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Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Great comic book runs: Batman by Marshall Rogers (Englehart and Wein)

As much as Neal Adams (with Denny O’Neil) defined Batman for me in the early 1970’s it has to be said that Marshall Rogers provided one of the most interesting takes on the Batman myth during his tenure on the character in Detective Comics (issues 471 – 476 written by Engleheart and issues 478/9 by Len Wein) in 1977/78. A great example of the wackiness and genius of these story’s is in the tale “The Laughing Fish” (issue 475) where the Joker infects fish with the Joker serum that provides that manic grin on their faces. The aim of what seems to be a pointless exercise is that Joker expects to be granted a trademark on his grinning fish which he thinks will make him a fortune. Of course you can’t grant a trademark on a natural resource so he kills any bureaucrats that stand in his way in obtaining this license. A great story that melds the world of the (then) modern 1970s Batman and the true madness of the Joker to the wacky original Kane-Robinson era. Other tales were just as inventive and all were all stunningly illustrated by Rogers giving a familiar yet stylised version of the characters. Sadly Marshall Rogers passed away in 2007 at the all to young age of 57 but he left us some wonderful comics and some great comic book covers.
Cover image taken from the DC Wiki page (can't believe I lost/sold/gave away my copy of this classic)
Issue 477 was a reprint of Detective Comcis issue 408 "The house that haunted Batman" by Len Wein and Neal Adams with Marshall Rogers providing a couple of intro/end pages into the story.
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8 comments:

  1. KidMarch 16, 2022 at 9:33 PM

    I have one of those 'Baxter paper' Special editions which I'm sure reprints some of those tales, McS. Have to confess that I wasn't wild about Marshall Rogers art on Batman (not quite sure why), but it was okay I suppose. I must dig out that Special (might've been more than one in fact) and re-read it/them.

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  2. McSCOTTYMarch 17, 2022 at 12:42 AM

    I think Marshall Rogers was an artist very much of his time a bit like Mike Grell who for me will always be the Legions artist of the 1970s. But I did like his Batman back in the day a lot. He moved on to do few lovely issues of Mr Miracle and a long run on the Silver Surfer. I didn't really like his art on the Surfer but by 1989 I wasn't reading many comics .

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  3. Colin JonesMarch 18, 2022 at 2:01 PM

    I discovered Marvel comics in 1974 and I remained exclusively a Marvel fan until about 1982 when I was given a pile of Batman comics which I enjoyed. I then started buying my own DC titles such as Wonder Woman and New Teen Titans (though I was still a Marvel fan too). By late 1983 I'd stopped buying comics altogether and I didn't start buying them again until 2007 but this time it was exclusively Marvel again. So the only time in my life that I've bought DC comics was the brief period from 1982-83.

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  4. McSCOTTYMarch 18, 2022 at 9:38 PM

    I pretty much stopped buying Marvel and DC ( with the odd exceptions) around 1985/6 and still don't pick many up now. When I was a kid DC were the big player so I always read them, Marvel really told hold for me in 1972 but buy 1977 I was getting a bit bored with many of comics.

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  5. Rip JaggerMarch 19, 2022 at 10:47 AM

    Marshall Rogers was a darn fine comic book artist. I still remember seeing his work for the first time on a back-up stories in Detective in which several DC heroes took a swing at The Calculator. His graduation to the lead was logical. Captain Quick and the Foozle was an outstanding feature for Eclipse. His precise art felt at once delicate like fine china yet had power nonetheless.

    Rip Off

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    Replies
    1. McSCOTTYMarch 19, 2022 at 6:24 PM

      Although the art was very nice I just couldn't get into Captain Quick and a Foozle at all Rip. I will give it another try as I have a few issues lying around. But no argument 're his talent he was indeed a great artist.

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  6. baggseyMarch 19, 2022 at 4:30 PM

    These were the Batman comics that pulled me back in to comic collecting briefly back in 1978, having really lost interest around 1975. What a great series. I loved Marshall Rogers' attention to detail - even the way that the comment boxes were crafted to evoke elements of Jerry Robinson's work.
    It was only a few years ago that I found out that he had done a follow-on Batman series arc "Seige" for writer Archie Goodwin in Legends of the Dark Knight #132-#136, which I picked up as low-cost back issues and found to be excellent. I also liked his third time with Batman in 2005 on Batman: Dark Detective #1-#6

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  7. McSCOTTYMarch 19, 2022 at 6:29 PM

    I think Marshall Rogers Batma n may have been the last strip I got "fanboy excited" over. At the time I just loved his wirj especially the Clayface issues . Like yourself i totally missed Siege so will need to check them out. His 2005 Batma n was a nice strip..

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