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Thursday, November 15, 2007

Batman Daily Newspaper Strip, Part 1 - 1968

sgNow this is a real treat!

This is the first three
(click here to see readable versions) of a whole run of dailies from the 1968 Batman newspaper strip. About a month ago, I ran a Sunday color page from the strip, where Aquaman guest-appeared.

Then last week, I got an email from newest F.O.A.M. member Jon Helfenstein, who was inspired to track down every strip from the storyline that guested Aquaman, and emailed them all to me! Wow!

Apparently Aquaman appeared in two separate storylines, one from March/April 1968, then in a much longer one in August-December 1968(which includes the Sunday page I posted), where, as Jon says, "
he[Aquaman] plays a more critical role." This first batch of strips is the former, and Jon told me he plans to hunt down the rest! Way to go the extra mile, Jon!

I had originally considered posting just one strip per day for a week, to simulate how they ran in the paper. But Jon correctly pointed out that might be pushing it, since Aquaman doesn't do a whole lot in this storyline, and in fact there are several strips where he doesn't appear at all(this sequence also guest-stars Superman, so guess who gets most of the action?). But I reserve the right to maybe try it for the next storyline. AquaFans, let me know what you think.

There is one strip missing--the one Sunday page in the middle of this sequence--because Jon says most of the papers that did carry the strip didn't carry the Sunday. By 1968 the Bat-craze caused by the TV show had worn off, so the strip's circulation had dropped off significantly. All the more impressive that Jon was able to find so many. Enjoy!

Thanks Jon, and welcome to F.O.A.M.!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rob - Thanks for posting the daily strips for everyone to enjoy. It was fun tracking these down knowing that I was finding something that even the most loyal fans had probably not seen before. - Jon H.

Anonymous said...

Cool :)

Scurvy said...

I love the Aquacomputer!