New 2008 BATMAN & CATWOMAN Barbie Dolls from Mattel!

It's really exciting to be a Batman Collector right now! There are a ton of new bat-toys coming out this year so you better start saving your money now, ha ha! It's been extremely stressful the last few months because there has been a HUGE drought of Batman merchandise in the stores. Well, look for that to change very soon! One new toy that's gonna be super-popular with Batman collectors, because they're so gosh darn cute, is the BATMAN & CATWOMAN set of Barbie Dolls by Mattel. These are the 2 "Barbie Family" members named "Tommy & Kelly", who are precious little children. For readers who don't know, my name is Tommy, so I should be expecting a lot of major teasing in the future, ha ha! But, I can already tell that I am gonna have to get these 2 dolls because they are soooo adorable, goo goo!

MATT POTT, A Commercial Artist Inspired by Batman!

People know that I love art so a friend at MySpace told me about this commercial artist named Matt Pott. He has a very cool online portfolio & you can tell from a few pictures he did that he's a HUGE fan of Batman, ha ha! Here's a few examples right here: Batgirl & Catwoman. He has a pretty cool style, very cartoony with a 50's retro feel about it. Here's a link if you're interested in seeing more, enjoy.

Springfield Punx: The Amazing Artwork of Dean Fraser ( 1966 Batman TV Show )

A friend sent this link ( Thanks Dave ) to an amazing commercial artist's website where he does well-known people rendered in the art style of characters from the Simpsons. It's called SPRINGFIELD PUNX! He's done a ton of famous people like Napoleon Dynomite, Steven Colbert, Jay Leno, NEO from The Matrix, Back To The Future, Pee Wee Herman, Heroes TV Show, & many many more! Our favorites are the actors from the 1966 Batman TV Show! Look at these of Batman ( Adam West ), Robin ( Burt Ward ), Batgirl ( Yvonne Craig ), Catwoman ( Julie Newmar ), The Joker ( Cesar Romero), The Riddler ( Frank Gorshin ), & The Penguin ( Burgess Meredeth )....AMAZING!! Here's a link button to check out more of his great artwork:

2008 BATMAN and CATWOMAN BARBIE DOLLS ( Tommy & Kelly ) Release Date: September

The Bat-Blog reported awhile back about 2 brand-new "Barbie Family" Dolls being put out this year by Mattel that will feature Tommy & Kelly dressed-up as Batman & Catwoman. They are so gosh-darn cute that every Batman / Barbie Collector is gonna have to have them! We had a photo from the 2008 Toy Fair & it was really cool to see them. But, the picture was kinda small. Well, here's a new high-resolution photo I got from a friend who's a very serious Barbie Collector. She's been searching for it for awhile & sent it to me as soon as it came in. ( Thanks Debbie, I appreciate that a lot & know the readers will love it ). Here's a way better picture showing the tiny details of the Catwoman Uniform and the Batman Bat-Suit. The detailing is pretty good & I like that they have the colors right. I really like that they used the retro "yellow oval" Bat-Symbol on the chest, old school! Mattel plans to deliver these in stores around September 2008. I'm guessing that since the release date will sort of be close to Halloween that the doll characters might be marketed as "wearing Halloween costumes" or "going to a costume party". Our friend Debbie said they will retail at around $29.95 for the set, not too bad!

Retro Catwoman Cosplay From A Comic Convention In Slovakia

Cosplay and the celebration of comics and pop culture are everywhere. IstroCON recently took place in Bratislava, Slovakia; in 2012, it attracted 12,000 visitors and ir probably exceed those numbers this year. Professional makeup artist Vanda Pigments attended in a retro Catwoman costume and did some face-painting. It warms my heart to see my fellow geeks in costume around the world.

Check out a few more photos after the break.

Thanks for the tip, Vanda! Send your tips to tips@fashionablygeek.com.

A Compendium Of Cool Comics Cosplay: January 17th

Once again it's time for our Friday comics cosplay feature, casting the spotlight on the best comics related costumery from the cosplay community. As always, we're focusing on those cosplayers who we think deserve special recognition for their hard work creating the best costumes, whatever their budget, and also the work of those photographers who capture them for posterity.

This week we're featuring some awesome cosplay of Black Canary, Thanos, Wonder Girl, Emma Frost, Blue Beetle, Rogue, Shadowcat, The Question, Sif, Catwoman, Thor and Loki!

Gamma Squad is committed to giving a voice to the cosplay community. Each week we aim to spotlight our favorite costumes and we encourage all cosplayers, costumers and photographers to submit pictures of their work to our Flickr group to be considered for inclusion in our regular cosplay features.

Now enjoy this week's selection!

Triple Canary photographed by Paul Cory. Submitted via the Gamma Squad Flickr Group.

Thanos cosplayer at Comikaze Expo 2013. Photo by Jon (av4rice). Source: Flickr

Donna Troy cosplay by Mariedoll. Photography by Mineralblu. Submitted via the Gamma Squad Flickr Group.

