After a quarter-century of ceaseless crime-fighting, Batman was clearly slowing down.
“Editor Julius Schwartz had helped engineer the superhero resurgence, and (DC publisher Irwin) Donenfeld was fond of his handling of The Flash, a bold, colorful title that had debuted in 1959,” explained Glen Weldon in The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture.
“Donenfeld looked at the team behind that comic — John Broome on scripts, Carmine Infantino on pencils and Joe Giella on inks — and decided to issue an ultimatum. He called Schwartz and Infantino into his office and told them they were taking over the Batman books. If the two men couldn’t turn them around in six months, both Batman and Detective Comics would be cancelled.”
“(Schwartz) suspected that Donenfeld’s threat to cancel Batman was an empty one, given the Caped Crusader’s historical number two status in the publisher’s firmament of intellectual property.”
Nevertheless, however reluctantly, the team took on the assignment. Out went all those alien-ridden science fictional plots, and that cozy extended “Bat Family.” In came a sleeker, more grounded Batman whose chest emblem now included a discreet, colorful oval surrounding the bat silhouette.
“(B)y encapsulating the emblem within a yellow field, Infantino transformed it into an eminently reproducible and trademarkable symbol,” Weldon observed.
The New Look shift showed up in a few more updates within the narrative. Batman lost his butler (briefly) but gained a sportier 1960s Batmobile, and Commissioner Gordon acquired a substitute for the Bat Signal — his Hot Line to the Batcave (called the Bat Phone later on TV).
That was an up-to-the minute reference to the presidential “hotline” that had recently been installed to connect the Pentagon with the Kremlin. Made a priority because the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis had brought the world to the brink of nuclear destruction, the hotline was a Teletype system that became operative in 1963. The system was intended for text only because of the fear that speech might be misinterpreted.
Mark Engblom wrote:
ReplyDelete“By encapsulating the emblem within a yellow field, Infantino transformed it into an eminently reproducible and trademarkable symbol...”
Not to mention an easier target for sharp-shooters! 😉
Jeff Fields wrote:
ReplyDeleteDan, I'm making a 2021 goal (not a resolution) to make sure people know I appreciate them and what they do. So thanks for your blog and giving your historical perspective!
Paul Zuckerman wrote:
ReplyDeleteDid not know that the real hotline was supposed to be a teletype. Most people would think that verbal is better and clearer than written. And, in the movie Fail Safe (as in the book), the president and the Russian premier chat on the phone (albeit with interpreters).
I give little credence to the story that Donenfeld ever intended to cancel the Batman books even though the character at the time did not have as much side marketing as Superman. The last reported sales were still relatively high--in the top 10 books, although sales figures for '63 and '64 are not publicly available. Even Donenfeld at a convention said that he didn't remember ever seriously considering it. However, I do believe that he may have conveyed that message to Schwartz, Bob Kane and Infantino, who in various writings indicated as such.
I had a mixed reaction to the New Look. Definitely improved stories. Infantino was already one of my favorite artists and I was happy to see him on the book. The change in "Kane's" (that is, mostly if not all Moldoff, depending on how much you believe Kane) art didn't overexcite me; but as long as the "red child" was on the book sometimes, I loved it. (The cover to Detective 329 for Castle with Wall-to-Wall Danger, inked by the ever-incredible Anderson, is one of my favorites still.)
However, I hated the death of Alfred--and was very happy when he returned. I missed the bat signal, though it did show up on occasion. Mostly, there seemed to be a move away from a gothic look--replacing the grandfather clock with a modern elevator, for example, that I did not care for. I especially hated the new Batmobile, which just looked silly to me. Now the old 1950 model--THAT was a car! Maybe it was a gas guzzler and you could never figure out how many people could be seated in it, but it was impressive coming down the street! And had room for two whirly-bats and a lab to boot in the boot, so to speak.
Mark Engblom wrote:
ReplyDeleteWho was the editor before Schwartz? Jack Schiff? Considering how strong the various editorial "fiefdoms" were at 1950's/60's DC, I'm betting Schiff (or whomever the Bat-editor was) getting the heave-ho from the Batman books was quite a thunderbolt in the DC offices at the time!
Joseph Lenius wrote:
ReplyDeleteDapper Dan and I are in agreement that any cancellation threats, if indeed made, were motivational in nature. No way those titles would have been cancelled, particularly in comparison with the lesser lights that DC was publishing.
Michael Fraley wrote:
ReplyDeleteI wonder if some of the changes were involved in the fact that Bob Kane's name was getting booted off of the book in the near future? No more ghosts, etc. Time to fine-tune the character for a post-Kane future, creating an Earth-One Batman for a new generation.
I doubt if removing Bob Kane off of the title was part of the mix. That didn't occur until a several years later, after Infantino became publisher.
DeleteCarmine couldn't stand the 'Bob Kane'/Shelly Moldoff/Chic Stone work, and one of his first actions after assuming his office was to call in Bob Kane and ask what he got per month for his 'pencil work'. After Kane informed him, Infantino paid him to stay away from Batman.
Paul Bedard wrote:
ReplyDeleteI loved this content. I wanted more. Instead of gratitude for the free and wonderful reading material, I felt resentment that it ended.
Paul Zuckerman wrote:
ReplyDeleteI seriously question that the end was near for Batman. His books remained among the highest selling at DC, at least in the last year that there had been records before a two-year gap in public reporting of sales. And Donenfeld, at a comic con, indicated that he didn't have any recollection that Batman was actually on the chopping block. What was more likely is that he told Schwartz, Infantino and Bob Kane that just to get them moving, especially Kane who presumably could have been a block to the editorial change.
Given that editor Jack Schiff, who had been one of the major editors at DC for over 20 years, got shunted to the side with a lot of B-grade books and creators, I wouldn't be surprised that the change was motivated at least as much by some issue that DC had with Schiff, who was soon gone. But, I don't know that for a fact.
The only way we would know what the actual sales were in 1963 would be if DC would release its non-public records but I still maintain that Batman-while not the merchandising champ he was about to become-was far from being in danger but definitely in the need for a make-over!