Gatchaman #1 Cover by Chris Batista

This was one of my Big Pick Ups from NYCC 2025! I had met Chris Batista a week prior to NYCC at the Hotflips show in Babylon on Long Island. He had brought a few of his original Gatchaman pieces for me to see in person! We had spoken online for many months when I expressed my interest in some pieces when he decided to part with some.

So, he agreed to sell me one of my favorite covers from the current series when we'd meet at NYCC. Being a life long Gatchaman fan, just like Chris, we always have a lot to talk about the cartoon.

When Battle of the Planets, the American version of Gatchaman, first premiered in the US, on the heels of the first Star Wars movie, I used to race home from school to watch that and Starblazers! Those cartoons were so different from everything else on TV in those days! Incorporating superheroes with sci fi space adventures and Japanese movie type monsters, it blew away my childhood mind!

And in case you didn't notice, I'm sure those cartoons provided some inspiration to Dave Cockrum in the design of the New X-men. Besides the thigh high boots of G-Force that are reflected in Cockrum designed costumes, the Firey Phoenix effect looks very similar to the one that eminated from Jean Grey! Just saying.