BAT 77 - The Poison Pen Puzzle (Detective #398)

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BAT 77
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BAT 77 - The Poison Pen Puzzle (Detective #398)

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TITLE: The Poison Pen Puzzle
PUBLISHING DATE: April 1970
CREDITS: Frank Robbins (story), Bob Brown & Joe Giella (art)

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BAT 77 - My '70s Batman Childhood
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gothosmansion
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Re: BAT 77 - The Poison Pen Puzzle (Detective #398)

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I agree with you that this wasn't much of an issue. It has dated horribly because I think it was intended to be one of those "torn from the headlines" stories. Maxine Melanie was supposed to be a parody of Jacqueline Susann, who was famous for Valley of the Dolls. I've never read it or seen the movie, but they are both supposed to be pretty trashy Hollywood exposes. Like you said, not really the kind of case Batman needs to become involved in. While I despise the Bat-God we have now, I don't really think Batman should struggle in fights with actors, either.

Honestly, though, I didn't think Bob Brown's art was that bad. I thought he just suffered in comparison to the other brilliant artists drawing Batman in the early 70s. I mean Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Irv Novick, Nick Cardy, and Jim Aparo are going to be hard for anyone to live up to. I particularly recall Brown having some beautiful panels in Detective 401, but the story is a terrible rehash of The Most Dangerous Game. For me, the best Robbins/Brown collaboration was Detective 424, but you've got a long way to go to get there.

If you were offended by this issue, you may want to skip Detective 421.

I was a bit surprised when you admitted that you didn't like old movies and stuff. If you can't get into entertainment from "before your time" it may be harder for you to appreciate the Bronze Age. I hope you don't mind if I ask, but do you like any 60s or 70s movies, TV shows, or comics? Several of my favorite TV shows are from before I was born. Same with music, movies and comics.
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BAT 77
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Re: BAT 77 - The Poison Pen Puzzle (Detective #398)

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gothosmansion wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2019 3:59 pm I was a bit surprised when you admitted that you didn't like old movies and stuff. If you can't get into entertainment from "before your time" it may be harder for you to appreciate the Bronze Age. I hope you don't mind if I ask, but do you like any 60s or 70s movies, TV shows, or comics? Several of my favorite TV shows are from before I was born. Same with music, movies and comics.
I was referring more to movies from the 1940s and 1950s, especially films that were completely studio-bound, blocked like they were stage plays, and featuring actors delivering dialog in rapid succession (like old gangster flicks) and very syrupy musical scores. I do enjoy some B-movie schlock (the kind that woudl be featured on MST3K) and Three Stooges shorts.

On the top of my head, my favorite movies from the '60s into the '70s are the Planet of the Apes series, the Pink Panther series (except the first one), and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. I grew up on '70s sitcoms (Brady Bunch, All in the Family, Good Times, Jeffersons, MTM, M*A*S*H, WKRP to name but a few). I enjoy watching reruns of genre TV such as The Avengers, Twilight Zone and Dark Shadows. I did see some Green Hornet episodes recently and enjoyed those. Big fan of The Beatles (as you'll hear when I review "Dead...Til Proven Alive" in a few weeks), as well as 70s Prog Rock (Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, ELP) - most of which I didn't get into until the 1980s.

Despite how snarky I sound at times, I do appreciate and am enjoying going thru the Bronze Age Batman books for this podcast. So far "Poison Pen" is the only one I didn't care for at all, but it was mostly because of the story.
BAT 77 - My '70s Batman Childhood
Subscribe to the Podcast at http://bat77.libsyn.com
Visit me on Facebook.com/bat77podcast
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