Video: FIRST LOOK At BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT Anime Animated Movie

Remember, you saw it here first! This is the 1st look at the soon-to-be-released BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT Anime Batman Film by Warner Bros. For people living under a rock & have not heard of this DC UNIVERSE Animated Movie it will come out as a DVD just before the DARK KNIGHT Motion Picture is released in Summer 2008. It's gonna feature state-of-the-art animation done by some of the most major Japanese Anime artists & directors. The story will bridge the gap between the 2 Batman movies: Batman Begins & The Dark Knight. New information, featured in this video, will be that the villians in the story will be Deadshot, Scarecrow, & Killer Croc...kick ass!

BAT-MANGA: The Secret History of Batman in Japan!

This September 2008, Pantheon Books will release a brand new book titled "BAT-MANGA: The Secret History of Batman in Japan". Compiled by book designer and comics connoisseur Chip Kidd, along with fellow collector Saul Ferris and photographer Geoff Spear, Bat Manga! presents a collection of original Japanese Batman stories written and drawn by Jiro Kuwata, the artist of 8-Man. Now, the amazing thing is that both DC & the Japanese company have never had file copies of this material & it had to be gathered by collectors hunting down the original magazines. So, in other words, this material has not been seen or read in over 30 years, a RARE treat! Chip Kidd is pretty well known among us Bat-Nerds ( I mean that in a good way, ha ha ) for putting together a super-great Batman vintage toy collector book a few years ago titled "Batman Collected". Which, is an incredible book! He's also known as an extremely famous book designer ( he created the Jurassic Park Dinosaur logo & many other very famous book covers ) so all his stuff is very high-quality. The photos up above show the hardback cover ( left ) & paperback version ( right ). Oh my God, I can't wait!!

BATMAN GOES MANGA! Death Mask in Stores April 9th.

International manga comic legend Yoshinori Natsume turns his talented pen to the Dark Knight, and the result is a chilling story about a new serial killer stalking Gotham's streets...one who bears more than a passing resemblance to Batman himself! Check out the first issue of BATMAN: DEATH MASK, in stores April 9th! For an Exclusive Sneak Peek be sure to visit the MySpace Comic Books website by clicking the link button down below.

Vintage 1960's Japanese BATMAN TOYS From Japan!

Here are some really great photos of some amazing vintage 60's BATMAN TOYS from Japan! The 1st photo was sent in by our friend Hans who just recently bought this Batman & Robin Japanese Jigsaw Puzzle. I seriously love the retro graphics & Japanese language...nice! (Thanks Han, cool find). The next few photos are some great examples of Japanese BATMOBILE Tin Toys (OK, The Bat-Jet is plastic. But you get the idea, ha ha!). One of them even has the original box! Ya know, sometimes these things are licensed by DC Comics & other times they are totally bootleg, but I don't care, I LOVE THEM ALL! If any Bat-Blog Readers have some photos they would like to share, of anything Batman, then please send them in today! Our "e-mail Button" is on the top right-hand side of this page, thanks!

FIRST LOOK : THE DARK KNIGHT BATMAN "ORIGINAL BAT-SUIT" ARTFX STATUE Japanese Import By KOTOBUKIYA

These last 2 photos are actually Desktop Wallpapers, enjoy!

Remember, you saw it here first! The Bat-Blog has been honored by The KOTOBUKIYA Company as the very first website to introduce their latest creation, The Dark Knight Batman Movie "Original Bat-Suit" Artfx Statue!! This is the 2nd release of a deluxe, collector's edition, statue based on Christopher Nolan's THE DARK KNIGHT. This figure is approx. 14 inches tall!
It's called the "Original Bat-Suit" because, before upgrading his costume, Batman faces the Gotham underworld attired in this sleek, stealthy gear. It shows Batman engulfed in his cape while perched upon a bright Bat Signal. The original costume and upright signal imply the early career of the detective, as an admired protector of Gotham City.

Rendered with insane detailing by sculptor BusujimaX, and drawing upon vast reference material from both DC Comics and Warner Brothers, the Bat-Suit Costume, Bat-Signal, and facial likeness of actor Christian Bale are all captured perfectly. ARTFX Statues are 1/6th scale model kits that can be easily assembled in minutes without any glue or modeling skill. It will be available exclusively from DC Direct in JANUARY so look for it then! Oh yeah, the suggested retail price will be $125.00.
Please be sure to click on the above photos for larger, more detailed, shots. Also, the last 2 pictures are actually BATMAN WALLPAPERS I have made to help decorate your PC's desktop & to remind you about this great product. For more information, here's a link to the Japanese KOTOBUKIYA Company.

