Comic Book Resources

Batman's right hand, in that classic Adams "so enraged I can't even make a fist, slipping into animal fury, gonna rip your testicles off" pose!

Often imitated. Never equalled.

I love how the cowl's neck-base stays perfectly in place and so skin-tight that you can see tendons through it even with the bat-shirt off. It looks like it must be superglued to his neck and shoulders.

Hairy-chested love-god! HAIRY-CHESTED LOVE-GOD!

Huh. How does Morrison manage to use phrases like that and sound enthusiastic instead of creepy?

Wow, literally just ten minutes ago, I was looking through a stack of old late 70s/early 80s tabloid comics I took out of my mom's house over the holidays, and was flipping through one that reprinted that series! I was probably seven at the time and probably really bored by it. It wasn't until about a decade later that I re-read it and thought ... wow!

are these issues collected at all? I've never really had time for pre-Frank Miller Batman, (apart from the Laughing Fish) but this looks awesome

h, and if so, whats the collection called?

I think it might be collected in Tales of the Demon . I know I've read it, but can't remember where.

I'm pretty sure DC did a big damn hardcover or two of Adams's Batman a while back.

joshschr is right, it's called Batman: Tales of the Demon.

that was supposed to hotlink here: http://comicbookrealm.com/series/2967/0/Batman:+Tales+of+The+Demon but it didn't take. Turns out I read it because I own it. Funny.

DC has been collecting all of the Neal Adams stories in a series of HC. Very expensive, but worth it.

Hopefully, the panel of the Joker in the U.S. Patent Office in Gotham City will make this list (from the Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers run on Detective) and the Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams Batman featuring the Joker's Five Way Revenge will show up in this series of columns sometime soon.

"By the Gods!"

I wonder if Ra's is the Fifth Cylon from Battlestar Galactica?

Who does Ra's's voice in the cartoon? It's all I can hear.

imdb says: David Warner, who you may remember from such films as Time Bandits, Tron, and Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country.

He also seems to do a lot of voice work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Warner_(actor)

Those stories were also reprinted in a baxter-paper series in the late 80s. I bet they could be found cheap if you looked around.

"DC has been collecting all of the Neal Adams stories in a series of HC. Very expensive, but worth it."

There are three volumes containing all of his Batman work. I was able to get them for about $20 each at a hefty discount. They are truly spectacular but Adams output in that period was so spotty that the books are peppered with tiny fractions of stories. I found myself wishing for more of an omnibus of Denny O'Neil's Batman which could contain the great Adams stuff and be a better read.

The Ra's Al Ghul saga roughly takes place over four issues - Daughter of the Demon (Batman issue 232), Bruce Wayne RIP (Batman issue 242), The Lazarus Pit (Batman issue 243) and the Demon Lives Again (Batman issue 244). Unfortunately the second issue, Bruce Wayne RIP, was pencilled by Irv Novick and therefore isn't included in Neal Adams' Batman ominbus. The story is pretty unintelligible without this particular issue.

In the late 'Eighties, to coincide with the Tim Burton film, Titan Books brought out a series collecting Neal Adams' Batman. They are in black and white, but can still be picked up on Amazon for under five dollars. The Ra's Al Ghul saga is covered in 'The Demon Awakes' and includes the Irv Novick issue.

These stories were also collected way back in the day in the same oversized format as SUPERMAN VS. SPIDER-MAN, SUPERMAN VS. MUHAMMAD ALI and so on. The Neal Adams art looked great in the larger format.

This is also the saga that raised some controversy among hardcore Batfans because in the course of it Batman picks up and uses a rifle.

What's wrong with "By the Gods!" ? I say it all the time. I'm not even close to kidding.

I think it's the "Are you MAN--or FIEND FROM HELL?" that he's talking about.

Those stories are so damn great. During the long years between BATMAN AND ROBIN (eeuggh) and BATMAN BEGINS, I thought BATMAN 242-244 could be adapted into a fantastic movie.

Now this is a cool moment.