BEWARE OF...POISON IVY! by Dave Goode

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the most imagined episodes of the Batman television series was an adaptation of a story that appeared in Batman No.181 (June 1966). Beware of Poison Ivy was a 12-pager written by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Sheldon Moldoff (pencils) and Joe Giello (inks) "ghosting" for Bob Kane. This was the first of two Silver Age appearances of the villainess Poison Ivy. The character had no origin story back in the 60s. She was simply a comic book seductress. The embodiment of "Comic Book Cliche No.8"... the temptress that attempts to seduce the stalwart hero into a life of crime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the reason so many Silver Age fan-boys wanted to see an adaptation of this story is because the actress we imagine playing Poison Ivy is the one and only Ann-Margaret. One of the most famous sex symbols of the 1960s , Born Ann-Margaret Olsson in Sweden she came to America with her parents at age 6. She would study at Northwestern University before heading to Las Vegas to begin a career as a singer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discovered by George Burns she would go on to a triple threat career as a singer , dancer and actress. She would become a Top 10 Box-Office star appearing in movies like BYE, BYE BIRDIE, VIVA LAS VEGAS and KITTEN WITH A WHIP. Oddly enough Poison Ivy's creator Robert Kanigher reportedly modeled the character's look after legendary pin-up and fetish model Bettie Page.

Kanigher's original story was just as campy as anything that appeared on the television series. I can see it easily adapted to the small screen with a few minor tweaks. One of the things that needed to be kept in the story was the inclusion of Poison Ivy's rivals Dragon Fly, Silken Spider, and Tiger Moth. They could have been portrayed by Edy Williams, Marilyn Hanold, and Sivi Aberg who played Liberace's henchwomen in the Batman episodes The Devil's Fingers and Dead Ringers.

I myself imagine Burt Ward's second wife Kathy Kersh playing the Tiger Moth character. Miss Kersh would appear on the series in the episodes The Impractical Joker and The Joker's Provokers. Hmmm. Batman might have had to take Robin's advice from the comic book to "take a cold shower".










Hope you enjoyed this weeks' blog! Help support us by buying cool items!!

ITEM: DR. JUDO ISSUE NUMBER ONE!!!! CLICK THE PIC TO ORDER YOURS TODAY!!!!

-------------------------------------------

ITEM: DR. JUDO #1 ON A T-SHIRT!!! GET IT HERE:
https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/3416142-dr-judo-and-the-monsters

------------------------------------------

ITEM: GET YOUR JUDO ON!!! "WHO IS DR.JUDO?!" is available on shirts, cups, bags, and much much more! All on vancecapleyart1972's Teepublic page!

https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/3333819-who-is-dr-judo

 

ITEM: JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN!! IT'S MONSTER MAGAZINE! GRAB OUR FIRST ISSUE AND OUR 2ND ISSUE, CREATURE CREATURE FEATURE WITH BUTCH PATRICK, DR. PAUL BEARER, AND RICOU BROWNING! Remember the Creature this Halloween along with Spider Island Slim Carody, Joseph I. Cosby, Dave Goode, David Walker, Johann Schmidt, Will Keppel, and Vance Capley. With a "fang"tastic Creature cover by artist Ricky Blalock! You can read more here:

http://www.vancecapleyart.com/2018/10/04/monster-magazine-no-2/

You Would Think This Would Have Been A Given by Dave Goode

A couple of years back I came across the image of a Batman comic from Brazil with a photo cover. Interestingly enough though the comic was from the Batmania era of the 1960s, the actors were from the 1949 serial. Lyle Talbot as Commissioner Gordon, Robert Lowery as Batman and Johnny Duncan as Robin the Boy Wonder. I recently saw the image again on Facebook and it made me think of something I used to wonder about in my youth. Why exactly DC didn't use the occasional photo cover for their Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman titles ?

Imagine a Superman comic book cover during the 50s featuring George Reeves as the Man of Steel. Or during the 70s with Christopher Reeve.















Or how about one with Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman.

But what really made the most sense would have been ones featuring Adam West as the "caped crusader" and Burt Ward as the "Boy Wonder". The folks at DC could have used production stills from the show. Or better still they could have had the actors from the show who played the various Bat - Villains pose for staged photos with Adam and Burt.







Love great comics? Then click >>>>>HERE<<<<<< and buy ours!

Buying cool T-shirts and what not help support this blog! Click >>>HERE<<< to see our latest designs!

Alias... Dick Grayson by Dave Goode

I had just started reading Batman and Detective comics a couple of years before the Batman television series premiered. I was introduced to Batman through a crossover story in one of the Superman titles and thought the character was pretty cool. So I started picking up titles that featured this other " caped crusader ". When I did I discovered a character that over the years would become my favorite comic book/comic strip hero. Robin, the Boy Wonder...alias Dick Grayson. Actually I liked him as Robin, Nightwing, or just Dick Grayson. As a kid when playing Batman with friends I got to be Batman because I was the tallest. But I secretly wanted to be Robin.