Video: CHIP KIDD Talks About His New Batman Book Titled BAT-MANGA: THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN

Chip Kidd is a very famous "Book Designer". He has designed hundreds of book covers that are really famous, many you would know. He's also a very serious Vintage Batman Toy Collector & a few years ago he wrote an awesome book titled BATMAN: COLLECTED. The book was sort-of a reference book for the old 60's toys but had a very unique art direction, a great book! Well, later this year he will come out with another book titled BAT-MANGA: THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN. Basically it's going to reprint some old lost forgotten Japanese Manga stories from the 60's. It's also gonna focus on many cool Japanese Batman Toys from that time period. I imagine that some of the toys are from his personal collection but he has also teamed up with Saul Ferris, who probably contributes many of the toys, as he has a HUGE collection. The photo up above is what the hardback cover is gonna look like ( there will be a different cover for both the paperback & the hardback ). But posted down below is a recent lecture he gave showing just a few of the amazing Vintage Batman Toys from Japan that will be featured...I can't wait!!

New BAT-MANGA BOOK : Deb Aoki Interview with Chip Kidd and Saul Ferris

Everybody knows how I am totally goo-goo over the soon-to-be-released BAT-MANGA: THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN Book. Well, a Manga-Reporter named Deb Aoki did a really great interview with the authors Chip Kidd & Saul Ferris. Chip Kidd is mainly known as a book designer but is also a major Bat-Fan. Saul Ferris is a totally obsessed Vintage Japanese Batman Toy Collector! I actually kinda-sorta know Saul & he's a really nice guy. He's one of those super-rich toy collectors who buy a lot of expensive collectibles but he's also very down-to-earth so it's hard to hate him, ha ha. I hope what I just said doesn't make him sound bad, ha ha, I guess I'm just jealous ( I'm poor ). He has an incredible Batman Toy collection, seriously. Be sure to click the link button down below for a very well done interview.

Vintage Batman Memorabilia From Around The Globe!

I've been doing the Bat-Blog for over two years now & one of the things that still amazes me is Batman's popularity all over the world. I get messages from Bat-Fans who live in the most obscure places, that's awesome! So I thought I would use that as the theme for this post. Here's a few photos of some super-rare Batman Toys mailed in by our readers. The 1st one is from a friend in Germany. This is a very funny "Bootleg" Batman Hand-Puppet from the 1960's. The mask that the figure is wearing does look a lot like the cowl worn by Adam West in the 1966 TV Show. Plus, ya gotta love those wacky eyebrows, ha ha! Also, It looks like they stole the image from the "1960's Batman" Life Magazine cover for the header card...nice. The next set of photos feature the BATLANCHA ( Bat-Boat ) made by Gulliver Toys. This beautiful masterpiece is from Argentina. The 1st Bat-Boat comes with it's own original box. I love the vintage graphics. The 2nd Bat-Boat, the one by itself, is a later re-issue in a slightly different color. Both of them are awesome! The last photo is one of my favorites. It's a group of Vintage Batman Manga Magazines from Japan with wonderful artwork. I really really love the Japanese Bat-Logo. It looks really great! I hope all my readers enjoy seeing these as much as I do & I hope it inspires a few people from around the world to send in photos of their "foreign treasures". Remember, our "e-mail button" is always on the top right-hand side of this page.

Book Review - BAT-MANGA THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN By CHIP KIDD

