Superman Through the Ages! Forum

Help & Queries => Website Questions => Topic started by: MatterEaterLad on December 04, 2005, 11:03:19 PM



Title: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: MatterEaterLad on December 04, 2005, 11:03:19 PM
My browser hasn't been able to find its address lately...sad to see it go, but I understand based on the lack of posting interest and it probably takes up lots of bandwidth...


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: Super Monkey on December 05, 2005, 12:04:43 AM
No big lost, no one ever went there.


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: Great Rao on December 05, 2005, 12:50:36 AM
The real question is:

How long was it between the time the site went off-line and anyone noticed that it went off-line?

Face it, Superman is just more popular than Batman.

:s:


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: Klar Ken T5477 on December 05, 2005, 07:44:00 AM
At least in our world.

Lets do the official count - 1 full milk crate full of the Silver Age Superman family (Sman, Action, Adventure, Lois, Jimmy, Sboy) and a 2nd milk crate full of misc silver age DCs - lets take a look - hmmm...I have more Star Spangled War Stories (with dinosaurs) than Batman!
And I like Batman esp New Look Infantino and Dick Sprang - well 3 Batman 80 pagers get a lot of mileage! Ride Bat Hombre Ride!Hell I got more Flash(s) than Batman................:s:


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: MatterEaterLad on December 05, 2005, 08:57:37 AM
Well, you got me there, I had less than 10 Batman or Detective issues, 3 World's Finest I can remember -- and yeah, those 80 Page Giants, baby... :D

"Good night, Mister Wayne, wherever you are"  8)


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: nightwing on December 05, 2005, 10:14:34 AM
Well, Supes is more popular on these boards, but that's about it.

I was just thinking about this over the weekend.  Out Xmas shopping for the boys, I noticed all kinds of things with Batman's image on them and not nearly so much with Superman's.  Whenever someone makes backpacks, kickballs, sleeping bags, whatever, you can count on them to pursue the licenses for Dora the Explorer, Spongebob, some Disney Princess or other and a couple of superheroes, which almost invariably end up being Spider-Man and Batman.

Maybe a hit movie next year will change things?


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: Anonymous on December 05, 2005, 11:53:02 AM
ya doesn't help that batman's actually had 5 movies since the last superman movie eh?


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: Klar Ken T5477 on December 05, 2005, 11:55:30 AM
Quote from: "MatterEaterLad"
Well, you got me there, I had less than 10 Batman or Detective issues, 3 World's Finest I can remember -- and yeah, those 80 Page Giants, baby... :D

"Good night, Mister Wayne, wherever you are"  8)


Ah, I didnt count World's Finest (they're in my Superman family bin!) esp the Swan run!  So I guess I do have more Bats than I thought in my belfry!  But for actual Bat -books....well, theres Dark Knight, Gotham Over Gaslight and The Cult.

Nightwing - nothing like a new movie - oh so true


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: nightwing on December 05, 2005, 01:00:13 PM
Hmm...I've got about nine long-boxes full of comics (none any later than 1994 or so) and without counting, I'm certain I have a lot more Batman than Superman.  But that doesn't mean those books mean more to me, or that I like Batman better, honestly.

I used to have tons more Superman titles from the late 70s, early 80s with scripts by guys like Gerry Conway and inks by the likes of Frank Chiaramonte, but whenever I decided the collection was getting too big to manage (mostly in college days), they were always some of the first things I'd sell/give/throw away (Yes, I said "throw."  Not sure what I was thinking, but at least a couple hundred comics went to the dump! Other stuff I purged included a lot of late-70s "Justice Leagues," a complete run of Marvel's "The Human Fly," some forgettable "Brave and the Bold" issues and almost all my war comics, so it's not like I singled out Superman for rejection).  My Action and Superman collection now runs from about 1965 (with a few earlier gems) to 1977, then gets really spotty through the 80s up to the Crisis.  The one title to escape this pruning was DC Comics Presents; I may well have a complete collection of that one.

What I've still got in the way of Superman books accents quality over quantity.  I have to say that for me, the Bronze Age and early 80s (the biggest period of collecting for me) was much kinder to Bats than Supes.  But what Superman I held onto...and the many Silver Age back-issues I've tracked down and bought in the US and Canada since giving up on "new" monthlies of anything...is pretty near and dear.


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: Klar Ken T5477 on December 05, 2005, 01:14:03 PM
Well Nightwing, this is recent additions at my house. My collection from the 60s went by the box load (and I do mean box load) when I was starving. I mean who'd pay more than $10 for a whole box of silver age Superboys????????? ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH...


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: MatterEaterLad on December 05, 2005, 08:40:26 PM
For some reason the pre "new look Batman" intrigued me in a weird way, I liked the artwork and the travel, even time travel, that was so different than Supes...so if I was collecting, I'd go for the "armored batman", the "Bat Hombre", the "Flying Batman" in their original issues that I read later in 80 page Giants...

