Corgi Batmobile re-issue

Back on Christmas Day in 1966, I awoke to find a pillow case at the foot of my bed stuffed full of toys and annuals. I was an only child and carrying the pillowcase I rushed into to my parents’ bedroom to share the news that Father Christmas had indeed stopped by overnight. 

We lived in a large house with six bedrooms (my parents took summer guests) built in 1906, with no heating in the bedrooms. It was cold that Christmas and I jumped into the large double bed between my parents to keep warm. I can well remember the warmth of my Dad’s winceyette pajamas and my Mum’s cold feet (I inherited her circulation problems). 

Aged seven, snuggling in bed between my parents was a Saturday ritual in Winter which culminated when my Dad went downstairs to bring us hot tea and toast. Crumbs in the bed always reawaken this memory. 

I cannot remember the full contents of what I received that day, but #1 on my list was the Corgi Batmobile, #2 was the Batman Story Book annual, #3 was the Thunderbirds annual (the Thunderbirds Are Go! film was on at the local Southsea Odeon) and #4 was the friction-motor Dalek with internal sparks by Marx. I’m pretty sure there were also some Minic Motorway accessories and some OO/HO gauge carriages from the Tri-Ang railway catalogue, but the Corgi Batmobile stays in my memory as the piece de resistance. 

Of course, callow youth that I was later to become, I had flogged the lot by my early twenties. So it’s something of a joy to be able to re-acquire some of these items, either as facsimiles or original copies and relive that day, which was surely a red-letter day in the history of popular culture.

[Strictly speaking, the Corgi Batmobile was not the first Batman-related vehicle that I had acquired. That honour went to a Batplane which flew via catapult, which I got on holiday in Minehead, Somerset in August 1966. ] 

The Corgi Batmobile replica arrived in the post this past October, and following a brief check,  I quickly re-boxed it for re-opening on Christmas Day. I was not disappointed. Apart from the clear plastic moulding securing the car for transport within the reproduction box, everything was as I remembered. I suspect that the relative dimensions of the Corgi version were more accurately represented in the recent Batmobile from Hot Wheels that came with the blu-ray collection of the TV series, but for me, the Corgi Batmobile is the yardstick against which all other models are measured.

The Corgi Batmobile now holds pride of place at “Chez Baggsey” atop my vintage paperback bookcase, awaiting the upcoming Corgi reproduction of the Batboat first released at Christmas 1967.

Hot Wheels replica sitting atop the Corgi repro box, to illustrate size of Hot Wheels version

The Hot Wheels car in the blu-ray box set for comparison

© DC. Batman Story Book Annual 1966

Inside annual back page. (Where else could you address something to Batman in Heanor, Derbyshire??)

Here’s the Tri-Ang catalog. Cover by Terence Cuneo, with his signature mouse drawn hidden in the painting. Yes, I know it’s a 1962 catalog but that is what I pored over as I built my Christmas list in Autumn 1966.

Here's a picture of the Batjet I acquired at Minehead in 1966. Not the actual toy I had - just a picture lifted from somewhere on the web.

The Adventures of Andy & George - Irv Novick's greatest achievement?

I came across the remains of my Action Man/G.I. Joe toys recently, and it brought to mind those wonderful ads on the inside back page of DC comics from 1966, which painted a world of Action Man/G.I. Joe toys to which I could only aspire, brought to life in the comic strip “Adventures in the G.I. Joe Club with Andy and George”.

Artist Irv Novick is chiefly remembered these days for his collaborations with writer Frank Robbins on Batman following the character’s re-invention in 1969, but Novick had had a storied career both in comics and advertising, and it was this combination of skills, plus the sponsorship of colleague and friend Robert Kanigher, that lead Novick to illustrate a series of vignettes - a story about two wholesome pals - Andy and George - that ran over ten successive months across the DC comic line in books cover dated April 1966 through January 1967. 

Prior to the appearance of the Andy & George strip, Hasbro had previously used the ad space for more traditional photo-based copy, showing G.I. Joe action figures in various costumes, but the element of adventure and narrative was missing. The idea of creating a comic strip that created scenarios for the G.I. Joe’s to be acted within was a stoke of genius.  Andy and George would integrate all newly released sets into their play scenarios and built scale dioramas for their troops, giving kids some ideas on how to play with their G.I. Joes, and also hopefully get boys to identify with Andy and George.

