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Title: BATMAN Nos. 155, 169, 171, 179, 183, 189 * Lot of 6 Comics * Silver Age Keys
Publisher:DC [Indicia: National Periodical Publications, Inc.]
Date Published: 1963-1967
Description: #155: G/VG (3.0). Moderate spine stress, ½" split to bottom spine, corner creases, reseller's rubberstamp, a few very tiny chips, brief pencilled mathematical jottings to top margin of back cover. Cream to light tan pages. Overstreet: "1st Silver Age app. The Penguin."
#169: Fine- (5.5). Spine ticks, spine ends lightly rubbed, a few light crease marks along edges, tiny dogeared tear to bottom corner of back cover. Off-white pages. Nice mag. Overstreet: "2nd Silver Age Penguin app."
#171: VG/Fine (5.0). Spine ticks, a few very light handling marks, a few barely visible fine spiderweb color breaks, reseller's rubberstamp. Lovely. Cream to off-white pages. Overstreet: "1st Riddler appearance since 1948."
#179: VG (4.0). Spine stress, fine reading crease to Riddler's main question mark on cover, light corner rubs, a few small edge nicks, dusty rubs to back cover. Cream pages. Overstreet: "2nd Silver Age Riddler."
#183: VG (4.0). Spine stress, very slight staple pull, a few soft creases to bottom edge and right corner of front cover, reseller's rubberstamp. Cream to off-white pages. Overstreet: "2nd app. Poison Ivy."
#189: VG- (3.5). Spine ticks and a few light rubs, very light edge rubs, reseller's rubberstamp with several abrasions below 12-cent cover price, resale price ("4p") under Scarecrow's arm. Tan pages. Overstreet: "1st Silver Age Scarecrow; retells origin of G.A. Scarecrow from World's Finest #3."
 
Cover pencils and inks: Sheldon Moldoff, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson, and Gil Kane. Stories and art: Jack Schiff, Sheldon Moldoff, Dave Wood, Charles Paris, Bill Finger, Ed Herron, Joe Giella, Sid Greene, Gardner Fox, and Robert Kanigher.Criminal Callbacks: "Abandoning science fiction and fantasy themes meant the books' rotating writers — who included [John] Broome and Ed Herron, as well as old salts like Gardner Fox and Bill Finger himself — could welcome back old foes who'd gone missing. In 1963, the Penguin emerged from a seven-year exile, followed in 1965 by the Riddler, who'd been absent from the pages of Batman comics for seventeen years." — Glen Weldon, The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture. Simon & Schuster: 2016, p. 66.
 
Adaptation Approximation: "To create the Batman pilot script, writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. took the story 'The Remarkable Ruse of the Riddler' from Batman #171 (March 1965) and adapted it into the two-part episode 'Hi Diddle Riddle/Smack in the Middle.'
 
"Except he didn't adapt it. Adaptation is a process of transmuting a story from one medium to another, and it requires a skillful attention to the particular set of strengths and weaknesses of both forms involved. A play poorly adapted into a film can feel stiff and stagy; a novel poorly adapted into a television miniseries can sink under the weight of tedious exposition and excessive detail.... Superhero comics offer bright, broad panels exploding with action and color that capture heightened emotion with a sense of terrible urgency. Television is a quieter and more intimate medium.... Superhero comics deliver spectacle, while television thrives on relationships. Had Semple chosen to truly adapt the story of Batman #171 to fit the television screen, he could have done so, and turned in a straight-ahead adventure with a pleasant, kid-friendly tone. The result would have looked something very like an episode of Star Trek, Tarzan, or Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
 
"But instead of adapting the comic book story, he directly transcribed it, flatly mapping the tropes of superhero comics onto the existing format of a half-hour television series. He took the narrative architecture of a superhero story... and brought it over completely intact.... The abiding irony that hard-core fans decry the show for 'not taking Batman seriously' lies in the fact that 'taking Batman seriously' was precisely the show's organizing principle.... In doing so, they achieved something that television, let alone the culture, had never seen before." — Glen Weldon, The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture. Simon & Schuster: 2016, pp. 76-77.
 
Note: At the buyer's discretion, this lot of raw comics can be submitted by PBA to CGC for grading and encapsulation with a "DC Universe Collection" provenance designation on the labels. To request this service, contact PBA's comic book department for terms and conditions.The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION comprises over 40,000 comic books, including a copy of every single DC comic published for retail sale from 1934 to 2014. The collection was amassed by British music producer Ian Levine over the course of several decades, and it's been hailed as the single greatest collecting accomplishment in comic book history. This collection served as the basis for former DC Comics president Paul Levitz's monumental book 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking, published by Taschen in 2017. PBA is proud to present this epic collection in a series of themed sales over the next two years. To join the DC Universe Collection notifications list, contact pba@pbagalleries.com.
Enjoying PBA's Batman sale? A very small number of softcover and limited edition hardcover auction catalogues are available for purchase. The catalogues are fully illustrated, thoroughly researched, and make excellent reference works for Batman fans. To order a copy, or to inquire about consignment opportunities, contact Ivan Briggs, PBA's Director of Comics: ivan@pbagalleries.com.