OK, anyone who's been reading the Bat-Blog for the last year or so knows how excited I have been about the gossip of a brand-new Batman book titled BAT-MANGA: THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN. It was being done by Chip Kidd who, a few years ago, came out with another great Batman book titled BATMAN COLLECTED. That book was amazing, so I knew this one was gonna be great too! Well, it has finally come out & it's even better than I dreamed about! It was released on October 28th, 2008. All I can say about BAT-MANGA is that it is extremely well-designed & a total delight to read! But, I can't just say that because that would be a totally lazy book review, ha ha! So, here's why the book is so awesome. First, for people totally unfamiliar with this title, in the 1960's there was a magazine in Japan for kids called Shonen King . During the crazy hype of the 1966 Batman TV Show ( Adam West & Burt Ward ) this company reserved the rights to do Batman stories. They did them for about a year & then they were gone. For years these wonderfully written & beautifully drawn stories were lost...until now! To do this book Chip Kidd teamed up with the photographer Geoff Spear & Super-Collector Saul Ferris ( Japanese translation by Anne Ishii ). Both Chip & Saul had a few issues of this super-rare magazine & while doing research found out that the artwork was done by Jiro Kuwata, the artist responsible for creating "8 MAN", a very popular Japanese character. Anyway, Kidd hired a Japanese translator & actually found the guy! To his regret he found out that all the original artwork had been lost to time. But, a neat thing about getting in touch with him was that they got to do an exclusive interview about his "Batman experience". So, working with Geoff & Saul, they photographed every issue they had their hands on. This actually turned out to be a "wonderful accident" because looking at the original magazines is pretty cool. Geoff did an amazing job photographing all the pages. The neat thing is that the photography is so extremely sharp that you can actually see the texture of the newsprint & it sort of gives you the experience of reading the actual magazine that children got to view in the 1960's. One other thing that's kinda neat too is that, back then, Jiro Kuwata was given total license to write anything he wanted. So, the stories are very unique & have a nice Japanese sensibility to them. Now, please keep in mind that this is manga so ya gotta "read it backwards". But, don't worry about that because after about 5 minutes you totally get used to it & the stories are really enjoyable. Jiro Kuwata was given permission to do anything he wanted so many of the villains ( except Clayface ) were created by him. They are really well thought out & have great names like Lord Death Man, Go-Go The Magician, Dr. Faceless, Professor Gorilla, & The Man Who Quit Being Human! Now, another great thing about the book is that it features some very sharp color photography of many Vintage 1960's Batman Toys...a total bonus! This is kinda where Saul Ferris came in. He has an amazing collection of super-rare Japanese Batman Toys. The photos are sort of sprinkled every few pages so while you're reading the stories you get a small break. Plus, You get to enjoy these lost pieces of Bat-History. It gives the book a nice rhythm & each time they popped up it was a very pleasant surprise! The book is created in 2 formats, hardback & paperback. The hardback has about 32 extra pages. It mainly has a few more toy photos & a section in the back that covers some stories written in Chinese! But, don't worry because everything has been translated into English so you can enjoy the whole experience. The retail price for the hardback is $60.00 while the paperback is $29.95. Right now Amazon is offering them as new releases at a cheaper price & I seriously recommend the hardback, just for the extras. Well, I hope this has been a decent review & it's a book I can highly recommend for ANY Batman Fan!

The Second Winner of a Signed-Copy of Chip Kidd's New Book BAT-MANGA: THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN!

We announced awhile back about our latest contest where we are giving away a FREE Autographed Signed-Copy of Chip Kidd's brand-new book titled BAT-MANGA: THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN. The responses have been pretty amazing & since we have more than one copy we are still accepting entries as we speak ( For information on how to enter just click on the BAT-MANGA CONTEST GRAPHIC at the top of this blog, just under the header ). Well, this morning I picked another name out of the hat so here we go! The WINNER of the Second Signed copy of the Bat-Manga Book is... Rogelio G. of Bloomington, CA.! Thanks Rogelio, please be sure to send us an e-mail to confirm your complete mailing address & then soon after we will be mailing you this book. Now, for everybody else who entered there are still a few to give away so stay tuned to the Bat-Blog because you just might be our next lucky winner!

RADIO INTERVIEW: SAUL FERRIS Batman Toy Collector & ANNE ISHII Bat-Manga Book Translator

A very good friend to the Bat-Blog has just recently been interviewed on NPR Radio so I thought I would proudly share it here. His name is Saul Ferris & besides being a pretty nice guy he's also a Super-Collector of all things Batman ( Just so you know, his picture really didn't have a Batman Mask on it, that's just me being wacky! ). His main focus is on the Super-Rare Vintage 1960's Batman Toys & Memorabilia. He was a major contributor to the publication of Chip Kidd's latest book "Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan". In fact, the Bat-Manga book is a large part of the radio show but also includes a lot of tips about collecting toys & comics. Also included in the interview is Anne Ishii, who served as the Japanese translator for the book project. To hear this show on either your iPod or PC just click on the link button down below. When you arrive at the website just look for a show titled "The Sweet Smell of Yesteryear" recorded on January 4th, 2009. Click on the "audio button" & it magically appears in your media player. Also, if you want to contact Saul about any old 60's Batman Toys you have for sale he can be reached at ICOLLECTBATMAN@aol.com. ( Someday I'm gonna have to tease him about still being on AOL, ha ha ). Oh yeah, one last thing. I had a photo of Saul Ferris that I could post here but apologize for not having one of Anne. I tried to find one on Google, but couldn't find one that wasn't copyrighted. Just so you readers know, she is very very cute!

