Book Review: THE BATCAVE COMPANION By Michael Eury & Michael Kronenberg

There's a brand-new Batman book out there right now that you might have heard about. It's called THE BATCAVE COMPANION & it was recently published by TwoMorrows Publishing. The basic premise is that it covers Batman's real-life comic book history from, let's say, 1964 through 1979. In the early 1960's both Batman comic book titles, Batman & Detective Comics, had sales figures that were so bad that they were seriously on the verge of cancellation. That's pretty scary to think about, right? That's when DC Comics ( then called National Periodical Publications ) brought in a new editor to help revamp the books...sort of give them a new life. This era in Batman's history is known as "The New Look" period. What they did was they brought in Julius Schwartz, the "Fix It Man"! They also brought in a popular comic book artist at the time, Carmine Infantino. He had just done wonders with the Flash comic book & they thought he would be a good match for Batman.


What they basically told both of them was, "You have 6 months to breathe new life into this character or we're gonna have to cut both titles". OUCH! Yes, this really happened which, as a Batman Fan, is totally scary to think about! Now, to get back to the book. It's sort of broken down into 2 parts ( but both parts are seamless & flow really well together ). The first part, covering the "New Look" period of the 60's, is written by Michael Eury. The 2nd half of the book, covering the 1970's "Creature of the Night" period, is written by Michael Kronenberg. Both authors do an extremely excellent job covering Batman's rich history in very fine detail. In fact, I gotta say, that I'm a very serious "book reader" ( & quite prolific ) but dang this book took me like forever to read, ha ha! But, it's very well written & doesn't rehash a lot of details for filler. Well, I gotta say that the whole reading experience was completely wonderful. Plus, all through out this book, there are a ton of awesome graphics, photos, & illustrations that are a total joy to see ( ...the book's cover art was done by Neal Adams, enough said, ha ha! ). There's a lot of classic vintage artwork & very neat "behind the scene" photos. As both a serious Batman Fan & Collector ( for a very long time ) I sort of consider myself an expert & I was sort of shocked by all the amazing new details to Batman's history that I didn't even know about. This book really explains a lot in 240 pages, ha ha! OK, to get back to the basic story, both Schwartz & Infantino must have done a great job on the Batman titles ( they did ) because the sales figures were climbing.


Then something totally unexpected happened...the 1966 Batman TV Show came out & it seemed like the whole world went totally bat-crazy! As you can imagine this affected the sales figures greatly. Plus, there was a ton of merchandising for the character that really shot him into total stardom. This book covers both the creation of this new TV Show, & what was happening in the comic book at the time of the show, in great detail. But, after the show was canceled a few years later sales for the book started to fall a little bit. That's when the "2nd half" of the book kicks in again & talks about how Dennis O'Neil & Neal Adams were brought in to revamp the character all over again.


One of the great things about this book, worth mentioning, is that every now & then they sort of pause the story to present actual modern day interviews with many of the editors, writers, & artists. My 4 top favorites were the ones with Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Sheldon Moldoff, & Neal Adams. But all the others are really great too & they talk in length with Dennis O'Neil, Mike W. Barr, Will Murray, Len Wein, Steve Englehart, & Terry Austin. OK, back to the story, ha ha. The 1970's brought in a whole new outlook for the Batman character. They sort of wanted to get away from the whole silly-campiness of the 60's TV series & remade Batman into "The Dark Knight Detective" again. I gotta say that if you're a fan of ANY of these artists I have mentioned they are all very well presented with wonderful illustrations, many never seen before.


Overall, I gotta say that I can highly recommend this new book to any serious Batman Fan. If you grew up ( like I did ) with this period of Batman's history then it's gonna bring back a lot of fond memories. If you're a younger fan, who is not quite familiar with this time period, then you're gonna get quite educated & it's gonna give you a fresh new perspective on the character. So, get out there & please purchase a copy today. You'll be glad you did.