Review: The Art and Making of The Dark Knight Trilogy' is More Making Than Art

The Art and Making of The Dark Knight Trilogy is good, but is less art and more making of the three films Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.

The book is published by Harry N. Abrams and written by Jody Duncan Jesser, and Cinefex magazine writer Janine Pourboy. It's a decent size at 9.2 inches x 1.1 inches x 11.9 inches and weighing a whopping 4.5 pounds. If Batman could keep it in his utility belt, he could knock out the Joker.

It's 304 pages of behind the scenes stories and quotes. The pages start out with the quote from Henri Ducard: "Your parent's death was not your fault...But if you make yourself more than a man... if you devote yourself to an ideal...then you become something else entirely. Which is? A legend, Mr. Wayne."

Here's the official description:
"In 2005, director Christopher Nolan redefined the Batman legend with Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader. A fresh, dynamic reboot of the franchise, Batman Begins explored the comic book hero’s origins and his evolution from billionaire Bruce Wayne to dark avenger who fights crime and corruption in Gotham City. A 2008 sequel, The Dark Knight, took those compelling, character-driven foundations and raised the stakes, pitting Batman against a deranged master criminal, the Joker, in an all-out war for Gotham’s soul. Now, the final film of Nolan’s trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, is 2012’s most anticipated film release.

"The Art and Making of The Dark Knight Trilogy tells the complete behind-the-scenes story of these three monumental films. Based on in-depth interviews with Nolan and all of the films’ key cast and crew—including cowriters David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan, cinematographer Wally Pfister, and more—the book reveals the creative process behind the epic Dark Knight Trilogy, supported by lavish art and never-before-seen photography."

Here's the video preview of the book:

I was disappointed that it focuses very little on the artwork. We get many great photos of the filming though. My favorite is the shot of the life size Bat-Pod sitting on Nolan's patio while his wife and son look on.

Most of the book tells the story of the making of the film and the challenges they face. There are great stories and quotes, but very little you wouldn't find on the Internet, or in online interviews. It's nice that they put it all in one book though.

On the other hand, there is very little concept art and only one storyboard. Contrast this with book on Inception: The Shooting Script which was full of dozens of drawings and pages of storyboards.

There is no concept art for Catwoman (Anne Hathaway), which Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon) described as "fantastic." Only two images of Bane (Tom Hardy).

There's no list of the artists that worked on The Dark Knight Rises (like Tully Summers) but they do mention Jamie Rama in connection with The Dark Knight bat-suit design. Most of the time they focus on the work of Production Designer Nathan Crowley and Costume Designer of Lindy Hemmings. These guys are at the top of their game and did a lot of the designs, but they didn't work in a vacuum. The book gives vague terms like "artists" when acknowledging the contribution of other illustrators. The Avengers book had a complete list of all the illustrators who worked on the film. This book has none.

I can only assume they put everything in The Dark Knight Manual: Tools, Weapons, Vehicles and Documents from the Batcave because this book is empty.

The book is good if you're not familiar with the filming of the other movies and don't care about concept art and storyboards. Otherwise, it's a disappointment.
2.5 stars out of 5

Have you read the book? Would you read it?

YEAH IT'S THAT BAD Podcast - "Batman Forever" Movie Review

I know THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Movie comes out very very soon but I wanted to share this excellent Podcast Review of an older Bat-Film, BATMAN FOREVER. Yes, ha ha, the 1995 Movie starring Val Kilmer & directed by Joel Schumacher. Our friends over at the YEAH IT'S THAT BAD Movie Review Podcast just did an episode (#78) where they discuss the film. I gotta say that it's pretty entertaining and even if you love this movie you will still enjoy it. Here's a LINK to check it out.

'Avengers: The Art of Marvel's The Avengers' Assembles The Best Concept Art

Avengers: The Art of Marvel's The Avengers has some of the greatest concept art I've had the pleasure of seeing. The book is written by Jason Surrell who was a Disney Imagineer for a long time and did books on Pirates and Haunted Mansion.

With an introduction by Marvel Visual Development department concept artists Ryan Meinerding and Charlie Wen, they start by saying "The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a world whose foundation is based in art, or as we'd like to call it: an illustrator's dream." And it really is. It wasn't easy designing The Avengers. That's the one message that keeps coming up in the book.

