Jason Czeskleba writes to ask…
On a message board I frequent, news about Mr. Gorshin's death has sparked a debate about whether the Batman TV show saved the Batman comics from cancellation. I'm not a participant in the debate, just an observer, but I'd never heard that claim before and now I'm curious if there's any truth to it. I was always under the impression that the Batman books may have been in danger of cancellation during Jack Schiff's tenure, but had recovered in sales after Julie Schwartz took over. Neither side in this debate I've been watching has been able to cite a definitive source for their claims. So I thought I'd ask you…
That's what I'm here for. Sales on Batman and Detective Comics slipped quite a bit in the 1960-1963 period under editor Jack Schiff and as this was a period when the Superman books were gaining, that was a cause for concern at DC. The numbers I've seen suggest that the bat-books weren't actually close to cancellation — many comics were selling less — but obviously, if sales on any book are dropping and nothing's done, that day will come. To ward it off, they did an editorial swap: Julius Schwartz took over those two books in '64 and Schiff got two of Schwartz's — Mystery in Space and Strange Adventures. The third title Schiff had been editing — World's Finest Comics — was shifted over to Superman editor Mort Weisinger.
Schwartz didn't turn his two books into best sellers but he did reverse the downward sales trend. Later, when the TV show came on, sales shot way up but by then, Batman and Detective were off the Endangered List. So no, the show didn't save the comic. The main effect, apart from a nice cash flow, was that the heat from the ABC series enhanced the value of DC Comics and led to its acquisition by a corporation, Kinney National Services. Nothing in the industry was quite the same after that.
By the way, I picked the above photo to run because it always struck me as funny. It's a good thing those folks are wearing masks because otherwise, someone might be able to recognize them. I have a hunch the one at right might be The Joker but of course, with the mask, who can tell?