Batman: The Dark Knight Archives, Vol. 5 (DC Archive Editions) [Hardcover]

Don Cameron (Author), Bill Finger (Author), Joe Samachson (Author), Joe Greene (Author), Bob Kane (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In the four 1943 Batmans in this collection, the character's original moody, noirish tone has been largely abandoned for the sake of a cheerier milieu, epitomized by brightly garbed young sidekick Robin. These stories are notable, too, for the first contributions of Dick Sprang, who became the most prominent of many ghost artists whose handiwork appeared under Batman creator Bob Kane's signature. Sprang's distinctive visuals, full of dramatic angles, atmospheric shadows, and silhouettes, would grace the comic for a further two decades. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 212 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (November 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401207782
• ISBN-13: 978-1401207786
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.8 x 10.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,045,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Batman: The Dark Knight Archives Vol. 5, July 14, 2007

By 

Michael C. Delich "JSA Fanatic" (Kansas City, KS. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Batman: The Dark Knight Archives, Vol. 5 (DC Archive Editions) (Hardcover)

To the Batman fan, this particular volume is a particularly gratifying one, as we are seeing some of Dick Sprang's earliest work on the character he was probably best known for illustrating.
This isn't to degrade the work of Jerry Robinson, Jack Burnley or even Bob Kane himself, whose work also appears in this volume.
But Sprang, who actually began illustrating Batman in 1941, but whose stories were stockpiled until a few years later, brought a dazzling, magnificient, vibrant look to the feature unmatched by any artist of the time. In fact, he [later w/Charlie Paris inking] set the standard for the character, but was virtually unknown for who he really was [by name] until years and years later when he finally attended his first comic convention in Kansas City.
Sprang became a lifelong friend of mine and I worked with him closely to ID art he was unaware that he even did.
No serious Batman collector can do WITHOUT this Archive. Classic Batman w/great writing and imaginative illustrative story telling!!!