Emma Frost cosplayer at MCM London Comic Con 2013. Photo by Dave Pearce. Source: Flickr

Blue Beetle cosplayer at Dragon*Con 2013. Photo by Pat Loika. Submitted via the Gamma Squad Flickr Group.

Rogue and Shadowcat with Lockheed at Comickaze 2013. Photo by Ryan C. Source: Flickr

The Question cosplayer at Dragon*Con 2012. Photographed by TheGeekForge. Submitted via the Gamma Squad Flickr Group.

Lady Sif cosplayer at Comikaze Expo 2013. Photo by Jon (av4rice). Source: Flickr

Catwoman cosplay by Caroline Knight. Photo by V Threepio. Submitted via the Gamma Squad Flickr Group.

Asgardians Gangnam style photographed by Greyloch. Submitted via the Gamma Squad Flickr Group.

Video: Vintage 1992 BATMAN RETURNS Movie Action Figure Toys TV Commercial!

A 1992 TV commercial for Kenner's "Batman Returns" action figure line, featuring the originally elusive Catwoman figure and the Bruce Wayne Custom Coupe. Hope this brings back some fond memories, enjoy!

COOL BATMAN, JOKER, and CATWOMAN GRAPHICS : The Art of Sean Hartter!

The Bat-Blog featured some of Sean Hartter's artwork in the past & since his work was so popular I thought I would show a few more. This guy has a really great drawing style & the pictures are also kinda fun so...here...we...GO! The 1st one sort of cracks me up, it's a really nice portrait of The Joker. I like the coloring here, a light palette. The 2nd graphic shows Batman in battle in Gotham City. Not quite sure who this villain is but he looks cool. The 3rd pic is really neat. It's the Catwoman in flight! Next, is one of my favorites. It's a small pic of the Dark Knight in sort of a very cartoony-style & kinda cute too, goo goo goo. If you would like to see more of Sean's work just click on the graphic down below. For right now the button graphic might not be showing up but it does work and is clickable. Sorry for some pics being down. Right now I am getting about 400 visitors an hour & it's crashing my bandwidth. So, some photos or pictures might be down at times. I'm working on it.

Batman Artist JIM LEE On The Set Of The CATWOMAN Movie

OK, I know that The CATWOMAN movie with Halle Berry is one of the worst movies of all time but she still looks pretty good in that tight black leather cat-suit, MEOW! While filming in Canada the famous Batman Comic Book Artist Jim Lee got to visit the set and, while there, drew a classic image of Catwoman. The 1st photo shows him drawing. The next one is him showing his original artwork to Halle. I thought that fans of his art would get a big kick out of this. Plus, he got to meet THE Halle Berry...lucky!

FREE BATMAN DESKTOP BACKGROUNDS Wacky Wallpaper Wednesday!

This week we present 2 brand-new BATMAN DESKTOP WALLPAPER BACKGROUNDS. The first one was sent in by a Bat-Blog Reader named Andrew. He, like most of us, is a huge fan of the 1980's comic book artwork of Norm Breyfogle. So, he took some of Breyfogle's black & white inked art then colorized it. I think he did an incredible job coloring it. It features 3 Bat-Villains: Catwoman, The Penguin, & Joker! ( Thank you Andrew for sending this in ). The next one has a "Golden Age Batman" theme. It's vintage 1940's artwork by Bob Kane. OK, We all know this was probably drawn by Bill Finger or somebody else, ha ha. But, the art is still awesome!

Barack Obama Wins The Race To Be The Very Next President of The United States!

YES WE CAN!!

Custom Art: CATWOMAN SCULPTURE on eBay!

Meeeeooowww! Here's something I came across on eBay & thought was pretty cool. It's a custom-made "Maquette" Art Sculpture of Catwoman in a sexy pose. It's modeled after the artwork of Bruce Timm's Batman: The Animated Series ( shown below ). The artist's name is Beverly Gilroy & she works for Hourglass studios. Purrrrfect!

Amazing 1966 BATMAN TV SHOW Custom Action Figure Dolls by Darkside Customs

A new friend to the Bat-Blog, named Rick, sent me an e-mail about his cool hobby of making custom dolls & action figures. He calls his company DARKSIDE CUSTOMS & his work is totally amazing! His focus is on the many different characters from the classic 1966 Batman TV Show. The attention to detail is totally insane! Plus, I really enjoy that he made a few of the obscure villains. Now of course he made a Batman & Robin ( Adam West, Burt Ward ) but the rouge's list includes: Catwoman ( Julie Newmar ), The Riddler ( Frank Gorshin ), Bookworm ( Roddy McDowall ), Mr. Freeze ( Otto Preminger ), The Madhatter ( David Wayne ), & Egghead ( Vincent Price ). I'm showing only a few examples here so if you like these be sure to visit Rick's website!

Video: Vintage Batman Toy TV Commercial with Catwoman - Zellers Spot

Here's another Vintage TV Commercial from Zellers' Department Store featuring the Dynamic Duo, Batman and Robin! This one has the Catwoman villain as a special guest. I seriously love the animation in this TV spot, it's great! Be sure to check out my other videos for more toy commercials from this series. I have more posted with The Joker, Riddler, etc...