Friday, May 11, 2007

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #9 - Feb. 1981

sgWho could not buy a book with a cover like this? Commissioner Gordon--shooting Batman?! Here's my ninety-five cents, Mr.Newsstand Vendor, sir!

This was one of DC's first attempts at what would of course eventually become a staple of their business--the story-driven collection. This is essentially a trade paperback in digest form, since it collects sucessive issues of Detective Comics (#s 444-448, to be exact) to present one multi-part story:
"Bat-Murderer" by Len Wein and Jim Aparo
"Break-In at the Big House" by Wein and Aparo
"Slaughter in Silver" by Wein and Aparo
"Enter: The Creeper" by Wein, Ernie Chan, and Dick Giordano
"Bedlam Beneath the Big-Top!" by Wein, Chan, and Giordano
...plus "Angel--Or Devil?" by Frank Robbins, Irv Novick, and Giordano and a multi-page schematic of the new Wayne Foundation building (remember that era?) drawn by none other than Terry Austin!

It's hard to beat Jim Aparo doing Batman, and this story is loads of fun, told with high style. And, again, a grabber of a cover!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

One of my favourite non-O'Neil Batman stories of the 1970s. I wish they'd do a full sized collection of it (though even as a kid I was sorry that Jim Aparo didn't finish the full story).