BIFF! For those who find the Dark Knight just that bit too dark, there will always be just one screen Batman – and he ruled the TV roost between 1966 and 1968 in the massively-successful camp-as-Christmas ABC TV show Batman starring the deadpan Adam West as the Caped Crusader and the wide-eyed Burt Ward as his trusty sidekick Robin. SOCK! 120 episodes of the show were made across its three colourful seasons and during the show’s run Batman and his Boy Wonder battled a whole range of iconic super-villains from the legendary comic strip – Cesar Romero’s Joker, Burgess Meredith as the Penguin, Frank Gorshin (and later John Astin) as the Riddler, Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt as Catwoman (played in the 1966 feature film spin-off by Lee Meriwether), David Wayne as the Mad Hatter, Victor Buono as King Tut to name just a glorious handful – until the show, a phenomenon which burned brightly and briefly, was cancelled in 1968 despite the introduction of Yvonne Craig as Batgirl to spice things up in the third season. POW! For various dreary legal reasons the show was never fully merchandised; Batmobiles and Batcopters were available in toy form but licensing agreements relating to actor/actress likenesses meant that proper action figures and associated toys based on the show and its characters were never an option. Until now…

KER-SPLAT! Back in March Warner Bros announced that, in conjunction with Junk Food Clothing, summer 2013 would see the arrival – at last – of an exciting new range of figures, clothes and even comics based on the classic TV show which has been a TV staple across the world for over forty years. THWACK! The time has come! From next month fans will be able to get their hands on a massive range of TV series merchandise from traditional six-inch action figures, Ken and Barbie style dolls, full-size costumes, stationery, calendars and, perhaps most excitingly, a new comic book based exclusively on the characters as depicted in the TV series. OOF!! The comic, entitled Batman ’66, will be released digitally and available as a print edition, with its first issue written by Jeff Parker, cover art by Michael Alred and interior art by Jonathan Case.

THUD! Now if someone could just get on with sorting out those DVD rights; there’s a boxset out there some of us would quite like to get our bat-paws on…

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