There are many quotes from actors, Joss Whedon the director, James Chinlund and concept artists to help you feel what it was like to design such a huge film.

For the film they gave a core team of concept artists a character to focus on. Andy Park (), Phil Saunders and Adi Granov (Iron Man), Charlie Wen (Thor), Ryan Meinderding (Captain America), Rodney Fuentebella, Jacon Johnstson. Production Designer James Chinlund got an amazing group of freelance artists together to round out the team.

The art in the book is beautiful and the glossy oversize pages really let you see an amazing level of detail.

The introduction takes you through the set of movies from Iron Man to Thor and ends with an amazing timeline of the cinematic universe timeline that's three pages long.

The next three chapters take you through the events in the film in three acts: Incident in the Desert, Avengers Assemble and Common Threat.

"Act One: Incident in the Desert" takes you through the sets and designs from the beginning of the film and concept art for Nick Fury, Agent Maria Hill, Loki and Hawkeye.

"Act Two: Avengers Assemble" covers Bruce Banner/Hulk, Black Widow, Steve Rogers/Captain America, Tony Stark/Iron Man, Thor and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s vehicles including the massive Helicarrier. There is also a collection of storyboards

Andy Park's Black Widow "Cat Suit" designs with unused "Widow Stingers" coursing through the costume.

Finally, "Act Three: A Common Threat" starts with designs of Iron Man's new armor and takes you through the design of the evil alien Chitauri. There's even a key frame of the post credit surprise cameo. It ends with an amazing storyboard of the final battle against the aliens by Bryan Andrews and Jim Mitchell

Bryan Andrews "Battle in the Desert" storyboards featuring Iron Man vs. Thor

The final section, "Some Assembly Required" covers various aspects of the marketing from t-shirt designs to versions of the San Diego Comic-Con poster.

One nice feature that I hadn't seen before is a list of all the artists in the book along with the page numbers.

Here's the list of artists credited

• Aaron McBride
• Adi Granov
• Amanda Hunter
• Andy Park
• Ari Sachter-Zeltzer
• Ben Edelberg
• Bryan Andrews
• Bryan Hitch
• Charlie Wen
• Christian Alzmann
• Christopher Ross
• Dave Yee
• Fabien Lacey
• Iain McCaig
• Jack Kirby
• Jacon Johnstson
• Jeff Markwith
• Jim Mitchell
• John Giang
• Josh Herman
• Joe Simon
• Justin Sweet
• Jackson Sze
• Mark Goerner
• Michael Meyers
• Nathan Schroeder
• Nick Cross
• Olly Moss
• Paul Ozzimo
• Phil Saunders
• Paolo Rivera
• Raj Rihal
• Rick Buoen
• Rodney Fuentebella
• Ryan Meinderding
• Steve Jung
• Tani Kunitake
• Yanick Dusseault

This is a beautiful book and, with it's artist quotes, beautiful layout and insider information, is well worth reading.

4 1/2 of 5 stars

Timeline image via comicbookmovie.com

What do you think of the book? Are you going to look for it?

Video Review - Batman Arkham Asylum JOKER Action Figure - Play Arts Kai

Here's a very well done Batman Toy Video Review a friend on Facebook sent me. It's for the "Batman: Arkham Asylum" JOKER Play Arts Kai Action Figure, check it out!!

UPDATED: FIVE Things I Learned About 'Alien' (1978) From 'Giger's Alien'

Update: Originally, the list was seven, but I shortened it to five. The title still reflected that. Thanks for catching that Heiki!

The book Giger's Alien by H.R. Giger is a great read. It's full of marvelous concept art and great stories. I learned a lot about the film industry and a lot about Giger. It's a collection of diary entries he wrote making the film.

He admits in the foreword that he didn't understand the challenges of film-making at the time. Since then, he's come to respect everyone and the effort it took to make the film.

Here are the seven  five most interesting things I learned in the book.

1. The Alien Was Almost A Giant Baby
Originally, the producers suggested the alien look like a big baby.

THE ALIEN, THIRD (NATURE) PHASE. Having left its victim, the Alien promptly grows to Man-size, whereupon it is terrifically dangerous. It is very mobile. strong, and capable of tearing a man to pieces. It feeds on human flesh. This creature should be a profane abomination. Some producers have suggested that something resembling an over-sized, deformed baby night be sufficiently loathsome - In any event, we wish you to feel free to create your own design.

