Kevin mentioned some volumes of Batman short stories; there
are three
that I know of, all edited by Martin H. Greenberg. The
stories vary
wildly in quality. My favorite story from these anthologies
is Stewart
M. Kaminsky's "The Batman memos." Kaminsky's story is told
indirectly,
through interdepartmental memos from Jack Warner, and members
of his
staff. It seems Warner Brothers wants to make a movie of
Batman's
exploits and is dealing with Batman's agent Bruce Wayne,
who's just
arrived in Hollywood. There's a kidnapping, which is
apparently solved
by Batman, but it's not clear--the only hint is a puzzling
note from a
night watchman who makes reference to a man "dressed like an
umbrella"
skulking around the corridors.
Finally, I'll mention that Joe R. Lansdale has written a
couple of
Batman novels, and the one that I read, _Batman, Captured by
the
Engines_, is really pretty good. This novel is closer to some
of
Lansdale's more wild horror novels (like _The Drive-In_), and
Batman is
almost ignored to the point of becoming a supporting
character in his
own novel. Still well worth seeking out.
-- James Stephenson Rare Books & Special Collections Cataloger McKeldin Library University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 Mailto:js272@umail.umd.edu # # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.