Batman OnStar Magazine Ad

Below is an awesome painting of Batman that was an ad in a May 2000 magazine for the OnStar automobile emergency service. The suit is screen-accurate, based on the one from Batman Forever. I just don't make the connection between pushing a button on your dash to call for help and "becoming Batman." They also did a series of TV commercials that were very memorable (and better than "Batman and Robin"). You can view a compilation of all of them on this Youtube video.

(Click on images to enlarge; you may have to click
on it again once it opens to view it full-size.)

"Criminals, beware... I'll squeeze your gonads until they burst like rotten figs!"

Below is the cardboard box top for the plastic figures of Batman and the Joker that held candy, that came out in 1989. I ate the candy and saved the toys; it would been too weird to do it the other way around.

Is it wise to accept pill-shaped candy from Jack Nicholson's Joker?

Batman Magic Photo Kit

From one of the late 1960's comics in my collection, comes this ad for a mysterious "something" that makes photos. For years I wondered what it could be... it surely wasn't a camera.

(Click on image to view full size. After it opens, you may need to click it again to view it larger.)

Some of the mystery may now finally be dispelled, at least for me, as in researching this item I found this comment on another blog that featured the same ad...

Andy Vaughn on August 23rd, 2007
I had the Batman Photo kit in the younger days. It consisted of 6 negatives with scenes from various Batman stories of the day (I remember a couple of them were Batman fighting the Bouncer). Several pieces of photo paper, and a hard plastic sheath were also included. You would take the photo paper, and place a negative over it, then place both in the plastic sheath which you would then hold up to a light source for 5 minutes. After that, a picture would appear from the negative onto the paper. It was really neat, and I remember playing with it for hours. However it was lost somewhere in time. Sure which I would have kept up with it!

And there you have it.

1989 Family Channel Batman ad

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This full-page ad, published in a fall 1989 cable trade magazine, is a very nice rendition of Adam West's campy Caped Crusader.

June 1989 "Time" article on Batman movie

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"Time" magazine article on Batman from June 19, 1989.

It's very hard to believe that it was twenty years ago last Tuesday, June 23rd, Tim Burton's breakthrough Batman movie opened. It just doesn't seem like that long to me. But it has been, and I've seen nothing online commemorating that in my (admittedly limited) web browsing. It was looking through stuff to post on my "Held Over!" blog, posted the first Batman movie ad, then realised: "Holy Coincidence, Batman!" I was only off one day in posting it 20 years after it premiered! So, here are a few items from the old scrapbooks. starting off with the most mainstream of venues, "Time" magazine.

A couple of articles from the local WV newspaper where I lived at the time it came out...

This was only lucky dude in the clipping below, but the car had no engine! I wonder what he ever did with it... probably sold it to some collector or museum. What good is a Batmobile if you can't hop in and tool around town after dark?

Below, from USA Today, a trio of Jokers yuk it up in line waiting for the movie to open.

Here's the newspaper ad I posted over on "Held Over!"

Below you'll see one of the press kit publicity photos for the movie.