We announced awhile back about our latest contest where we are giving away a FREE Autographed Signed-Copy of Chip Kidd's brand-new book titled BAT-MANGA: THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN. The responses have been pretty amazing & since we have more than one copy we are still accepting entries as we speak ( For information on how to enter just click on the BAT-MANGA CONTEST GRAPHIC at the top of this blog, just under the header ). Well, this morning I picked another name out of the hat so here we go! The WINNER of the Second Signed copy of the Bat-Manga Book is... Rogelio G. of Bloomington, CA.! Thanks Rogelio, please be sure to send us an e-mail to confirm your complete mailing address & then soon after we will be mailing you this book. Now, for everybody else who entered there are still a few to give away so stay tuned to the Bat-Blog because you just might be our next lucky winner!
It looks like our buddy "Brohawk" aka David Williams has been pretty busy since we talked to him last. Check this out, he has published a brand-new hardback book of his amazing artwork titled "Brohawk's Weapons of Choice, The Art of David Williams". This cool "Book Promo" video was created ( see down below ) to promote it. He will have some copies at San Diego Comic Con 2010 at the "Big Wow" booth #4902 so look for him there or visit his website by clicking HERE!
Over at MySpace a new friend named Tamika sent this very cool video she made where she had an interview with Chip Kidd about his new "BAT-MANGA: The Secret History of Batman in Japan" book. The video was shot during the book tour while he was at the Meltdown Comic Book Store in Los Angeles, CA. She wrote, "I was searching for Batman blogs and yours was one of the first to show up. I just produced this video piece on Chip Kidd's Bat Manga and I wonder if you could pass it on to your friends, I'm glad someone is an enthusiast too." Of course! Thanks Tamika for sending me this video. It's pretty interesting & very well-edited. Also, I'm a HUGE FAN of this Batman book, it's great!
We announced awhile back about our latest contest where we are giving away a FREE Autographed Signed-Copy of Chip Kidd's brand-new book titled BAT-MANGA: THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN. The responses have been pretty amazing & since we have more than one copy we are still accepting entries as we speak ( For information on how to enter just click on the BAT-MANGA CONTEST GRAPHIC at the top of this blog, just under the header ). Well, this morning I picked another name out of the hat so here we go! The WINNER of the THIRD Signed copy of the Bat-Manga Book is... Adam G of Dallas, TX.! Thanks Adam, please be sure to send us an e-mail to confirm your complete mailing address & then soon after we will be mailing you this book. Now, for everybody else who entered there are still a few to give away so stay tuned to the Bat-Blog because you just might be our next lucky winner!
The Bat-Blog posts 2 brand-new Batman Desktop Wallpapers every single Wednesday. It's a proud tradition & recently we have been getting a lot of Bat-Blog Readers sending us this material which is even better because besides making some extremely cool stuff it also creates some nice variety. Both of these are a perfect example. The 1st one was made by a friend named "Bacon" who used some graphics from the new graphic novel book titled THE JOKER. It was written by Brian Azzarello & has turned into a bestseller. The artwork ( used here ) was done by Lee Bermejo. His work is really amazing, a very talented guy. The 2nd background was sent to us by a girl named Danica. She took this photo of one of the Joker Bank Robber Goon Action Figures she has. Of course this is the character from the Dark Knight movie. It kinda cracks me up that Ironman ( from the movie ) makes an appearance. I wanna thank both Bacon & Danica for sending these in, they're really wonderful...good job! Oh yeah, for anybody looking for this JOKER Graphic Novel Book, please click on our button here to buy it from Amazon. We don't get much but every little bit helps keep this site going, thanks.
We announced awhile back about our latest contest where we are giving away a FREE Autographed Signed-Copy of Chip Kidd's brand-new book titled BAT-MANGA: THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN. The responses have been pretty amazing & since we have more than one copy we are still accepting entries as we speak ( For information on how to enter just click on the BAT-MANGA CONTEST GRAPHIC at the top of this blog, just under the header ). Well, I decided last night to finally pick a name out of the hat so here we go! The very 1st Signed Bat-Manga Book Winner is... Chad C of Gallatin, TN! Thanks Chad, please be sure to send us an e-mail to confirm your complete mailing address & then soon after we will be mailing you this book. Now, for everybody else who entered there are still a few to give away so stay tuned to the Bat-Blog because you just might be our next lucky winner!