Comic books were well suited to "content marketing", perhaps more so that any other printed media. Today, when you hear “content marketing” the mind tends to think of blogs, Facebook, Instagram and viral YouTube videos. But content marketing has been around far longer than digital. Because content marketing is about Storytelling, and humans have told stories for as long as there has been history. Our attention will always go to those who tell great stories, whether they be directors, writers, historians, comic book artists or brands.

And so the idea of weaving an on-going storyline, aligned as much as possible to the stories within the pages of DC's War comics, but extending into the superhero line, was focused on Andy & George's military objective : to get as many boys as possible to sign up with the club at G I Joe Club at 50 cents a pop.

At this time, Novick was one of the major artists on DC’s war books, his name becoming mentioned in the same breath as Joe Kubert and Russ Heath. The first ad premiered in parallel with Novick’s artwork in Our Fighting Forces #99 “No Mercy In Vietnam” and while the ads ran, Novick contributed war book artwork to Our Fighting Forces, Our Army at War, All-American Men of War , G I Combat and Captain Storm, all under the editorship of Robert Kanigher.

Unlike the artwork within the main pages of the comic, the artwork for the ads was Black & White, with watercolour shading, always printed on the shiny inside back cover of the comic. The placing of the ad was strategic - it was the last item to be in the reader's mind before they closed the comic book.

Unlike some of the comic book stories , there were to be no overt references to the war in Viet-Nam. Reading through the letter columns of Kanigher's war books, some young male readers were voicing concerns about possibly being drafted for service in Viet-Nam within a few years. And so other than the introduction of a Green Beret later in the series, the strips focused more on the "Good War" of WWII , with a nod to the Space Race that captured boys’ imaginations.

The ads were not confined to just DC's War Books, but appeared in all superhero and humour titles, regardless of target gender audience. Of the 32 titles published with the April 1966 cover date, only the six romance comics did not run the ads. Even Lois Lane, Wonder Woman and Bob Hope titles ran the ads.

Looking at the 10 strips in sequence as they appeared over the ten month period, story dynamics start to emerge. Of the two boys, George is the leader. He's the guy who generally gets given the toys and leads on making the suggestions of where and how to play with them. Andy generally acquiesces. George is the spokesman for the company, and lords it over Andy.

Let's take a look at the ads in sequence, as published primarily in the War titles where Novick invariably contributed a story in the same issue that month:

Ad #1 : Apr 1966 Our Fighting Forces #99 "Arctic Adventure"

© Hasbro 1966. Irv Novick's first Andy & George ad.

© DC. Splash page to accompanying Irv Novick illustrated story

Ad #1 introduces George & Andy building a Winter Battle Scene. George recommends using Soap Powder as a substitute for authentic snow. They both seem to have GI Joe’s with Parka gear. No mention is made of George’s mother’s reaction to losing a month's supply of Tide.

Ad #2 : May 1966 Our Army At War #167 "Jeep and Bazooka"

The second ad to run features the 5-Star Jeep and Bazooka as the stars. George has obviously got the Jeep as a present. The Jeep was not cheap. I remember that I desperately wanted one, as my cousins had been given one.

Ad #3 : Jun 1966 All-American Men of War #115 "Deep Sea Diver"

George gets the Deep Sea Diver suit. He already has the cool frogman set that he brings into the action.  No mention that the frogman will probably suffer from the “bends” as he swims at the same depth as the deep sea diver. [Personal aside - I got the Action Man deep sea diver set for my 9th birthday. The helmet damaged the nose of my Action Man, plus my parents would not let me fill the bath up to sufficient depth to raise and lower Action Man to/from the sea bed.]

Ad #4 : Jul 1966 Our Fighting Forces #101 "Combat Squad Gets Decorations"

George has seen that there are 15 different costumes for G.I. Joe/Action Man.  George wants to dress his action figures in Combat squad fatigues, whereas Andy is more preoccupied with getting the lads into dress uniforms. George is definitely the gung-ho type; Andy the sensitive lad.

