BATGIRL Does The Batusi!

Just a quick post to share this amazing piece of original comic book art done by Cliff Chiang! This was a recent 2012 SDCC San Diego Comic Con Sketch, "Batgirl Does The Batusi!!"

More BATMAN Bat-Mania Madness at 2012 San Diego Comic Con!

Check out these incredible pics shared with us by our good friend Chip. He went to the recent 2012 San Diego Comic Con & got these great batman-related photos!!

First up is a HUGE Promo Banner near the DC Comics Booth that features BATMAN AND ROBIN with artwork by Frank Quitely, beautiful!

Then, speaking of Advertising Banners, here’s another one for a new Batman Video Game future-release.

The next photo is a Batman Japanese Shogun Warrior-type Figure. This was made by FUNKO who just makes extremely excellent stuff. We think this figure is a SDCC Exclusive because it’s all “Black and White” ( the original one is color ).

Then we get to see a new “SUPERMAN VS BATMAN” Statue based on Frank Miller’s THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS Graphic Novel. OK, we actually saved the BEST for last! Here is an Original “Marshall Rogers” Comic Art Page offered by some vendor. It's both so beautiful & complete torture!! ( Thank You Chip! )

BAT-MANGA! BATMAN IN JAPAN - Chip Kidd Lecture at MoCCA Tonight

The Author/Designer Chip Kidd will be talking about BAT-MANGA tonight (Thursday, January 12th) at New York's MoCCA, or the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. The lecture runs from 7:00pm to 9:00 but you should arrive there early because it will probably sell out! Now, for the first time ever in the US, original artwork and lavish cover art from the Batman-manga comics are on display at MoCCA, along with vintage era-specific memorabilia and toys. Admission is $7.00 (Free for Members). For more information click the link down below:



MoCCA

594 Broadway, Suite 401

(btwn. Houston and Prince)

New York, NY 10012

Phone (212) 254-3511

A TRIBUTE TO JERRY ROBINSON - Golden Age BATMAN Wallpapers

Yesterday, a Friend on Facebook suggested the idea of creating a few BATMAN Wallpapers using the "Golden Age Artwork" of Jerry Robinson as sort of a Tribute. Wow, what a great idea!



So, here are some backgrounds I made last night. The first two are images from 2 different comic book covers drawn By Jerry Robinson that featured the Joker. I thought these were appropriate since he created that character.



Then, the next two are a comic book cover he did with the Penguin ( That Villain's 1st Appearance! ). They also feature ROBIN, The Boy Wonder, another character Mr. Robinson created. It's also important to note that the last one is the Original Art for the previous image.

BATMAN AUCTION NEWS - Jerry Robinson's Original Cover Art for DETECTIVE COMICS #67

In recent BATMAN AUCTION NEWS everybody is totally excited about a new piece of Original Golden Age Comic Book Art that has hit the market, it's the Cover Art to DETECTIVE COMICS #67! HERITAGE AUCTIONS of Dallas, Texas is offering it on October 27th,2011. The sale ends around November 15th-17th, 2011. This masterpiece was drawn by Jerry Robinson back in the "Batman Golden Age" era. It's also important to note that this cover was the very first appearance of a character named THE PENGUIN. It's an extremely important piece of Bat-History & my guess is that it will set a record price. Also, if you click on the photo of the artwork up above you can see a very high-def pic with great details, check it out! Oh yeah, if you wanna bid ( or maybe buy this for me as a Christmas gift, hint hint ) then just click HERE!

AUCTION NEWS - Frank Miller's 1986 THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS Original Comic Book Splash Page Art

Right now at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas ( for the next day & 1/2 ) they're having an auction for an original piece of Batman Comic Book Art by Frank Miller. It's the famous splash page from BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS ( © 1986 ) showing Batman & Carrie Kelley ( The 1st Female "Robin" ) flying through the sky of Gotham City. It's an extremely iconic image & also a major part of Bat-History. Right now the piece is up to $100,000.00! Yes, you read that right, one hundred thousand dollars! Man, being poor totally sucks, ha! For more info, or to bid on this baby, just click HERE!

BATMAN AUCTION NEWS - Bob Kane's Original 1939 Page Proofs for Detective Comics 27 at Heritage

The big news in both the auction world & comic book fandom is that Heritage Auctions ( Dallas, Texas ) is offering the Original Production Proofs for Detective Comics # 27 ( 1939 ) that were once owned by Batman Co-Creator Bob Kane. Of course we're talking about the first appearance of the character here! A "Proof Page" in comics was a test printing of an uncolored page used by artists and writers to see how their work would look on the printed page. Now, while this is not the actual original art, this is probably the closest anybody will ever come to owning some production material from this landmark issue. They're estimated to sell for at least $1000 each & they have 5 of them for sale, which are pages 2-6. The image up above shows page 3 & if you click on it, it's extremely sharp, you can see the amazing details of this item. The "Batman Page Proofs" will be part of Heritage Auctions' Signature Vintage Comics & Comic Art Auction held on February 24th, 2011. For more details, click HERE!

