Since first appearing in 1939, the Batman franchise has been reinvented on a regular basis. Over the last 70 years we’ve had camp Batman, grumpy Batman, depressed Batman and countless variations on those basic themes. Oh, and then there was the short-lived Japanese Batman.
Back in the 60s when Adam West was hamming it up for TV cameras, a Japanese company licensed the rights and created their own comic book. Illustrated and written by Jiro Kuwata, it was a marked departure from the DC Comics originals and brought in all the stuff Japanese people love – namely, Godzilla, crumbling cityscapes and epic one-on-one battles.**Despite this attempt to cater to local tastes, the Batman manga only ran for one year before being discontinued and lost to history. That was until a guy called Chip Kidd rediscovered the original prints and compiled them for a book called BAT-MANGA. It’s out now via Pantheon Books.
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