"Yeah, It's That Bad" is a movie podcast that reviews films which are considered to be awful remakes, box office bombs, useless sequels and other critically hated films. Well, recently they did their take on Joel Schumacher's 1997 BATMAN AND ROBIN movie. You know it, the one that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, Chris O'Donnell, Uma Thurman, and Alicia Silverstone. So, is this movie bad? To give you a hint I noticed the other day that you can buy it used on Amazon for 6 cents, no joke! But YITB's Movie Review is still fun to listen too, just click HERE!
If you've been reading the Bat-Blog for any length of time it probably didn't take you very long, maybe a few seconds, to find out that I'm totally obsessed with Batman! ( ha ha ) So, when I heard the news that Abrams was going to publish a definitive biography about Jerry Robinson's life, I was pretty excited! I mean, Jerry Robinson was right there with Bob Kane & Bill Finger during the early creation of Batman. He drew most of the iconic Golden Age Batman artwork we now enjoy, especially the comic book covers. He is the person who created the greatest villain in pop culture history, The Joker! He also co-created Robin, the Boy Wonder! What I'm getting at is this, his contribution to the character is extremely important. So, as both a serious Batman fan & comic book history nut, I couldn't wait till this came out. The book I'm talking about is titled JERRY ROBINSON: AMBASSADOR OF COMICS.
It is the very 1st illustrated biography of the comics legend & it was written by N. C. Christopher Couch ( who had direct access to Jerry the whole time ). The book is loaded with beautiful artwork & photos from his entire career. Which, by the way, is still going on. It starts out like any other biography, telling his parent's history & sharing his childhood story. Which, is very interesting, but the great thing is that it gets to the "Batman part" pretty quick, ha ha! Now, when you're reading this book it's done in a style where you feel like you are "right there in the moment". So, hearing the origin of the Batman character & how it all came about is pretty cool. We find out how Bob Kane & Jerry Robinson actually met for the 1st time. There's a ton of "behind the scene" details on who did what & how. There's a lot of things I never knew about the actual characters that I was very pleased with learning. For example, Alfred the Butler was not introduced in the comic book. He made his 1st appearance in the 1940's Batman Movie Serials, & then later, was added as a comic book character ( Weird I never knew that ). The book goes into great details about the whole "Batman events" thing, which is just really great stuff! Now, to be honest, I thought I might be bored once they got out of the "Batman era", but I wasn't ( no offense to Jerry! ). Mr. Robinson had a very full career outside of comic books doing Illustration Work, Syndicated Comic Strips, & Political Comics. A lot of this stuff I was not familiar with because it ran in popular newspapers I never saw. Plus, he did draw, write, create, many other comic books & hearing those stories are just as wonderful.
Now, back to the actual book. The quality of the printing was the very 1st thing I was really impressed with. I'm a serious reader ( and even collect books ) & I love a well-designed book. The cover is beautiful, the inside photos & illustrations are BEAUTIFUL! I spent a lot of time enjoying the full-page photos of the original art for many of the comic book covers, especially the Batman ones. They almost always present the original art right next to the actual comic book. Both pictures are so extremely sharp that it's almost like you're looking at the real thing, it's a very neat experience. They also have a photo of the very 1st Joker drawing, the prototype, that's really neat to see. I guess I need to add some technical information, like: It's a hardcover with dust-jacket, it measures about 8" X 11", & has 224 pages. It also has 220 full-color illustrations & it's retail price is about $35.00. So, overall, I gotta say that this book is very well written, very high-quality, & if you're a serious Batman Fan, it will make you drool for days! Oh yeah, TFAW has it on sale, just click the button down below:
Here's a really nice video done by a Bat-Blog Fan named Joey. It's an "Action Figure Review" for the new DC Direct BLACKEST NIGHT Black Lantern Batman ( Series 5 ). This toy looks pretty cool & has some great details. Please be sure to check out Joey's video down below & see what you think. Also, it's on sale at TFAW, just use that link button below the video!
Here's an interesting video I came across recently. It features Chris Gierke from the MONSTER MODEL REVIEW website giving a review on the BATMAN 1950's BATMOBILE Car 1:24 Scale Die-Cast Model Kit by Johnny Lighting, which that company made in 2002. I remember when this product originally came out & it was actually kind of hard to find at the retail level. This style of the Batmobile has always been a favorite of mine & I wanted to get this kit, but never did. So now it's on my future "want list" & someday I'll get around to buying one. In the mean time i can just drool over this video.
OK, I have been meaning to write about this for awhile but keep getting sidetracked. So, here we GO, finally! There are these 2 young guys named Steve & Andy and they just recently discovered the 1966 Batman TV Series! Yeah, I guess they're kind of young & missed it when they were children. Today, they do a very excellent podcast about their experiences watching the 1960's classic & they review each episode. It's kinda funny how much they totally love the show. But, that's cool! If you're a fan of the TV show too then you might wanna check out their page sometime, just click HERE!
Here's a very well done promotional video for the BATMAN VAULT Book. It gives you a really good idea what this very interesting item looks like on the inside. As you can see it's loaded with a lot of fun reproductions to remove & look at. I still have not bought this yet but plan to get one later.
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!
From IGN, we get this awesome Game Review for the New Eidos BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM Video Game. All the reports that I have been getting so far are saying that this is the BEST Batman and/or Comic Book Superhero Franchise video game yet!! It's gonna be released on August 25th, 2009, so look for it soon!
