The Shut up Halo Meme and a Requiem for The Outsiders

As a kid, when Pops took us to Dearborn for a night-time stop at the comicbook spinner rack, I grabbed for Jim Aparo's THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD. I still remember the time when he suddenly wasn't the artist (issue 198, a team up with Karate Kid, drawn by Detroit artist Chuck Patton).

It was the harbinger of doom, as issue #200 was to be the last, with a new Aparo-drawn, inked, and lettered book BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS. It was hailed as a "team series more fashionable for the 1980s" (Paul Levitz).

I hated it.

My little brother, on the contrary, loved it and was instantly a devoted fan who bought every issue. As a card carrying fan of NEW TEEN TITANS, I found Geo-Force's costume ... interesting and I was all for more appearances of Metamorpho and Black Lightning, and ... Jim Aparo.

Ok, so I read every issue, too.

Our Halo custom Action Man... erm... Action Lady!

From memory: Halo was a alien ball of color energy who would check us earthlings out and one day, the Halo ball saw a teenage dropout hellcat get herself killed in a car crash of dubious origins. The Halo ball decides to restart the hellion's life by reanimating it with it's own ball of energy. The result? An naive, amnestic teenager who has different color-coded energy powers with a costume "more fashionable for the 1980s" (Paul Levitz again) that Batman finds and promises to help her discover her identity.

Halo was the comedic relief/ sympathetic-soul-of-the-team with an outfit Olivia Newton-John wouldn't wear.

Exactly one-half of Batman and The Outsiders!

Black Lightning? Now there is a Seventies' icon. "Black Lightning", "Black Panther", "Black Vulcan", "Black Goliath"... How did The Falcon ever get to be a superhero of color without the obligatory prefix? Black Lightning was cool. Black Lightning was more powerful than most Caucasian heroes. Black Lightning was a Olympic medalist. Black Lightning had a totally 70's costume.

It took forever to get a Black Lightning Action Man.

The writing was on the wall for DC Comic's fledgling toy company, DC DIRECT: small budgets and low sales were killing the boutique toy line. As a last ditch effort, they announced a new line, HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE, which was supposed to feature a comprehensive character repetorie and designs based on the art of George Perez. In a strategic cost-saving move, the figures would be based on a standard body "buck", with costume add-ons unique to each figure. It was a good idea, but the figures were in a scale larger than any past DC DIRECT offerings and were hardly based on any artist-specific drawings. The line lasted for three/four waves and was cancelled.

The cancellation was a shame, because it featured a decent Batman (nice muted blue/grey costume) and a brilliant Black Lightning. Seriously, the complaining of the time obsfucated an excellent figure, faithfully designed to his classic appearance.

I went surfing the inter-waves to nail down Halo's costume, when I fumbled across this little meme gem:

See? Delightful.

Hurm, yes. Let's give that a go:

Right. That was a thrill.

Is it too obvious to say "more to come"?

Stay Tuned

Black Bat Power and Bat Girl-o-rama!

All the boys here at the Flying B Ranch sure do love that Grant Morrison's BATMAN INC. This holiday season, everyone gathered round for a reading of his latest chapter BATMAN INC LEVIATHAN STRIKES! On the top of everyone's toy wish list?

More BATMAN, INC. figures.

Black Bat is the Hong Kong representative of Batman, Inc. Cassandra Cain was the third Batgirl and was trained as a ninja assassin. Her all-black costume had a distinctive bat-outline symbol. Artist Chris Burnham kept the majority of the costume, added a smaller mask, hand wraps, and had a tattered cape that he wanted to invoke "smoke ... a cross between Ragman and Spawn's cape".

Black Bat has made a few appearances in the recent Bat-Universe and most artists are giving her a full gold batsymbol on her chest. I think Burnham's choice is much more evocative of her original costume and less generic. We had a fun time shredding vinyl to create the tattered cape.

