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humanoidhistory · 9 days

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Mystery in Space, 1962, issue no. 78, cover art by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson.

#eclipse #solar eclipse #comics #mystery in space #comic book #carmine infantino #murphy anderson

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tygerland · 2 months

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Centerfold artwork from Detective Comics #352 (June 1966) by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson.

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cantsayidont · 5 months

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October 1966. You can't keep a dead butler down. About two years after killing off Alfred the butler in 1964, editor Julius Schwartz was faced with a problem: William Dozier, the producer of the forthcoming Batman TV show, wanted to include Alfred in the show, and wanted him reintroduced into the comics as well! Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox struggled with this challenge and finally came up with the utterly preposterous story presented in the issue above.

Even for a Silver Age Gardner Fox comic book, this story is exceptionally convoluted, so it's best considered chronologically. We begin with a flashback sequence involving iconoclastic "all-around scientific genius" Brandon "Plot Device" Crawford:

This is already straining credulity a little because the story in DETECTIVE COMICS #328 in which Alfred died (helpfully recapped elsewhere in this issue) showed that he had been crushed to death by a giant boulder. That did not seem survivable at all, and even if it were, this would imply that neither Batman and Robin nor whatever doctor who filled out Alfred's death certificate nor the mortician noticed that he wasn't actually dead! Anyway …

So, Alfred wasn't actually dead, he wasn't embalmed, and he was buried in a refrigerated coffin (that's what the purple cylinders in the last panel previous page were for). A stretch, but we'll allow it. However, upon discovering this, Crawford, instead of calling an ambulance like a normal person, seizes on the opportunity to do some Frankenstein shit with Alfred's maimed, broken, mostly dead body, as one does (if one is a reclusive "radical individualist" who dropped out of college to pursue unorthodox, dubiously ethical scientific experiments, I guess).

One of the initial objects of Schwartz's tenure had been to rid the Batman books of the fantastical aliens, monsters, and bizarre transformations of the 1957–1963 period in favor of something a little more grounded. All that goes out the window here, despite the rather defensive editorial footnote, which says:

EDITOR'S NOTE: Physics professor Robert Ettinger, author of "The Prospect of Immortality," has said that death can only be defined in relative terms. He points to the hundreds of persons revived after drowning, asphyxiation, electrocution, and heart attack. "Biological death depends not only on the state of the body," Ettinger says, "but also on the state of medical art!"

Okay, then. On to the Frankenstein shit:

So, Crawford's experimental cell regeneration machine has restored Alfred's broken body, but in the process transformed him into an unrecognizable, rather hideous-looking being who is also evil. Check! The regeneration effect we see Crawford panicking about then transforms him so that he looks like Alfred, while leaving him in "a catatonic trance." The Outsider, rather ungratefully, puts Crawford's unconscious body back in Alfred's coffin to cover his tracks, and uses Crawford's various machines and his own "increased mental power" in his new quest to destroy Batman and Robin.

This was not the first appearance of the Outsider, who had actually been hounding the Dynamic Duo on and off since DETECTIVE COMICS #334 two years earlier, although he had never appeared on-panel, and his identity had been a mystery. Where Schwartz originally intended to take that plotline is not clear (Schwartz's own account doesn't say, and Gardner Fox said later that he didn't think Schwartz had a solution in mind at the outset), but it doesn't seem likely that revealing the Outsider as Alfred was the plan, particularly since subsequent Outsider stories had shown that the villain had superhuman powers, including the ability to bring inanimate objects to life! In this story, the Outsider really does transform Robin into a wooden coffin, as the cover indicates — it's not a hypnotic illusion or some other such dodge. Fortunately, the effect is reversed after the villain is defeated:

Batman's determination to keep these events secret from Alfred is bizarre, since Alfred's death is a matter of public record: As seen in DETECTIVE COMICS #328, Bruce Wayne started a charitable foundation in Alfred's name, with its own building in Gotham City! Batman suggests that they can rename the charity the Wayne Foundation (as of course they subsequently did), but how he expects to resolve the various problems created by Alfred having been legally dead for months without his finding out is unclear. They do take the time to retrieve Crawford (who has miraculously not suffocated or starved to death in Alfred's coffin) and use his machine to return him to normal, after which Batman suggests that Bruce Wayne will give Crawford a job at the renamed foundation.

