Oh Man, BATMAN Fans and Collectors who live in Argentina are having fun right now! The local CLARIN Newspaper chain has published a special series of Batman Graphic Novels that reprint the first 100 Batman Stories starting with the Classic Golden Age 1939 DETECTIVE COMICS #27 Story. I think they're basically reprints of the "Batman Chronicles" Books we had here in the US, but in a different format. Anyways, there will be 16 Issues to collect and Volume # 1 is out, right now, as we speak! The books have 100 pages and are in full-color. Our good friend Cesar told us about these ( He lives there. Oh, and Thanks Cesar! ) and he said they're pretty nice quality. Shown here is the cover to Volume #1, an advertisement showing other issues, and then the last photo is a pic of some die-cut promo items that were suppliments inside the Clarin Newspaper.
I know people who collect nothing but what they call "Bootleg Batman". These are usually toys and comic books that are not true licensed products and most of the time they're "foreign". Personally I don't consider them "real bat-items", and usually stay away from them, but if I come across some wacky item at a Garage Sale for real cheap I'm always a sucker, ha! Some of the toys are just way too fun! But, here's a great example of some comics.
Here are some Vintage BATMAN Comic Book Reprints that were made in Argentina. They appear to be from the 1940's which is pretty cool! The name of the book is PIF-PAF, El Campeon De La Historieta! Which, Google Translate says that means, "Cartoon Champion". In one of the books they reprinted the famous "BATMAN Presents Robin, The Boy Wonder" Origin Story. The Title Page says, "EL MURCIELAGO Presenta A ROBIN, El Nino Temperario!" Ha! I love the sound of that!
I guess this post is sort of a "photo reference". These are some pics I collected awhile back where it's the Vintage 1966 BATMAN TV SHOW and MOVIE Paperback Books, but these are all "foreign-issued" copies. The 1st five are from England & were reprinted by Four Square Illustrated. These special UK editions have slightly different covers than the US versions. My favorite one is THE JOKER with all the weird "Pop Art" colors. I'm not sure about THE CATWOMAN Book & I'm wondering if it's from the UK too. It looks like it was reprinted by some other publisher. Now, the very last photo, is THE PENGUIN Book that was made in Argentina. It appears to be wayyyy more thin than an actual paperback. What's up on that? OK, I'm wondering if anybody has any other versions of these. If so, then please let us know. I think it would be cool if there were German, Spanish, or French editions, ha!
Just as the title of this post says, Here are some Reference Photos of Official BATMAN Memorabilia & Collectibles From Argentina. I also gotta say that these are all fully-licensed. Why do I say that? Well, if you visit an "online auction service" right now, & search for "Batman Argentina", you'll find a ton of really bad bootleg ( stuff people make in their garages ) merchandise. It's kinda sad & I just wanted to warn people about it. Some of it looks really good & that's kind of scary. Now, here's the deal on this real stuff: The 1st photo is a BATMAN Comic Book Reprint from the 1950's. Yes, it's made in a weird "sideways" format. But it's an officially licensed product & very cool. Plus, it's from the 50's!! The next pic shows three BATMAN Promo Glasses that came out during the 1989 movie. These were cross-promoted with Orange CRUSH Soft Drink. The last photo is a magazine titled "Eneracion X". It's from 1995 & features a story on U2's music in the Batman Movie Soundtrack. Yes, that's Bono on the cover, as the Devil! Now, don't all of these look like something that would be hard to reproduce? I'm not trying to lecture people. I'm just asking everyone to please use common sense & do not support these evil bootleggers.
I have a friend named Doug who sent us these 2 amazing pics of some Vintage BATMAN Playing Cards that have totally wonderful graphics. In fact I think most of the comic book-style artwork was done by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, a Bat-Fan Favorite ( Be sure to click on the 2nd pic to enjoy the art ). They were made in 1991 by a company called CROMY & they were made for countries like Argentina. So, they're kinda hard to find here in the USA. Thanks Doug, these are great!
This group of photos is just a very nice assortment of some foreign BATMAN ( El Hombre Murcielago ) comic books you could have found in Argentina, in the 1950's. Oh man, I'm totally lovin' the vintage-style artwork here. I also like that they are in a strange "landscape" format...beautiful!
OK, I'm wondering if anyone knows if this BATMAN Coloring book is an actual licensed product or just bootleg? ( Either way it's pretty cool ). It was made in Argentina around 1989 & the shape of the book is die-cut, which is interesting. The artwork is kind of cheesy but that's normal for a coloring book. It looks like it was made by a company called "Sylvapen". Does anybody have any information on this?