I'm not sure how scary it would have been, but it definitely would have been freaky to see a giant deformed baby chasing them around the ship.

2. The Original Eggs Were Hilarious

I had heard that the original design of the Alien egg opening looked like a vagina, but Giger's storytelling skills are phenomenal.

1 September 1978, Shepperton Studios
Scott, Carroll, Dilley and Powell appear to Inspect my work. I had just started to apply a texture. The lid of the egg, which in O'Bannon's sketch sprang up at a touch, I changed it into an organic, vagina-like opening. When I take off the plastic cloths in which my work is draped, there is a howl of laughter from the whole group. I had lovingly endowed this egg with an inner and outer vulva To make it all look more organic, I filled some more preservatives with clay and arranged these semi-transparent little sausages on the pink aperture.

When the gentlemen are beginning to get over it, I allow myself to ask whether they like it. Scott thinks It's too good, and Carroll too specific. He's afraid it will get them into trouble, especially in Catholic countries. Dilley would rather have something more like a flower opening. This suggestion gives me the idea of doubling the bud effect and laying the two one across the other. Seen from above, they would form the cross that people in Catholic countries are so fond of looking at. Once again I can satisfy the producers, myself and the public at home and abroad.

3. Secretaries in Switzerland Are Well Paid
At one point, H.R. Giger complains about the amount of money the studio is offering him. As a professional artist he's insulted and says secretaries in Switzerland are paid more. If he was serious, I can't imagine how much lawyers are paid there.

4. If O'Bannon Had Stayed In Town The Alien Ship Would Have Been Traditional

Giger and the producer had a numerous fights with Giger about the designs. Most left his concepts and designs behind. One big fight was over the design of the derelict ship the crew find. Dan O'Bannon, who wrote the screenplay, was adamant that they should have a traditional ship with tail fins sticking in the air. Gordon Carroll, one of the producers, insisted the derelict will blend in with the landscape.  He won the argument.

19 July 1978, Shepperton Studios
They ask me to go to the office, where Scott, Seymour and Carroll are waiting for me. Carroll says, please will I design another derelict. The entrance passage and the landscape can stay the same as those that have been built in Sound Stage H, but the rest will have to be changed. As it is now (plate 378) it is too reminiscent of a bone and might make people think it was an organic part of the landscape. There will also be technical difficulties In building it. I am absolutely astounded to hear this from Carroll, of all people, who had been so enthusiastic about my derelict when he first saw It. I suspect that Shusett and O'Bannon are behind it. Even good friends can often infuriate one. I try to convince Carroll that the dimensions and the aerodynamic shape are enough in themselves to distinguish the derelict from the landscape, and moreover that technical details ought not to be too obvious in case they spoil the biomechanical character of a spaceship built by non-humans. I simply can't see how I can improve on it; I regard it as one of my best pictures. Carroll proves unyielding and finally practically orders me to conjure up something else out of the ground. They seem to think I can just shake good ideas out of my sleeve— the bitter fate of the creative artist. Scott keeps quiet during the discussion, and in silent opposition demonstrates a quite ordinary, banal crashed aircraft, its tall fin pointing skyward. I understand and, promising to try something different, go back to my work. This is an occasion when time will work for me.

But, when Giger came on set the next day, they were building the ship the way he designed them. He concludes that it's because O'Bannon went back to America and they didn't have enough time to develop another design.

5. A Surprising Number of Children Were Involved
The scene with Lambert, Dallas, and Kane in the "Space Jockey" cockpit was filmed with children in the space suits. This increased the scale. Two were Ridley Scott's children.

26 September 1978, Shepperton Studios
Yesterday we worked late into the night to get the set looking more or less finished. A truck with a camera crane that can be raised and lowered has been set up at the edge of the set for the camera team. The %pada effects' men veil the whole scene in smoke from some kind of burning oil. It smells horrible and makes it very stuffy on the stage. The lighting men crouch in the scaffolding bathed in sweat and light up whatever they are told. Meanwhile Scott hovers on his airy seat with the cameraman, Derek Vanlint, and gives instructions. All the preparations are complete and filming begins. The three actors playing the astronauts are replaced by children, wearing miniature copies of the astronaut's clothes. This makes the enormous figure of the pilot look bigger still.