OK, By now you must have heard all the hype about a whole new publishing concept by DC Comics. They will be releasing some brand-new Graphic Novel material that will be collected like "Volume 1, Vol 2, Vol 3, etc...". The idea is that instead of being published as comic books first they will go straight to book form. Their experiment will involve their 2 best properties: Superman & Batman ( with the Caped Crusader being the way better of the two, ha ha ). Each character will get their own book, plus another part of the concept will be that they will be living on "Earth One". Meaning, the stories will not be considered to be apart of the actual continuity of the "real characters". In other words, the writers & artists have full reign to do whatever they want & it will not effect the actual characters in the regular DC Universe. I imagine they will be going totally nuts & I think it might be kinda fun, we'll see. For our favorite Dark Knight the title will be called BATMAN: EARTH ONE. The writer of this series will be Geoff Johns & the artwork will be drawn by Gary Frank. Up above is a BATMAN: EARTH ONE Desktop Wallpaper Background I made using his artwork, check it out! ( Thanks Knipp for the heads-up on this new DC Comics concept ).
OK, This morning I drew the very last name out of the hat for the recent BAT-BLOG CONTEST where we have been giving away Signed-Copies of Chip Kidd's New BAT-MANGA THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN BOOK! The responses have been totally crazy & I think this is the most successful contest so far. For the last month or so we have been giving away a free Autographed Copy of this amazing book. Today, we pic the last winner of the 5th book. It goes to Mike M. of Hamilton, Ontario ( Canada ). Congrats Mike & please contact us so we can confirm your address. Then, we will mail you the book. I wanna thank everybody who entered & if you didn't win, I'm sorry. But the good news is we will always have more contests in the future soo keep an eye out for those. I also wanna thank Chip Kidd for personally autographing all the books & his publishing company for supplying us with this great material. These books were an incredible item to be giving away & I really appreciate that.
OK, I know we have been kinda crazy with the contests lately but it's because we have received a lot of material from generous readers & there's some that I already had planned so they just all clashed together, ha ha! But, this contest is special & sort of connects to the release of a current book so I had to get it in now. Plus, I'm super-excited about it & couldn't wait any longer so HERE WE GO! The latest Bat-Blog Contest is for an Autographed Signed-Copy of Chip Kidd's new book titled BAT-MANGA, THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN ( Paperback Edition ). You might have read my book review on this a few days ago. To summarize, the book is incredibly AMAZING! Famous book designer & author Chip Kidd teamed up with Super-Collector Saul Ferris & Photographer Geoff Spear to create this wonderful "Batman Japanese History" book. Basically, it reprints a ton of totally lost material done by the Manga ( comic book ) Artist Jiro Kuwata during the 1966 Batman TV Show craze in Japan and, as a bonus, features a lot of beautiful Vintage 1960's Batman Toys made in Japan. The book is really great & we were lucky enough to get a few signed copies to give away as a contest! You read that right! There's more than one autographed book so your chances of winning are way better than those other crappy "Batman Fan" wannabe-websites, ha ha! The rules are pretty simple: Just e-mail us your FULL NAME / ADDRESS with the phrase "CHIP KIDD'S BAT-MANGA BOOK" in the title. Once we get enough entries we'll start pulling names out of a hat every few days. Like I said there's more than one copy so you'll have more chances to win but you can ONLY enter one time. All the names stay in the hat until all the books are gone & we will announce winners right here at this blog so stay tuned. Remember, your chances are better if you enter early so get busy & shoot us an e-mail... Good Luck!
CONTEST RULES:
The contest is open to the general public as well as anyone currently reading the BAT-BLOG on a daily basis. Employees of the Bat-Blog and employees' immediate family members and persons with whom such employees are domiciled are excluded from this contest.
The prize is not redeemable in cash and must be accepted as awarded.
Decisions of the contest judges are final - no substitutions will be available.
By claiming the prize, the winner authorizes the use, without additional compensation of his or her name and/or likeness and/or voice/photograph and municipality of residence for promotion and/or advertising purposes in any manner and in any medium (including without limitation, radio broadcasts, newspapers and other publications and in television or film releases, slides, videotape, distribution over the internet and picture date storage) which Bat-Blog may deem appropriate.
In accepting the prize, the winner, and any reader(s), acknowledges that the Bat-Blog may not be held liable for any loss, damages or injury associated with accepting or using this prize.
The person whose name is drawn as being the winner of the specific prize will be required to send us their correct mailing information before the prize is awarded to them. Postage to be paid, free of charge, by the Bat-blog.
