Batman in the 1960s Issue 34: July/August 1965

The Caped Crusader in the 1960s
by Jack Seabrook
& Peter Enfantino

Infantino/Giella

Detective Comics #341

"The Joker's Comedy Capers!"

Story by John Broome

Art by Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella

Eccentric gazillionaire Cornelius Van-Van has grown tired of contemporary comedies; no one makes 'em like they used to. So Van-Van grabs the bull by the horns and hires movie producer B.C. DeNil to make a batch of slapstick comedies for Van-Van's private viewing.

Fifty grand check in hand, DeNil exits the estate and heads back to his Gotham hideout, removing his mask to reveal... the Joker! Yep, freshly paroled after six long weeks in the pokey, the Clown Prince of Crime is back! His plot is to get at Van-Van by making a series of comedies starring facsimiles of old comedians while performing robberies (got that?).

So, a bank is robbed by the famous washed-up comic, the Tramp, using his deadly pie-throwing machine, all while being filmed by a camera crew. Batman and Robin arrive just as the waddling Tramp is exiting the building. They attempt to nab the hobo but are tripped up by the criminal's sticky bubbles. Back at Wayne Manor, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are having a nice afternoon reading the paper in front of the fireplace when Dick exclaims, "Check this out, boss!" and then details the Caped Crusaders' failed attempts at apprehending the culprit. It's right then and there that the World's Greatest Detective declares "Hey, that wasn't us! Those guys are phonies! Wait a sec; comedy and crime blended together like a souffle! Who does that sound like, Dick?" After Dick guesses Bill Cosby, Bruce pours himself a drink.

The crime wave continues (with each heist committed by a different faded comedy star) and the boys seem helpless until Batman receives an invitation to the home of Cornelius Van-Van, where the first annual Cornelius Awards ceremony will be held. The Dynamic Duo have won the Best Supporting Players of the Year award and Corny would be grateful if they would accept in person. Using that enormous brain of his yet again, Batman decides this is the best way to catch the Joker and his cinema-graphical cronies.

At Van-Van's estate, Joker admits to his henchmen that the whole comedy-producing schtick was cooked up to get invited to the zillionaire's mansion. The real heist is about to happen. Batman and Robin show up but Joker is wise to their presence and meets them halfway. After a brief tussle, Joker is once again in handcuffs and hauled off to a waiting cell (doubtless to be soon released on parole). Van-Van thanks the boys and asks if there's anything he can do for his heroes. Batman admits he'd love to see the finished films. The delighted entrepreneur fires up the projector and pops some corn and the trio have a grand laugh. Gotham is once again safe from crime.

And once again, in "The Joker's Comedy Capers," we see a criminal genius going to extreme lengths to pull off a heist when he could just pull off the heist. Weeks of planning and the drudgery of filming accomplish what the Joker probably could have done by showing up at Van-Van's and hoisting him up over a giant blueberry pie or something equally loony. The highlight, for me, is the finale, where Bats, Robin, and Van-Van guffaw while viewing the footage of Joker committing felonies and, ostensibly, risking the lives of many innocent victims. And I'd question just how wonderful the robbery dailies were, since the boneheaded henchmen were inside a van parked outside the targets! Did the Joker only rob solid glass buildings? Definitely not a strip you'll find in The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told.-Peter

Jack-I liked it, mainly because Infantino and Giella draw the Joker as menacing, something Moldoff and Paris didn't do. I don't know why DC insisted on pretending that the Tramp was not Chaplin and the Banjo was not Harpo Marx; for some reason they always change the names of famous people. The GCD reminds us that this story was adapted for the Batman TV show but it featured the Riddler instead of the Joker. It makes sense because most of the crimes are committed by the villain in costume, so the Riddler works just as well.

Mortimer and Moldoff

80-Page Giant #12: Strange Worlds of Batman and Robin

"The Captive Planet"

(Detective Comics #256, June 1958)

"The Caveman Batman"

(Batman #93, August 1955)

"King Batman the First"

(Batman #125, August 1959)

"There Was a Crooked Man"

(Batman and Robin Sunday strips, 11/12/44-12/31/44)

"The Three Super-Sleepers"

(World's Finest Comics #91, December 1957)

"Batman's Roman Holiday!"

(Batman #112, December 1957)

"The Interplanetary Batman"

(Batman #128, December 1959)

"The Winged Bat-People"

(Batman #116, June 1958)

The Batman Annuals have been replaced with issues of the 80-Page Giant series. The letters page in this one tells us that what would have been annual #8 was released as 80-Page Giant #5 with a December 1964 cover date, but we missed covering it because we were waiting for the next annual!