While designing the the Alien phase III, at one point Ridley Scott strapped a bunch of children to a man. This was to give the impression of a creature with many limbs.

23 February 1978, Shepperton Studios
Alien III Is the monster, the superstar, the title-role of the film. O'Bannon had used a monster before, in his film Dark Star. For that they used a balloon the size of a medicine-ball which hopped about on two hands. To begin with we weren't clear what the Alien in Alien ought to look like. Scott definitely wasn't going to have some ordinary cinema monster stamping stiffly and awkwardly through t

Review: 'Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)' Blu-Ray Review

Captain America: The First Avenger has no concept art gallery. I was going to drop my rating because of it, but then I watched the gorgeous featurettes and stopped complaining.


Product Details

• Actors: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Samuel L. Jackson, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan
• Directors: Joe Johnston
• Writers: Christopher Markus, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Stephen McFeely
• Producers: Alan Fine, Amir Madani, Dan Masciarelli
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English, Spanish
• Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
• Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Paramount Studios
• DVD Release Date: October 25, 2011
• Run Time: 124 minutes

Special Features

• Includes Digital Copy
• Deleted Scenes
• Behind-The-Scenes Featurettes
• Marvel One Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer -- Go deeper inside the Marvel Universe and unveil secret plans to assemble the ultimate superhero team, the Avengers. 
• And more!

Here are some of the featurettes I found interesting along, with some admittedly poor screen caps from the disk. I just couldn't resist putting some of these on the site.

Featurette Review
Designing the Costume
The director and producer talk about the challenge of designing a faithful comic book costume while making out realistic. Some concept art with interviews with lead concept artist Ryan Meinerding and some brief, but beautiful pan and scans of the illustrations.

Heightened Technology 
The producers and actors talk about the desire to bring advanced technology to WWII without looking out-of-place. We get a few shots of concept art on boards during production and some beautiful images of Daniel Simons' vehicle designs. He's the star of the featurette since he talks extensively about his design principles.

The Transformation 
A great explanation of how the creators got Chris Evans to look skinny and why they did it the way they did. There are only two illustrations, but the focus is on the technology.

Behind the Skull 
This feature talks about how they brought the character of the Red Skull to life. Artists Ryan Meinerding and Charlie Wen take about the challenge of balancing the anatomical effect of a man with his face burned off while maintaining the classic image of the comic book character. Here are some really nice illustrations in this video. The best on the disk really.

Overall, it's a really good set of disks. The concept art for the Marvel films are some of the best in the business and, besides the lack of a gallery, it's still a good disk to own.




Charlie Wen's website is http://charliewen.typepad.com/ and Ryan Meinerding's is http://boyrobot.com/. Both guy's are pretty busy, so Wen's site hasn't been updated since 2010 and Meinerding's blog domain has lapsed. Just go to Marvel.com to see their stuff.

'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' (2011) BLU-Ray Special Features Review

The film Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) has some amazing concept art attached to it, so I was really looking forward to the Blu-Ray special features. I was pretty disappointed.

The Details
Actors: James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto

Directors: Rupert Wyatt
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen

Language: English
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number of discs: 2
Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Release Date: December 13, 2011
Run Time: 105 minutes

Special Features
Disc 1: Theatrical Feature Blu-ray

• Deleted Scenes
• Mythology of the Apes
• The Genius of Andy Serkis
• A New Generation of Apes
• Scene Breakdown
• Character Concept Art Gallery
• Breaking Motion Capture Boundaries
• Composing the Score with Patrick Doyle
• The Great Apes
• Audio Commentary by Director Rupert Wyatt
• Audio Commentary by Writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver
• Theatrical Trailers

 Disc 2: DVD + Digital Copy

The Review
The sections on how they did the special effects are pretty cool. The "Scene Breakdown" and "The Genius of Andy Serkis" were really good at explaining how they did the motion capture. It's pretty jarring to watch men act like apes sitting in cages. Pretty cool.


The key section for me is the "Conceptual Art Gallery". The interface has a series of images divided into seven main ape characters (Rocket, Maurice, Koba, Caesar, Bright Eyes, Buck and Lucky) from the film. You click on the character to see the artwork.

