Updated: August 19, 2026

As everyone knows by now, Batman is that gentleman of the crime-fighting business who doesn't smoke, drink, cavort with women, or strike a man wearing glasses. To millions of pint-sized bat fans watching the Caped Crusader's twice-weekly adventures over ABC television, he is a clean-living James Bond who combats evil with exciting gadgetry $[Zap!]$ and muscle $[Kapow!]$. Among adults, many of whom are making return engagements as bat fans, he is an old-fashioned square, ludicrously refreshing in a hip world. All this has made for a dynamic dual appeal to young and old which has been driving the country batty.

A marquee over a Clark street bar announces the place is "Protected by Batman." In a laundry across the street, a sign exhorts "Help Batman and Robin Fight Grime. "A California disc jockey has launched a "Batman for Governor" campaign and people may now or soon will be able to mail Batman greeting cards, soak in Batman bubble bath, drink a batini, dance a batusi, or wear a batwig. Amid the bat craze, adults who remember when Batman was like IBM stock in the old neighborhood comic book trading session may be pleased to learn the Caped Crusader is strong again in the comics. As a service to old bat fans and those discovering him for the first time, The Tribune will carry the daily adventures of Batman on its comic pages, beginning Sunday. All of these developments, of course, have followed Batman's startling success as a midseason replacement show on television.

Batman features imaginative production, terrible plots, awful dialog, and an asylum full of improbable archcriminals who might've studied under Ian Fleming's Goldfinger and Dr. No. Actors and actresses are positively pining to play such guest villains as The Penguin $[Burgess Meredith]$, The Joker $[Cesar Romero]$, Zelda the Great $[Anne Baxter]$, Mr. Freeze $[George Sanders]$, and King Tut $[Victor Buono]$. Actor Adam West, who plays Batman, claims the show's appeal to children is more that of an Alice in Wonderland than of a James Bond thriller. Holy Mad Hatter! Picture the Rabbitâ€"that lop-eared lowdown creature of Wonderlandâ€"slowly lowering Alice into an acid vat. Zowie!