Batman Annual #9 is 80-Page Giant #12, with a July 1965 cover date, featuring Batman and Robin's Bizarre Adventures in Time and Space! The best story has nothing to do with time or space, however; it's eight pages of Batman Sunday newspaper comics from late 1944 that are an utter delight. The art by Jack Burnley and Charles Paris is excellent and the story, which involves a crooked man, is engaging and ends with a real surprise.

The other stories are a mixed bag. I like the ones penciled by Dick Sprang, and this time we are lucky to get four of them! The stories drawn by Moldoff are about what we'd expect. Still, this is an unusually good giant-sized comic.-Jack

Infantino/Giella

Batman #173

"Secret Identities for Sale!"

Story by John Broome

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

"Walk, Batman--To Your Doom!"

Story by John Broome

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Sid Greene

One night, Batman, Robin, and the Gotham Police break into the secret hideout of Mr. Incognito, "the masked mastermind of crime in Gotham City"! While the good guys knock the bad guys around, a photographer snaps a couple of pics before being ejected. Mr. Incognito escapes through a trap door.

Later that day, freelance photographer Elwood Pearson visits the mayor with a shocking offer: one of his photos reveals the secret identity of Mr. Incognito and he'll sell it to the city for a cool million. Pearson explains that his days shooting photos of celebs on vacation ended when he invented an x-ray camera that reveals the faces behind the masks. The mayor asks for time and suggests that the Dynamic Duo investigate Pearson before the deadline expires.

Meanwhile, the photographer calls Mr. Carter of the Carter Real Estate Agency to say two things: 1) I have a couple of "Secret Identities for Sale" and 2) I know that you are Mr. Incognito, since my other photo showed the face beneath your mask. Carter promises to visit Pearson in an hour with a million bucks to purchase the photos.

Night falls and, while Batman and Robin are looking around outside the photographer's studio, Mr. Incognito has entered by means of a secret passageway. Pearson holds the photo of Batman and Robin up to a mirror and Bruce and Dick's faces are displayed, but neither Pearson nor Incognito recognize them. The Dynamic Duo crash through a skylight, knock out both men, and retrieve the photo. Incognito is sentenced to 99 years in jail and Pearson is found guilty of assault for trying to stop the Dynamic Duo out of greed.

It's hard to believe that Mr. Incognito is such a big deal when we've never heard of him before. On Infantino's gorgeous cover he looks like Kirby's Sandman, but inside Moldoff draws him in more mundane fashion.

Everyone is shocked when the jury returns a not guilty verdict in the trial of a criminal named Bunky Galliver. The D.A. summons the Dynamic Duo to his office and shows them photos of the people in the audience at four recent trials that all ended in unexpected verdicts. Batman notices that the same man, in disguise, was at each trial, and the Caped Crusader decides to investigate! Coincidentally, the same man's name and photo are in the daily paper, which reports that he's Franklin Knott and he's running for governor of Gotham State!

Dick Grayson disguises himself as a street urchin and tails Bucky while Bruce Wayne attends Knott's speech at Gotham Hall. Something in the way Knott speaks makes Bruce feel compelled to vote for the candidate. Dick reports that Bucky and his gang plan to rob the Keller mansion, so Batman and Robin rush to the scene of the crime and make short work of Bucky and his gang.

At the Batcave, Batman looks into Knott's past and visits a scientist named John Grover, who reveals that Knott worked for him and was fascinated by his work with E-Rays, which compel behavior in those bathed by them. Batman deduces that Knott has been using E-Rays to influence juries and make people vote for him. Suddenly, Knott walks in and shoots E-Rays at Batman, Robin, and Grover. Knott commands them to walk into Pima Lake and drown! Compelled, the trio walk into the lake. Batman recalls that he was also ordered to vote for Knott, so he uses that compulsion to save himself and the others.

Batman visits a Knott rally and knocks out the crooked politician, who is soon found guilty by a jury that is not bathed in E-Rays.

Unfortunately, John Broome's story, "Walk, Batman--To Your Doom," is as dumb as anything we read prior to the dawn of the New Look. Moldoff's graphics are as weak as ever and even Giella's inks don't help.-Jack

Peter-I would call baloney on the fact that Pearson doesn't recognize Gotham's most recognizable resident but we have to remember that the entire population of the city is drawn by Shelly Moldoff. For Mr. Incognito to receive a 99-year sentence for piddly little crimes, while Penguin, Joker, and Riddler are paroled before being arrested, is a mockery of justice. My favorite panel of "Secret Identities for Sale!" is when Bats, Robin, and the entire Gotham police force bust down a door and find Incognito sitting on a throne, a lone lamp sitting in the corner. Who thought "hey, we need a little light in this criminal's hideout!" Less enjoyable but even more ridiculous is "Walk, Batman--To Your Doom," wherein my favorite line of dialogue would have to be "Must vote for Knott--Can't drown--Must vote for Knott..."

