An Alfred sequence too good to limit it to just a panel or two!:
Panels from "The Duped Domestics!" in Batman #22 (April-May 1944),
script by Alvin Schwartz,
pencils by Bob Kane,
inks by Jerry Robinson,
letters by George Roussos
'The Duped Domestics" was reprinted in Batman #255, one of my first comic books. Quite a contrast with the chilling (no pun intended) classic "The First Batman" and especially the new lead Wein/Adams/Giordano story! (I do love Alan Napier's Alfred dressing up as Batman on the old Adam West show, though.)
I'm glad comics aren't as brain-burstingly stupid as they were in the forties. Batman keeps his spare suit in a drawer? Alfred can physically pass for Batman? Alfred telling people he knows Batman to impress the ladies? Come on. I know they were for kids back then, and this reads like a seven-year-old's idea of how things would go if he were Alfred, but I'm just saying I'm glad comic plots have matured in some ways.
(Even if in many other ways we're still in bone-headed adolescence.)
4 comments:
'The Duped Domestics" was reprinted in Batman #255, one of my first comic books. Quite a contrast with the chilling (no pun intended) classic "The First Batman" and especially the new lead Wein/Adams/Giordano story! (I do love Alan Napier's Alfred dressing up as Batman on the old Adam West show, though.)
I'm glad comics aren't as brain-burstingly stupid as they were in the forties. Batman keeps his spare suit in a drawer? Alfred can physically pass for Batman? Alfred telling people he knows Batman to impress the ladies? Come on. I know they were for kids back then, and this reads like a seven-year-old's idea of how things would go if he were Alfred, but I'm just saying I'm glad comic plots have matured in some ways.
(Even if in many other ways we're still in bone-headed adolescence.)
Chance, I'd say, sure, it's silly, but it's fun and charming.
I'm pretty sure this is the same story that sees Alfred, dressed as Bats, spank Catwoman. It might be off-panel; but still!
I got to know Alvin in his later years, and retold the whole story to me once.
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