Batman strip 2/15/67 Poison Ivy

At the very beginning of "BATMANIA," The Ledger Syndicate and DC were looking for an artist for the Batman syndicated comic strip. Every DC artist (except my dad) tried out for this strip. At that time, Comic strips were a huge step up from comic books. (Prestige wise and pay wise.) The syndicate was not happy with the look of the strip, they wanted the look of the published comic books. My dad who was one of the top inkers at DC back then was inking all the top books: Batman, Detective as well as Green Lantern and Flash. (While he was assisting Dan Barry on Flash Gordon, Dad learned a more modern style, with less lines. A sleeker and cleaner style) The DC execs, wanting to get away from the 1950's Lou Fine look, fell in love with this new clean look. It became the DC House Style. The Syndicate asked him if he would take over the strip. Dad had always worked for Julie Schwartz. Drawing the strip meant working for Mort Weisinger. Julie didn't want to lose his top inker and told him he would not be happy working for Mort. (which was a true statement) Dad accepted and many artists at DC were upset that they did not get this plum job.

So he began penciling and inking Batman's syndicated adventures. The writer was Whitney Ellsworth. Whitney was a veteran writer, who wrote episodes of the George Reeves Superman TV show. He came up with some crazy ideas for stories. One that my dad loved was when Whitney put Jack Benny in the strip. Batman and Robin help him get back his stolen Stradivarius Violin.

Another story line he always talked about was when Whitney asked him to create The Batman Hilton Hotel. Dad talked about how he designed the pool in the shape of the bat symbol. The villain for this story line was Poison Ivy, and her gang. The gang created by Whit and Dad were called "The Ivy League Dropouts."

This is the first strip that mentions the gangs name,

"The Ivy League Dropouts" created by Whitney Elsworth and Joe Giella !!


Dad drew the strip for around 2 years. Up until the end of "Batmania."

Not sure how he also inked DC stories for Julie, assisted Sy Barry on the Phantom, inked around 30-40% of Frank Giacoia's work, drew a second strip for the Ledger called "Character Clues" and worked on advertising jobs as well. I don't think he slept during those years. But he had a family to support. AND he never missed a deadline!