Auction News - Golden Age BATMAN Original Comic Book Cover Art

There's a HUGE BUZZ in Auction News right now with the Artist Jerry Robinson putting up an extremely famous piece of Original Comic Book Art on the market. We're talking about the cover art for a Golden Age classic, Detective Comics #69 ( Nov 1942 ). This "Joker Double Guns" cover is beautiful, showing Batman, Joker, and Robin, the Boy Wonder! It's important to note that Jerry Robinson created "The Joker" character so it makes this piece even more wonderful. Be sure to click on the image up above for a nice large sharp picture...it's beautiful! The art is being auctioned by a company called Comic Connect and, at the same time, they will also be offering another classic cover, Superman #14 with artwork by Fred Ray. To bid, or for more information, be sure to click HERE!

A Look Back at BATMAN: DIGITAL JUSTICE by Pepe Moreno

Back in 1990 DC Comics published a one-shot Batman Graphic Novel, written & drawn by Pepe Moreno, called BATMAN: DIGITAL JUSTICE. I remember when it came out & it was a very big deal. I bought it & have totally loved it all these years. The main thing about it was that the artwork was totally created on a computer and, at that time, it was extreme state of the art. I mean, it was groundbreaking! Now, by today's standards, the art may seem kind of cheesy ( no offense to the artist ) but back then it just blew everyone's mind!! Plus, the artwork was really great especially if you consider that it was drawn with the earliest of computer graphic programs. It must have been painstaking to draw between computer crashes, ha! The other cool thing was that the story was really good too. So, all around, it was just a very wonderful Batman book. Over the years it has been translated into many different languages ( the pic up above shows the Spanish version cover ). The sketch of Batman, up above, was the original mock-up drawing for the cover. Obviously the story was set in the far far future. It was actually way after the death of our modern-day Batman. Parts of it were almost sort of like the TRON movie, but not really. It dealt with a deadly "Joker computer virus" that was threatening the future Gotham City. Anyways, it's a book I highly recommend. Another thing, if you have already read this novel & you're a fan of it then you might be happy to know that the artist Pepe Moreno has been posting a lot of personal sketches from this classic book on his art blog. They're really great to see & they're a very interesting piece of bat-history. Here's a link to check it out, just click HERE!

Original 1966 TOPPS BATMAN TRADING CARD ART by Norman Saunders

Here's an extremely cool photo I found awhile back while researching some major "Pop Culture Collectibles" auction. In one of their lots they had some original comic art done by Norman Saunders ( Click on it for a larger, sharper, version ). Of course he's the ultra-famous illustrator for many of the vintage trading cards made by TOPPS back in the 1960's & 70's. This photo shows the original art (custom framed) with 2 actual 1966 Batman Trading Cards. This is card #1B & features "The Joker's Icy Jest". The weird thing is that you can see that the artwork is only a little bigger than the actual card, very cool! But regardless of size, it's an incredible piece of art....a total masterpiece! I never checked back on this thing to see what it went for. I mean, what's the use? I knew it would be totally out of my price range, ha ha! Whoever owns it now is an extremely lucky person.

BATMAN - YESTERDAY AND TOMMORROW - The BAT-MANGA ART EXHIBIT at CARTOON ART MUSEUM June 17th

The Cartoon Art Museum ( San Francisco, CA ) and the Japan Society of Northern California will present a lecture with author / book designer Chip Kidd on Thursday, June 17th, 2010 for a special presentation entitled "Bat-Manga! A Secret Look at the Secret History of Batman in Japan". The exhibit will include some original art by Jiro Kuwata that has not been seen for almost 40 years. It really looks like a great event! For more information be sure to visit the Official CARTOON ART MUSEUM website by clicking HERE!

Original 1960's BATMAN POP ART OIL PAINTING By Bob Kane!

WOW! The Bat-Blog is known for sharing a ton of news about Batman but this is actual BAT-HISTORY right here! The image you see up above is a photo of the original Batman Pop Art Oil Painting "done by" Bob Kane, the co-creator of Batman. The pics were sent in by a Bat-Blog Fan named Rick, who actually owns this amazing piece of art ( Be sure to click on it for a larger, sharper, image ). He explained how he got it in this email, he wrote:

In 1966, after the television show hit big, Bob Kane did a series of 12 large pop art oil paintings. This is one of them and, I think, the best of the bunch. I saw about 8 of them in the early 90's when Kane exhibited them at an art gallery in Beverly Hills. Mine was owned by Cary Grant for 20 years and hung in his guest bathroom. I've owned it since 1987.

Oh man! I've known about these paintings for years & it's so cool to actually meet someone who owns one. I've never seen one in real life, only publicity photos. To publish an actual photo of this on my blog is a total honor, no kidding, it's great! Thank you Rick for sharing your story.

NEAL ADAMS & DICK GIORDANO ORIGINAL ART - Batman's DETECTIVE COMICS # 415

While surfing through the Heritage Auction Galleries website last night I saw the most amazing piece of Batman Comic Book Art that I have seen in a long time. This is an original penciled & inked drawing for the cover to Detective Comics # 415. This was drawn by Neal Adams ( pencils ) with inks by Dick Giordano. It's going to be auctioned off on May 21st, 2010. With this being an incredible piece of Batman art from the Classic Silver Age period, plus - with the recent passing of Dick Giordano, it's going to be interesting to see what this item goes for.