Ad #5 : Aug 1966 Our Fighting Forces #102 "A Front Line in the Back Yard"

George taking the lead to play with the GI Joe’s in the muddy backyard.  Andy agrees. George is very influenced by the ads he has seen on TV, deciding that it would be more fun with multiple GI Joes.

Ad #6 : Sep 1966 Our Army At War #171 "Inspection Commendation"

Andy’s Dad is a bit of a martinet.  He used to carry an M-1 rifle in the Army. He is off-stage, coming to inspect the foot lockers. He calls out “Attenshun!”. 

Ad #7 : Oct 1966 Star Spangled War Stories #129 "Assignment: Outer Space"

George has just got the Mercury Space Capsule as a present. Andy thinks it’s great. He quickly removes his GI Joes combat kit and dresses him an an astronaut for a spacewalk. [Aside: my friend Steve Redford got the Action Man Mercury Capsule as a present ; I was very envious.]

Ad #8 : Nov 1966 Showcase #65 "New Man Joins Platoon"

The narrative shifts back to the military. Andy finally gets a new toy of his own. A Green Beret GI Joe as featured in Viet-Nam (and in the John Wayne movie “The Green Berets”.

Ad #9 : Dec 1966 Batman #188 "Battlegrounds of the World"

Definitely a move to WWII here.  Andy has taken the lead to set up a complete war gaming environment spread across a local park, with separate sections for different soldiers of different wars and countries. (Have his parents come into some money?). Whatever, but Andy is going all-out to make George’s previous efforts seem small potatoes.  

Ad #10 : Feb 1967 Our Fighting Forces #105 "20 Fathoms Under the Sea"

Featuring the Frogman Sea Sled, which George has (yet again) got as a present.

And then suddenly in Feb 1967, the campaign ended. Never to return.

And that was it.  Andy and George’s job was done. 

I have no idea who wrote the copy, but would not be surprised if Kanigher himself had not had a hand in it ; he kept iron control on the content of his war books.

By the end of the campaign, 400,000 boys had joined the G.I. Joe Club, exclusively as a result of reading Irv Novick’s strip.  That was $200,000 of membership dues at 50-cents a pop, plus all the toys that were bought as a result. Whether Novick shared in the wealth, I do not know.

No-one mentioned in the letter cols that Novick was doing the art chores on Andy & George, despite Novick's artwork being praised by readers of the stories he drew. The only allusion I could find to Novick moon-lighting in the advertising field was Bob Kanigher's comment in GI Combat #119 in response to a question of keeping artists on specific strips. 

Kanigher says “Many DC artists are in great demand in other media because of their excellence, such as newspapers, magazines, advertising, etc.; Joe Kubert, Russ Heath and Irv Novick immediately spring to mind; a certain amount of editorial juggling is needed.”

I probably first saw these ads in the December 1966 issue of Batman, which was on UK spinner racks around end of February 1967. I was disappointed that the G.I. Joe club was only open to residents of United States and Canada, and if I could have persuaded my parents to stump up 50c, I would have done.

I was a huge Action Man/G.I. Joe fan in the late sixties. I later made a 10 second  stop-motion 8mm movie, a frame of which is shown here. Action Man/G.I. Joe is stood on the sideboard within which my comics were piled in two stacks.

© Ian Baker. Action Man in action.

Wither Andy and George? They grew up. George went on to become Don Draper in Mad Men and Andy became a social worker.

Batman ‘66 trading card oddities #1 - "Out On A Limb"

© Topps and possibly Estate of Norman Saunders. Who knows?

A while back on this blog I argued that Norman Saunders brought a pulp cover sensibility to Batman within the paintings he made for the first 3 sets of Batman trading cards issued by Topps in 1966. 

One of the less lurid, but memorable, cards for me was from the second series of cards - Red Bat #13A “Out On A Limb”. 

[This is memorable because I first set my eyes on the original painting over 40 years ago, during a fly-drive holiday that my pal Geoff Cousins and I did in California in the summer of 1979. The small Bristol-board image was on display under glass at American Comic Book Company, 106 N Harbor Blvd, Fullerton, CA  which was one of many stores which specialized in Comics-related magazines, pulps, adventure novels, gum cards in the Los Angeles area at that time. (A shop long since gone). It was around 11am on the morning of July 10th 1979.]

