Friday, May 9, 2025

Batman #12: The Belgian edition

As I was browsing through boxes and piles of vintage comics on my recent trip to Paris I spotted this issue of Interpresse's Batman #12, March 1973:


It was sealed but I picked it up because I was curious about the cover. It's an image I recognised immediately, even as I understood it was redrawn, and couldn't quite identify off the top of my head where it originated. 

Of course, it's one of many iconic - or at least memorable - images of Batman by Neal Adams from the early to mid-1970's. This one originally appeared in a panel in Ghost of the Killer Skies! in Detective Comics #404:


It was also a Super-Hero Stick-On:


This page is scanned from Batman #270.

I'm pretty sure this image was used in other promotional materials, and I will update this post as I come across them in due course.

The story contents of this issue are as follows:

[The Demon Lives Again], originally published in Batman #244, September 1972 
[Not All Thorns Come from Roses!], originally published in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #120, March 1972

Postscript: After indexing this issue and posting this entry I realised this issue has been published in other international editions with the same cover and contents, with local translations - for example as Lynvingen #2 in Norway; Laderlappen #4 in Sweden; and Batman Classics #36 in The Netherlands.

I now recall reading online something about the connection between these titles, but the reference escapes me for the moment. TBA.


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