366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 141

The first two pages of the ten-page entry on Alfred from The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes, Volume 1: Batman by Michael Fleischer (1976, republished 2007).

The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes: Batman is an amazing reference guide with hundreds and hundreds of entries on the characters, events, and tech of the every Batman story of the Golden and Silver Age, from 1938 to the early '70s. It may be dated by now, but this is still an amazingly entertaining reference guide; I find so many great delights in it, again and again. Fleischer published this book (and accompanying Superman and Wonder Woman encyclopedias) during a period when most of the "canon" had not been reprinted, so his chronological history and dedicated puzzle-assembly of the stories is groundbreaking: without the Fleischer encyclopedias, I don't think we would have had the authoritative works of internal comic book history like The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and Who's Who in the DC Universe. And it inspires you to want to re-read all the original stories, which are now more easily available to us today through DC's Archives, Chronicles, and Showcase Presents reprint series. Two hooves up: I highly recommend it!