American Comic Book Company site in 2021

With regard to the production of the Batman cards, the arrangement was for Bob Powell to provide the pencil  layouts that Norm Saunders would subsequently use as the basis for the finished paintings. This was similar to the previous freelance arrangement that Powell had with Topps in regard to the creation of 1961’s Civil War News trading card set and 1962’s Mars Attacks set. The difference with the Mars Attacks set was that Powell did the final pencil art based on early pencil roughs (“concept roughs”) developed by Wally Wood; Norman Saunders then did the final painted art. 

However, in the case of the painting of “Out on A Limb”, the image is a rendition based on the cover of the cover of DC comic Batman #57  (Feb/March 1950, on sale Dec 9th 1949),  originally drawn by Win Mortimer. (J. Winslow Mortimer).   

© DC comics

So how did the selection of this cover come about? 

Bob Powell had never worked for DC. During the early 1960s Powell did draw a handful of stories for Marvel Comics featuring the superheroes Daredevil, Giant-Man, the Hulk and the Human Torch, his last comics pencilling work being for Marvel on Daredevil #11 cover dated Dec 1965. 

Win Mortimer, conversely, had only ever worked for DC up until this time, and there is no evidence that Mortimer or Powell knew each other, or that Win Mortimer had any involvement in the development of the Topps cards.

A clue to the answer may lie within the text on the back of the card itself, written by the mystery third collaborator with Powell and Saunders. The text reads: 

“Vicky Vale will go anywhere to get a story. When the lovely lady of the press found out too much about the Comino Gang, Vicky was thrown off a cliff. She managed to grab a limb and hold onto it until Batman came to her aid with the Batcopter.”

This text is Interesting because:

(1) Vicki Vale does not feature in the Batman TV series at all, so mentioning her seems “off-message”

(2) Vicki Vale first appeared in Batman #81, on sale a full four years after the comic cover being copied was published. The woman on the cover is not Vicki Vale.

(3) The comic book on which the painting is based contains no story linked to the cover image.

(4) The Comino Gang mentioned in the text has never featured in any Batman story, with or without Vicki Vale.  Nor has the “Camino” gang, as an alternative spelling.

(5) Batman is using the Batplane, not the Batcopter, to rescue Vicki (Let’s forget the likelihood of Batman and Vicki being smashed into the side of the hillside at 500 mph).

(6) "Vicki" is misspelled as "Vicky"

So who was the mystery writer? According to Alter Ego #152, Larry Ivie wrote the text for the Batman cards illustrated by Norm Saunders.

© Alter Ego #152

I understand that Larry Ivie was well known in the late 1950s/early 1960s comics community primarily as a comics fan, but in fact he latterly became a comics pro, writer and illustrator, although his mark on the industry consciousness has been faint. According to Roy Thomas, Ivie was famed in fandom for his big comic collection since the 1940s, and subsequently worked for Marvel, Charlton, Archie, DC , EC, Dell and Warren plus others over the years.

According to www.bailsproject.com, Ivie ghost-wrote some Batman stories at DC around 1965, and as per writer Sandy Plunkett in Alter Ego 152,  Ivie also wrote the scripts for “mini-comics” featuring Batman that were included as premiums inside boxes of Pop Tarts in the US in 1966.

© DC comics - a panel from one of the Pop-Tart comic inserts written by Larry Ivie

Ivie was engaged on these Batman comic projects at the same time that he was doing freelance work for Wally Wood at his studio. My guess is that based on Ivie’s concurrent Batman work and the common knowledge of Ivie as having a large DC comic collection, is that Wally Wood recommended Ivie to Topps to write the text on the trading cards.

Powell was suffering from health issues at this time, and Ivie may well have chosen the cover of Batman 57, not Powell. The reference to Vicki Vale and the Comino Gang may well have been that no-one was checking the card narrative against the TV series “bible”, and Ivie relied on his knowledge of past Batman comics to develop the text.

Ivie’s mention of “Batcopter” is interesting. Perhaps Ivie’s idea was to substitute the Batcopter for the plane but Saunders’ direction to use the Batman #57 cover as a template missed-out that suggestion. 

