From 1966 to 1989, as far as the world of popular culture outside of comics was concerned there was only one Batman, and his name was Adam West. Though the show only originally ran for three seasons before it’s cancellation, reruns of the series’ 120 episodes have been in continuous television rotation throughout the world to this day almost fifty years later.

Though the network originally planned a more serious adventure series for younger viewers, producer William Dozier, having never read any Batman comics previously, checked out a few issues and decided the only way “Batman” could work was as a campy, action comedy. While modern audiences have embraced a much, much more serious version of the Dark Knight in movies, video games, and even cartoons, television viewers of the 60s were more than happy to welcome a Caped Crusader that fought crime more often than not in broad daylight and spent just as much time extolling the virtues of teeth brushing and vegetable eating as he did socking bad guys.

With its pop art style, outlandish characters, ridiculously catchy theme song, parade of over-the-top villains, endless Bat-gadgets, and a hero who wasn’t afraid to surf, the series was an unparalleled success. In fact, it was such a success that for the following several decades the comics industry as a whole struggled to get out from under the BIFF! BAM! POW! shadow the show had left in the collective consciousness of pop culture’s view on superheroes.

One could theorize that it has taken the recent continued big budget film success of a more realistic take on superheroes for the comics industry to feel secure enough in itself to finally fully enjoy the nostalgic fun of the show. In 2013, DC Comics allowed fans to do just that when it launched a new comic series set in the show’s continuity, called Batman ‘66. A year later, overcoming decades of legal red tape and corporate foot dragging, the complete series was released on DVD and Blu-ray.

It’s in this spirit of nostalgic fun that we’ve compiled a cavalcade of some of our favorite art from said comics and the creative works of many other Bat-fans from around the internet. We hope that you enjoy it, and we hope that you’ll tune in tomorrow for more from ComicsAlliance, same Bat-Time, same Bat-URL!

 

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