Batman Family Reunion #19 – Killer Bats and Earth-Shaking Crimes!

This month, Shawn and Paul welcome our Bat Cousin Brett Young to the Reunion.  He has a lot to say about the menu, and along the way we get another cool Bronze Age Batman story and a bad (very) day for Robin! Kirk and Francine have a talk and the Huntress inches closer to solving her mystery.  Have a Clark Bar!

This month’s Bat Family History links for Danny Bulanadi:

http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/creator.php?creatorid=891

http://www.bulanadiart.com/

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/c/cpnwfond.htm

https://kingstonecomics.com/blogs/artist-interviews/danny-bulanadi

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14 responses to “Batman Family Reunion #19 – Killer Bats and Earth-Shaking Crimes!

  1. Another successful reunion.

    I *think* I had that puzzle book with the Joker face on the cover. It was probably on sale at the local pharmacy where my mother worked evenings. I would also sometimes hang out with her and grab a stack of comics off the rack and bring them into the back room and read, read, read.

    I wasn’t into sports but I was into collecting baseball cards, and eating Hostess products. I remember cutting these fake cards off the boxes and treating them like real cards. I think there might have even been printing on the back with stats.

    Vince Colletta, with all his controversies, had a distinct way of inking women’s faces that I found very appealing as a 12-year-old boy. I’ve since heard about all the details he was known to have erased just to finish a job quickly. But are there times where he might have “added” details to make the women more voluptuous? Would that help explain how Batgirl looked in this issue? In the original Dazzler series, which was inked a lot by Colletta, Alison Blaire inevitably would be missing buttons on her clothes. How much of that was designed in the pencils vs. inks? Was Vince adding/moving some lines around?

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        1. I had more than my share of cap guns when I was a kid. I was always more partial to the ring caps, though.

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  2. Hey old chums ! It’s cousin Bucky with Cousin Anthony who just did his first solo YouTube video on my channel Bucky749, as he shows off and talks about his love of Batman beyond. We also bought cousin Zeta and Terry from Batman beyond.
    We brought Bat cookies beyond strawberry and blueberry shortcake batrang shaped cookies with real whip cream made with 100 % milk .
    If parts are missing from various electronic devices don’t worry it’s Anthony he’s using the parts to fix Zeta the government agents agin those guys don’t quit . On the bright side Zeta now gets tv singles from the 80’s .

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  3. – [ ] Impressive podcast most impressive. The cover is pretty cool. The combo on the art works well. An odd story, but it does fit the Adams and O’Neil style of the time. Like when he fought the two vampires. When it switched from the the gum shoe stories to these. It is a good detective story, but with the odd bat thing. Almost Robert E. Howard like. I’m not a fan of the art in the Bat Girl story. But it works well enough. Moving on. Ah the art is the same on the Robin story as last time. Whaaaat? He went back to Lori. Oy does he not get he just escaped?

    He was free. Ah the Raven. Yeah we know he’s Lori’s new boy toy. Boy she sure can pick them. He’ll get them next time. Cool Woman – Bat story. Not calling her Fran Bat. Snaffu. I’ll say nothing about that outfit. Y’all like him. As for Lady Bat . I think y’all right she wanted to go fight crime. Still cool to see Man Bat back in action. Ah now he’ll be a detective. Teaming with Leaser suit Larry. Ah it could be fun.

    – [ ] Like the 70s cop show we never got. Mr. Furley from 3s company 2. Only younger and he’s teamed with Man Bat. Moving on. The Huntress story is cool. And no Bat Woman can’t take her place. She could have joined the JSA. Her working with Helana could be cool. She could mentor Helana.
    – [ ] And find it odd the daughter of the man she once loved is now on this team. Money of her thinking she could have been Helana mom if things worked differently. Then notice that was a Oy thought. And instead train her as she had hoped bats would have anyway. Moving on. The work out routine is pretty cool. Though it may be difficult if she ever want to move the furniture around in the room.
    Ah captain Chauvinist figured out who the villain was. Ah well even a blind squirrel gets a nut every once in a while. Cool to hear Shawn’s boyfriend went to the same art school as one the artist in this book. That’s cool. Any way can’t wait to hear the next podcast.

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  4. Also yes lots of great butt shots. Bats , Robin, Babs, and Huntress. Would say Fran too. But, she’s in Bat form. Not sharing anyone, but nope not talking about the Animal woman’s butt.

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  5. Excellent show. Well, so far, I’ve not finished, but I need to be the first person to point out that Granny Bleach from the Batman story wasn’t a one-off. The Character Find of 1978, she was brought back a year later by Uncle Denny in the seminal Green Lantern/Green Arrow #113, she even gets to be on the fantastic cover by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (PBHN).

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  6. Hope everyone had a great 4th of July.

    The Batman story is one that I don’t think I appreciated how good it was when I was 11. Denny O’Neil shows why he is one of the greatest Batman writers. He’s given us some great storylines but also many fantastic stand-alone stories like this. Michael Golden was the ideal artist for this story. I also noticed Granny Bleach’s corncob pipe being an actual corn cob!

