Michael Cho, Cover, Detective #1000

I’m not a child of the ’50s. Didn’t make the cut.

But… I was a little kid in the ’60s when DC published many great 25-cent annuals (80 pages!) and specials reprinting classic tales of classic characters.

Like Batman, for instance.

It was in these annuals that I learned abut Giant Batman, Rip Van Batman, Rainbow Batman and more. I had no idea when these stories first appeared, and I didn’t care. It also didn’t matter that they didn’t quite fit in with the “new-look” Batman. They were goofy fun, and I was a kid so goofy fun was a job requirement.

I hadn’t thought much about those iterations of Batman in recent years. Many of those stories have yet to be reprinted in the current DC omnibus collections because of, well, pesky chronology.

But, this cover...

It floored me.

Michael captured so many of those wondrous Batman moments in one stunning and giant (Its drawn on a double-size board) original. And I’m a passionate admirer of his art.

I confess that I didn’t recognize ALL the Batmen on the cover at first. (Some of course are covered by the final trade-dress.) But fortunately, with Michael’s help, it’s now sorted out:

17 visible front-facing Batmen surrounding “Conventional” (Regular? Traditional?) Batman and Robin, and seven additional Batmen with a back view to the reader. Below is the complete list, with the original appearances noted as well. The art gallery features the original covers, as wells Michael’s preliminary art, created digitally.

These are not all the odd versions of Batman. Michael himself laments that he couldn’t fit in Batman Jones (Batman #108) or Batman Creature (Batman #162), and a few others, but hey, there’s only so much room.

As for Invisible Batman? (Detective #199.) Who’s to say he’s not also on the cover somewhere? I’m certainly not ruling it out.

For the complete list, and longer version of this story, including how I actually acquired the art, head over to my blog:

https://greggoldsteincomicartgallery.com/michael-cho-man-of-a-thousand-costumes/