Of course, this is all conjecture. I’m not aware of any detailed history of the development of the Batman cards (can anyone point me to one?), but I’m sure there are stories behind many of the cards. Certainly some of the “Black Bat“ set seem to have been painted by someone other than Norm Saunders, for example.

Remembering The Penguin Aurora model kit

Aurora Penguin Kit, circa 1968. A bit dusty, with cigarette and umbrella missing

Back in the late 1960s, I starting to get interested in model kits, starting first with Airfix Spitfire aircraft and Royal Navy ships, and then progressing to acquiring the TV-series-related models advertised on the back of US comics, following the acquisition of the Stingray kit as previously advertised in TV21.

I remember then getting the Seaview submarine (from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea), and then my fancy was taken by the adverts for the Aurora kits of DC heroes (Batman, Robin, Superboy, etc) and villains. Throughout this period, my Dad was the one making and painting the kits for me, as I leaned over his shoulder and breathed in the smell of the glue…   

I have no clue what happened to most of the kits (probably sold to the guy who ran the Timeslip shop in Fawcett Rd in Southsea in the early 1980s), but as luck would have it, I still have The Penguin kit (plus box and instructions). The kit was purchased from the Fratton Bargain shop in Fratton Rd, Portsmouth around 1968.

Around the mid 1970s my pal Geoff Cousins had a go at repainting the model to more closely approximate the dress of Burgess Meredith as the Penguin, and did a pretty good job (IMHO).

I was very impressed by the quality and detail of the rendering of Burgess Meredith as the Penguin, and was very disappointed by lack of detail and realism of the Batman kit that Aurora re-issued around 1974.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the differences in detail between the Penguin kit and the other Aurora kits? Just compare the facial detail on the Penguin kit with the facial detail on the Batman kit issued at the same time. Like night and day.

Here’s the box, instructions, a few transfers and the original tube 50+ year old  Humbrol 77 model cement.

As you can see from the photo at the top of the blog, the kit itself is a little bit worse for wear (Penguin cigarette holder missing and umbrella handle missing) and dusty but I’m sure could be restored to prime condition.

HOLY BROKEN BONES, BATMAN! - memories of B&W Batman 1966 by Ian Baker

Ask any Batman fan who grew up in Britain in the 1960s what Robin's most famous "Holy..." aphorism was, and he'd say "Holy Broken Bones!". Yet this quip of Robin's is never found in the 120 episode series. Why is this?

For those of us entranced by the series in Southsea, UK (myself aged 6), every episode of Batman was prefaced by a short film of Batman and Robin standing in front of some curtains, talking directly to camera about the perils of thinking Batman could fly, and not jumping off of roofs in an effort to emulate Batman.

The only photos of that safety film shoot are captured in card 27 of the Bat Laffs set of photo cards of the Batman TV series, and card 41 from the Belgium Monty Gum set, both shown below.

What happened to that intro film? Does it still exist?

[Update] As far as I can recall, the short announcement started to appear around the time that the children's education programme HOW debuted on Southern Television on 10th November 1966, some four months after the Batman show premiered on our local ITV region in July 1966.

The blog http://tothebatpoles.blogspot.com/2011/10/second-season.html contains the following explanation to the short intro being made.

With the release of the feature film and the series now airing overseas, a new problem besides sagging ratings arose, as Executive Producer William Dozier recalled, 'In England, kids started jumping out of windows; they thought Batman could fly. They thought the cape was wings. We had to do a special lead-in to the show, with an interview with Batman saying, "Boys and girls, I do not fly. I can't fly any better than you can. Don't think I can and don't think you can. And don't take chances by trying to jump off the roof." They were doing it, but never in this country. Thank heaven it never started in this country.'
Found among William Dozier's files, was the following note from the executive in charge of Fox's overseas operations. It included the actual intro aired in England:

TIGHT TWO SHOT

Into camera, seriously

BATMAN Robin and I want all you youngsters to understand we have no wings, and no superhuman powers, and we can not fly.

ROBIN And listen, kids, if either of us tried to fly, or jump off a high place, we would be badly hurt. So would you so for gosh sakes, don?t ever try it. Holy broken bones!

And then Robin punched one fist into the other gloved hand, in time-honored fashion.


Does anyone else remember this?