The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

Despite the tragic death of Heath Ledger, the intense ad campaign for The Dark Knight continues. Most of these ads reflect the rather dark and disturbing mood the film is sure to revel in. And for many Bat-fans, this is how it should be. Batman is, at its core, a pretty dark and disturbing franchise about a kid whose parents are murdered and trains for years to become a high-tech vigilante.

But it wasn’t always this way. Despite the gritty origins of the character, ol’ Bats had become a bit watered down by about the mid-1950s. This is due to a number of factors, but chief among them was the restrictions placed on all comics by establishment of the Comics Code Authority in 1954. The height of the character’s neutering came about, however, with the 1966 debut of the Batman television series.

Thanks to the initial success of the show, a feature-length movie was filmed in April/May 1966 and released in July. It was accompanied, naturally, by a host of printed materials such as posters and whatnot. Many of these posters reflect the campy nature of the show and movie. Others are…well, they’re actually rather scary. Let’s take a look… Read on Daddy-O…