Following on the heels of the very successful celebration of Action Comics #1000, DC is planning to celebrate the Dark Knight’s 80th year with a year-long event including the release of Detective Comics #1000!
As a fan of Batman, I have to say that I’m really looking forward to it!
I’M NOT TIRED OF ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS… YET
Truth be told, it seems like almost every week or month contains the celebration of something! I recently talked about The Walking Dead’s 15th anniversary coming up in October. DC also had a Flash anniversary not long ago, too! Over in Marvel, we’ve seen some celebrating going on as well recently, so everyone’s getting into the act!
Now, comics haven’t reached the celebration of events that others have! For instance, did you know that August is American Adventures Month? Or that it’s Black Business Month? It’s also Tomboy Tools Month (whatever that is) as well as National Win with Civility Month. Now that last one I support wholeheartedly!
If you’re a fan of Star Trek, you seem to be celebrating something each and every year. This year is a big one for Deep Space Nine, for instance. With Patrick Stewart coming back to portraying Jean-Luc Picard, you can be sure Next Generation anniversaries will be big ones moving forward!
Obviously, I’m not at all worn out on celebrating anniversaries. At least, not yet!
SO WHAT’S HAPPENING?
At the DCComicsNews.com website, DC recently announced some of next year’s festivities. Some things will conclude while others will start.
“Batman was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane on March 30th, 1939, in Detective Comics #27,” a news release states. “Tom King is currently writing Batman, and his run will end in 2019 after 103 issues of writing the comic.”
Given Mr. King’s run on the comic, I’ll be sorry when it’s done – except for the wedding event! No word on who will take over scripting the comic.
As far as Detective goes, here’s what they have to say: “Peter J Tomasi and Doug Mahnke are set to take over Detective Comics in December and add to a huge build towards March’s Detective Comics issue and Batman’s 80th Anniversary.”
On some levels, I’m sad that James Tynion IV, who really put Detective on the map recently, is not writing this run up to 1,000. But I guess he’s got plenty of other good projects keeping him busy.
More than that, we don’t know that this point. But if 2019 is what I call the Year of the Bat, I expect a lot of fabled Bat-creators to take the spotlight, which is good news!
BATMAN DAY 2018 IS COMING
Those of us who can’t wait until 2019 to start celebrating the Dark Knight will have a day to enjoy next month, according to DCCOMICSNEWS.COM!
Saturday, September 15, will be the fifth annual Batman Day in comics shops across the world.
DC has also listed some ways to participate in that event, which you can find at this link.
Here’s some vital info regarding Batman Day from DC:
“As part of the Batman Day festivities, fans who visit participating retailers will receive the first chapter of BATMAN: WHITE KNIGHT, written and drawn by Sean Murphy, a month ahead of the collected edition release. The book will also feature a preview of another upcoming DC Black Label title BATMAN: DAMNED by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo. Younger fans can pick up a free copy of the first chapter of BATMAN: A LOT OF LI’L GOTHAM. In addition to comic books, DC is providing retailers access to an assortment of additional offerings to help in the celebration of Batman Day, including a fun online activity kit.”
Digital fans will be able to participate, according to DC:
“Digital readers are invited to celebrate The Dark Knight with the Batman Day digital sale from September 11-17. The event will include hundreds of Batman eBooks on sale for $4.99 or $5.99 on ReadDC.com, comiXology.com, Google Play, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook and iTunes.”
DC is also indicating they will be continuing their partnership with publishers such as HarperCollins, Random House Children’s Books, Penguin Random House, DK, Simon & Schuster and Scholastic to bring Batman Day celebrations to thousands of bookstores, comic retailers, and libraries.
Hopefully, your local comics shop will be getting involved in both Batman Day and the Year of the Bat. I think both events will help bring back readers who may have stopped buying comics while also attracting new fans. We could use both of those!
What do you think? Have comics-related celebrations gotten to be too common? What has been your experience with them? What comic deserves an anniversary celebration that hasn’t had one yet? Whatever your opinion, please share your thoughts in the space below!
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Wayne Hall creates the Wayne's Comics Podcast. He’s interviewed Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, John Layman, Kyle Higgins, Phil Hester, Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray, David Petersen, Christos Gage, Mike Grell, and Matt Kindt. On this site each week, he writes his "Comics Portal" column (general comics comments and previews) and reviews comics.