). The next few are examples of image-appropriation where they have taken existing photos or art & defaced them with Joker face make-up. Plus, at the art show, there will be much more artwork & it really looks like it's gonna be an extremely cool event! So, if you live in that area be sure to check it out ( Please send us some pics if ya go! ) Oh yeah, the last photo looks like maybe a postcard they made to advertise the event or maybe it's just a flyer, not sure. But the graphics are pretty sweet!
A new friend to the Bat-Blog Fan Site, named Dan ( who lives in NJ ), sent us these wonderful photos of his extremely cool Batman Toy & Memorabilia Collection! The main focus seems to be The Dark Knight movie but he also has some great vintage items as well. For example, on one bookcase I see a 1966 Batman TV Show Theme Record & on the floor is a 1989 Batman Movie Calendar, ha ha! Actually, there's a very nice selection of stuff here to drool over. Thank you Dan for sending these great pics, I really appreciate that! I want to invite all Bat-Blog Readers to do the same. Sharing the love of the character & the joys of being a collector is really what this site is all about!!
This morning I got an e-mail from a friend who sent a link to a pretty cool website. It's called BEHIND THE VOICE ACTORS & basically it's about everyone who works in the animation voice-over & cartoon character actor world. The site has one page where they allow you to compare all the voice actors who have ever voiced Batman in all the different animated series. There's a nice photo of the original actors, which I think is very interesting because you will recognize a lot of them as regular actors too, & an MP3 clip of their voices, to actually hear them. The actors include: Kevin Conroy, Will Friedle, Rino Romano, Diedrich Bader, Jeremy Sisto, Gary Owens, Michael Ironside, Adam West, Olan Soule, Ron Perlman, & Dave Gazzana. If you're a serious Batman Fan then it's worth checking out. Just click this word right HERE!
For these week's "Wacky Wallpaper Wednesday" I thought I'd go with a POISON IVY theme. The 1st image is a photo of an original animation cel from Batman: The Animated Series. I have always loved that cartoon & still do. The art direction on that show was top-notch! The 2nd wallpaper is an incredible drawing of Poison Ivy sent in by a Bat-Blog Reader ( & amazing Graphic Artist ) named DC Miller. He really drew this & I think it's great! She looks more like the comics version than the cartoon series but I love the clean sharp lines & great coloring too. Be sure to stay tuned to the Bat-Blog because every week we have feature more backgrounds!!
A few days ago we posted a video clip that was a scene from the Batman Bootleg-Film Spoof ( Filipino Parody ) titled ALYAS: BATMAN ES ROBIN & people went crazy for it! So today I thought I would post the movie trailer for this wacky piece of unauthorized Batman History! It's a completely wacky-crazy movie from the Philippines that all serious Bat-Fans totally love!
The pictures up above are 4 different brand-new "Japan Anime-Inspired" PVC Statue Figures to keep an eye out for in the future. They're called "Ame-Comi Hero & Heroine Series". Of course they are Japanese-Style versions of Batman, Robin, Modern Batgirl ( Cassandra Cain ), & Catwoman. Each figure measures approx. 7 1/2 to 9" tall & come with a display stand inside a window box. They also vary in price from $60.00 to $70.00. Batgirl & Catwoman have a release date of October 21st, 2009. Batman & Robin won't be out until around February 10th, 2010. ( Thanks Saul for sending me the improved photos ).
