Saturday, October 18, 2008

Bat-Manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan

Pantheon is simultaneously releasing paperback and limited edition hardcover editions of Chip Kidd's Bat-Manga!, which collects rarely seen (and previously untranslated into English) Batman & Robin manga from 1966 and '67, as well as photos of the world's largest collection of Japanese Batman toys. I'm very fond of both designs, but it's the bottom panel on the hardcover that makes it unmistakably Kidd's. (UPDATE: reader (and designer of goodisdead.com) Jonathan informs us that's most likely a belly band. Thanks Jonathan!)

The paperback (buy it from Amazon.com):


The limited edition hardcover (buy it from Amazon.com):


Chip talks about the Batman you've never seen. Part one:



And part two:

at

9 comments:

  1. Seth Christenfeld7:20 PM

    the idea might have been discarded as too obvious, but with a title like that, I was expecting(and would not have disliked) a manga-style drawing of everyone's favorite billionaire with too much time on his hands.

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  2. Anonymous4:42 AM

    i never knew that there is batman in japan. wow!

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  3. Anonymous9:49 AM

    In case it isn't obvious, that bottom panel (with the title treatment) is actually a belly band on, I believe, both the hard- and softcover editions.

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  4. Joseph10:06 AM

    Jonathan: thanks for that. That's what I get for posting before something's released!

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  5. Anonymous5:44 PM

    Hi Seth, for what it's worth, there are plenty of bored billionaire images of Mr. Wayne inside. Enjoy, CK

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  6. Seth Christenfeld6:07 PM

    Ah, but Mr. Kidd (and by the way, you're awesome, it's an honor to have my thoughts rebutted by you, etc.)--are they manga-style? ;)

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  7. Anonymous11:22 AM

    hardcover hits powell's october 28th. i know where i will be.

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  8. Ian Koviak4:15 PM

    Yeah, what a rare treat. This is gonna be a fun book to look through. I've been a death in the Family follower, but this is something else...

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  9. Evan Crown9:32 PM

    this is mega sweet.

    hard

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