Is Batman 227 the "key" Neal Adams Batman book to have?

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I should have taken a picture of the horde when I boxed them up to ComicLink, but here is a nice representative sample!

 

The story in this book is massively underrated, imo. It fits with the cover perfectly.

 

It's a classic, gothic Batman story that wouldn't have felt out of place in the pre-Robins.

 

I was just re-reading the Batman's Strangest Cases treasury which has it. So great to read it in the larger size. This was a real homage to the tone and feel of the early Tecs.

+1

I've never understood why the #227 story has a reputation for being such a dog.

Granted, the Irv Novick art is a bit of a let-down when compared to the Adams cover, but even then some of the art fairly decent.

The story's about as gothic as you can get: Batman takes on a Satanic cult trying to unleash a demon, and is aided by the spirit of one of their previous sacrificial victims. Take out Batman and the story would have fit in nicely with one of DC's gothic romance books.

I guess it's tame and a bit silly by today's writing standards, but considering that public perception of Batman at the time was shaped largely by Adam West and Hanna Barbara, this is pretty intense stuff.

No question there's some 70's turds wrapped in a cool Neal Adams cover, but #227 isn't one of them.

Couldn't agree more.

I'm a fan of Novick's, and I think the interior to 227 is possibly his best Batman work. It's certainly the best splash page he ever did, imo. I think he more than held his own drawing at the same time as arguably the best DC artist of the 70's.

Speaking of the story; not only is Batman aided by the spirit of a previous sacrificial victim, at the same time the cult is preparing another human sacrifice: Alfred's niece!

Then there's the hanging panels which fit perfectly with the theme. Novick drew the expressions on the faces perfectly. Excellent layout, too.

Even though this is exactly what Schwartz, O'Neil and the artists were trying to do back then, there's a gothic intensity to this book that makes it stand out. And even if it is "only" Novick, the art adds a huge amount of weight to it. I'm pretty passionate about how great this issue is.

It's time to pull my modest copy out for reading, it's been several years. Thanks for posting some of the pages and a brief summary!

I just read the issue and I enjoyed the story. I liked the supernatural element and Batman's mysterious guide. We also see Batman feel sorrow, I won't say anything else, I don't want to spoil it for any one. One panel does make my neck hurt, postings from Cyclops above will show you why. The Robin back up story wasn't half bad, it looks to be continued in # 228, an issue I don't have, I assume Robin saves the day. I really enjoyed the art, it still looks good on 44 year old off-white pages. The story of Gothos Mansion and it's demon is true DC Bronze age horror, simple and short.

Glad you enjoyed it. The sorrow was unusual for Batman. The last panel is something you don't often see

Just a reminder that the complete auction of my slabbed Batman books (a near complete run from #201 - 253, all high-grade) will be ending in two days (this Tuesday night, Dec 2) on ComicLink.com. A lot of effort went into assembling this #1 registry run, and there are some choice books that are really difficult to find.

Obviously the highlights are the #227 9.8, #234 9.8, #232 9.8, #222 9.8, #251 9.8 and #238 9.4 (top grade for this impossible to find book), but there are a lot more in-between books.

Its a lot of books to sell/buy at one time, but Comic Link does offer time payments for buyers who want to seize this opportunity to go after this run with all high-grade books.

Best of luck!

Bob

I should have taken a picture of the horde when I boxed them up to ComicLink, but here is a nice representative sample!

 

I know what's it's like to put this set together.

Shame to see them go Bob.

At least you can say you owned them all at once.

Someone here should buy them all and keep the set together......

Comes to about $14,500 for the set.

$3600+ for the #227. wasn't this a $7k book at one point? dang, someone paid $10k for the first 9.8 on WW back in the day.

GPA has the last sale at $5k in the last year. 9.8's are stupid expensive. I can see the rationale for selling them.

Comes to about $14,500 for the set.

Comes to about $14,500 for the set.

$13,318.

Is that what they ended up selling for?

Wow. Big night. Both Bats 251 in 9.8 outdid 227 in the same grade. I wanted Bats 235 myself, but once it broke a grand, it was of my price range.

I got out of this set at the right time last year, afterwards I noticed the books were taking a downward trend in price.

Here's mine I bought it on the cheap two years ago, I still like #232 it's better all around in every aspect, but it still is a cool cover.

Nice copy with great PQ too. Would make a great center piece in any Bats collection.

Yeah. I agree 232 is probably the better all-around book, but 227 does grow on you. I found that out as soon as I got my copy a few years ago. It certainly doesn't hurt that this issue sees more free press than any other Bats book out there from this era. I was surprised 227 was officially recognized as the highest valued Adams Bats book in Overstreet this year.

Comes to about $14,500 for the set.

$13,318.

 

Is that what they ended up selling for?

I believe the whole registry set sold for around $60,873 on comiclink.