"Black Bat" was a pulp character that was published contemporaneously with Bat-Man and there was litigation pending, if not for the efforts of Bat-Man editor Whitney Ellsworth. Following the circular metaphors of Morrison's story, the name has now come full circle to DC COMICS.

DC has had four batgirls over a period of sixty years. With their recent character shuffling, the newest, Batgirl IV may have been lost to posterity. Thankfully, she makes a brilliant appearance in this most recent chapter of BATMAN INC, fighting off a ninja all-girl death squad school, led by Madonna, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Katy Perry.

Bottom line, we need more BATMAN, INC. comicbooks and more BATMAN, INC. figures. Pronto, Hoss!

WILL DC Comics publish the end of BATMAN, INC?

WHICH member of BATMAN, INC will we make next?

CAN Mattel beat us to the punch?

Tune in next month,

Same Bat time,

Same Bat Blog!

Happy Birthday Batmobile!

January 12, 1966 marked the debut of the TV series BATMAN and gave birth to the most widely recognized, popular, and fan-requested version of the Batmobile.

The stories of how George Barris purchased the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car (for a $1) from a dust-bin and created a pop culture monster in three weeks are widely-known and oft-repeated.  Suffice to say there exists a generation of Batmaniacs who identify more with the TV car than any other edition of the Batmobile.

It's a unique car in it's garage, the first to add Cerise (fluroescent, no less) to the Batman palette (a brilliant innovation that would only work on film, in our opinion) and flooded Batculture with the influence of gadgetry mania.

Part of the lore of this car is that designer Dean Jeffries was first offered the job, but turned it down due to the time constraints.  Dean reportedly started with a 1959 Cadillac, although I've seen nary a concept sketch for proof.

The '66 Batmobile started my childhood obsession with this beautiful monster and in celebration, I grabbed a POLAR LIGHTS snap 1/25 model.  As you can see, they got it spot on.

Happy Birthday, old man.  I think your parents are very proud.  Without you, Batman would have spent a lot of time doing this:

GIVEAWAY: And then BRAVE AND BOLD created women!

All the cowpokes here at the Flying Batmobile Ranch are thrilled to announce our latest invention:

FEMALE BATMAN: BRAVE AND BOLD figures!

To celebrate this brilliant miracle of modern science, we're holding our very first GIVEAWAY-

GET YOUR OWN BATMAN BRAVE AND BOLD HEROINE/ VILLAINESS

WHAT TO DO:
1) Sign up and Follow this blog.
2) Post a comment to this thread, listing your favorite BATMAN BRAVE AND BOLD heroine or
villainess from an episode of the animated show.

On Valentine's Day, 15 February 2012, we'll pick one post at random AND MAKE YOU THAT ONE FIGURE, to send ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!

Spread the word, share the Brave and Bold Love.

Vote early and often!

The Batmobile's Grandfather: Jerry Robinson

The sky ripped asunder and Gotham shook to it's foundation, as we learned of the passing of artist Jerry Robinson.

Jerry Robinson was the real deal.  I attend his lecture at the New York Big Apple Con a decade ago.  He was a precise and literate man and clearly articulated both his and Bill Finger's contributions to the Batman mythos of which artist Bob Kane staunchly maintained sole credit until his death.

We here at the Flying Batmobile Ranch salute Jerry Robinson.

Jerry created The Best Parts of Batman: as a teenager, Jerry contributed to the Batman mythos by creating Robin the Boy Wonder, The Joker, Bruce Wayne's faithful butler, Alfred, and Two-Face.  Many of these creations were made in an uncredited partnership with author Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane.  As my super-cool friends at Batmobile History learned when they interviewed Mr. Robinson last year, Jerry was the pivotal influence on Batmobile design.  Author Bill Finger decided that Batman should stop driving anonymous sedans and coined the term "Batmobile".  To wit:

The 1939 Batmobile, in it's first appearance, as envisioned by Bob Kane 

The 1939 Batmobile, as it next appeared in BATMAN #5, as drawn by Jerry Robinson.
Big difference!