Detailed contest rules applicable to this contest, including contest entry dates, how to enter, and prize value, number and any restrictions applicable to these prizes are available upon request by reading these Contest Rules, ha ha!
The Bat-Blog retains the rights, in its absolute and sole discretion, to make substitutions of equivalent kind or approximate value in the event of the unavailability of any prize or component of the prize for any reason whatsoever.
This contest is subject to all federal, provincial and municipal laws.
The Bat-Blog reserves the right to withdraw or terminate this contest at any time without prior notice.
I know this is totally off-topic for a Batman Fan blog but I wanted to take this moment to honor Theodor Seuss Geisel, or Dr. Seuss, who would have been 105 years old today. All of his books will always remain total literary classics. There are way too many to list: The Cat In The Hat, Green Eggs & Ham, The Butter Battle Book, And To Think I Saw it On Mulberry Street, Fox in Socks, The Foot Book, Horton Hears a Who, Hop On Pop, and many many more! The "Cat In The Hat" graphic down below & the Black and White Photo of Dr. Seuss are actually Desktop Wallpapers you can use today to honor this great man, please do so. He has taught millions of children all over the world the joy of reading. He's a National Treasure & we will always be in his debt. Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!
We announced awhile back about our latest contest where we are giving away a FREE Autographed Signed-Copy of Chip Kidd's brand-new book titled BAT-MANGA, THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN. The responses have been pretty amazing & since we have more than one copy we are still accepting entries as we speak ( For information on how to enter just click on the BAT-MANGA CONTEST GRAPHIC at the top of this blog, just under the header ). Well, this morning I picked another name out of the hat so here we go! The WINNER of the FOURTH Signed Copy of the BAT-MANGA Book is... Jennie E. of Fairbanks, AK.! Thanks Jennie, please be sure to send us an e-mail to confirm your complete mailing address & then soon after we will be mailing you this book. I hope that postage for Alaska is not gonna be outrageous because I am kinda poor right now, ha ha! Now, for everybody else who entered there is one more book to give away so you at least have one more chance so stay tuned to the Bat-Blog because you just might be our next lucky winner!
Here's a picture sent in by a BAT-BLOG reader that I meant to share awhile back but like a moron put it in the wrong folder & didn't find it until now, ha ha. Sorry, Frank but thanks for a very cool picture of an original ad placed in a publication for bookstore owners to order books. It was an ad from the publishers of the now classic hardback book BATMAN FROM THE 30's TO THE 1970's! I had this book as a kid & still have it in my personal collection. It's one of my all-time favorite bat-items. It has some really great stories & wonderful graphics. In the picture up above you can see the large hardback book on the right, the ad is on the left side...nice! The artwork is done by classic Silver Age artist Carmine Infantino! Thanks again Frank for this piece of Bat-History!
This September 2008, Pantheon Books will release a brand new book titled "BAT-MANGA: The Secret History of Batman in Japan". Compiled by book designer and comics connoisseur Chip Kidd, along with fellow collector Saul Ferris and photographer Geoff Spear, Bat Manga! presents a collection of original Japanese Batman stories written and drawn by Jiro Kuwata, the artist of 8-Man. Now, the amazing thing is that both DC & the Japanese company have never had file copies of this material & it had to be gathered by collectors hunting down the original magazines. So, in other words, this material has not been seen or read in over 30 years, a RARE treat! Chip Kidd is pretty well known among us Bat-Nerds ( I mean that in a good way, ha ha ) for putting together a super-great Batman vintage toy collector book a few years ago titled "Batman Collected". Which, is an incredible book! He's also known as an extremely famous book designer ( he created the Jurassic Park Dinosaur logo & many other very famous book covers ) so all his stuff is very high-quality. The photos up above show the hardback cover ( left ) & paperback version ( right ). Oh my God, I can't wait!!
