A Few Cool Pieces of BATMAN MEMORABILIA From The 1970's.

I was a little kid in the 70's, collecting comic books & playing with superhero Mego dolls, so that's a special era for me... nostalgia-wise. Recently, a Bat-Blog Reader named Jim sent us this picture of a Batman Belt Buckle he's had since he was a little kid. It's from ©1975 so that means he has kept it for 33 years, that's cool! ( Thanks for sending us the nice photos Jim ). I was thinking about other 70's Batman items that I enjoyed & one of them was the Comic Reader. Everytime I bought some comics at my local comic book shop the owner was nice enough to throw in a free copy of this fanzine. It covered the recent comic book releases but the main thing was that the cover was always done by a famous comic book artist. This issue had a graphic of Batman done by Mike Grell, one of my favorites artists of the time ( him & Neal Adams plus Jim Aparo ). These are kinda hard to find today. The last Batman item is actually BATGIRL! This is a pair of Mint-In-Package Batgirl Underoos. Ok, anybody who grew-up in the early 70's knew how important these were! Basically the concept was to market kid's underwear using superhero costumes. You could get a pair of these that made you look just like Superman, Spiderman, or Aquaman! I used to live in mine ( they were Batman & not Wonder Woman, ha ha! ). This was a great marketing idea & a very cool product... Some company ought to bring these back!

BATMAN ORIGINAL ART Comic Book Convention Sketches

A great way to add original comic book art to your Batman Collection is to go to Comicons or conventions & meet the artists in real life to get a sketch done by them. Up above are 2 examples by famous Batman artists, Mike Grell & Dick Giordano. You can always get these matted & framed later to add beauty to your home and they make solid investments too. Be sure to check the BAT-BLOG ARCHIVES for many more examples of original comic book art!

The COMIC READER Batman Cover Art JIM APARO & MIKE GRELL

When I was a very very young comic book collector I used to go to this really great comic book shop here in Oklahoma City called DOWN MEMORY LANE ( I have always loved that name ). Anyway, I would buy some comics & the owner was a really nice guy. He would sometimes give me a FREE issue of the Comic Reader, he would just sneak it into the bag while I wasn't looking & it was always a nice surprise. Well, recently I found 2 copies on the internet both with Batman Covers! One is done by Mike Grell & the other has awesome artwork by Jim Aparo. Both are legends in the comic art world! I thought these would be nice to share because they are SUPER-RARE, have great artwork, & might bring back some fond memories for BAT-BLOG Readers who are older like me! In the BAT-BLOG LINKS PAGE you will find a link to the Official MIKE GRELL Website, check it out for more awesome Batman art!

BATMAN ART SKETCH By MIKE GRELL Comic Book Artist

Here's a really nice pencil sketch of Batman in profile done by classic comic book artist MIKE GRELL. Below that is a 1980's BATMAN comic book cover featuring his artwork. When I collected comic books hardcore back in the late 70's & early 80's I used to really love this guy's work. He was alot like Neal Adams in a way because he drew with alot of detail. His character facial expressions were great! You knew if the characters were shocked, happy, sad, etc..Anyways, I was kind of excited to discover that he has his own personal website. I've included it in the BAT-BLOG LINKS, which are located on the top right-hand side of this blog. If you've never heard of him you should go pay homage, it will be both a learning experience & a treat. If you're already a big fan of his work, like me, then you will really enjoy yourself! Before you leave here please be sure to BOOKMARK THE BAT-BLOG before ya go!