Tales of the Batman: Gerry Conway

Once I got it, I started reading it. These are Batman stories from the mid-seventies to the early eighties from a variety of Batman titles from this era. Most of the stories are from The Brave and the Bold and Detective Comics, a few collaborations for Batman and World's Finest, one Batman’s Family and the first Man-Bat comic. In these comics, Batman faces some traditional foes, such as the Joker (Detective Comics 508), the Scarecrow (Detective Comics 503), and the Blockbuster, created in the sixties by Gardner Fox (Detective Comics 498-499). But he also deals with some new interesting villains, mostly driven by insanity or desires for revenge. The Black Spider, a Conway creation (Detective Comics 463 and 464, and Batman 306), is a black character, victim of drug use, who having killed his own father in a stick-up, decides to take on the criminal world on his own terms. In Batman Family 17, Batman faces Scars (also the name of the story), a man obsessed with disfiguring people’s faces and deforming bodies. In Batman 305, the Batman faces a terrorist dressed as a skull called Death’s Head and who intends to blow up Gotham City. In a Brave and the Bold story sharing credits with Wonder Woman, Batman faces Déjà Vu, another maniac seeking revenge over his father’s death. In The Adventure of the Houdini Whodunit (Batman 295) where Batman works together with the Mystery Analysts of Gotham City and in The Man Who Killed Mlle. Marie (Detective Comics 501-502) the Batman solves murder mysteries. There is also my favorite tale from this pack: Bad Night in Baja from Detective Comics 497. Batman has to face a drug-lord while suffering a bullet wound. I like the way Conway places all the characters with different motivations together in one place until the final showdown has Batman confronting his objective, a drug-lord named Squid. Great story.This is the volume where I get to see Batman do lots of team-ups. Other heroes that appear in this volume are Man-Bat in his own short-lived magazine, Superman (in the WF mags), the Justice League in an intricate 55-page story for World’s Finest 250, Robin and a cameo appearance of The Huntress (Batman’s daughter on Earth 2) in Batman Family 17, Robin and Batgirl in DC 503; and in the B&B issues, Batman joins Wonder Woman, Adam Strange, Scalphunter (in a blast to the past), Firestorm, Green Lantern and the Guardians of the Universe. Thus, Batman fans get to see Batman’s universe compressed in Conway’s contributions.Readers get to witness the artwork of Steve Ditko, Ernie Chua, Frank McLaughlin, Michael Golden, George Tuska, John Calnan & David Hunt, Garcia Lopez, Carmin Infantino, and Rich Buckler. Jim Aparo and Don Newton are the most frequent artists working with Conway.This is the first volume in this collection that has a hardcover with illustrations from the Batman comic, while the title of the volume is highlighted by an orange rectangle. The other volumes were plain black and had the insignia of the Batman on the cover also in black. However, there is a slight problem: the binding. The pages were too close to the bind although that did not impede me from reading the text, and on DC #503, the cover was incorrectly cut off to the right. But other than that, the volume does not disappoint at all and delivers what is promised. The reading is enjoyable and the artwork is faithful to the dark knight image of the Batman during this period.

Old comics are the best and this book gives old comics with fresh pages

There's a reason Batman is one of DC's favorite longest lasting heros- so popular he's gone mainstream into tv movies and novels and countless other product productions. The character was even made into a long running black and white serial on film soon after he was created. The reason for all that is the books- art combined with dialogue about a man with no super powers fighting evil with skill and his bare hands; and some of the highlights of the long character run are right here between these two covers especially as regards the art. Whether you remember this period of time fondly or you're looking to fill gaps in your collection this reprint is not to be missed- it's a glimpse into a different style of story telling and art than what they offer us in 2017.

Segundo de los tres Hardcovers que recopilan la fructífera etapa al frente de los títulos de Batman de Gerry Conway, el célebre guionista de la muerte de Gwen Stacy y la saga del clon original, en colaboración con artistas de la talla de Irv Novick, Don Newton, Gene Colan y José Luís García López. Una de las mejores épocas del personaje, sólo parcialmente publicada en España.

Order arrived in only 4 days(over the weekend).Book was in plastic wrap and in perfect shape.A nice hardcover with good color on glossy paper. Some of the 1970s-80s reprints sometimes end up having very garish colors and are hard to read. I also have the Len Wein Batman book and like how they have turned out.There is a very good mix of Batman stories here from - Batman, Detective, World's Finest and Brave and Bold.This was a very good buy at $ 41.28 as the original Canadian price is $65.99.