The Batman ’66 Project: A Graphic Design Love Letter To The Campy Caped Crusader

There are some facts that you can't get around: Kirk is the best Captain of the Enterprise, Road House is a masterpiece of American cinema, and the best Batman is Adam West Batman. Sorry Christian Bale, Kevin Conroy, those old guys in the serials, Diedrich Bader and the Holy Bat-Trinity of Keaton, Kilmer and Clooney; but you can't argue with facts.

The Bat-verse of the 1966–1968 TV series and feature film manages to take the inherent silliness of the core concept of Batman -- a rich guy and his young ward dressing up to fight costumed villains whose plans regularly involve insane death traps -- and builds a world where this behavior is considered perfectly normal. Despite all this, it's all still recognizable as being Batman, a character who so wonderfully lends himself to multiple permutations and interpretations. And not only is the show funny, but it also looks flat-out fantastic despite its obvious cheapness, having been designed right at the intersection of Modernism and hippie culture. Plus, that theme song is the business.

It was these qualities of the winking, swinging version of the Caped Crusader that led me to create The Batman '66 Project, a gallery of 64 images celebrating the heroes, villains, allies, props and vehicles of the series and film. You can view the entire series here, but in the meantime, here's a few of my favorites. Thanks for tuning in, Bat-Fans.