Over at the Luxury4Play website they posted some photos of the brand-new Lamborghini Car that will be in the next Batman Movie, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. This will be Bruce Wayne's new Personal Car ( Christian Bale ). If you remember in the last movie, he wrecked his other one trying to save that Accountant Guy, ha! The L4P reporter not only got some great shots of the Lamborghini Car but also the new "Wayne Manor", this is in the UK.
An online company named STARGREETZ has hired Adam West to make audio recording for eCards, eInvitations, & Ringtones. Yes, you can now get the Original 1966 TV BATMAN to say your name! The messages are custom-tailored for Birthdays, Get Well Wishes, Graduations, etc... It sounds kinda fun. To check it out, click HERE!
OK, Every week we post a few FREE Brand-New BATMAN WALLPAPERS here at the Bat-Blog, it's called "Wacky Wallpaper Wednesday"! This week I was really struggling with what to post. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw how these 2 random backgrounds totally mirrored each other. OK, I know it's dumb, ha ha! but look at the size & angle of the Bat-Symbol in each of these pictures... they're almost the same! Now, the 1st one is a photo sent in by a Batman Fan who, one day, cooked a Bat-Biscuit! Hey, you gotta admit it looks pretty neat & is very creative. He did a great job on it! Now, the next wallpaper background is a CGI-rendered image of a young Bruce Wayne in the alleyway with his murdered parents. The looming shadow of the BAT symbolizes his future. Anyways, we hope you enjoy these. Please be sure to come back next week and we promise we won't be so weird, ha!
Finally! DC Universe is finally starting to release some images from their next animated film, BATMAN: YEAR ONE. Of course we're talking about the animation-version of the famous Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli Graphic Novel by the same name. Today, The Hollywood Reportergot some EXCLUSIVE images from the movie. We also get a list of the voice actors: Bryan Cranston ( AMC's Breaking Bad ) is playing Jim Gordon, Ben McKenzie is Bruce Wayne / Batman, Eliza Dushku is Selina Kyle / Catwoman, and Katee Sackhoff is Detective Sarah Essen.
Forbes Magazine, the leading source in news on Capitalism, has just released their "Fictional 15" List. Every year they rank the top 15 richest fictional characters. For a magazine that's known as "extremely serious" this Fic15 is very tongue in cheek and just a lot of fun! It usually includes people like Uncle Scrooge, Jed Clampett, Richie Rich, Mr. Monopoly, Tony Stark ( Iron Man ), Montgomery Burns ( The Simpsons ), etc... Well, Bruce Wayne ( The Dark Knight ) was # 8 on the list, ha! For more info, click HERE!
Batman is on the cover of this month's YALE Alumni Magazine! No, seriously! Some very serious Scholars have done a lot of research and found more than one example of proof that Bruce Wayne, while in his early "Batman training days", had gone to Yale & even got a Diploma! They cite "Detective Comics # 439, page 16" where there's an image of Batman standing in Bruce Wayne's office & it shows a framed YALE Diploma on the wall, ha! They also use the proof from another piece of Bat-Hstory where Batman is looking at a Wayne Family Photo Album & there's a picture of his Grandfather wearing a Yale Football Uniform & there's some comment about 3 generations of the Wayne Family going there. There are also many more fun references that are total proof that "Batman Went To Yale", ha! For the complete story be sure to visit the YALE Alumni Magazine website, just click HERE!
Side Note: Remember that there are different articles to read online, just look for the "March/April 2011" issue.
Here are some pictures that have been heavily circulating around the Internet. They are Concept Art for an idea for a new animated TV Show called GOTHAM HIGH. Basically, it's the entire World of Batman as teenagers. Yes, teenagers, ha! You have Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon, The Joker, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, The Penguin, Clayface, Two-Face, Bane, etc... I have to admit the artwork is very good and the character's quirks & personalities are all caught pretty well ( Be sure to click on the 1st image for a large, more detailed, photo ). But, personally, I'm extremely happy that this never got off the ground. Now, some people have said that if it did get green-lit that it would have been fun... because it's such a train wreck. Plus, one friend said he would have liked to have seen the Action Figures made from this show because the character designs are kinda neat. What do you think?
