Some of the very best Batman strips ever were the newspaper strips that ran in the early to mid 1940s. The Dailies strips were a series of ongoing adventures resembling nothing so much as a film noir in printed form. The black-and-white art style, the way the suspense built up, the way we were sometimes never sure what was going on exactly, while other times we knew all too well and could only wait breathlessly to see whether Batman and Robin would figure it out in time, was positively thrilling. One of my very first experiences reading Batman was the collection of Dailies, and from the very first strip I was hooked on the characters and world.
The Sundays are different again. They also told continuing stories – in this case you had to wait an entire week to find out what would happen next! – but it took far fewer strips to resolve a plotline, and the stories were much lighter in tone. Actually they were often quite funny, and I could see pretty much every Sunday newspaper strip being adapted for the 1966 television show! Both collections added something a little different to the world of Batman.
When it comes to the Batman newspaper strips, my main recommendation is honestly to just get the Dailies and Sundays collections and read all of them. But for this post, I wanted to do a special roundup of my Top 10 favourite ever Batman newspaper stories. I've loosely organized them in order of favourites from tenth place to first – but I can't actually decide on a definitive order. It was hard enough narrowing these strips down to ten in the first place!
Let's begin:
Ten Days To Live
This is an unusual Dailies strip, in that it takes a long time to introduce Batman, and actually gets us invested in its own cast of characters meanwhile. The story did a very good job of getting me attached to those characters, and honestly, even if it wasn't a Batman strip I would have been happy to read a whole story about Cappy Wren, the poor man marrying a rich woman he deeply loves, who is then told by his doctor right in the middle of the ceremony that he is dying of an unknown illness and has only ten days to live. Batman is almost more of a supporting role in Cappy's story, which he gets drawn into when they both try to go after the same evasive crook, and then sticks around when it appears there are more threats of death in Cappy's life than just the illness. The story features one of the most despicable murder plots I have ever seen, once it's revealed who was behind everything and why – it's a relevation I'm still mad at myself for not getting the first time around, if I'm honest. The only complaint I have is that Cappy's wife, such an integral part of both the story and Cappy's life, is never given a name. We have no idea what her first name is or what her last name was before getting married, so she ends up having no identity outside of being Cappy Wren's wife. She's always referred to as either “Mrs. Wren” or “Cappy's wife”, even when Cappy himself refers to her, which he does enough times to have many opportunities to tell us her name. (She calls him “my husband” a lot too, though, for what it's worth.) It is possible the reason was to highlight a certain plot point, which I don't want to say because that was a surprise and a huge part of the mystery, but if that was the reason it does make it a little more understandable. But what with a name being a huge part of a person's identity, it kind of makes me feel separated from a character I really wanted to feel connected to – especially as I can never meet these characters again outside of this one Batman comic!
The Curse of the Four Fates!
This is a really interesting one because, once again, Batman isn't the main focus. Actually, the whole premise of this strip suggests that things would have ultimately turned out the same whether Batman had been there or not. Four thieves murder an Indian mystic named Jandor in order to get a ruby he wears in his turban, and in retalliation, with his dying breaths Jandor curses them with the Curse of the Four Fates, sentencing each to die by a different natural element. At first the crooks dismiss this as phony, but as Batman and the law pursue them and they try to escape, one by one each man dies in the way Jandor predicted. This is one of those Sunday strips that feels more like the Dailies – instead of laughing, I keep catching my breath at the way the curse comes to pass. The way the curse gets around especially the last two men's attempts to make sure it can never come true is almost chillingly clever. And I must say I always loved the character designs for this strip, the four distinct faces each perfectly suited to a criminal. This story, I believe, was actually adapted from the comic books, since in the Chronicles collection I read almost exactly the same story, same plot beats and just one or two of the names slightly changed. But for whatever reason – maybe just because I read it first – my preference has always been for this version.
