10 Unique Visions Of Batman

5. Dick Sprang

During the 1950€™s, a huge cloud of controversy arose around comics and very nearly destroyed them both as an industry and an art form. In 1954, a psychiatrist named Fredric Wertham published a book called Seduction of the Innocent, which claimed that comics were responsible for juvenile delinquency, amongst a lot of other €˜bad€™ stuff like homosexuality and violent outbursts. It wasn€™t the only time comics had been attacked as having a negative influence on the young, either. So, while superhero characters had been praised for their patriotic storylines during World War 2, they were being chastised less than a decade later as one of the evils of society. As a result, comics publishers needed to be very careful with what they published, as well as how and when they published it, as a nation of watchful eyes were pouring ever every single issue in search of sexual, or violent subtext. Comic books were literally being burned in huge piles and most comic book publishers went out of business in this time. DC stayed alive, largely due to the enduring popularity of characters like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. This era had an odd effect on Batman as a character. No longer able to relentlessly track down psychotic murderers, or bring violent mobsters to justice, Batman found himself being routinely zapped to colourful alternate worlds and faraway alien planets. His villains too, received a complete makeover. The Joker, for example, became more of a clown and/or a mischievous rogue, as opposed to a sadistic murderer. All other regular foes were also €˜toned down€™ in favour of clean, non-confrontational stories that wouldn€™t offend parents, teachers or ambitious politicians looking for a hot topic to ride to the White House... By all accounts, the Silver Age Batman stories should have been godawful, but instead, they were a hoot. ...And that, my friends, is largely due to the enormous talents of Mr. Dick Sprang. Although he was another man hired as a €˜ghost€™ for Bob Kane, Dick Sprang was, quite literally, the best artist of his era. Any time you see a classic looking image of a grinning, barrel-chested Batman and a smiling, cherubic Robin, be it on a postcard, a poster or in a glossy magazine, you can be assured that it is probably Dick Sprang€™s. The Sprang Batman is all about fun and frivolity. In The €˜Sprang Era€™ (as it has come to be called), literally anything could (and usually did) happen. For Sprang, crime fighting was fun and Sprang€™s Batman had fun doing it. Sprang drew Batman as paternal, reliable and confident. In fact, his version of the character, moreso than any other, was used as the inspiration for the Adam West TV show in the 1960€™s. Dick Sprang made the silly stories of the era make a different kind of sense and imbued everything he did with a spirit of fun and adventure and those, dear readers, are two things that superhero comics should always be, regardless of decade, or even century. As with Moldoff, a decent sample of Sprang€™s work can be found in The Black Casebook, but more still can be sought in the various Batman showcases and archive collections available from DC Comics. You can try eBay, but you€™ll likely need Bruce Wayne-level resources in order to be successful! There are a lot of Dick Sprang fans out there.