Monday, July 2, 2007

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #30 - Nov. 1982

After a loooong dry spell, Batman finally gets to headline his own digest again!

Well, sort of...while obviously being the star, Batman does have to share this collection with other Detective Comics stars of old. Mike W.Barr is listed as "Special Consultant" and that only makes sense, since it was Barr who excelled at writing Batman in his "World's Greatest Detective" guise.

Stories include:
 
Batman in "The Stage Is Set...For Murder!" by Denny O'Neil, Irv Novick, and Dick Giordano, with some dialogue assistance from William Shakespeare 
The Human Target in "The Assassin-Expresss Contract!" by Len Wein, Carmine Infantino, and Giordano 
The Elongated Man in "The Magical Mystery Mirror" by Barr and Ernie Chua 
Roy Raymond, TV Detective in "The Riddle of the Unseen Man" by ? and Ruben Moreira 
Batgirl and Robin in "A Burial For Batgirl!" and "Midnight is the Dying Hour" by O'Neil, Gil Kane, and Vince Colletta 
Mysto, The Magician Detective in "Three Feats of Peril" by ? and Leonard Starr 
Jason Bard in "The Case of the Dead-On Target!" by Frank Robbins 
John Jones, Manhunter from Mars in "The Man With 20 Lives" by Jack Miller and Joe Certa 
Captain Compass in "The Ocean Pest" by Otto Binder and Joe Certa 
And then one last Batman tale, "Wanted For Murder One--Batman!" by O'Neil, Novick, and Giordano

Topped off with beautifully composed Jim Aparo front and back covers, this is a really fun collection, though I bet Robin was a little ticked he didn't get his own story, and gets second billing behind Batgirl to boot!



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love this digest. The back cover with the file folders was a really cool touch! The case numbers match the issues of Detective and Batman that the stories came from.

Robin getting second billing after Batgirl always really bothered me. Obviously, Robin had seniority, and was more popular. I think it was DC just promoting their second most famous heorine. Or it could just be that "Batgirl and Robin" sounds more natural than "Robin and Batgirl".

chris