This is a better discussion than ever happened on "Batman Through the Ages"! :lol:

Sad to say, I don't have any of them, but my mom threw them out, probably around when I went to college... :wink:


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: Klar Ken T5477 on December 06, 2005, 12:29:57 AM
ME Lad, the art you probably liked was by Bob Kane's best ghost Dick Sprang - nobody drew giant typewriters like he did! In the 66 Bat book IIRC most of the stories were by him and I was rather fond of Prof Nichols time travel yarns and who can forget the first time Robin died in "Robin Dies at Dawn"
 
Does Nightwing maintain a Batpage? Mostly bronze IIRC

This is Dick Sprangs work

(http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/comics101/images/2004/jan14/two-face.jpg)


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: MatterEaterLad on December 06, 2005, 09:11:35 AM
Yep, it was Sprang's work all right...I never could say WHY I liked his work other than its different...lots of people mention his drawing of the Joker's toys (nicely remembered in Batman: The Animated Series' final series), but I really liked his moodiness and drawing of landscapes, very different in tone than any Superman artist...

Thanks for the name Professor Nichols, his name was escaping me... :D


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: nightwing on December 06, 2005, 10:15:14 AM
Matter Eater Lad writes:


Quote
For some reason the pre "new look Batman" intrigued me in a weird way, I liked the artwork and the travel, even time travel, that was so different than Supes...


Funny you should say that.  I thought I was alone in rating "travel" an important part of Batman's appeal.  I loved that he wasn't limited to Gotham, but might in any given issue find himself in London, Paris, Antartica, South America, you name it.  This continued as late as the O'Neil/Adams era when Batman would chase Ra's Al Ghul all over the world in James Bond fashion.

I *hate* that the Burton films focused so exclusively on Gotham and I think it limited them greatly (the new "Begins" has a much more epic feel thanks to the travel aspect).  Similarly, one reason the current comics turn me off is that they're so Gotham-bound, apparently to reinforce the image of Bruce as an obsessed crank with blinders on.

Quote
so if I was collecting, I'd go for the "armored batman", the "Bat Hombre", the "Flying Batman" in their original issues that I read later in 80 page Giants...


Hmm, I was just thinking about scanning "Bat-Hombre" the other day to put on BTTA.  Not much point now! :oops:

Klar Ken T5477 writes:
Quote
Does Nightwing maintain a Batpage? Mostly bronze IIRC


I elected to focus on the Bronze Age so as not to duplicate the mission of BTTA, but since that's no longer an issue, maybe I'll re-tool the site over the holiday.  I've got a lot of Sprang, Infantino, Adam West, etc stuff I could include and anyway, the "Bronze" format was a lot more limiting than I anticipated.

I just hate giving up the site name for those who get the gag: "I Was A Bronze Age Batfan!"


http://batfan.superman.nu


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: Spaceman Spiff on December 10, 2005, 05:09:56 PM
Quote from: "Super Monkey"
No big lost, no one ever went there.

I was about to raise my hand to object, but then I saw...
Quote from: "Great Rao"
How long was it between the time the site went off-line and anyone noticed that it went off-line?

... :oops:

Alas and alack! The untended garden is soon reclaimed by the wild.

There were a few interesting discussions on the BTTA forum. Is there any possibility those could be moved to the "Superfriends" section of the STTA forum?


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: Super Monkey on December 10, 2005, 05:25:19 PM
Quote from: "Spaceman Spiff"
Quote from: "Super Monkey"
No big lost, no one ever went there.

I was about to raise my hand to object, but then I saw...
Quote from: "Great Rao"
How long was it between the time the site went off-line and anyone noticed that it went off-line?

... :oops:

Alas and alack! The untended garden is soon reclaimed by the wild.

There were a few interesting discussions on the BTTA forum. Is there any possibility those could be moved to the "Superfriends" section of the STTA forum?


You can start a Batman thread in the Superfriends forum if you like.


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: Great Rao on December 10, 2005, 09:20:28 PM
Quote from: "Spaceman Spiff"

There were a few interesting discussions on the BTTA forum. Is there any possibility those could be moved to the "Superfriends" section of the STTA forum?

I've got the BTTA forum database backed-up on my harddrive, but writing the SQL query to extract all those discussions and merge them into the STTA forum database is something that is currently beyond my ken.

The Great Rao knows most things, and sees a lot.

:s:


Title: Re: Is "Batman Through the Ages" no more?
Post by: Spaceman Spiff on December 11, 2005, 03:21:33 AM
Understood, Great One. Thanks for the answer.

It is a shame that BTTA never took off. It was nice to see a website devoted to the Batman of old, before the comics lost their "kid-friendliness."