The News That Makes the News
This is one of the most intense strips in the Dailies collection, because in this one Batman comes as close as I have ever seen to having his identity exposed. At one point, there seems to be no way he will ever get out of having his real name and face spread to everyone via the news, and that he will never be able to crimefight again. The main antagonist in our story is one Reed Parker, an unscrupulous radio personality known for giving out scandalous pieces of gossip no matter how harmful they are. Reed Parker responds to Batman saving his life by promising to expose Batman's real identity to the public, so that tells you right there what sort of person he is. Lovely guy, right? Another prominent player is Senator Rae Raleigh, a character I particularly appreciated because she is a strong, determined woman with her own life, opinions, and a job that would not have been held by many women at the time. We're treated to some clever methods Reed Parker uses to get his scoops, and the story is already very interesting even before it gets intense. At one point, Batman is actually trying to protect Parker from the aforementioned threats on his life. I appreciate Batman for doing his duty and protecting anyone who needs it, but honestly, I wouldn't have been too cut up if Reed Parker had been killed...!
The Missing Heir Dilemma
As thrilling as any strip in the Dailies collection, this story is also one of the most touching. The plot centres on Batman trying, at Commissioner Gordon's request, to get enough evidence against a known criminal mastermind named Percy Swann to turn him in. But Swann insists he is reformed, and is now in the legitimate business of finding missing heirs. And his story seems to check out, leaving Batman stymied. But of course, we get to see Swann's behind-the-scenes activity where Batman doesn't, and soon find out Swann's scheme to get the fortune of a dying old man named William Jenkin by convincing a homeless young man to pose as Jenkin's long-lost son. That part of the story was really sweet, as it's impossible not to root for the imposter son, who really does want to do what's right and soon becomes fond of Mr. Jenkin. Swann in contrast is a particularly chilling villain, so calm and polite on the outside but showing himself almost right away to be cold, ruthless, and with no conscience, willing to do virtually anything to get his way. This story also lets us see a fair amount of Bruce Wayne, something I like just because it's so different (also because Bruce is really handsome). It's also the only Batman newspaper strip to feature Bruce's then-girlfriend, Linda Page. If you've read my general early Batman review, you know how I feel about Linda and that none of it is positive, but here in this one solitary strip, while I still wasn't getting any madly-in-love chemistry between them, Linda actually acts like a decent girlfriend and person. Or maybe that was also because it was the first strip I ever read with Linda in it and so she hadn't outstayed her welcome yet. Either way, if this was all I knew of Linda I wouldn't mind her at all – but someone please tell me, what was the point of giving Bruce Wayne a steady girlfriend when there was a different pretty girl around needing his help in every strip anyway...?!
Liquid Gold!
One of the main reasons I love this Sunday story is the strong woman in one of the leading roles. Ruth Parker is a plucky young woman who inherited land rich with untapped oil wells from her father, and now fights to keep her claim on it while unscrupulous tycoon Big Tim Hale does everything he can to chase her away. There's something scary about Big Tim as we very quickly see the lengths he is willing to go to to make sure he gets that land. Luckily Batman and Robin are on the case to help Ruth prove Big Tim's guilt so that the sheriff – who quickly proves himself to be a very decent fellow – can finally arrest him. The climax gives Batman and Robin the opportunity to do that all right – if they can survive it! This was one of the most exciting Sunday strips, while still being as fun as the Sundays usually are. Oh, and Ruth's pants and work boots are not an outfit you often see on the women in these strips – and I must say she is rocking that look!
The Two-Bit Dictator of Twin Mills
I don't think any strip in the Dailies left me quite so baffled as to how Batman and Robin would ever get out of this. A city called Twin Mills is entirely under the thumb of a man named Tweed Wickham, who controls the police force and runs a number of rigged, illegal operations to make himself money at the expense of others. He threatens open freedom of the press, he twists everything that happens to make himself and his allies look innocent no matter who it hurts, and then he authorizes something I found to be even more despicable than anything else he had done so far. I won't say what, because I'm not giving spoilers here, but just read the strip and look for the part about the murder, and you'll see exactly what I mean. Tweed Wickham is so good at what he does that he gets the entire Twin Mills police force to work against Batman and Robin, and proceeds to make sure the latters aren't safe in that city under either of their identities. His operation seemed foolproof, which makes it even more impressive and thrilling when Batman finds a tiny loose thread and is able to tug on it enough to unravel the whole scheme. This loose thread depended largely on a really fun character named Jojo, a formidable gunman who at first looks like his role in the story will only be to make things that much harder for Batman and Robin. Jojo's look was apparently based on the actor Peter Lorre, which I thought was really neat!
