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Is Batman 227 the "key" Neal Adams Batman book to have?
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Started by sgt_jarhead_99-migration,

2,411 posts in this topic

Brian48

Brian48

Posted
Posted

Man. Not a good time for me to be broke. I just took a look over at CL. There's an absolute beautiful run of hi-grade Adams Tecs, Bats, and even an old label BB #85 that's a 9.6 w/white pages.

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Define999

Define999

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I think the Adams era books are a great starting point for many collectors. It's pretty much established that the Batman we all identify with these days started at around this point. I would imagine a movie coming out would spur some interest. In the end, the same ol' collectors will be around, but the flippers will come and go.

 

Speaking for myself, I loved TDK, but it was not enough to get me interested in comic books again. That didn't happen until after I played Batman: Arkham Asylum on PC a year or two later, and was floored by how great the Paul Dini story was executed. That led me to the trades, which eventually led me to buying up all the Bat books from my early childhood as way for me to deal with my mid life crisis (since the Harley is out of the question). This so happens to be the early O'Neil/Adams run of the '70s.

 

 

 

I agree as well, the Dark Knight Batman “type” that was the impetus for all the movies, the early ones included, started around this time I think. The earlier into the 60’s you go the more sci fi, campy things seem to get for me. Even the flippers have to realize though that many of these Adams keys will be desirable long into the future. I actually hope prices do dip post movie hype so more of us can afford some of these bad-boys in better grades.

 

In the meantime I will be hunting and researching the foreign 227 variants far into the future. I have begun work on my 227 specific article and I hope to include side by side compare and contrast elements using Bats 227 and all its foreign brethren.

 

Below are the known true 227 Adams bats variants…… Starting with the American,

 

The Mexican Novaro, The French Sage edition, and the beautiful Brazilian EBAL!

Batman227_foreigngroup-2.jpg

 

Only three believe it or not…. The Brazilian being the prettiest…. Many of the Brazilian Ebals had a almost pastel look to the covers. There are still some rumored to exist 227 variants that will remain close to my chest….

 

Weird that the French version changed Batman's face. (shrug)

 

I think the entire cover was redrawn from scratch.

 

Not quite but close I think.... hm

 

Yea pretty interesting uh…. This is the type of compare and contrast stuff I hope to be exploring for my article. From my research so far I think the Batman in the background and the foreground elements might have been multiple separate pieces of art that were sent during licensing. In my research of “greytone” Washtone” type covers which at least part of 227 is….. there were multiple washes that were used in making the shootable artwork that was then burned to plates. Please see below…

Screenshot2012-08-01at42129PM.png

 

My theory is that publisher Novaro received all the art needed to repro the cover but Sage (French) and EBAL (brazil) did not…. I think they received the foreground art but for whatever reason the base “greytone” art was lost…. Facilitating their artists to recreate Batman himself. I personally like the Brazilian effort best!

 

If one examines closely Batman, moon, and bats you can see that the French and Brazilian backgrounds look different from the American. You can actually count and pay attention to the position of the bats near the moon. The only one that is directly similar to the American is the Novarro. Which leads me to believe that the background art behind the foreground art (mansion, etc) on both the Brazilian and French was recreated. The Mexicans for whatever reason recieved all of the art......

 

The foreground is still the same art just colored differently on each version. The huge differnce in coloring style makes sense at least as far as the EBALs because the Brazilian’s interior was all black and white. No need to ship the color separations for them…. This probably explains why EBAL colored the cover as they saw fit as well…. Thier clouds look the most striking....

 

All very interesting…..

 

Edited by Define999
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kimik

kimik

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Wow, that did go for a good price. That being said, as I painfully learned two years ago, August is not a good month to be selling things through any of the main auction sites. After the SDCC and WWC collectors seem to get tapped out. If the consignor had waited until October the price would likely have been higher.

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Brian48

Brian48

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238 is a nice book, but I don't think I'd ever pay that much for it. My 9.0 is not bad, but even then I thought I over paid for it at about $235. I was willing to splurg a little bit at the time because this was one of the books my parents bought off the racks for me when I was a kid.

 

222 is another book that I have mixed feelings about. I want one for sure to complete my run, but it's on the bottom rung in terms of what I want to pay for it.

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paperheart

paperheart

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the price on the #238 is substantially below the last two reported sales (around $800). the TC 9.4 went for $3100. paying 1/5th as much for a 9.2 doesn't seem outrageous. no, i wasn't the buyer. until greggy chimes in this is just amateur hour anyway.

Edited by paperheart
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TeddieMercede

TeddieMercede

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the price on the #238 is substantially below the last two reported sales (around $800). the TC 9.4 went for $3100. paying 1/5th as much for a 9.2 doesn't seem outrageous. no, i wasn't the buyer. until greggy chimes in this is just amateur hour anyway.

 

I'm 1 of the who paid up for a 9.4, still feel stupid but we've all been there done that. This book can't be that hard to find in high grade can it ?

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Brian48

Brian48

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Posted
the price on the #238 is substantially below the last two reported sales (around $800). the TC 9.4 went for $3100. paying 1/5th as much for a 9.2 doesn't seem outrageous. no, i wasn't the buyer. until greggy chimes in this is just amateur hour anyway.

 

I'm 1 of the who paid up for a 9.4, still feel stupid but we've all been there done that. This book can't be that hard to find in high grade can it ?

 

Apparently it still is. Not surprising really. That black, square board wrap-around cover would chip if you stare at it hard enough.

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