Honor student, top athlete and wholesome boy next door. Dick Grayson was the ultimate big brother even if there was no Tim Drake or Jason Todd during the Silver Age to look up to him. Seriously I imagined Tony Dow portraying him.

That is until the Batman series premiered.

There is a certain gold standard when it comes to casting comic book /comic strip heroes and heroines. It starts with Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon and continues with Irish McCalla (Sheena of the Jungle) , Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman) and Burt Ward as Robin , the Boy Wonder. Actor Burt Ward as Robin looked like artist Carmine Infantino's  Boy Wonder come to life. Burt Ward (born Bert Gervis Jr.) was a sort of " boy wonder " in real life. At age two he was billed as the world's youngest professional figure skater.








The publicity department for the Batman show had put out some press releases describing him as as a brown belt in karate. As part of his audition he demonstrated some ukemi and tameshiwari techniques so these claims might have had some validity.

The funny thing is that in a 3-part story that ran in Batman No.234 (Aug.1971) , Batman No.235 (Sept.1971) and Batman No.236 (Nov.1971) written by Gary Friedrich and illustrated by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano Robin gives a karate demo at a commune where writer Friedrich describes Robin as being a karate brown belt. Hold the phone! Robin was only a brown belt in karate? This was as bad as Barbara " Bat-Girl " Gordon in her first appearance in Detective Comics No.359 (Jan.1967) written by Julius Schwartz and drawn by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson being described as a brown belt in judo.

I can't understand why any writer would depict someone fighting a guerrilla war against crime in the streets as being anything less than a 5th dan black belt. Perhaps this was writer Friedrich's way of of paying tribute to Burt Ward's martial arts skills. I wonder if there was some story during the Silver Age where Robin was described as a black belt?

Love the good old days of comics? Then grab JUDO COMICS by Goode & Capley
Here's the link: LINK

Where Would You Place Him? by Dave Goode

I think most people enjoy Top 10 Lists. It's fun to see where exactly your favorites fall. And they're usually the subject of spirited debates when your favorites don't make a list. Or aren't as high as you think they should be. For instance when it comes to the subject of television theme songs a dozen from the western genre pop into my head before I can think of any other genre. There are the themes to RAWHIDE and BONANZA at the top. And they're followed by themes from HAVE GUN , WILL TRAVEL and Warner Brothers westerns like CHEYENNE , MAVERICK , SUGARFOOT, BRONCO and LAWMAN. And let's not forget the songs Happy Trails and the William Tell Overture. In the end these lists are just the opinion of the people who compile them. If you agree with one cool. If you don't the sun will still come up tomorrow. As for myself there's only one list that bothers me.And largely because it omits Adam West as Bruce Wayne / Batman.

To me Adam West as Batman / Bruce Wayne was the epitome of cool. Sinatra use to say of Dean Martin that an H-Bomb could go off in back of Dino and the coolest member of the Rat Pack would just shrug and ask , " What was that? " . That was Adam West's Batman. Nothing phased him. Think back to the 1966 BATMAN movie starring West.Think of all the scenes with West in a tuxedo. He was Euro-Spy cool. Maybe he wouldn't have been a great James Bond. But I can imagine him as a Bond type. I'm surprised that he never turned up in a Bond movie as C.I.A agent Felix Leiter.

But I'm getting away from my original thought. My apologies. The list that Adam West never seems to appear on no matter who compiles it is for the Top 10 Television Fathers. My own favorites are Hugh Beaumont as Ward Cleaver and Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain. But I think there should be space on a list like that for Bruce Wayne / Batman. As I grew older one of my favorite parts of the old BATMAN television series was when Bruce Wayne and his young ward Dick Grayson played by actor Burt Ward were seen at stately Wayne Manor. Bruce was always giving teen-aged Dick some life lesson. Or he was teaching him some skill , mind expanding experiment or moral lesson before they were summoned by police Commissioner Gordon to solve some crime perpetrated by one of Gotham City's seemingly endless supply of super-criminals.

I'm just hoping that the reason that Batman is omitted from these lists is because Bruce Wayne was Dick Grayson's guardian and not his biological father. Sometimes a foster parent can be a better parent than a biological parent. Or maybe it was because of something we never gave much thought to as comic book reading or television watching kids. We all identified with Robin , the Boy Wonder. We wanted to be him fighting a war against crime alongside Batman. But the truth was Batman was committing a crime with the "reckless   endangerment of a minor"  every time they went into action.

Look for Judo Comics at lulu.com