If you're wondering, "Wait, does this mean Alfred now had super-powers?" the answer is yes! Since he didn't retain any conscious memory of his death and resurrection, he was normally unaware of this, but Alfred's evil Outsider personality resurfaced several times, and he sometimes spontaneously reverted to the Outsider's form, in which he once again had supernatural abilities:

Notice the background, with the buildings burning like candles? The Outsider did that with his mental powers, along with a bunch of less grandiose but equally impossible feats. Fortunately, they reverted to normal after he split into separate good (Alfred) and evil (Outsider) selves and defeated himself. The Outsider resurfaced once more in 1985, battling the Outsiders and nearly killing Superman by transforming the Batcave's giant penny into Green Kryptonite.

I guess this whole saga did resolve the problem of resurrecting Alfred for the TV show, but in what I think can fairly be called the most ludicrous way possible. (And you thought the PENNYWORTH show spun out of GOTHAM was silly …)

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browsethestacks · 17 days

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Vintage Comic - Detective Comics #0339

Pencils: Carmine Infantino

Inks: Joe Giella

DC (May1965)

#Comics #DC Comics #Detective Comics #Carmine Infantino #Joe Giella #Gorillas #Vintage #Art #DC #Robin #1965 #1960s #60s

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batman-daily · 1 year

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#strip snippets #that's the tag I'm gonna use for these until I think of something better #harvey dent #bruce wayne #batman #twoface #two face #william messner-loebs #bill messner loebs #carmine infantino #john nyberg #comic strips

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splooosh · 3 months

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“one split second”

Carmine Infantino - Murphy Anderson

#Green Lantern #Wildcat #Hourman #Superman #Green Arrow #Hawkman #Mister Terrific #Flash #Barry Allen #Hal Jordan #Carter Hall #Rick Tyler #Justice Socitey of America #Justice League of America #Earth 1 #Earth 2 #Carmine Infantino #Murphy Anderson #homage

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marvelousmrm · 3 months

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Spider-Woman #11 (Gruenwald/Infantino, Feb 1979). Jessica’s landlady collects creepy dolls, and yes they do come alive.

#marvel #marvel 616 #spider woman #jessica drew #mark gruenwald #carmine infantino

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gameraboy2 · 7 months

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Detective Comics #363 (1967) Cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson

#detective comics #carmine infantino #murphy anderson #vintage #1967 #1960s #comics #comic book #comic book art #comic books #art #illustration #batman #robin #batgirl

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atomic-chronoscaph · 8 months

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Godzilla, King of the Monsters - art by Carmine Infantino and Mike Esposito (1979)

#carmine infantino #mike esposito #godzilla king of the monsters #marvel comics #kaiju art #comic art #cover art #marvel uk #seventies #1979

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ufonaut · 1 year

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Through the window can be seen an awful, hunched figure... of the man!! His only companion is an ever-playing radio (which he no longer even hears!) and the moths that circle his lamp... Uncontrollably, the man begins to mutter and mumble to himself-- listen! You can almost hear the incantation--

Joe Kubert’s autobiographical story in DC Special (1968) #5

#I MAY HAVE POSTED THIS BEFORE BUT ITS MY FAV THING TO EVER EXIST. NEVER FAILS TO SEND ME INTO HYSTERICS #joe kubert #adam kubert #andy kubert #(in his cutest lil shirt)#russ heath #carmine infantino #dc special #dc special 1968 #dc #dc comics #dcedit #comicedit #comicsedit #u can reblog

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goldenboyreturns · 6 months

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Thought I should start sharing the inspirations behind these:

#batober 2023 #batober #dick grayson #joker #batman #carmine infantino #joe giella

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nerds-yearbook · 3 months

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Though created for the TV show, Barbara Gordon/Batgirl made her first appearance in Detective Comics 359, cover date January, 1967. Her comic book appearance was created by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino. ("The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl", "Elongated Man: Riddle of the Sleepytime Taxi", Detective Comics 359#, DC Comic Event)