80th Anniversary of Batman

The 80th Anniversary of Batman

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Since his debut in the March 1939 issue of Detective Comics, Batman has been a towering figure in pop culture. Donning a cape and cowl, the dark knight utilizes his world class detective skills and seemingly endless array of gadgets to defend Gotham City from the forces of evil. 

After eight decades, countless film and television franchises, and more than 14,000 appearances in comics, Batman remains as popular as ever. To celebrate the 80th anniversary of his first appearance in comics, Batman: 80 Years of the Dark Knight highlights selected issues featuring Batman from J. Murrey Atkins Library’s Special Collections.

The graphic novels included in the exhibit are listed below:

Exhibit curated by Marc Bess, First Year & Online Learning Librarian, and Randi Beem, Instruction Librarian/Archivist

Background Information

Origins

Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, Batman was part of the first wave of comic book superheroes that captured the public’s attention. 

Following the debut of Superman in 1938, the demand for superheroes in comics was at a fever pitch. This era of comics would become known as the Golden Age (1938 - 1956). 

While considerably grimmer in tone than Superman, Batman proved to be an instant success with readers of all ages. Less than a year after his first appearance, Batman was not only appearing in the pages of the anthology Detective Comics, but in his own ongoing series. 

The concept of a shared universe was quickly developed during the early years of superhero comics. This allowed Batman to team up with popular characters from other DC Comics series such as Superman to battle a common foe. 

The DC Comics roster of the 1940s would soon include other iconic characters such as Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Green Lantern. 

As the United States entered World War II, sales figures for superhero comics skyrocketed. Comic books provided a cheap
source of entertainment for both soldiers fighting overseas and children stateside. 

Though it looked like America’s obsession with superheroes would never wane, changes in society would challenge their relevance as the war came to a close.

The Silver Age

Following the end of World War II, sales of superhero comics plummeted. This can be attributed to a variety of factors, including the growing relevance of television as a form of entertainment and a moral panic that arose over purported connections between comics and juvenile delinquency. 

Though Batman has been continuously published since his debut, less popular characters such as The Flash and Green Lantern ceased appearing in comics. For several years, it appeared as if superhero comics were just another fad. 

This changed in 1956. The Flash’s reappearance in the anthology series Showcase sparked a new wave of interest in superheroes that reasserted their dominance of comic books and expanded to new forms of media. This event was the start of the Silver Age of comics (1956 - early 1970s). 

The Silver Age saw Batman reach almost unrivaled levels of popularity, from appearing in multiple ongoing comic book series to starring in his own primetime TV show. The comics in this exhibit are all examples of Batman’s Silver Age appearances. 

Far from the grim and gritty storylines that would define the character in the 1980s and 1990s, Batman comics of the 1960s
displayed a fun tone that made the character appealing to a wide range of audiences. 

The comics in this exhibit are part of the Charles K. Johnston comic book collection. This collection was donated to Special Collections by Charles K. Johnston in 1969.

Books from the Stacks

The following books were included in the exhibit to complement the scholarly research of graphic novels and the Batman series in particular. 

Abate, Michelle Ann, and Tarbox, Gwen Athene. Graphic Novels for Children and Young Adults : a Collection of Critical Essays . Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2017.

Baetens, Jan, and Frey, Hugo. The Graphic Novel : an Introduction . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Baetens, Jan. The Graphic Novel . Louvain, Belgium: Leuven University Press, 2001.

Batgirl : a Celebration of 50 Years. Burbank, CA: DC Comics, 2017.

Brooker, Will, and Brooker, Will. Hunting the Dark Knight : Twenty-First Century Batman . London ;: I.B. Tauris, 2012.

Cornog, Martha., and Perper, Timothy. Graphic Novels Beyond the Basics : Insights and Issues for Libraries . Santa Barbara, Calif: Libraries Unlimited/ABC-CLIO, 2009. 

Di Paolo, Marc. War, Politics and Superheroes : Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film . Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2011. 

Durand, Kevin K. J. , and Leigh, Mary K. Riddle Me This, Batman! : Essays on the Universe of the Dark Knight . Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co., 2011. 

Gavaler, Chris. Superhero Comics . London: Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018. 

Geaman, Kristen L. Dick Grayson, Boy Wonder : Scholars and Creators on 75 Years of Robin, Nightwing and Batman . Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2015. 

Gravett, Paul. Graphic Novels : Everything You Need to Know . New York: Collins Design, 2005.

Gray, Richard J., and Kaklamanidou, Betty. The 21st Century Superhero : Essays on Gender, Genre and Globalization in Film . Jefferson, N.C: McFarland, 2011. 

Johnson, Jeffrey K. Superheroes in Crisis : Adjusting to Social Change in the 1960s and 1970s . Rochester, New York: RIT Press, 2013. 

Kidd, Chip., Spear, Geoff., and Kane, Bob. Batman Collected.  New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2001.

Langley, Travis. Batman and Psychology : a Dark and Stormy Knight. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. 

Mazur, Dan, and Danner, Alexander. Comics : a Global History, 1968 to the Present. London: Thames & Hudson, 2014. 

McCloud, Scott. Reinventing Comics.  New York, N.Y: HarperCollins, 2000.

McLaughlin, Jeff. Comics as Philosophy. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005.

Miller, Frank et al. Batman : the Dark Knight Returns. New York, New York: DC Comics, 2002.

Nicholson, Hope. The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen : Awesome Female Characters from Comic Book History. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2017. 

Smith, Matthew J., and Duncan, Randy. The Secret Origins of Comics Studies. New York: Routledge, 2017. 

Tabachnick, Stephen Ely. The Cambridge Companion to the Graphic Novel . Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2017. 

Tucker, Reed. Slugfest : Inside the Epic Fifty-Year Battle Between Marvel and DC. New York, NY: Da Capo Press, 2017.

Varnum, Robin, and Gibbons, Christina T. The Language of Comics : Word and Image. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001.

Weldon, Glen. The Caped Crusade : Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016. 

Zehr, E. Paul. Becoming Batman : the Possibility of a Superhero. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.