The Folio Society has announced DC: Batman, a new deluxe hardcover collection celebrating 85 years of the Dark Knight.
Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Batman debuted in 1939’s Detective Comics #27. In honor of everything the character has been through since then, the 320-page DC: Batman collects 12 “seminal comics” by a “host of iconic writers and artists.” These include the aforementioned Kane and Finger, as well as Jerry Robinson, Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, Marshall Rogers, Frank Miller, Dave Mazzucchelli, Alan Moore, Brian Bolland, and Kelley Jones. All of the featured comics were hand-picked by former DC President, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief Jennette Kahn.
Additionally, the Folio Society’s DC: Batman will come with a stand-alone replica copy of 1940’s Batman #1. Scanned directly from a complete original copy, the replica “includes the original back-up strips and vintage ads.” The classic issue itself is known for introducing Batman’s greatest adversary, the Joker — not to mention the character who would eventually become Catwoman.
“Trauma is a through-line in the Batman mythology,” Kahn writes in the book’s introduction. “It has made psychopaths of Batman’s foes and brought him to the edge of madness himself. Batman’s battle is not just against criminals and crime. He fears the day he’ll look into a mirror and see, not Bruce Wayne‘s face, but The Joker’s.”
The editors behind DC: Batman discusses the anniversary collection
“Created towards the end of the Great Depression by artist Bob Kane with writer Bill Finger, Batman is an icon as familiar as James Bond or Tarzan, one who has evolved to reflect the changing attitudes of the twentieth century,” Folio Society head of editorial James Rose said. “The stories selected for DC: Batman reveal how the character and his billionaire alter-ego Bruce Wayne gradually evolved from the dutiful crimefighter of the 1940s to a man possessed, as crazy as the criminals he puts away. The Caped Crusader faces a rogue’s gallery steeped in gothic horror, from the Weimar cinema-inspired The Joker to the Jekyll/Hyde figure of Two-Face and the Moriarty-like Ra’s al Ghul.”
“The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Batman: Year One, by Miller and Dave Mazzucchelli, and the terrifying classic The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland are widely regarded as among the greatest comic books ever created,” Folio Society publishing director Tom Walker added. “These stories changed the graphic medium forever with their combination of cinematic storytelling, shocking violence and literary depth and serve as centerpiece texts for DC: Batman.”
The Folio Society has previously published such deluxe hardcover collections as DC Comics: The Golden Age (also curated by Kahn) and Marvel: The Golden Age 1939-1949 (curated by Roy Thomas).
