In sixty years of continuous publishing, Batman has had more adventures than any other comic character, except perhaps, the one who started the whole trend, Superman. Within the pages of Batman, Brave & Bold and Detective Comics, plus team-ups with The Man of Steel in World's Finest, with other DC favourites (The Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Hawkman etc.), not to mention his adventures within the ranks of the Justice League of America, the Caped Crusader has faced a bizarre collection of adversaries.

For a near mint condition of Batman #1 expect to pay somewhere in the region of £50,000.

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Just thought you should know there was also a UK BATMAN reprint, not sure how long it lasted but it spanned a number of spin off titles in the late 80s. This was my first introduction to the small USA comics, very shortlived but excellently edited from the LONDON EDITIONS stable who had the UK DC licence. They had been producing a number of annuals (BATMAN, SUPERMAN, DC SUPERHEROES) successfully for years and wanted an easy way into the then lucrative comic book market.

They had tried with THE SUPERHEROES, a black and white fortnightly but im not sure long it lasted - ended in mid 1980 I think (not more than 12 issues think, critically cclaimed but not a viable success - it left them hungry for more and with a dedicated older fan base).

BATMAN featured reprints of post crisis stories mixed with classic stories that were significant in their own right or that still fit in with the post crisis BATMAN mythos. I seem to remember it had incredible articles, WHOS WHO fact files and lots of history, timeline information and loads of stuff like that. They actually resold them to the american audience, they used to appear in DC COMICS adverts and they also used to sel their back issues at an ever increasing price - sound business really eventually.

LONDON EDITIONS was squeezed out by FLEETWAY and bought out by them, with BATMAN and companion title SUPERMAN being folded into each other - the paper quality and the title was relaunched 2 or 3 times eventually reprinting the DEATH of SUPERMAN BATMAN storylines simultaneously.

FLEETWAY canned its whole line of teenage and childrens titles in favour of nursery titles that were proving increasingly popular and BATMAN became BATMAN ADVENTURES reprinting the cartoon adaption and eventually after FLEETWAY bought out REDAN & Co it became a LOOK AND READ type title (although this is the first time it has featured original material, albeit basic generic single panel cartoon animation style).

I think in its heyday it lasted 46 strong issues before it was watered down by the FLEETWAY takeover, the title continued but i didnt follow it after that - there were also 8 SPECIAL EDITIONS (eventually quarterly) and an adult mature readers magazine called ZONES which lasted 4 issues and featured a CATWOMAN mini series, SWAMP THING, HELLBLAZER and ANIMAL MAN amongst others it was great. - Tony Hutchison

If you have any other information on Batman we would be very happy to hear it.