The images are high quality, but sparse. Maybe less than twenty. You can get better concept art.from google. I'm pretty sure some of them are reference photographs, unless they have an incredibly high resolution.

Here's the breakdown:
Artist credits: No
Still images: Yes
Resolution: High
Number of images: Low (less than 20)
Zoom: No

So, the disc gets three out of a possible five stars.

Buy it here at amazon.

What did you think of the movie and the Blu-Ray disc?

BOOK REVIEW - Gene Colan's TALES OF THE BATMAN Graphic Novel VOLUME 1

THE COMICS JOURNAL just published a very nice review of the recent DC Comics Graphic Novel titled "TALES OF THE BATMAN by Gene Colan Volume 1". Sadly, Gene Colan died last year ( June 23rd ) so the timing on this book is well received and could be considered a tribute. This HC Book compiles the first two year's worth of stories from Gene Colan’s five-year run as BATMAN’s Lead Artist ( Pencils ), which began in 1981. I grew-up reading a lot of his work, or I guess I should say, "looking at his work", and have always enjoyed it. Here's a link to the THE COMICS JOURNAL Review. Also, if you're interested in buying this Hardback Book CLICK HERE for a good sale price that is 25% off retail.

Ron Cobb Shines in 'The Last Starfighter' 25th Anniversay Edition [Review]

Note: This is a review of the quality of the special features and not the movie itself.

The Last Starfighter (25th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray] is a good DVD with memorable interviews with production designer Ron Cobb.

The Last Starfighter (1984) has been one of my guilty pleasures since I was a kid. It's not a great movie by any means, but the break-through special effects and the heart-warming story of a video game junkie that becomes a fighter pilot always warmed my heart. It seems unfair that the Blu-Ray is less than $15 and the DVD is in the $5 bin. I know it's not great, but it's better than it's shelf mate Popeye.

Description
"Greetings, Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Kodan Armada.” So begins an adventure of galactic proportions in The Last Starfighter. After Earthling Alex (Lance Guest) conquers the Starfighter video game, he is recruited by alien Centauri (Robert Preston) to be part of an elite legion of fighters. Leaving behind his trailer park home for the outer regions of space, Alex becomes the last hope for the beleaguered Star League and hundreds of worlds – including Earth. Loaded with out-of-this-world bonus features and digitally remastered for optimum picture quality, The Last Starfighter 25th Anniversary Edition is the ultimate video game fantasy come true"

Special Features Review
Heroes of the Screen
A making of featurette that covered a lot of the same ground as the the later video "Crossing the Frontier". Most of the footage is the same with one noteable exception: Paul Power the storyboard artist. They even do a time-lapse of his starting a storyboard and talking about his philosophy.

Crossing the Frontier: Making The Last Starfighter
In the 32-minute making of featurette, “Crossing the Frontier: Making the Last Starfighter” key members of the crew are brought back to talk about the making of the movie and it's mind-blowing. From one scene where the technical director does the math on a chalkboard and tells them they should use models to stories about sleeping on Cray computers it really makes you appreciate how much work it took for the film.

The highlight for me was watching Ron Cobb. The guy is humble and honest talking about the development. Part of the feature focuses on how they took advantage of his drafting skills to plot every single line of the ships he designed. They basically scanned them into the computer and ran with it. Besides designing the vehicles he also designed Xur's scepter.

Image Gallery
An extensive Image Gallery has numerous production and promotional photos on the characters, ships, merchandise. The gallery shows concept art and drawings for the Starcar, Starfighter and Starfighter landing bay.

Overall, it would have been nice to see some more designs, but the interviews with the great Ron Cobb more than made up for it.

You can see more amazing storyboards from Paul Power at his website http://www.paulpower.com/
Maybe one day Cobb will finish his website http://roncobb.net/ 

Stars: 3.5 out of 5

Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) Blu-ray is Chock Full of Concept Art But Still Lacking

Overall, if you don't have access to any other concept art books, this is a great resource. If you do have the books or have special edition DVDs I wouldn't get this set for the concept art.

Star Wars concept art is the gold standard of concept art. All the greatest concept illustrators worked on the Star Wars films starting with Ralph McQuarrie. I was especially eager to dig into it and see what was offered.

The Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray] set comes with nine disks. The six movie disks and three bonus disks. The first one has all the deleted, extended and alternate scenes; prop, maquette and costume turnarounds; matte paintings and concept art; supplementary interviews with cast and crew.

This is the one I focused on. The interface is fascinating. Using beautifully animated key scenes from the movie you are taken into the world of each film. The disks then organize all the material by planet and each planet has a section for concept art. Its kind of confusing in a way. Suppose you want to see concept art from Coruscant? Is it under Episode I, II or III? It takes some getting used to.

Each planet has an average of ten pieces of concept art. So, if you do the math its over 90 images. Nice.

The images are amazing and really give insight into the creation of different characters and their history. Nice little touches are the mentions of concept art for the prequels that became part of Star Wars: Clone Wars and the fantastic savagery of the Wookie Kashyyyk warriors.

Like I said, Star Wars concept art is always amazing to look at. These disks are loaded with the best concept art from the films.

Here's the downside. One problem I have with almost all concept art in DVDs is you can't zoom in to get a better look. It has a single image formatted to take up the top and bottom of the screen and that's it. Some art is so rich in detail its frustrating not to be able to check it out.

On the plus side, they're not cropped or modified, so you get the full effect. There's a slide show feature which is nice for cruising through the images one at a time, but you can also jump to any of the images.

Another notable, but common omission, is the credits for the images. As per usual, the art is shown with no indication who drew them. Some of the paintings have signatures like Doug Chiang, but most are anonymous.
Considering how important artists are to visualizing the Star Wars films, I was surprised that there wasn't a single interview with any of the artists. Not even veteran artists like Ralph McQuarrie. That was disappointing. Especially since the other DVDs had full featurettes on the concept artists and it wouldn't have been hard to add them.

The Star Wars Blu-Ray set is a must have for lovers of the films, but disappointing to lovers of concept art.

What did you think of the disks? Would you buy or recommend them?

Below are links to the Blu-Ray disk and a selection of my favorite "Art of Star Wars" books.

Video Review - DC UNIVERSE SQUATZ FIGURES - BATMAN and JOKER TOYS!

Over at YouTube "The Review Revolution" did a pretty good Toy Review about the new Collectible DC UNIVERSE SQUATZ Toy Figures of Batman and The Joker. The BAT-BLOG.COM announced these new products awhile back and you can read our full review by clicking right HERE! I just wanted to post this video because the person who did it did a very decent job. Plus, it shows what these toys actually do & how you interact with them ( you put them in water & they have a special-coating that dissolves to reveal the hidden figure ). I think these toys are kinda cool & hopefully it will remind people that they are out there.

NEW BATMAN DVD REVIEW - THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD Season Two, Part One ( 2-Disc Set )

I just got done watching the latest "BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD" TV Cartoon DVD. It's the new "SEASON TWO, PART ONE" 2-Disc Set. Oh man, it was a total blast to watch! I think "Season Two" was when this show was really hitting it's stride. Plus, this DVD took forever to watch, almost 4 hours! Which is a point I'd like to make: Considering that you get 273 minutes of entertainment for less than the price of a regular movie, then it's still a pretty good value. But, back to the greatness of this product, hee hee! It contains some of the best episodes so far. Here's a list, check it out:




Disc 1

• Death Race To Oblivion!
• Long Arm Of The Law!
• Revenge of the Reach!
• Aquaman's Outrageous Adventure!
• The Golden Age of Justice!
• Sidekicks Assemble!
  

Disc 2

• Clash of the Metal Men!
• A Bat Divided!
• The Super-Batman of Planet X!
• The Power of Shazam!
• Chill of The Night!
• Gorillas in Our Mist!
  

OK, see what I mean. There's some great stuff on this volume. Personally my 2 favorite episodes to watch again were "The Golden Age of Justice!" and "Chill of the Night!". I guess I should also mention that this DVD Set has 2 Languages: English & Spanish. It also has "French Subtitles".

