A Batman by any other name…

If I had to credit one thing for being the reason for my getting interested in comics, cartooning etc. as a kid it would have to be the 60’s Batman TV show. It was in early reruns when I was a little kid, my having been born in 1966 the year it was first on prime-time television. Like so many kids of that era, I spent a lot of time running around the neighborhood with an old bath towel pinned around my neck and a cardboard batarang in my hand…

The difference is I still run around the neighborhood occasionally with a cape and a batarang, but I’ve upgraded from the bath towel…

Anyway, writer extraordinaire Mark Evanier posted a little video gem on his blog featuring this public service announcement that I remember from back in 1972, featuring the cast of Batman… or so I thought:

At the time it was on TV, I thought that Batman seemed a little “off”, but I still thought it was him. Turns out it wasn’t Adam West at all, but actor, cartoonist and caricature artist Dick Gautier. Dick is a multitalented guy, but I didn’t know how good of an impressionist he was. He does a pretty convincing Adam West imitation here.

Dick is also a talented cartoonist, and I have his 1995 book Drawing and Cartooning 1,001 Caricatures, which is a pretty good book on caricature. Turns out he was also Batman, which raises him in my estimation by a considerable degree.