Infantino/Giella

Detective Comics #342

"The Midnight Raid of the Robin Gang!"

Story by John Broome

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

Gossip columnist Cal Carroll has Gotham abuzz (and Dick Grayson livid) with his columns about the possible break-up of the Dynamic Duo due to Robin's jealousy about Batman's celebrity. Does the Dark Knight hog the limelight? Dick and Bruce agree to file this one under "Misunderstandings" but, as Robin heads off to elementary school, the billionaire playboy wonders if there might be a spark of truth to the rumblings.

At that moment, the hardest-working cop in America, Commissioner Gordon, calls on the Bat-Phone to invite Bats in for a chat and our hero hops in the Batmobile and runs twenty red lights to make it there in minutes. Pushing aside the empty pizza boxes on his desk, Gordon gets down to business: there's a mystery man in Gotham who's recruiting school-age kids into a life of crime. Does Batman think Robin could go undercover and get the skinny on this bad dude? Batman smiles and agrees that this is a job for Robin!

Walking home from school, Dick Grayson decides to drop in on Tom Willard, a school chum who hasn't been in class for some time. Though Tom is not in, Dick heads into the shack on the property that he and Tom used to use for... chinwags. On the wall hangs a Robin outfit. Startled, Dick pulls down the uni just as Tom enters the shack and tears the costume from Grayson's hands. Tom tells Dick there's no way he's going back to school and Dick, using the World's Second Greatest Detective Brain™, decides to play along and confess to his old bud that he wants to join the gang that Tom had told him all about at one time in the past. Tom happily agrees and promises to take Dick to "the boss." Later, the boys visit the gym owned by Al Craig (the aforementioned "boss" and a wrestling promoter) and, entering the man's office, Dick is startled to see three kids in Robin uniforms! Holy Triplicate Tornado!

Dick is introduced to Craig, who locks our teen hero in a room while he gives directions to his four Robins. Dick can hear his plans through the wall: each Robin will commit a crime in a different part of Gotham. Dick picks the lock and heads out into the night to try to talk sense into Tom Willard. Meanwhile, across town, while on patrol, Batman comes across Robin robbing a jewelry store! While Bats chases the phony, the real Robin swoops in but, due to temporary blurry vision, accidentally knocks his boss off the roof. After saving his pre-teen partner from a similar tumble, Bats tosses Robin in the Batmobile and tears off. It's there that the Teenage Titan spills the beans about the Robin Gang.

Arriving at Craig's Gym, the boys are set upon by wrestlers (who have been misled by Craig to believe these guys are phony Caped Crusaders auditioning for a ring gig) but make quick work of the dopes. They arrest the Robin Gang and Al Craig and then attend to more important matters: getting Dick an eye test. Commissioner Gordon's twin brother, who happens to be an optometrist, diagnoses Robin as recovering from a blow to the head, nothing a few eyedrops, rest, and refraining from dirty magazines for a while can't cure. The Gotham Tattler headlines scream "Robin's Eyes Are Perfect Again" and the boys have a laugh until the damn Bat-Phone rings again.

You might find it amazing that every teen in this strip looks like Dick Grayson until you remember that's the m.o. of Sheldon Moldoff. All the kids look like Dick, middle-aged men (and women) resemble Bruce, and old-timers naturally appear to be Gordon; there are no deviations. The phony/legit Robin scene, where Dick knocks Bats off the roof, is a knee-slapper and could have led to all sorts of fun misidentifications . I thought, for a moment, that Batman might have tossed the wrong Robin into the hot rod a la Jill St. John in the premiere of the '66 show, but no such luck. For once, I loved the minimalist (nonexistent?) artwork by Moldoff and Giella. A dumb script begs to have laughable graphics.-Peter

Jack-Did anyone picking up this comic in 1965 believe for one minute that Robin had really gone rogue? I thought it was funny that Commissioner Gordon referred to Robin's friends as "playmates"; I suspect Bruce Wayne has playmates of a different sort. This wasn't a bad story overall, just not up to the Infantino entries.

Next Week...
That ol' Sinnott Magic!