BRAND-NEW BATMAN ACTION FIGURES - Michael's Video Review

Our friend Michael, also known as ""FilmakerMike"on YouTube, just came out with a fresh Video that is really a "Toy Review" on a few brand-new BATMAN Action Figures he just found. The cool bat-toys include: BATMAN LEGACY EDITION 2-PACK ( Prototype Batman & Lt. Jim Gordon ), BATMAN ARKHAM CITY ( Batman & Two-Face ), Walmart's LEGACY EDITION FIGURES ( Batman & The Joker ), plus DC UNIVERSE JOKER & HARLEY, The "Mad Love" Set. The video has great info on prices & where you can find them. Thanks Mike, Good Job on The Video!!

YEAH IT'S THAT BAD - Podcast Reviews 1997 BATMAN AND ROBIN Movie

"Yeah, It's That Bad" is a movie podcast that reviews films which are considered to be awful remakes, box office bombs, useless sequels and other critically hated films. Well, recently they did their take on Joel Schumacher's 1997 BATMAN AND ROBIN movie. You know it, the one that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, Chris O'Donnell, Uma Thurman, and Alicia Silverstone. So, is this movie bad? To give you a hint I noticed the other day that you can buy it used on Amazon for 6 cents, no joke! But YITB's Movie Review is still fun to listen too, just click HERE!

Book Review - JERRY ROBINSON: Ambassador of Comics

If you've been reading the Bat-Blog for any length of time it probably didn't take you very long, maybe a few seconds, to find out that I'm totally obsessed with Batman! ( ha ha ) So, when I heard the news that Abrams was going to publish a definitive biography about Jerry Robinson's life, I was pretty excited! I mean, Jerry Robinson was right there with Bob Kane & Bill Finger during the early creation of Batman. He drew most of the iconic Golden Age Batman artwork we now enjoy, especially the comic book covers. He is the person who created the greatest villain in pop culture history, The Joker! He also co-created Robin, the Boy Wonder! What I'm getting at is this, his contribution to the character is extremely important. So, as both a serious Batman fan & comic book history nut, I couldn't wait till this came out. The book I'm talking about is titled JERRY ROBINSON: AMBASSADOR OF COMICS.



It is the very 1st illustrated biography of the comics legend & it was written by N. C. Christopher Couch ( who had direct access to Jerry the whole time ). The book is loaded with beautiful artwork & photos from his entire career. Which, by the way, is still going on. It starts out like any other biography, telling his parent's history & sharing his childhood story. Which, is very interesting, but the great thing is that it gets to the "Batman part" pretty quick, ha ha! Now, when you're reading this book it's done in a style where you feel like you are "right there in the moment". So, hearing the origin of the Batman character & how it all came about is pretty cool. We find out how Bob Kane & Jerry Robinson actually met for the 1st time. There's a ton of "behind the scene" details on who did what & how. There's a lot of things I never knew about the actual characters that I was very pleased with learning. For example, Alfred the Butler was not introduced in the comic book. He made his 1st appearance in the 1940's Batman Movie Serials, & then later, was added as a comic book character ( Weird I never knew that ). The book goes into great details about the whole "Batman events" thing, which is just really great stuff! Now, to be honest, I thought I might be bored once they got out of the "Batman era", but I wasn't ( no offense to Jerry! ). Mr. Robinson had a very full career outside of comic books doing Illustration Work, Syndicated Comic Strips, & Political Comics. A lot of this stuff I was not familiar with because it ran in popular newspapers I never saw. Plus, he did draw, write, create, many other comic books & hearing those stories are just as wonderful.



Now, back to the actual book. The quality of the printing was the very 1st thing I was really impressed with. I'm a serious reader ( and even collect books ) & I love a well-designed book. The cover is beautiful, the inside photos & illustrations are BEAUTIFUL! I spent a lot of time enjoying the full-page photos of the original art for many of the comic book covers, especially the Batman ones. They almost always present the original art right next to the actual comic book. Both pictures are so extremely sharp that it's almost like you're looking at the real thing, it's a very neat experience. They also have a photo of the very 1st Joker drawing, the prototype, that's really neat to see. I guess I need to add some technical information, like: It's a hardcover with dust-jacket, it measures about 8" X 11", & has 224 pages. It also has 220 full-color illustrations & it's retail price is about $35.00. So, overall, I gotta say that this book is very well written, very high-quality, & if you're a serious Batman Fan, it will make you drool for days! Oh yeah, TFAW has it on sale, just click the button down below: