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KC Carlson (right)
A KC COLUMN BY KC Carlson
Rather than take in Madison, Wisconsin’s legendary Brat Fest this past Memorial Day weekend, I decided that the three-day weekend would be best spent re-starting my ongoing (and seemingly never-ending) quest to get all my comics logged and inventoried. this time around, it would be DC Comics. I pretty much finished most of my marvel inventory a year or so ago, so now it was time to do the DCs. Over time, actually, since I haven’t been on top of my DC comics since before I moved six years ago.
I could have started with something relatively simple, like The Flash (the first DC character I bonded with way back in the Silver Age), but NO… I had to start stupidly with the most complicated batch of DC Comics I could think of (not counting Wildstorm or other not-quite-DC offshoots). What, do you ask, could possibly be that complicated? welcome to the world of Batman (and related) comics!
Detective Comics #27
Actually, the Batman group is not that complicated — what’s hard about it is the sheer tonnage. among Batman titles, Detective Comics is the longest-lived — and DC Comics takes its name from that title’s initials. However, it’s not DC’s first comic book, despite many people who think so. The actual first is new Fun: The big Comic magazine #1, a tabloid-sized comic that debuted in 1935. new fun possibly evolved into new Comics #1 (Dec. 1935), which later evolved into adventure Comics. Detective Comics #1 was actually DC Comics’ third series in 1935 — with Batman not appearing until Detective Comics #27, cover dated may 1939. At first, the character was solely credited to artist Bob Kane, but later, that was (correctly) amended to add writer bill Finger as co-creator. Both worked on this first Batman story.
2016’s Batman #1, which came after 2011’s Batman #1. This could get confusing.
Detective Comics reaches its #1,000 issue sometime next year, in 2019. Sadly, action Comics beat it to #1,000 last month (18 April 18), despite Detective Comics #1 going on sale in 1937 — over a year before action Comics #1’s debut in June 1938. (Detective Comics slipped to bi-monthly publication for a bit, decades ago, and that’s when action Comics jumped ahead of it. Plus, action was weekly for a while in the late 80s.)
It kind of pains me to say it (mostly because I moved those boxes around a lot last weekend), but I have around 700 of those (almost) 1,000 Detective Comics. When did that happen?
Batman ’66 #16, Egghead or KC’s head after starting this project?
I also have a similar amount of the Batman title. now all I have to do is figure out the other several hundred Batman-related titles! (My goodness gosh! holy periodicals! There certainly are a lot of Bat-miniseries out there!)
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KC CARLSON: For those of you who have ever wondered, here are the lyrics to the 1966 Batman TV show theme:
Batman, Batman, Batman
Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman
Batman, Batman, Batman
Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman
Batman, Batman, Batman
Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman
Batman, Batman, Batman
Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman
Batman, Batman, Batman
Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na
Batman!
Songwriter: Neal Hefti
Batman theme lyrics © Sony/ATV music publishing LLC
The Batman theme was recorded by both Jan & Dean and The who in the 1960s, and The Kinks frequently opened with it in their ’60s concerts. Gotta love the ’60s!
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WESTFIELD COMICS is not responsible for the stupid things that KC says. especially that thing that really irritated you. Obviously, I’m more irritating than usual today… Bat-maaannnn!