Remembering Adam West

This one hit me hard, folks, and I learned about it much the same way I had heard that John Lennon was dead. I awoke the next morning to my radio playing Beatles song after Beatles song, thinking what a great way to start the morning, with Beatles music.

For Adam West, it was similar, happy to sad. I had just spent a terrific day with The Bride at EPCOT, we were getting on the bus, and I checked my phone, hitting Facebook. I saw a really cool picture I'd seen before - my good friend Andy Burns, our friend JP Fallavollita, and Andy's daughter (in fierce Wonder Woman cosplay) standing in front of the Batmobile (the real Batmobile) with, you guessed it, Adam West and Burt Ward. I was jealous the first time I saw the picture, and jealous this time, so I posted as much. I was in a good mood, and then I saw other Facebook posts on my feed… Adam West had passed away at the age of 88. I was crushed. It was if my childhood had dropped out from under me. I was staggered by this for a couple days. It couldn't be true.

My earliest memory regards an incident in my family first house.  I was around two and stepped on a heating grate burning my foot.  I don't remember any of that, but what I vividly do recall is my brother giving me a toy Batmobile to get me to stop crying.  At our second house shortly after that the room I shared with my big brother had only two things on the walls: a Detroit Lions pennant and a picture of Batman.  I have talked before about the 1966-69 "Batman" TV series starring Adam West being the gateway drug to comics for not only myself, but for an entire generation.  In many ways, my childhood has taken a hell of a hit. 

Adam West as Batman affects me to this day.  This past weekend I thought of him on three different occasions before learning of his passing.  Andy's photo on Facebook was one.  I saw Return of the Caped Crusaders on Blu-Ray in a store and I thought I needed to own it sooner or later.  And at EPCOT on the Test Track ride, I deliberately tried to design a car just like the Batmobile. 

Other than his wild global success as Batman, Adam West had a pretty rough life, battling depression, alcoholism, and typecasting.  It wasn't until he came to terms with always being remembered as Batman that things turned around for him. Gone were the days of getting shot out of a cannon and doing terrible pilots like "The Precinct."  Batman could overcome anything.  His unique deadpan camp humor even found a home on "Family Guy," conquering a whole new television generation. I even met him once, great guy.

Adam got the Batman gig after producers saw him playing a James Bond parody for Nestle Quik commercials.  Ironically he would be considered for the role of the real Bond years later.  He beat Lyle Waggoner for the title role on "Batman," who probably would not have been able to pull it off.  Batman would take over the world – Adam West himself has been quoted as saying that the sixties were all about the three Bs - Beatles, Bond, and Batman - and it's true.  And "Batman" would not have worked without West.  He was the only choice. 

West had done other things, movies like Mara of the Wilderness, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, and Poor Devil all of which I loved, and are recommended, but he always returned to Batman, whether it was on "Superfriends," the 1970s Filmation "Batman," as the Grey Ghost, Back to the Batcave, or the aforementioned Return of the Caped Crusaders. 

Adam West passed away on Saturday after a short battle with leukemia, he was 88.  In my mind and in my heart, he will live forever as the only Batman that counts.  We have lost a true legend, and the Bat-Signal burns for you, my friend. 

Favorite Movie Props

When Inaluable: The World's Premier Auctions asked me what my favorite dream movie prop to own would be, I came up with several possibilities. I started at the top however, with my favorite films.

My favorite film of all time is The Great Race, and props from that are it easy to pick from. Perhaps one of the sabers used by the Great Leslie and Baron Von Stuppe in their duel, or half of Professor Fate's frozen mustache, or best of all, perhaps the miniature of the Hannibal Twin-8. Dream props from other fave movies might be Conrad Birdie's guitar from Bye Bye Birdie or the robot Maria from Metropolis, or even the puppet miniatures of the two kaiju combatants in 1964's Mothra Vs. Godzilla.

If we're going genre, I might want Thor's Uru hammer Mjolnir or Captain America's shield from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The comic book shown in the beginning of Superman The Movie would be awesome, as would a can of Shark Repellant Bat-Spray from 1966's Batman. But of I'm going to choose a movie prop from that movie, it would have to be the Batmobile, one of the coolest vehicles on Earth, even if I couldn't drive it in the rain.