Batman & Batgirl "Wacky Wallpaper Wednesday"

Every Wednesday we post a few free Batman-Themed Desktop Backgrounds here at the Bat-Blog. It's called "Wacky Wallpaper Wednesday"! The first one features an amazing graphic of Batgirl. Some readers might know about a contributor here named "The BATFAN", who has an extensive original comic book art collection. Well, this image is from a convention sketch he owns. I made the background pink because that's kinda "girly" & Batgirl is a woman, ha ha. OK, actually pink is one of my top favorite colors, anybody got a problem with that? Now, for the next one it features Batman with a Japanese theme. This was sent in by our good friend Sean Hartter. Sean is a very talented Graphic Artist & he's been reading Chip Kidd's new Bat-Manga book. Actually, this book was the inspiration for this image...it's great! I really like the Japan-Style Batman Logo seen behind the figure. The figure too is pretty cool, very original. Thanks to both BATFAN & Hartter for contributing to this week's wallpaper event. You guys seriously ROCK!

RARE Batman Collectibles From The BATFAN Collection

OK, For people who have been reading the Bat-Blog for quite awhile ( thanks! ) you all know one special contributor nicknamed "The BATFAN". He has donated a lot of cool contest prizes & has sent us photos from his amazing Batman Art Collection. Well, here are a few pieces of Batman Memorabilia he has in his personal collection that he wanted to share because they're all so extremely unusual & very rare. The 1st two items are Batman-Shaped Ceramic Clocks that were made & produced in Japan. Plus, they were ONLY SOLD IN JAPAN too so they're kinda hard to find in the USA. They were issued in the 1980's, just a few years before the 1989 Batman Movie. They're both so extremely cool that I actually can't decide which one I like best, ha ha! The company who made them is named CREATE & they also made the 2 Glass Mugs you see below the clocks. OK, Now the last photo is a set of Ceramic Thimbles made in England ( UK ) by the Berkshire China company in 1996. The weird thing is Batman looks like he's the "movie version" while all the others seem like they're from the "Batman: The Animated Series" cartoon. Plus, the colors are sort of off a little bit. But, they're totally wonderful to look at & I love the artwork they have! All of these items are really great & I know a lot of collectors are gonna totally droll over these pics, thanks Batfan!

BATMAN Spotted in Okinawa, Japan!!

Here's a totally cool photo from a Bat-Blog Fan named Jerry. Two months ago he went to Okinawa, Japan for vacation and, while there, saw this big Batman Statue in front of a local souvenir shop on Kokusai Street (also called "International Street"). I really love this picture but it also reminds me about the current tragic events in Japan. The Japanese People still need help. So, I gotta ask everyone, if they can, to please donate to the AMERICAN RED CROSS. Thank You. Oh yeah, before I forget, a special thanks also goes out to Jerry for sharing this fun pic, it's GREAT!!

Yuji's Japanese BATMAN MENKO CARDS Collection

Check out these wonderful photos of an amazing assortment of Vintage BATMAN MENKO Cards. These belong to one of our new friends named Yuji. He's been collecting these for awhile & says he has even more than the ones shown here! Yeah, I'm pretty jealous, ha! I have one large uncut sheet of these that were a gift from a good friend named Saul. I also have a few loose ones. But Yuji has almost everybody beat! Oh, before I forget, I wanna thank him for sharing these pics, they're great items.

Now some people might ask, "What is Menko?". MENKO is a Japanese card game played by two or more players. It is also the name of the type of cards used to play this game. Each player uses Menko cards made from thick paper or cardboard, with one or both side printed. A player's card is placed on the hardwood or concrete floor and the other player throws down his card, trying to flip the other player's card with a gust of wind or by striking his card against the other card. If he succeeds, he takes both cards. The player who takes all the cards, or the one with the most cards at the game's end, wins the game.

Wear Your iPod On Your T-Shirt

You don't need to worry about how you're going to carry your iPod when you're wearing these cute shirts by Japanese company Inink out of Kanagawa, Japan. Each features a little see-through plastic pocket that holds your gadget in place with velcro. The pockets are worked into designs that make it look like your phone is being held by a hand, falling in water, or even clipped to your shirt with a giant paperclip.

See more pictures after the break...

Product Page ( 4,800 or $49 RocketNews via Spoon & Tamago)