• Estimate $16,000 - $24,000
• Starting Bid $5500

Yes, it's wayyyy outta MY price range, ha!

THE BATMAN ADVENTURES - Original Comic Book Cover Artwork

Fans of Original Batman Comic Book Artwork are gonna totally love this! Up above is the Cover Art done by Mike Parobeck for issue #35 of THE BATMAN ADVENTURES. This was basically a tie-in for the Animated Series Cartoon & done in the exact same style. Personally, I have always loved the TV Show so the comics they made were great too because you got the same great graphics. (( Please be sure to click on the pic up above for a way larger, more sharp, picture )) The minimal-clean artwork is totally beautiful! Also, the cover features both Batman & Catwoman so that's kind of cool too.

BATMAN: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE Comic Book Cover Art by ANDY KUBERT!

This morning DC Comics released the Original Comic Book Art Drawings for the covers to BATMAN: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE, Issues # 3 & 4. They're both drawn by Andy Kubert & are totally cool! The 1st one shows the Dark Knight as a Pirate. Yes, a Pirate! In the 2nd Book Cover he is a Cowboy, AWESOME! Please be sure to click on them for larger (sharp) versions!

Original Art - BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #28 Comic Book Cover By Jose Luis Garcia Lopez

I totally love Original Comic Book Art & if I could afford it I would totally collect it. I have a few pieces of art but nothing really Batman-related. Well, I did meet Art Baltazar recently & got an "Adam West Batman" sketch from him. So, OK, maybe 1 item. But shown here is an amazing piece of art that I would totally love to have. This is the original cover art for BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL # 28. It's done by no other than Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, a legend in the industry. It features the Riddler as the main villain & the composition is really striking. Be sure to click on the picture of the artwork for a larger, more detailed, photo ...it's really really nice! OK, If there are any Bat-Blog Readers out there who specialize in collecting Batman art then please send us some pics. It can be Comic Book Cover Art or Pages, Animation Cels, Production Art, Style Sheets, etc...

BATMAN Original Production Art - Kenner's "Blast Shield" Action Figure Packaging

This was on eBay the other night & I thought it was too cool NOT to post! This is the Original Production Art for the Batman ( Dark Knight Collection, not the last movie ) "Blast Shield"Action Figure made by Kenner. This was a "boxed item" that came out, I think, in 1991. I remember when it was in the stores & I thought the box concept was kinda cool. But even cooler is this original artwork by Dick Giordano because he's such a Comic Book Artist Legend! I would totally love to have this & Christmas is coming up, hint, hint.

Original BATMAN COMIC BOOK ART by The UK's Clint Langley.

Here are some photos sent in by our good friend Guenter. He recently went to a comic convention in Essen , Germany called "Comic Action". While there he was able to pick up a few pieces of Batman Original Artwork by the British Comic Book Artist Clint Langley. The 1st one shown here is, of course, BANE the evil super-villain. It's great! The picture also shows the actual artist. Now, the 2nd photo is a piece he did with both Batman & The Joker! As a bonus, because the artwork is so cool, I took the photo & made it a Desktop Wallpaper you can use as a background. Please let me know what you think of it. I wanna thank Guenter for sharing these pics with us. He has a great collection of art like this & I always love to see it. If any other Bat-Blog Fans get a chance to meet their favorite comic book artists then please be sure to share some stories too, thanks!

THE RIDDLER - Batman Themed Desktop Background Wallpapers!

OK, Here at the Bat-Blog, every Wednesday, we post 2 FREE Brand-New Batman-Themed Desktop Backgrounds. We call it "Wacky Wallpaper Wednesday"! Last week I asked readers to send in some suggestions for next week & right away a reader asked for some wallpapers of THE RIDDLER! Now he was not specific about which version so I kind of went with 2 that I thought would be popular. Even though, in hindsight, I should have made one of the "Animated Series" versions. But anyway, I hunted down some images & made 2 that I hope are pretty good. One uses Modern "Original Comic Book Artwork" & the other is a sharp Hi-Res Photo of a Brand-New RIDDLER Action Figure, in the Vintage Silver-Age Style. Well, I thought these were pretty cool & then could not wait until next Wednesday ( it's 3 days away ) so I decided to post them today, ha ha!

Matt Allison's SILVER AGE BATMAN Comic Book Cover Parody!

I just found out about an artist named Matt Allison who's work I really like a lot. He contacted me the other day to share some graphics he made that he thought Bat-Blog Readers would enjoy. Well, they're really great! What he did was his own interpretation of an actual silver-age Batman comic book cover that is drawn in his special graphic style. I mean, it looks just like the original but is kinda strange & unusual ( I mean that in a good way ). He also made a parody of one of those wonderful Hostess Twinkies Ads too & it totally cracks me up! The last picture is one that I found while searching his blog ( Be sure to click on them for larger, more detailed, versions ). He writes a personal blog where he shares his artwork & there's a lot of great stuff there as well. If you think you might like to check it out, then here's a link, please CLICK HERE!