As some unknown force runs like a cosmic Bill Dozier across the multiverse…
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Update: Grayscale for it all probably helps sell the newsprint throwback vibe but part of the point was to emphasize tension in the mashup. Not to mention that color makes the episode title’s font more recognizable.
Photo © 1967 ABC / 20th Century / Greenway.
TV’s Batgirl, Yvonne Craig, left us last month at 78. She was more than just that description — to fans of Star Trek, in which she appeared as the green-skinned Orion woman Marta; to Elvis aficionados, having co-starred in two of his films; and of course to her loved ones, as wife, sister, mentor, and philanthropist.
Craig’s passing was announced on her website through an obituary and more personal note from her family. Mark Evanier posted a remembrance that includes a delightful anecdote of meeting her and Julie Newmar at a Hollywood autograph show. (Well, I should warn you that it ends somewhat less than delightfully, after the part about the comic book wherein Batgirl first appeared, depending on your taste for cringe.)
I find Craig’s Batgirl and Barbara Gordon one of the absolute best things about the 1966-68 Batman series, and not merely for her striking figure in that skintight purple suit. Her sass, her keen intellect, her confidence, her literal as well as figurative poise — all elevated the show’s final and otherwise least impressive season whenever she was onscreen.
Heidi MacDonald, a longtime journalist and editor who runs comics site The Beat, coined a great phrase several years ago: “satisfying chunk”. More than ever that’s what I’m after when reading new material, with issues costing 3 to 4 bucks
a pop — not just a steep price on the face of it but one that suffers in comparison to copious collections of recent material that easily best the per-chapter price of single issues and usually throw in extras to boot. There’s also a wealth of archival material now available nearly impossible to even imagine a couple of decades ago.
I greatly appreciate series that compel me to reread often, too, and reward my doing
so in different ways:
That’s Leonard Nimoy hitting the skins next to Adam West.
I came across this photo from the late 1960s, photographer and location unknown
to me, via one blog link that led to another. You know how it goes. I hit a wall once a Tumblr post led to a Facebook page that I can’t access ’cause I’m not on Facebook.
