Batman #164 is something of a landmark issue. Then again, with this opening scene, how could it not be?
Did you know that the guy who played Robin on the Batman TV show in the 60's cut an album?
Well, sorta:
Frank Zappa rules. Here's more on that bit if'n you're so inclined.
But I don't think there are any hootenanny songs on that album.
Hootenanny is the rage! THE RAGE, HEPCATS!
Anyway, the comic is really starting to take the tone of the tv show. Here, we have the first appearance of...
.... although in the show, they slid down poles. Maybe that was too tough to draw.
And here's the first appearance of the Silver Age Batmobile!
And here's a... a....
... well, it was just a garage door opener. Those things had been around since 1926 and were certainly common after WWII. This reminds me of that time Sue Storm was showing off the marvelous invention known to us as "the windshield." Shut up, Sue. (tm!)
I believe we were promised some hootenanny.
Oddly enough, even though the tv show would have costumed villains more often than not, the comics would often go in the opposite direction. Here's a cringeworthy happening for every Batman fan:
Man, that was not a proud moment. Both of them were schooled by a pretty average crook. He was obviously a bit clever but still.
Give me more hootenanny!
Why is Dick Grayson saying the song is honoring him? This song is about Batman and Robin!
Oh, crap! Did I Just Say That Out Loud? (tm!)
See you Monday!
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6 comments:
Another strange thing about this issue was that it announced on the front cover that issue guest starred the Hootenanny Hotshots. Pretty strange given that were a made-up band who had never appeared before.
I spent some time wondering if the Hotshots were a real band that had been popular at the time.
I don't see anything on The Google that indicates they were a band at the time, but there *is* a band that has some songs on Youtube that go by that name.
Although a coworker of mine had a laugh at that line, I just know that your comment about Batman and Robin "slid[ing] down poles" had no malicious implication whatsoever.
Yeah, I knew when I said it I was asking for trouble, but I didn't know how else to say it. They DID slide down poles. They did so in the cartoon from the 1970s (the one with Bat-Mite) as well.
"Suddenly, he made a sudden turn?" For reals?
I'm afraid your chronology is a bit off. This issue of Batman, from 1964, predated the TV show by some two years. This was the first "New Look" issue of Batman comics (the first "New Look" issue of Detective had come out the month before). The TV show took elements from those comics, not the other way around. (There's no costumed villain because, at the outset, Julius Schwartz and his team wanted to make the "New Look" Batman more "realistic" (heh). Showing its impeccable mid-'60s sense of teenage cool, DC spotlighted the (made-up) Hootanany Hotshots just as the Beatles were burying the folk revival IRL.
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