Just a quick post to share the beautiful artwork of Cameron Stewart for the variant cover to BATMAN: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #4. Cue music, "I wanna be a Cowboy, Baby!" ( You know, the song by Kid Rock, ha ha! )
Just in case you've been worried about how much money Batman ( Bruce Wayne ) has, then worry no more. He made the "Fictional 15 List" at Forbes this year, whew! Forbes Magazine is known as "the Bible of Capitalism" & they're usually pretty serious about business & financial news. But every year they like to do this very cute thing where they analyze "how much money fictional characters have" & create a list of the top 15. I don't know why Bruce Wayne is on the list because he's real, ha! Well, it looks like he is among some of the wealthiest including Montgomery Burns ( The Simpsons ), Richie Rich, Uncle Scrooge, Jed Clampett ( The Beverly Hillbillies ), Tony Stark ( Ironman ), & others. To read the entire article, and for more information, click HERE!
Here's a few photos showing a very nice assortment of Custom Munny Action Figures made by a Fan of the Bat-Blog named "MischiefUO". They're really great! He did one of Batman from the modern-day comic book & the rest look like they are toys inspired by The Dark Knight movie. There's a "Bank Robber Joker with Goon-Mask", a "Bruce Wayne" figure with the early bat-suit, & a few different Jokers! Thanks to MischiefUO for sending in these great pics, each & every custom figure is extremely well done, good job! As always I want to invite all Bat-Blog Readers to send us any kind of Batman-related pictures you might have, thanks.
Our good friend Jerry, who lives in Taiwan, sent us some amazing photos the other day. He recently went to a store at some shopping mall in Taipei City called "Taiwan Figure Union". He said he saw a lot of awesome stuff, such as these 12" Batman Movie Custom Figures that some Bat-Fans got to display in the front store windows. I have to say that they are all very impressive with really great head sculpts. I mean, some of them look just like the original actors! The main focus for most of the dolls appear to be the 2005 BATMAN BEGINS movie, but in photo #2 we get to see a version from an earlier Batman movie, maybe 1992 BATMAN RETURNS-inspired. They made one of the "R'as al Ghul" character & it looks exactly like Liam Neeson, ha! They also made a more Modern Day "Comic Book JOKER" but used the body from THE DARK KNIGHT Heath Ledger figure by HOT TOYS ( in fact, I think all these customs were made using HOT TOYS bodies and it was just the heads & clothing that were customized ). The one of Police Sergeant Jim Gordon is one of my personal favorites as they did an amazing job on Gary Oldman's face. They did a few variations on Bruce Wayne's character which are pretty interesting. Overall, I would have to say that I'm very very impressed with all of these. As a side-note: I'm not really sure if they were all done by one artist or many different ones, but either way, very great work! Also, I wanna thank Jerry for taking the time to shoot these pics & sharing his love of the Batman Character with us. It's really neat seeing what goes on in Taiwan & it's so cool that there are serious Bat-Fans there too!!
Whoops! I almost forgot that today is Wacky Wallpaper Wednesday, ha ha! So, here are 2 FREE BATMAN Desktop Backgrounds I'm sure your gonna love. The 1st one is a blast from the past! It's Yvonne Craig as Batgirl on her famous Bat-Cycle from the 1966 TV Series. That show was awesome & so was she. The next one is way more "modern day" since it's the cover art for a very recent Batman title. The Comic Book Artist here is Andy Kubert & this is his version of the Dark Knight. This is also from the current storyline, "The Return of Bruce Wayne"! Please remember to check the BAT-BLOG ARCHIVES for many many more Bat-Wallpapers! Our archives are located on the left side of this page, near the middle...just click on a month / year.
From DC Comics, here are the Original Comic Book Art Drawings for the covers to BATMAN: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE, Issues # 5 & 6. They're both drawn by Andy Kubert & are totally cool! The 1st one shows the Dark Knight as sort of a Detective in a Film Noir setting. Yes, Film Noir! In the 2nd Comic Book Cover he looks like he is closer to being more Modern Day Matman. Please be sure to click on them for larger (sharp) versions!
This morning DC Comics released the Original Comic Book Art Drawings for the covers to BATMAN: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE, Issues # 3 & 4. They're both drawn by Andy Kubert & are totally cool! The 1st one shows the Dark Knight as a Pirate. Yes, a Pirate! In the 2nd Book Cover he is a Cowboy, AWESOME! Please be sure to click on them for larger (sharp) versions!
In Argentina, in 1978 & '79, DC Comics teamed up with Pepsi-Cola for a very cool DC SUPER HERO Promotion! They had special Super Hero Bottle Caps placed on their Pepsi Soda Pop Bottles with very cool graphics of a comic book hero or villain. Quite a few of them were Batman-related so that's what you see in the 1st photo, click on it for a larger version. They made ones for Batman, Robin, Commissioner Gordon ( Comisionado Gordon ), Batgirl ( Batichica ), Bruce Wayne ( Bruno Diaz ), The Joker, The Riddler ( El Acertijo ), The Penguin ( Pinguino ), Catwoman ( Gatubela ), Ra's Al Ghul ( Ragul ), & The Scarecrow ( El Espantapajaros ). The next two photos show a special in-store Paper Place Mat that contained a "Collector Board" on one side ( in color ) & a "Checker Game" on the other. These photos also show the other Bottle Caps of Superman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Flash, etc...so be sure to click on one of those to see them! I gotta say that I am totally loving the vintage graphics on all of this stuff, great stock art! The last photo is a super close-up of the BATICHICA Bottle Cap. I really love the sound of that word, Batichica! Speaking of her, these photos were all sent in by our good friend Milotik who lives in Argentina ( Thank You! ). These DC Comics Bottle Caps are a part of his amazing Batgirl Toy Collection. You see, Milotik's main collecting focus is on her & that's very cool. He has some very neat stuff, some of it extremely RARE! He even has a great website where he shares his collectable adventures called EL BLOG DE BATGIRL which you can visit by clicking HERE!
This video is pretty funny! It's a Google "Search Story" of Bruce Wayne/Batman, ha ha! In other words it's "How Batman would use Google Search if he used Google"...Hilarious! Check it out! ( Thanks to Gerry for sending the cool linkage! )
I seriously love when Bat-Blog Readers contribute stuff because it helps to create a wide variety of Batman News. Here is a great example of that. I received an e-mail the other day from a loyal reader named Jennifer who is a total Batman Fan! ( She called herself a "Girly Bat-Fan", ha ha ). For her birthday she received a beautiful flower arrangement that was totally inspired by the Batman Begins movie. It was created by Black Dahlia Floral Designs of Orlando. OK, let me explain a second, remember that "special blue flower" that Bruce Wayne ( Christian Bale ) had to find on the mountain top so that Ra's al Ghul ( Liam Neeson ) could make a special potion to "help Bruce find the truth"? Well, that movie prop was a combination of 2 real-life flowers put together to create a foreign unknown "blue flower". The base of the flower was created using the broad-spike leaf-pattern of a Blue Thistle & the part in the center, that was the "Blue Flower", was a Blue Anemone Bud. They were both dried out & combined to make the special blue flower that Bruce Wayne had to find. Well, as you can see from the photos one of the main components to this flower arrangement is the Blue Thistle. It's interesting to note that the florist's supplier called this flower the "Batman Flower". It must be pretty popular. I wanna thank Jennifer for sharing both the wonderful photos & the cool information. I didn't know that day that I would learn something new, ha ha. ( I always wondered, "What is that special blue flower used in the Batman Begins movie?" ) Plus, the flower arrangement is totally awesome, it's really beautiful. Thank you Jen.
One aspect of the Bat-Blog that I really enjoy is getting to meet people from all over the world who love the character. It's totally crazy to me how Batman is so popular all over the globe. I think that's neat. Now, one thing I like to do here every now & then is cover Batman-related news from other places but a lot of times I totally can't understand the language. Sadly, I only speak English & if a website or other information is in another language ( like German, Spanish, Japanese, etc...) then I'm screwed! It mainly happens when I talk about brand-new bat-merchandise ( Toys, Comic Books, etc ) I have found outside the USA. Now of course I don't mean for this to be offensive in any way. I'm just an idiot who only speaks one language, ha ha! Well, the other day a friend of mine who lives extremely far away sent me a wonderful list of a few "Batman Words" that are in Spanish. I thought it was pretty interesting so here it is ( Hey, You didn't know you were gonna learn something new today, did you? ):
This video is a short 2-minute interview with the famous comic book artist Alex Ross. In it he's discussing the graphic novel he painted called BATMAN: WAR ON CRIME. The main focus, really, is how he approached the visuals of Bruce Wayne. Alex's artwork is very realistic & highly detailed. ( Thanks Michael for sending this ).