Of course, if I did want to drive in the rain, I would pick another movie prop that's a famous convertible - definitely the coolest car on Earth - the Mach Five from Speed Racer. One push of the D button on the steering wheel and the cockpit is sealed to the elements. And that's not even mentioning the auto jacks and cutter blades. The Mach Five rules, and would be my ultimate dream movie prop.

This blog entry was inspired by Invaluable and if you'd like to see more favorite movie props, check out their collectibles section here, including a recent auction of Han Solo's blaster here. Thanks again to Invaluable. Now what are your favorite movie props?

Comic Book Men

AMC wanted to cash in on "The Walking Dead" so bad that I guess they accepted any show about comic books. Now don't get me wrong, I am a hardcore Kevin Smith fan, but "Comic Book Men" is, on many levels, a disappointment.

Unless Kevin Smith himself doesn't know what he wants this show to be, it seems to be suffering from a lot of outside, or possibly even inside interference. It's all over the place. Sometimes it wants to be a reality show, sometimes a bad imitation of "Hardcore Pawn" and other shows of its ilk, sometimes an extension of Smith himself, sometimes a podcast on video, and sometimes just an outright commercial for the Secret Stash store, Smith, and/or AMC. Could they really get any more Smith or Walking Dead merch in the camera frames?

Having frequented comic book shops all my life, I can tell you, that except for the guy who doesn't work there and never leaves, this is sooo not like a comic book shop. They did however have to clean up the Secret Stash, which was a relief. I've been there, they cleaned, believe me. The occasion of folks coming in wanting sell stuff doesn't happen all that often, neither do hockey games, or sadly women in the shops. And of course that's the other thing that bugs me about it, the supposedly unscripted employees are more than a little sexist - perhaps they should be scripted.

Maybe they could focus on the buying comics from customers concept, or the roundtable podcast concept, or just make it Kevin Smith-centric - I really enjoyed the Jason Mewes/Batmobile episode. Maybe it could be cut down to a half-hour, but it must focus, and pick a direction. Sadly the one thing I enjoy about visiting a comics shop, talking comics, has only been featured once, and they mocked it. To me that's what the show should be about, sans ridicule. If you're fanboys (and girls), embrace it!

Right now, we're three episodes into a six-episode run. I hope it gets better, and finds its center. It would be nice to have a geek home on television, especially smack between "The Walking Dead" and "Talking Dead."

The Ballad of the Batmobile

A recent trip to the Berlin Farmers Market (that's the Berlin Auction for all of us who actually grew up in the area) brought on a scary flashback for me. I saw a kiddie ride there, a battered, dusty, broken down kiddie ride still bearing a 25¢ per ride sign. It was the Batmobile. It was the Batmobile from the old 1966 "Batman" TV series, albeit in a scrunched up miniature form, and built for little kids to get inside and ride for a couple minutes on a quarter.

This particular ride may not have been the very one that sat just inside the old Acme Market on the White Horse Pike in Berlin back in the late 1960s, but it might have been. I remember that ride very well even though I never got the chance to actually ride it. I know I begged to ride it, I know I cried to ride it, I'm pretty I misbehaved my butt off to ride it. I wanted to ride the Batmobile sooo bad. And quite frankly, I still do to some extent.

This mania to ride the Batmobile was brought on by the TV series, which during its time was the biggest thing going on in pop culture of the day - and for a generation of young folks, it was everything. It was for me. The "Batman" TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward certainly was everything for me, and it ignited this obsession I still have for comic books.

Batman and Bat-paraphernalia was everywhere, especially in my house. I had a picture of Batman, Batman slippers, and of course dozens of comics. Every Matchbox and Hot Wheels car I had was imagined to be the Batmobile at one time or another, I would use baggie ties to put little capes on army men, and who didn't tie a towel around their neck and pretend to actually be Batman?

As I stood and looked at this ancient relic of a bygone age, this Batmobile ride, I thought of all these things and smiled. I knew it didn't work any more, but I did wish for a quarter, and I did wish I could ride in the Batmobile. I never did, on this model, but I think we all know, the Batmobiles of our imaginations and memories are much much cooler.