Jerry Robinson the Humanitarian.   Mr. Robinson played a pivotal role in getting pensions for Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, creators of SUPERMAN.  Further, he engineered the release of cartoonist/ satirist Francisco Laurenzo Pons who had languished as a political prisoner in Uruguay for six years.  Mr. Robinson wrote volumes on the history of comics and donated his personal collection of Golden Age comic art for a traveling museum exhibit on the subject.  Importantly, Mr. Robinson created a San Diego Comic-con International award for under-recognized comic writers, named after his unsung BATMAN collaborator, Bill Finger.

Bill Finger, as illustrated by Jerry Robinson

Thus, in many ways, Mr. Robinson brought credit to people who had been overlooked by a multi-million-dollar industry by giving them The Finger.

I'm thankful for *new* BRAVE AND BOLD Figures!

Hands down, BATMAN BRAVE AND BOLD is my favorite Batman comic and the show is at the top of my list, too!

Sadly, the show is at it's end, with only a few new episodes left to air in the States.  Sadder still, the final BRAVE AND BOLD figures of The Flash, Captain Marvel, and others, never saw distribution.  The curtain is closing on a wonderful era of Bat-creativity...

... or is it?

The batphone here at the Flying B Ranch was off the hook with calls that two new figures were hitting the shelves:

Riddler and Bruce Wayne Batman Figures (2011)

Yes! A wonderful, Dick Sprang-inspired Riddler and Batman, with removable cowl.  Sure enough, Batmaniacs, we can now see the grim avenger underneath those pointy ears...

Bruce Wayne, with cowl, along side custom Robin!

... hurmm, perhaps it's best if that mask went back on.  Kidding aside, Bruce looks wonderful but needed   pupils.  I drool at the potential future figures that Bruce head will beget...

Riddle me this: What's up with the holes in my arms and legs?  

  ... and of course, that Riddler head is great.  It's nice to see a belt sculpt that can be so versatile.  I look at E. Nygma and see a million options, including Zebra Man!

Zebra Batman, baby!

... wrong Zebra Man!  How can anyone resist such spectacularly silly nonsense?  Eventually, the plan is to fill in the holes on all of these villains.  Eventually.

Hallowe'en went horribly wrong, when a rogue ice storm devastated the Flying Batmobile Ranch.  Repairs are still on-going, but at least the Atomic Turbines are back on line.  Sadly, the party is likely cancelled for safety reasons, but I had worked so hard on my Brave & Bold "costume" that I had to reveal it here:

Some of the best B&B team-ups were with Deadman!

Sir Neal of Adams (him again) did the best Deadman stuff, including his team-ups with Batman.  My figure was a modified Plastic Man, with sculpted head.  I painted Deadman in greys and white and then gave the figure a light coat of Italian Red to give the contrasting shades of red.  I did the head with a grey wash, which brought out the details of the sculpt, but I wonder if it's "toy line accurate".  A matte coat finished him off. 

The completed Brave & Bold line so far!

 Next up: a crazy guest appearance, two classic comic friends, two show friends that *should* have been in the comic, and then...

... the big surprise.

Keeping the Batusi on "GO"

Hooray for Jordi Bernet!

Well, all the owlhoots here at the The Flying B Ranch got out of the dust to celebrate DC Comic's latest ALL STAR WESTERN issue 2.  The main attraction of this month's missive?

Jordi Bernet drawing the legendary lethal phantasm of the west: El Diablo!

Making this even better is the fact that story telling bushwackers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti have rolled out zombies into the frontier!

You get eight pages of masterfully-coloured terror by Rob Schwager, all for 399 pesetas (299 if you know the barkeep).

A great first chapter.

Oh yeah, and a Jonah Hex story, too...

Gracias por todos, El Mejor!