R.I.P Adam West

Saturday June 10, 2017...I woke up to the news that Adam West had passed away.  Sad news that quickly spread as I got notifications on FB and texts passing along the news.  I had just watched the documentary "Starring Adam West" on Thursday so it was a bit surreal to awaken to the news Saturday morning.

My mom placed Batman curtains in my bedroom when I was about 3 years old.  That is my earliest Batman memory and started a love for the character that continues to this day.  I would get up early Saturday mornings and watch the Super Friends cartoons and The New Adventures of Batman and Robin.  My mom would buy me these little books with a collection of Batman stories reprinted in them from the grocery store.

I remember around 1979 Legends of Super Heroes, a special that had a group of live-action Super Heroes...including Batman, came on TV.  That was my first introduction to Adam West.  I loved it, I loved seeing my heroes coming to life.  It wasn't until 1983 that I saw the Batman Movie for the first time on a CBS Saturday afternoon SPECIAL.  I had recorded it on VHS and played it over and over again.

In 1987 I won an KHNL essay contest to "ride in the Batmobile".  I remember my dad dropping me off at the TV station and meeting the promotions director and an older gentleman.  The older gentleman introduced himself to me but all I remember thinking at that time was "who was this guy and where was Adam West?!".  Years later I regret not appreciating my meeting with George Barris more.

In 2009, a group of my friends and I got to go to the San Diego Comic Con.   The highlight of the con for my was the fact that Adam West would be there.  To get to "meet" Adam you had to stand in a line and pull a ticket from a bucket.  If you got a blue dolphin you got another ticket to see Adam, if you got a green turtle, you couldn't meet him.  They did allow you to stand in line again and pull another ticket.

The autograph session with Adam West was later in the afternoon so my pal Jackson and I had to find something for Jackson to get signed.  I had brought up the cover to my Batman the Movie DVD.  The SDCC program listed an Adam West booth in the vendors area so that is where we headed.  As we got closer to the booth, there was one other guy and we noticed that Adam West was sitting at the booth!  Jax and I ran over to the booth and there was Adam West, two other gentlemen (one who I would later learn was Ralph Garman!) and a woman he would introduce to us as his wife.

After the previous guy had left Jax and I excitedly expressed what an honor it was to meet him.   I bought a couple of photos, got him to autograph my DVD cover and got a copy of "Adam West Naked!".  While he was talking with us, Jackson kept nudging me saying "camera, camera"  I kept saying yeah yeah...not realizing he was asking me for the video camera to capture the moment.  I took a picture with Adam West and before we left, we gave him some macadamia nuts that we brought with us from Hawaii to give to some of the guests.  He graciously took the macadamia nuts and turned to his agent and said "why don't we go to Hawaii, we should go to Hawaii."  "I used to do a show in Hawaii you know..."

We ended up giving our autograph session tickets away because our meeting with Adam West in the vendors area was better than the autograph session we had tickets for.  We weren't being rushed and we got to talk with Adam for a few minutes and get a photo with him.

Jackson and I got to meet Adam West one more time in 2012.  At the New York Comic Con he had an autograph signing with Burt Ward.  Unfortunately this time, we had to stand in line to get an autograph and you couldn't take photos or really talk to either Adam or Burt.  We were able to give the macadamia nuts again and once again, Adam turned to his agent and asked "why don't we go to Hawaii?"

I'm a fan of all of the actors who have played Batman so far but Adam West was my first Batman.  It was a sad day, I watched a few episodes of the '66 show and later that evening a bunch of us watched "Starring Adam West" again.  I have nothing but good memories of Mr. West...Thank you for all you've done for me and all your fans.  Best wishes to your family...Rest in Peace Adam West...our Batman.  

Justice League Tuesday (NOT a review)

Justice League Tuesday!  I stopped by Target to get their exclusive JLA Adventures DVD earlier in the day and when I got home and was about to start watching it, I saw that they also released Justice League War for digital download.  I purchased War from the Google Play store and got ready for some back to back DC fun.

I was surprised to hear about JLA Adventures a few weeks ago.  The cover image reminded me of the young reader line of DC books that you could usually find at Target or the junior section of Barnes and Nobles.
The "movie" started off like an episode of Challenge of the Super Friends with the heroes and villains running at each other before the title splash started the show.  The animation was on a Saturday morning cartoon level...not bad but not the level of the DC Direct DVDs we've seen lately.  The story revolved around the Justice League battling the Legion of Doom before Luthor and a villain named the Time Trapper sent Solomon Grundy, Toy Man, Bizzaro and the Cheetah back in time to eliminate Superman and thus prevent the Justice League from forming.

Diedrich Bader voiced Batman bringing back memories of Batman the Brave and the Bold for me.  I wasn't too familiar with the rest of the cast...but then again, it's Batman.    I enjoyed it and all the little "Super Friends" references in the show.  The ending was left wide open for a follow up movie.  I wouldn't mind if DC/WB put this out from time to time.

Justice League War on the other hand was a love it/hate it movie for me.  I thought the animation was great, the voices were pretty good and the story/action was enjoyable though understandably different from the source material.  The problem I had wasn't really with the movie but the fact that I'm not a big fan of the New 52.  Three years after DC rebooted the universe, I'm still not used to the fact that the characters themselves are different...not just modernized but almost different people (but that's for another post).  Following the first arc of the New 52 Justice League story line, DC's big 7 (minus Aquaman add Captai....errr...Shazam...) must put aside their differences and work together for the first time to stop Darkseid from taking over the Earth.

I enjoyed both, will be picking up Justice League War when it does come out on DVD/Blu-Ray in a couple of weeks to add to the collection.

The first song/mp3 I bought on iTunes many years ago was Mr. Brightside by The Killers...today, I bought my first movie off of iTunes.  Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2.  I was initially gonna wait for the Blu-Ray/DVD combo to be released in a couple of weeks but since iTunes had it early, I decided to get it there to watch it.  I'll probably still pick up the DVD.

I really enjoyed the movie, probably more so than Part 1, and I liked Part 1.

Some of the logo Bat shirts...

I was cleaning out my dresser drawers and trying to organize it.  As I was trying to sort out the various shirts, I placed most of the Batman logo t-shirts on the side...

There was a bunch I didn't get in the shot as well as the non logo shirts, the ones with Batman on it or a comic book cover or something other than the logo.

Batman Vinyl Pop

My current collection of Batman POP! Vinyl Figures.  There are a lot of variants out there so it's hard to get them all but I have three so far.

Adam West gets his star

This isn't my picture but it's such a great picture that I hope the author of the photo doesn't mind if I use it.  If I had the money, I think I would have headed out to Hollywood to witness this in person.  Adam West got his star on the Hollywood walk of fame today April 5, 2012.  Hopefully he'll be at the New York Comic Convention later this October.  It'll be pretty cool to meet him again.

Batman @ Kawaii Kon 2012

We went to the Kawaii Kon this past weekend.  We usually go only one out of the three (four?) days and see our pals Jon J. Murakami and Sam Campos at their respective booths.  It's always great to see all the costumed characters running around but this year there was a couple of guys dressed as Batman and Bane from the Dark Knight Rises.  One of the highlights of the "Kon" for me.

I did think it was interesting and actually great that there were a lot of non-anime/manga related characters at this years event.  Don't think it'll happen but I think that the con could grow bigger if it opened itself up to more genres.  Still, had a good time this year at the event.