The Bat-Blog is quickly becoming known for it's great contests & wonderful prizes, ha ha! So, here's the latest example. The grand prize in this contest is a First Edition Hardback Copy ( with Dust Jacket ) of THE 6 SACRED STONES by Matthew Reilly. He is an award-winning author and a New York Times Bestseller. This book follows his previous bestseller "7 DEADLY WONDERS." OK, I know this is not "Batman related item" but it is a really great book & a free contest! I know that many Bat-Blog fans also love to read good books so here's a chance to add this one to your collection. Basically I'm doing this to develop a relationship with a major publishing firm named Simon & Schuster. If this goes well then we might be able to get more books & more prizes for our readers in the near future. So, back to the book. The story brings back the main character known to many Reilly Fans, Jack West Jr. Jack and his loyal team of adventurers now they face an almost impossible challenge. A mysterious ceremony has triggered a catastrophic countdown that will climax with the end of all life on Earth. But there is one last hope. If Jack and his team can find and rebuild a legendary ancient device known only as the "Machine," they might be able to ward off the coming armageddon. The only clues to locating this Machine are held within the fabled Six Sacred Stones. And so the hunt begins for the 6 Sacred Stones and the knowledge they possess, but in the course of this wild adventure they will discover that they are not the only ones seeking the Stones and that there might just be other players out there who don't want to see the world saved at all. From Stonehenge in England to the deserts of Egypt to the spectacular Three Gorges region of China, The 6 Sacred Stones will take you on a nonstop roller-coaster ride through ancient history, modern military hardware, and some of the fastest and most mind-blowing action you will ever read.
Whew! OK, Here's the deal. From now until the end of this month ( January ) We will be accepting names to go into a hat & one lucky winner will be chosen at random. Just e-mail us your full name/address with the words "6 SACRED STONES" in the title & you will be entered into the contest. The contest will end on January 31st, 2008 at 11:00pm so be sure to send it before then. One last thing, here's a video of Matthew Reilly, the actual bestselling author, talking about this book. The funny thing is, he's a super toy collector ( you'll see ) & he has a lot of great stuff laying around his office...our kinda guy! Oh yeah, the "e-mail link button" is located at the left-side of this page, near the top....GOOD LUCK.
CONTEST RULES:
1. The contest is open to the general public as well as anyone currently reading the BAT-BLOG on a daily basis. Employees of the Bat-Blog and employees' immediate family members and persons with whom such employees are domiciled are excluded from this contest.
2. The prize is not redeemable in cash and must be accepted as awarded.
3. Decisions of the contest judges are final - no substitutions will be available.
4. By claiming the prize, the winner authorizes the use, without additional compensation of his or her name and/or likeness and/or voice/photograph and municipality of residence for promotion and/or advertising purposes in any manner and in any medium (including without limitation, radio broadcasts, newspapers and other publications and in television or film releases, slides, videotape, distribution over the internet and picture date storage) which Bat-Blog may deem appropriate.
5. In accepting the prize, the winner, and any reader(s), acknowledges that the Bat-Blog may not be held liable for any loss, damages or injury associated with accepting or using this prize.
6. The person whose name is drawn as being the winner of the specific prize will be required to send us their correct mailing information before the prize is awarded to them. Postage to be paid, free of charge, by the Bat-blog.
7. Detailed contest rules applicable to this contest, including contest entry dates, how to enter, and prize value, number and any restrictions applicable to these prizes are available upon request by reading these Contest Rules, ha ha!
8. The Bat-Blog retains the rights, in its absolute and sole discretion, to make substitutions of equivalent kind or approximate value in the event of the unavailability of any prize or component of the prize for any reason whatsoever.
9. This contest is subject to all federal, provincial and municipal laws.
10. The Bat-Blog reserves the right to withdraw or terminate this contest at any time without prior notice.
For this post I thought I would share some photos of some very obscure pieces of Batman Memorabilia from around the globe. The 1st bat-item is a Set of Batman ( Comic Book Version ) Story / Music Cassettes. These were made in the Netherlands in the early 1980's. There's actually a lot more of these in the original set but finding even these 3 are pretty difficult. I really really like the cover art. The next item might look just like it's American-counterpart but it's totally in German! Yes, it's the 1989 BATMAN MOVIE Novelization Paperback Book, but from Germany. I wonder if these are as common there as the US versions are here, ha ha! But still, it's really cool that it is "foreign language". On to the next photo we see a toy made during the BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES cartoon craze in Argentina! This is one of those Batman: Drawing Play Sets where there's a machine you load plastic tiles into that have "drawings" embossed on them ( raised design ). You snap them into a template, load a piece of paper, & then scratch a pencil across to get the artwork on your paper. It creates an image that is black-outlined & you can then color it. Sort of like having a manual "coloring book sheet maker" in your home, whew! Anyways, it's so great that it's from South America and it's got the BTAS thing goin' on. Plus, seeing the Joker on the box is kinda cool too. OK, right now I want to extend an offer for all Bat-Blog Readers living all over the world to send in any "Foreign Collectibles" photos & stories you might have.