Gotham's Cleverest Criminal
If I have one complaint about the early Batman comics, it would be that all the women they introduce are pretty much the same. Whenever there was a female criminal or suspect to a crime, she would invariably turn out to not be so bad after all and reform at the end, or to not be the culprit. Which is probably why I was so delighted when the Sunday strips introduced a pretty, outwardly pleasant, but entirely ruthless female villain called the Sparrow. She is the one who has been terrorizing Gotham City recently, called the cleverest crook in Gotham by all the newspapers – and to make the story even better, she's pitted against the Joker, who is very upset to think his place as Cleverest Criminal in Gotham has been threatened. He escapes from jail so that he can outwit her, and the funniest part of all this is that the Joker, Batman's main arch-nemesis, proves not to be a match for the Sparrow! It's great fun getting to see a new, far less threatening side to one of the creepiest Batman villains ever created. This strip makes for some Joker scenes I never knew I needed. I only wish the Sparrow could have become a recurring character!
Oswald Who?
Easily one of the funniest strips even for the Sunday collection, this one is also special because we get to learn new details about the Penguin's backstory. I don't know whether there was already a comic book strip which told us the Penguin's real name, but this strip is written as Batman and Robin's first time finding out. Their amusement when they discover their foe is named Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot is nothing compared to the humour that ensues when they find out the Penguin was raised by a strict, no-nonsense old aunt who has no idea her nephew is a criminal – and is now arriving in Gotham to see him. Just like with the Joker, we get to see a whole new side to the (normally) deceptively harmless-looking Penguin as Aunt Miranda puts him in his place at every turn. Once again we get to see scenarios I never knew I needed, and I only wish I could have gotten to see more of Batman and the Penguin's pretend friendship under the watchful eye of Aunt Miranda, who was such a great character. The only complaint I could possibly have about this strip is that it was over too fast!
The Secret of Triangle Farm
This strip's resident bad guy is called the Silver Fox, named after what his gang steals: silver fox pelts, which he then sells, in his other identity of Theodore Tate, as though they came from his own fox farm. We know all this for almost the entire strip, but Batman doesn't, and much of the tension comes from waiting to see whether he and Robin will manage to figure it out, because Tate has them fooled pretty well for a time. But the really tense part happens right at the beginning, when Batman is shot in the chest and nearly dies. This story really went there, possibly more than any other Dailies strip. We get some really touching moments as Robin agonizes over what might happen to Batman, and there's some amazing Robin content as he's determined to catch the criminals who nearly took the life of his guardian, crimefighting partner, and best friend. And he must figure out a way to do it without worrying a recovering Batman, who is out of commission and doesn't want Robin to take any risks. I also really like the supporting cast: Batman and Robin get help from two civilians, a naturalist and his daughter, while Batman is wounded; Robin works together with a young policeman who hopes he can fill Batman's shoes; and Theodore Tate has a moll who seems very much to be the sharpest member of his gang. This is without a doubt one of the darkest and most intense strips in the newspaper collections – which of course makes it one of the very best.
And finally, in the extra-special top place:
What a Sweet Racket!
The strip that opens the Dailies collection, this was also the story that officially got me into Batman. At the beginning, Commissioner Gordon is being held hostage in a prison escape by a dangerous convict, but the real meat of the story comes soon enough when the gang that helps the convict get away captures Robin. When Batman comes to rescue him, they find clues that suggest this prison escape – and the subsequent recapture of the convict in question – may have more to it than it seems. But what I really love about this story is how it shows us Batman's love for Robin, how Batman's unable to focus on anything else so long as he doesn't know where Robin is or what's happened to him. It's equally intense for us, having no idea what the criminals plan to do with him! This is what I like to see, an action story that still has real bonds between the characters, and Batman and Robin's friendship does this beautifully. (Honestly, Batman never needed a poorly established love interest; just have Robin be the one in danger every time you want to up the emotional stakes!) It doesn't matter how much more Batman I read now; this story will always hold a special place at the top of my list.
Okay, we're done! If you've read the Dailies and Sundays – which strips were your favourites? Anything I mentioned, or are your picks entirely different?? If you haven't read them – are you going to now? Which story sounds the most interesting?? Let me know!
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