| Title | : | Batman: The Black Casebook |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1401222641 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781401222642 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 144 |
| Publication | : | First published June 23, 2009 |
Batman: The Black Casebook Reviews
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I thought 2013 wold be the year in which I tackled Proust. Instead it became the year I read Neil Gaiman's Sandman Omnibus and now, I'm about to undertake Grant Morrison's R.I.P. Batman series.
Required reading for the R.I.P. Batman series is Batman: The Black Casebook. It’s a scant 144 page trade paperback — flat colors printed on off-white newsprint to capture the feel of 50's comics — with reprints of the stories Morrison used as research for Batman’s history in R.I.P. He focused on the most outlandish of the 1950s comics, filled with atomic fear, aliens, personality switches, and anxiety. It’s a wonderful book in a lot of ways
I was warned about the campy content throughout The Black Casebook (Robin is a wimpy crybaby in green bikini bottoms), but I thought that it would be worth it as context for amazing work Grant Morrison has done on his run with Batman. In that sense it absolutely was. Morrison lays out for his readers some really interesting precedents for what he’s doing, drawing from the deepest recesses of Batman’s past. I love the idea that Morrison treats the disavowed history of the character as canonical. He simultaneously re-imagines the history of the property by bringing those stories back into print.
Morrison is a smart writer who cleverly weaves Batman's past, present and future together in R.I.P. Batman by drawing on from the stories in The Black Casebook. If only other writers were brave enough to do the same with iconic comic book heroes -- Captain America, Spiderman, Superman and Doctor Strange immediately come to mind. In the end, The Black Case book harkens back to a time when there was joy in the silliness of superhero comics and life was so much simpler. -
Don't let the title fool you, the dark cover doesn't hide anything that could possibly claim to be noir. To reveal the contents of this book I have to relate two words that when combined are enough to drive even the most rabid and nostalgia obsessed Batman fan into the depths of denial. Those two words are: Batman & 1950s. Unless you're gathering material for a thesis on Batman R.I.P., or just interested in comic book history I don't see many reasons to recommend this book. There's a nice intro by Grant Morrison detailing how these stories shaped and influenced his penning of Batman R.I.P. (though even he admits how reviled this era has become). Each of the stories has at least one element, be it an image, an idea or a concept that he drew on for the work. The first Batman (Thomas Wayne), Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, Batmite, Club of Heroes, Dr. Hurt etc. It's all here and more in day-glo, beamy grinned cheesiness.
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I read this one because it was written on the web somewhere that it was a sort of sourcebook for the Grant Morrison Batman cycle. The stories were pretty uneven in quality, some were ok, and others were, well, not great. Probably not essential reading unless you are a bit obsessive-compulsive about Batman...
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You can't fully appreciate a legacy as vast as Batman's without taking a look at his early stories. This book is filled with stories of Batman's early years, written by Bob Kane. It's interesting to see the stories that inspired Grant Morrison's run on Batman in combination with his introduction that further explains why and how each story inspired him. I'm now going to start reading Morrison's run. I haven't read it yet as I had and still have a very long to read list. But now it's time for some more Batman. And I'm glad I began with this book. I'm curious to see how Grant Morrison uses the stories in the Black Casebook in his run. After reading some of the older stories with the classic art, it will be a big difference reading modern Batman stories with modern art.
The storytelling, the art and the coloring are great! I love the first page of each issue. Each of these introductory pages is a little summary of the story to come. I always loved how the golden age and silver age comics made use of this.
Every one who is about to read Morrison's run or already has read his run, should read this book. -
This is a difficult collection to rate. On one hand, I think the introduction by Grant Morrison explaining how these 50s and 60s Batman comics served as inspiration for his (in)famous Batman run makes them worth reading once. And Morrison's introduction also serves a nice reminder that creatively interpreting fiction (and non) can lead to interesting results and inspiration.
However, these are 50s and 60s Batman comics when the series was at the height of absurdity and camp. The writing is repetitive, using the technique of SHOWING and TELLING that I hate so much. Obviously, written for a younger market than a lot of current DC and Batman comics are written for.
So, Grant Morrison's reframing of these seemingly random issues = cool. The issues themselves, not so much. -
On their own, the stories average about 2 stars each. As a collected record of Batman's goofy 1950s period, it gets bumped up to 3 stars for novelty value. But treated as either a prologue or an appendix to Grant Morrison's Batman comics (particularly "The Black Glove" and "Batman R.I.P."), and these stories take on a newfound relevance and a nightmarish quality in context.