If you live in Argentina then you need to eat at McDonalds every day for a little while so you can collect all the brand-new BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD Cartoon McDonald's Happy Meal Toys!! Oh man, I'm so jealous! These toys look extremely cool & the restaurants here in the USA won't have them, ha! There are 3 action figures ( Batman, Aquaman, & The Joker ) and a cool Toy Vehicle. It's a Batmobile Car that splits open to reveal a Bat-Cycle inside! If you visit the Official Argentina McDonald's website you can watch a video of the TV Commercial. Here's a link to check it out, just click HERE! Oh yeah, when you get there click on a tab that says "Mira El Comercial" to see the TV spot. Also, a special thanks goes out to a good bat-citizen named Pedro for letting us know about this event!
Here's a really weird piece of Batman history I came across the other day. It's a picture of an advertisement that might have appeared in a vintage comic book. I'm pretty sure that it is from Argentina. It features Batman, Robin, & Jim Gordon. It looks like they are trying to sell Strawberry Yogurt??? It's made to look like a comic book page & it's titled "El Acertijo", which means, "The Riddler". But, the Riddler character is NOT in the ad...yes, very strange. If anybody can read this, or knows about its origin, then please let us know.
The Bat-Blog became friends with a Batman Memorabilia Collector in Thailand known as "The BAT-CAT" & he has one of the very best Vintage Batman Toy Collections I have ever seen! He sent us a few photos to share & they feature just a part of his collection of Vintage 1960's and 1970's Batmobile Tin Toy Cars, a few Ray Guns, & even a Batman Robot or two. Yes! Robots!! Most of the vehicles are from Japan but there's also some from Italy & Argentina. I gotta say that my favorites are the older Japanese Batman Toys. All of them are in really great shape & some of them still have their original box or package. Please take a good look at each picture. They will make you totally cry & drool for days! I think the most unusual piece is the "Batman Cowboy Gun". Made from tin metal, it's extremely RARE & very exotic. BAT-CAT also owns a few Tin Toys of the Original LINCOLN FUTURA Car that the Custom 1966 Batman TV Show Car was based on ( 1st pic ) and that's pretty cool!! I wanna thank Bat-Cat for taking the time to shoot these wonderful pics & let him know that I am totally jealous, ha ha! but all kidding aside, I really appreciate it & you have some amazing stuff here, thanks again!
For this post I thought I would share some photos of some very obscure pieces of Batman Memorabilia from around the globe. The 1st bat-item is a Set of Batman ( Comic Book Version ) Story / Music Cassettes. These were made in the Netherlands in the early 1980's. There's actually a lot more of these in the original set but finding even these 3 are pretty difficult. I really really like the cover art. The next item might look just like it's American-counterpart but it's totally in German! Yes, it's the 1989 BATMAN MOVIE Novelization Paperback Book, but from Germany. I wonder if these are as common there as the US versions are here, ha ha! But still, it's really cool that it is "foreign language". On to the next photo we see a toy made during the BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES cartoon craze in Argentina! This is one of those Batman: Drawing Play Sets where there's a machine you load plastic tiles into that have "drawings" embossed on them ( raised design ). You snap them into a template, load a piece of paper, & then scratch a pencil across to get the artwork on your paper. It creates an image that is black-outlined & you can then color it. Sort of like having a manual "coloring book sheet maker" in your home, whew! Anyways, it's so great that it's from South America and it's got the BTAS thing goin' on. Plus, seeing the Joker on the box is kinda cool too. OK, right now I want to extend an offer for all Bat-Blog Readers living all over the world to send in any "Foreign Collectibles" photos & stories you might have.
This post is just sort of a hodgepodge of many different photos of Batman-related Magazine Covers from around the world. I think they're kinda interesting to see & I love how the character is popular outside the United States. The first 3 are from Argentina & the surrounding area. Over there they totally went nuts over "The Dark Knight" movie, that's great! The next one is from Asia & they have had a love affair with the popular icon for many decades! I like how they managed to get a sexy picture of Maggie Gyllenhaal in there! The last 2 are from Germany. I especially love the German Mad magazine! I used to read MAD when I was a little kid & it's good to know that children over there are getting their brains twisted too, ha ha!
There's a Batman Collector website I visit called BATMANIACO! It's written by a guy named Alberto who lives in Argentina. Now the thing is, I can not understand one single word written there...I just enjoy the photos, ha ha! I try to translate the page sometimes but it always just gets garbled up so I just end up enjoying the pictures. He has a pretty amazing Batman Toy collection. This is a perfect example! Here's a beautiful Batman Riding Toy Car that looks just like the 1940's Batmobile! Now, remember, I can't read anything there but I'm pretty sure this toy is custom & not production-made. But anyway...it's AWESOME!
