DCist has the story about the pre-movie premiere visit of the Batmobile to our fair city.

Comics events in DC happen with surprising regularity these days - here's pics of a few events I attended late in the year.

Comic book writer Jim Ottaviani signed his new book 'Feynman' at the National Air & Space Museum. Notwithstanding the last photo, he had so many people I barely had a chance to speak with him:









Comics historian Rick Marschall at the Library of Congress:







Batman movie producer Michael Uslan discussing his book The Boy Who Loved Batman at Discovery (note the signature he uses):









MAD magazine cartoonist Al Jaffee and Mary-Lou Weisman signing their book at the DCJCC:













Al Jaffee's bookplate that he uses instead of signing due to a tremor.


Al Jaffee's bookplate that he uses instead of signing the biography Al Jaffee's Mad Life (by Mary-Lou Weisman).


A display of Big Nate books at Barnes and Noble.


Cartoon books for sale at the National Cathedral.

Judd Winick's 'Batwing' explores the Batman of Africa
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY December 5 2011

Matt Fraction embraces the weirdness of 'The Defenders'
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY December 7 2011

...the fool!

Pop Culture Happy Hour: We Give Thanks, Try Comics, And Debate Happiness
by Linda Holmes
National Public Radio's Monkey See blog November 26, 2010
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/11/26/131609227/pop-culture-happy-hour-we-give-thanks-try-comics-and-debate-happiness or

http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/blog/2010/11/20101126_blog_pchh.mp3

Zadzooks: Batman: Under the Red Hood, The Losers, Clash of the Titans
Blue over Batman's 'Red Hood'
By Joseph Szadkowski - The Washington Times July 28, 2010

Greg's recommendations popped up this week too -

Bennett's Best: G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and Welcome to Tranquility
By Greg Bennett, Special to Zadzooks
Monday, July 26, 2010

Zadzooks: Captain America, The Crazies and Sparta U.S.A.
Joseph Szadkowski
Washington Times March 20, 2010

Meanwhile at Bennett's Best, Greg has a couple of recommendations, neither of which I can get behind.

I went through a couple more fragments of 1966 Detroit Free Press newspapers today.

One of the big stories was apparently the Batman tv show - this illustrated an article on Batmania:


Things don't appear to have changed much in 40 years, do they? It's by Thurston, who also did one of the Odd 'Change comics in yesterday's post.


I'm guessing that DC wasn't paid for this use...


And this wire photo of a Japanese anime character surprised me. I had to go Wikipedia to find out this was Obake no Qtarō (or Oba-Q as in the caption here). From February 28, 1966.

Herschel K writes in "As part of the exhibit Staged Stories: Renwick Craft Invitational 2009, at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery August 7 to January 3rd, 2010 there are a number of Batman items by fiber artist Mark Newport."

Sounds interesting - the Renwick is a gem of a museum too.

Zadzooks: Comic book reviews, Batman, Aliens and more
Magneto's origins revealed
By Joseph Szadkowski
Washington Times July 1, 2009

THE BACK STORY: A 'Dark' Day When His Business Was Booming, Washington Post (February 22, 2009): M8, is about the movie's special effects.

Okay, I can understand the appeal of making your own stop-action animation film using LEGO Batman toys. But a videogame? Can anyone explain this to me? Zadzooks reviews it anyway in "ZADZOOKS: Dynamic Duo must save city in LEGO Batman: The Videogame," Joseph Szadkowski, Washington Times Wednesday, October 15, 2008.

And in "Bennett's Best for the week of October 5," By Greg Bennett, Zadzooks blog October 15 2008, Greg recommends DC apes and UK World War 1 stories.

There are two good pieces in today's NY Times. Superhero fan Lethem returns from media purgatory in Maine and maps The Dark Knight onto American Politics in - "Art of Darkness," By JONATHAN LETHEM, New York Times September 21, 2008.

In a story that ties in locally, the Muppets are featured in the paper (much as they are in the Smithsonian for another month) in
"Fuzzy Renaissance," By BROOKS BARNES, New York Times September 21, 2008. I'm sure Barnes' story about Disney attempting to rejuvenate the characters is tied into the traveling exhibit - many of the video clips on the Times' website are the same ones running in the Smithsonian exhibit - and we're talking fifty year old commercials.