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Bill Finger is the proverbial "heartbeat" of Batman. Bob Kane was an absolute "dick" not giving this man the credit he so richly deserved. Kane died in the comfort of wealth. Finger died poor and alone. Batman would have something to say about THAT, I'm sure. Great writer!
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Some time before this collection, there was a collection published entitled Batman in the Fifties. That book collected Batman stories from the 1950s with emphasis on the weirdness and embarrassment of some of them. This book also collects stories from that era, some of the same stories even. There's plenty of weirdness; but here there is no embarrassment. Grant Morrison unashamedly selects stories that inspired his own psychologically unhinged take on Batman, effectively putting these odd tales into a context that may or may not make them more palatable for more "purist" Batman fans. Maybe I'm just weird, but I did not need that context. Instead of embarrassing or just plain strange, I see these stories as a testament to the versatility of the Batman mythos. Morrison's after-the-fact framework is just icing on the cake.
On a side note: Fans of James Robinson's amazing Starman series, there is a story in here you must read! -
Some of these stories did not age well, and most were downright weird. But I suppose weird was the point...
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I'm finally on my way to read Grant Morrison's run on Batman. So wish me luck.
As for the Black Casebook — that was my first foray into the Golden Age comic books. I don't know how representative of the era this collection is, but here are my observations nonetheless:
* Stories are short. Often not even a full single issue, just 10 pages.
* Batman & Robin mostly fight crooks not super villains.
* There is so much text on the panels. The narrator explains every move (why? just look at the pictures).
* These stories are actually close in style to Batman TV show with Adam West. So it was a good adaption of the character, it seems. It's ridiculous and naive, but I must admit that it's quite creative.
* Batman and Robin do seem to be at least a little bit gay :) Also, the volume includes a rainbow-colored monster and costume for Batman. Queer is good! -
Cara que loucura que eu li aqui. Só doidera e história sem sentido do Batman kkkkkkkk Mas são divertidas, valem a pena serem lidas para ter ideia de como o Grant Morrison irá utilizar os conceitos na sua fase.
Também é interessante ver o prelúdio do que viria a ser a corporação Batman. Temos uma história aqui que mostra os primeiros Batmen de Todas as Nações -
This was a lot of fun, Grant Morrison selected the Batman tales which provided the inspiration of his current run on the character, predominately from the 1950s, Sci-fi era of the character. I had read several of these tales including The First Batman!, the weirdly moving Robin Dies At Dawn!, and the very trippy Super Batman of Planet X! Most of the other tales have very challenging threats that are more cerebral than physical for Batman and Robin, and some could be seen as hallucinations, an idea that Morrison proposes. The art is nice by Sheldon Meldoff, and features so many of the classic over sized sets of this era (for example, Batman pummels some crooks on a giant turntable which is part of a hi-fi exhibition). Recommended for fans of classic comics and Batman tales that are on the weirder side.
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This collection of odd Batman tales from the fifties through the early sixties really only exists to serve as a companion piece to the much-championed Grant Morrison run on Batman.
Without reading it through that prism, these strange one-off stories do not age well (to be fair, very little from their era in general has aged gracefully).
There are a couple of standouts among the dozen stories. The First Batman (from Detective Comics #236) has some fun playing around with the well-known Batman origin and suggesting that there was more to that mugging in Crime Alley than met the eye. Also, Am I Really Batman (from Batman #112), introduces the paranoia that would come to play in Morrison's RIP. -
If I had read these stories individually, I would have wondered what the heck they were trying to do with the Batman character.
Instead, they're given a good intro and tied together as the back story for Morrison's time writing Batman. As such, these are an interesting lead-in that develop the character in a way you're not expecting. -
A ridiculously delightful romp through 50s era Batman stories; features my favorite version of the Bat Plane. This volume simply and succinctly illustrates that, with creativity and intelligence, the baby of continuity need not be thrown out with the "bat" water.
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Highlights some of the more absurd Batman adventures that were incorporated in Morrison's Batman RIP. It's a fun look back at a time when comics were aimed at kids and didn't require much plausibility.
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Terrible for a read on its own, but incredibly entertaining when reading Morrison's Batman. Really fun to see Grant Morrison make use of these cheesy tales in a darker way.
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A cheap excuse to put Grant Morrison's name on the cover in big letters, but I love old comics.
