The annual celebration of Gotham City’s billionaire crime fighter, Bruce Wayne aka Batman is September 21.
Combing through our archives, I turned up some interesting items dealing with the Bat.
The first was from May 17, 1965 when a Dunmore man discovered a BatMan No. 1 in the basement of his Quincy Ave home.
The next item was from August 13, 1966 dealing with the local premiere of “Batman” starring Adam West. The movie was shown at the Comerford on Wyoming Ave.
The next item is more about comic books in general.
Members of St. Paul’s School AA (All-Comic Anonymous) throw “undesirable” comic books on a bonfire in the school yard on Feb. 21, 1952. The burning was to mark Catholic Book Week.
Standing from left: Joseph Riley, James P. Flynn, Anne Ryan, Mary Claire Ferguson, Paul J. Flynn, Jane St Pierre, Annette Basalyga and Marlene Roth. John Earles kneels at left. Gilbert O’Connell and Edward Ruane are at right. Times-Tribune Archives
In February 1952, students from St. Paul’s High School conducted a comic book burning celebration during Catholic Schools Week. The students collected over 1,000 “undesirable” comics to be burned.
The publisher of Batman, DC Comics, has a whole website dedicated to the celebration of 80 Years of Batman – https://www.dccomics.com/batman80
The site has a lot of interesting items for Batman Day – a Bat Signal Tracker (cities around the world will be turning on a Bat Signal on Sept. 21), Must Read List of Batman comics and graphic novels, a Batman Playlist on Spotify, and a list of Youtube video dealing with Batman.
If you are interested in reading Batman comics or graphic novels check with your local library or you can visit one of these local comic book shops –
Comics on the Green – Scranton
Rubber Mallet Comics – West Pittston
Golden Unicorn Comics – McAdoo
Alchemist’s Cove Games & Comics – Schuylkill Haven
Lackawanna County Library System
You can also check at your local book shops for Batman reading materials as well –
Library Express Bookstore – Scranton
Book A Million – Dickson City
Barnes & Noble – Wilkes-Barre Twp.
Brian Fulton has been the librarian at The Times-Tribune for the past 15 years. On his blog, Historically Hip, he writes about the great concerts, plays/musicals and celebrity happenings that have taken place throughout NEPA. He is also the co-host of the local history podcast, Historically Hip. He competed and was crowned grand champion on an episode of NPR quiz show “Ask Me Another.” Contact: bfulton@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9140; or @TTPagesPast