Along time ago, while hitting garage sales, I came across a paperback book titled "Justice League of America : BATMAN The Stone King". It was a trade paperback book written by Alan Grant. The cover had a painting by Alex Ross. It looked pretty cool so I bought it to add to my crazy collection. I mean, it was only 50 cents so I HAD to get it, ha ha! But, the deal is, I never got around to reading it...too busy with the Bat-Blog, I guess. Well, the other night I thought I would get on the web & track down a book review on this story to see what people thought about it. Like, if it was worth reading or not. All the reviews I was able to find said it was pretty good so, in the near future, I plan on reading it. Now to get to the Batman Audio Book shown here. While surfing the net I came across this company called GRAPHIC AUDIO that has this same book but in the audio book format. Basically you can listen to a group of actors playing out the story of this book with sound effects & everything. Sort of like "hearing a movie or play". The part that I think is kinda crazy is that it is SIX HOURS long!! Yeah, 6 full hours of Batman-entertainment...WOW! Now, I have not been able to buy this yet but at their website they have an audio clip sample to hear & it sounds like a pretty cool concept. The set comes with 6 CDs & priced at only about $19.99 it's not a bad deal. You can also download it as a MP3 for $12.99. Personally, I'd rather own the CD set because it's something I could add to my collection...we'll see. Here's a link button for their page. Be sure to check it out sometime but please remember too BOOKMARK the Bat-Blog before ya go!
As a totally obsessed ( yes, crazy ) Batman Toy Collector one of my favorite areas in the genre are "foreign items". They're pretty hard to find here in the US & they're always interesting. Here's a few examples: This 1st item is a Vintage Movie Poster for the 1960's BATMAN film. But what make it unique is that it's from Italy & the language is completely Italian...awesome! I love the graphics on this thing. Now, the next 2 pictures show some cool Batman books from around the globe. The 1st book was published in France ( Yes, it's all in French, ha ha ) & it reprinted some Golden Age stories from 1943-44. It was released as a hardback around 1989, during the Tim Burton movie craze. The next book is a paperback & one of the things that make it extremely interesting is the size of the book is very very weird. It has a standard width, but it was made to be extremely tall ( or very long ). The next great thing about it is that it's from Uruguay! It was published around 1968 & is extremely RARE! So, I guess I'm gonna ask all Bat-Blog Fans who live outside the USA if they have any "foreign bat-books or toys" in their collections to please send us some photos. Thanks!
I was gonna write a book review on the new Batman/Superman novel “Enemies and Allies” By Kevin J. Anderson that just came out. But my friend Christopher Huff already did so why should I? Actually I have not read the book yet & since I feel kinda lazy today I thought I'd just link his review here, ha ha. I mean, he wrote one that's just as good as mine would be, OK, actually a lot better! A long time ago, ever since hearing about this book, I have been pretty curious about it & hoped it would be good. Almost all the reviews I have come across lately all say that's it's really interesting. The story is set in the 1950's so there's a lot of "Cold War period" stuff to deal with & you get a lot of "vintage style" story-telling. It just sounds like it would be really cool! So, this book is going on my wish list. Now, Christopher wrote a really great review & I'm asking everybody to please check it out by clicking HERE!
One of the things I love about doing the Bat-Blog is getting to meet other Batman Fans from all over the world. Like, I recently met a very nice guy named Silvio Ribas who lives in Brazil. He's a major Batman Collector & he has a blog that shares what it is like to be a Batman Fan in his country. It's pretty cool! He also wrote a book in 2005 titled "Dicionario Do Morcego", which means "Dictionary of The Bat" in Portuguese. Hopefully he will send me a Review Copy, then I can give you more information about it. Now, unfortunately, I can't read the Portuguese language but I still like to visit Silvio's website every now & then because it does have some cool pictures & with translation software I can sort-of read it. Here's a LINK to check it out.
Here's a really great vintage 60's Batman item that I know a lot of people may have never seen before. In my collection I have almost every single Batman paperback from this era, except this one, it's very hard to find! In fact, I've always been familiar with what the cover looks like but I didn't know what the content was. So, here we go! This is a vintage paperback book titled IT'S FUN TO BE A BATMAN! ( Written by Leonard Goldstein ). It was made around the time of the 1966 TV Show & it featured a lot of altered B&W photos where they took some person in the picture & made them into Batman or Robin. Plus, they gave them funny captions. It's a really weird book. I wanna thank our buddy Chris who shared these pics. I told him I never knew about the strange photos inside. I hope to find myself a copy of this book someday...it will be MINE, ha ha!