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Batman: The Black Casebook, contains several memorable Batman stories from the golden age. This was a time when Batman was the Caped Crusader, and with Robin were the dynamic duo. The Dark brooding Miller Batman would not happen until 1986. So this was the period, where writers completely embraced the camp, with interdimensional aliens, supernatural phenomenon, campy cartoonish villains, and a healthy dose of Holy Shark Repellent Bat spray Batman!
As someone who was immersed in the character and lore, through works such a Bob s Knight fall, Cataclysm, Venom and 'The Dark Knight Returns', the OG tone as penned by Bob Kane & Bill Finger took some getting used to.
There are a litany of stories from the golden age, featuring some classics such as the first appearance of 'Batmite', and the infamous 'Rainbow Batman'. But also, perhaps as a product of the age, characters are a lot cartoonish, often times devolve to racial caricatures & cliques, and there is several undertones of casual racism and sexism. Also, several unintentionally homoerotic underpinnings of the relationship between the dynamic duo. For Zod's sake, one chapter is about Robin obsessing and heartbroken about Batman replacing him with 'another man'. Hilarious stuff. The stories and plots are also simple, often light hearted. Don't come if you're expecting any of the gothic exploration of the human condition, like the modern versions.
But the collection is a good starting point for those who wish to explore the origins of one of the most iconic characters in comic book history, as well as media in general.
The Stories listed in the anthology:
> The British Batman
> A Partner for Batman
> The Batmen of all nations
> The Club of Heroes
> The First Batman
> The Rainbow Batman
> Am I really Batman?
> Batman: The Superman of Planet X
> Batman meets: Batmite
> The Rainbow creature
> Prisoners of three worlds (Three parts)
> The Secret of Ant man
> Robin Dies at dawn (Two Parts)
> DC Comics 52: Snippets from the ongoing Batman title. -
This was a fascinatingly strange collection of Batman stories that, for the most part, went far outside of the realism that Batman is supposed to maintain. I can see why, as stated in Grant Morrison's introduction, that many hardcore Bat-fans like to pretend that these stories don't exist... but they do, and, let's be honest, they can be an awful lot of nostalgic fun. I have to give Morrison props as to how he managed to incorporate these zany tales into Batman canon. (Even if some of Morrison's stories were a little strange, they still actually kind of worked in a very weird way.) I wish I would have known about this collection before reading "The Black Glove" and "Batman: R.I.P.," as those stories would have made a lot more sense if I'd known more about the material from which Morrison was drawing. But c'est la vie. This was still a lot of fun to read, and actually enhanced my appreciation of those aforementioned Morrison titles. Also... Robin played a significant role in these stories, which for me, is always an added bonus.
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Eu devo ser saudosista ou realista?
Bom.. primeiramente esse compilado, é para as pessoas terem uma noção de onde Grant Morrison tirou suas ideias para sua Run do Batman.
Mas falando das revistas em si. Você ler essas histórias nos dias de hoje, vai perceber o quanto é ultrapassado isso, o estilo da escrita e a escrita narrada, a arte, todo o resto. Diferentemente das histórias dos anos 80 qua ainda são muito boas de ler hoje em dia.
Você deve ler? Se você é uma pessoa mais velha e pegou um pouco desse tempo, sim. Se você quer apenas saber de onde Morrison tirou suas ideias, sim. Agora se você não suporta o estilo pastelão dos anos 50, passa bem longe.
Eu estou lendo porque pela primeira vez estou para ler a Run do Batman que Morrison escreveu, mas confesso que depois de ler isso, estou com muito medo do que vou ver nessa Run dele, já não sou fã da escrita de Grant Morrison e ainda vejo isso aqui. Espero que ele só pegue algumas ideias porque medo define. -
You would be asking yourselves: is it necessary to read this to understand Grant Morrison Batman? Short answer: No.
Well, this was... interesting. I give it to Morrison, he made quiet a research for his series. The stories in here connect with Morrison's series but no necessary reveal something new or important that we should know. So if you pick up this do it just for entertainment. -
I think Black Casebook is a weird name for this collection of mostly 50s Batman stories. They are way more silly and weird than dark or gritty. I enjoyed reading them as launch place to dig into Morrison's run on Batman and it's pretty interesting to see where a creator like them took inspiration in Batman's history. It's a fun sampling.
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I should take away some stars for the bad decision by DC not to reprint the covers that Morrison mentions in the introduction to these really fun stories, but they were really fun stories so I’ll let it be.
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If you're a sucker for Silver Age comics and can get it for a cheap price, get it. Robin Dies at Dawn and The Batman from Planet X are hands down one of the best caped crusader's stories ever. If you gaze long enough into the abyss the abyss will gaze into you.