    A spy caper with Batgirl versus exploding Chinese supermen. Maybe their team should be called the “Boom Patrol”. I’m so sorry, I couldn’t resist.

    Okay, I get it. The Chinese are creating their own superheroes because they think the US did. And they think Tony Gordon escaped with some of their stolen tech. But if the US had their own tech, what makes them think Firestorm was created with their tech?? At the time Lex Luthor was pretty arrogant but I think Wo Fong is at a whole other level!

    Efrem mumbling Tony’s name in public after telling BG his name was classified?? Not what one would expect a spy to do.

    Robin –
    Is it me, or does Marty resemble Stan Lee? Of course, the way he’s sitting at that desk he resembles Bob, the ventriloquist dummy on “Soap”.

    Does Corby have any clothes that don’t have the school logo? Geez, man, shop somewhere besides the school bookstore. Even something in basic black would be fine.

    Was Lori always this much of a bitch and I missed it? Good grief, Dick helped save her from her previous ex dumping acid on her face and she can’t talk to him for a few minutes.

    Hey, we got a new supervillain, the Raven. And he can fly? Does Hawkman have a prodigal son?

    Man-Bat —
    So Francine is called “She-Bat”. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who thought about Cyndi Lauper. I can’t wait to see – or hear – what 80s song next issue inspires.

    Kirk may have left baby Rebecca alone thinking it would only be a few minutes – fly out, find his wife, and bring her back to their nest … er, crazily big Manhattan apartment. Little did he realize that she managed to find Snafu.

    Man-Bat’s sonar is echolocation. He can tell what’s around him by the echoes of his screeches reflecting back to him. One episode of “Stan Lee’s Superhumans” (now on Disney+) featured a blind man who could do this. I’m not an expert on bats, I just remember this episode. Man-Bat turning off his sonar was to just stop screeching.

    Huntress
    It’s great to see that Levitz keeps in mind that Helena is new to being a crimefighter. Not only that, but her parents, despite who they are, may have taught her a lot but they did not train her to be a crimefighter. She became one because of her father’s example.

    It’s also great to see that we don’t see her father. Nothing against the Earth-2 Batman, but I like that they resisted any urge to bring him into the story so that Helena could stand on her own. Although it would have been great to see him stare down Roger.

    And is it me, or does Roger always have a sneer? Look at pages 6 and 8.

    This issue was light on really obvious 70s things. Chris Hobart’s perm, Wo Fong’s base in a “Chinese laundry” was a bad stereotype. I gotta go with Roger’s combo of Farrah Fawcett’s feathered hair and Herb Tarlek’s wardrobe.

    Looking forward to next issue – HOLY INCOMPLETE RUN!!! Batman Family #20 is NOT on DC Universe (not so) Infinite. Now to go on my own Indiana Jones quest into my collection for my copy.

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  7. Excellent story-telling from all of you guys. You have an amazing amount of camaraderie. Maybe you’re Bat-Brothers?

    I liked this issue… But did you miss something… maybe you mentioned this and I wasn’t listening closely enough.

    But what’s the Sacci / Ambassador relationship all about… Sacci gives him his muffler – Ambassador: “He’s my friend!”… and then the driver calls Sacci a “sissy”?

    Regardless – the Ambassador has a keen eye talent – “Oddly courageous” secretaries like Sacci who are willing to take a grenade in the belly to save their boss were rare even in 1978.

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  8. Batman Family

    Now, who was it who mentioned George Tuska having drawn Steel: the Indestructible Man? Tuska didn’t draw Steel, co-creator with Gerry Conway was Batman Family favourite Don Heck. And Juan Ortiz did a couple of back-ups.

    Could someone explain the ‘Robin’s Bad Very Day’ alternate title gag? And how can you have ‘Earth shattering!’ In a Bob Rozakis title when there’s no Quakemaster in the story?

    Similarly, could someone explain the Man Bat song gag?

    Thank you for the spotlight on Danny Bulanadi, a talented gentleman. I hadn’t heard that he’d died. It’s interesting that Nestor Redondo had Danny promise to illustrate the Bible, perhaps he still felt a job needed doing after the curtailed DC Bible tabloid he did with Joe Kubert.

    I’ll be in Brett’s Hallmark movie podcast, right after I return to my hometown to run my dead gran’s cupcake shop that she’s shockingly also left to my ex-boyfriend, stop the real estate developers closing the local library where the town real murder club meets, relive every Christmas until I realise the true meaning, teach kids that wooden toys are better than modern rubbish, marry an undercover European prince…

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  9. Hey, Bat Cousins, sorry I’m late, I had a rough reaction to some forty-year-old Clark Bars I ate.

    Wow, what an episode! It has to be the best one to date. A true classic. I even got my parents, wife, and kids to download the show! Rumor has it the episode is up for a Peabody, Grammy, and somehow a Tony as well. What a meeting of three minds. It was like the Yalta Conference with slightly more talk about Batgirl’s boobs.

    I think I’ve already said everything I could possibly say about this particular Batman Family issue. So let me just say how much I thoroughly enjoyed doing this episode with Paul and Shawn. They are the nicest guys you could meet and if you’re not listening to Batman Family Reunion, you belong in Arkham!

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