BAT 77 Podcast - The House That Haunted Batman (Detective #408) w/Ken Holtzhouser

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BAT 77
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BAT 77 Podcast - The House That Haunted Batman (Detective #408) w/Ken Holtzhouser

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Screen Shot 2020-04-24 at 4.28.54 PM.png
PUBLISHING DATE: February 1971
CREDITS: Len Wein & Marv Wolfman (story), Neal Adams & Dick Giordano (art)

While on the search for Robin, the Batman’s nightmares come to life inside an old abandoned mansion.

Joining JB in this episode is Ken Holtzhouser, a lifelong Bat fan, artist & writer of the indie comic “The Quick and the Dad”, and the host of the No Guilty Pleasures Podcast.

SHOW LINK - http://bat77.libsyn.com/the-house-that- ... oltzhowser
BAT 77 - My '70s Batman Childhood
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Ken Holtzhouser
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Re: BAT 77 Podcast - The House That Haunted Batman (Detective #408) w/Ken Holtzhouser

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Hey, look-it's me!
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gothosmansion
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Re: BAT 77 Podcast - The House That Haunted Batman (Detective #408) w/Ken Holtzhouser

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I think the jarring shift in tone was probably due to the fact that Wolfman & Wein wrote this early in their careers, when they were still learning how to write comics. Not to say the story isn't entertaining, it just isn't among either writers' best works. I wonder how they co-wrote it...If one plotted and the other did the dialogue or if they both had a hand in the plotting and dialogue.

Really, Wein seemed to mature as a writer pretty quickly, because I've read some early career stuff from him that is very good. If Wein isn't as well remembered as some other writers, it is because he didn't break the toys like a lot of writers do. He seemed to have a genuine love for the characters he was writing and wanted to do "right" by them. I read a Wein interview where he said the reason he left Marvel for DC is that DC offered him Batman to write and Batman was his favorite character. I highly recommend Tales of the Batman by Len Wein to anyone who likes Bronze Age Batman. A really fun collection of stories, including Batman 321, Dreadful, Birthday Dear Joker which is my all-time favorite Joker issue.

On the other hand, I love Wolfman's work on Spider-Man, Tomb of Dracula, Superman and New Teen Titans, but I felt like he never really "got" Batman. His Batman stuff isn't necessarily bad, but it doesn't stand out to me either. Wolfman introduced the friction between Batman & Robin and that was an early turn toward the unlikeable Batman that exists now.

I also have a bit of guilt over this particular Detective. Although I had reprints of a lot of Neal Adams stuff, this was the first original issue of Adams that I got. In my early days of eBay-ing, a lady had it mis-listed as Batman and Batgirl 408 and made no mention of Neal Adams or of Detective Comics in her description. The picture on the listing looked great, though, and she did have the date right. She stated she was selling off her late husband's collection. I guess since she had it mis-listed, no one but me bid on it and I got it for $2 plus $2 shipping. When it arrived, it was immaculate. I felt bad that she didn't know what she had.
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