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Batman Returns
SEPTEMBER_09
Table of Contents
(1—7)
  • DC Comics 
  • Masks or... 
  • Legend 
  • R
  • Direct Marketing 
  • Linked Resources 
  • MyQuiz 


GOLD Archive

GOLD no.45, Jun. 09

GOLD no.44, Mar. 09

GOLD no.43, Dec. 08

GOLD no.42, Oct. 08

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Italian Text
© Roberto Dondi
dmlr.org(SM)
     
    DMLR*Newsletter — GOLD Edition no.46
    I. DC Comics.

    I confess. I have recently spent less time with books. Now I hang out with Batman, Joker, Robin, Catwoman because I have become addicted to their Animated Series! Read on...
    (All characters featured in this issue, and all the distinctive likeness thereof and all related indicia are trademarks of and © DC Comics.)
    Officers, night watchers, scums --they are used to say the same words: "it looked like bat wings...". The narrative magma that are the comics has offered a never ending source to feed TV series and stories for the big picture. As the comics are always searching for a new generation of readers, the designers have been able to contaminate the original character with the filmed ones. The two Batman directed by Tim Burton, for example, have pushed the comic strips again and given a new impulse to relaunch the saga of the dark knight.
    During decades of adventures the players have produced several and contrasting versions on the origin of Batman. Not to say of the past of Catwoman, his female competitor, a thief able to help others less fortunate or simply an old bat? And Robin has changed his identity many times, often disappearing from the scene at all.
    A question is spontaneously rising. Who really invented the Batman? Vin Sullivan, a comic strip publisher, or Bob Kane, a young draftsman? Maybe Leonardo da Vinci, a genius lived 500 years ago, obsessed with the idea of helping the men fly as well as brown bat? What about the Warner Bros. then? Who could say I'm that ONE?
    Fine. I prefer focusing on the Batman directed by Kevin Altieri!
    Useful links here:
    1. Batman --The Animated Series ©1992, www.wbshop.com
    2. The complete works of Frank Miller, moebiusgraphics.com
    3. DC Comics, www.dccomics.com



    II. Masks or... Maniacs?

    "Good evening, folks, I'm the Joker!".
    But first a word of our sponsor...

    [Guinness Draught] ...just sitting at a bar and watching as the bartender pours you one... the dark liquid rolling around, a surge of bubbles and cream... almost a warning... visit www.guinness.com

    "My sanctuary is Gotham City, here the crime has a crush on me.
    My laugh on the air at crash TV time
    you won't let the kids watch it...
    Too bad Batman,
    is such a party pooper!"
    The Joker is used to manipulate the people as audience, he's both scarying and entartaining like a PARTYMAN!
    Meanwhile at the Iceberg Lounge the gang led by the Penguin is partying on and the come ons and music fuse to create a perfect groovy atmosphere, somewhat SCANDALOUS...
    The drinks flow freely and all the guests are mingling, making introductions, getting to know each other...
    Breaking barriers and sharing the truly wonderful Gotham experience, a magical place where people unwind, find their true selves, make friends, do business.
    A place to talk, laugh or (BAT)dance --the night away free from restraint and convention.

    [Sin City?] ...somewhere at East End... Batman always returns... visit Batman: The Dark Knight Returns!
    How does one explain the appeal of our hero, the mysteries of that symbol, even though it's only the animated series? It works on so many levels: cool gadgets, relevant plots, outmoded animation. But surely the best comes from the chemistry between the lead characters. Expecially Catwoman is a style icon for any time. She has a way of being that lived and breathed independence, intelligence, illegal sexy...

    [Bat-maniac] ...loyalty beyond reason... be inspired to submit a story of your own... visit Batman as Lovemark!


    III. Legend.

    Bruce Wayne says that he wants to confess, and this leads us to ask an obvious question: should we believe him? "It's all right. If you are righteous it's all right".(*)
    Commissioner Gordon, Detective Bullock, Alfred, Vicki Vale, Robin. Acting like friends?! The Joker, Penguin, Man-Bat (what a confusion!), Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc. Acting like dangerous villains?!
    Only one person --an addition of a detective plus a martial arts fighter-- dialoging with a database, could pimpoint every man and woman as bad or good. Batman strenght derives from being such a data warehouse manager processing, mining and analyzing clues like no other before. Without getting shut up in Arkham Asylum, all those characters are already prisoners of this all-including computer located at Wayne Mansion.
    Since the legendary Dark Knight is not a faker, he is supposed to tell the truth... the truth... but in his genuine confession the words are based largely on fiction where it is essential to mix everything with a mistruth: lying as a means to make the truth more believable!
    On second thoughts Batman's rather acting like the main promoter of a legendary place: Welcome to Gotham City, America's Playground. His logo identifies both a justice person and a collapsed model-city. His logo is projected into the dark sky of Gotham because he is the guide to the introspection of that community --the adventures at Gotham Mint, Opera, University, or Zoo as the background and prototype of its paradoxes, myths, ideologies, and contradictions. When questioned on the state of American society (as seen on cartoons), our Justice League member commented: "We're involved in all the conspiracies, we're the guilty criminals. We're dead characters, but this also entails a certain dose of beauty by golly!"(**). He's ultimately acting his age, speaking for the Gotham underworld he's supposed to oppose to...
    Along with his stories, old and new ones, the marketing strategy keeps on filling up a wide range of Bat-shaped hi-tech devices, e.g. Batarangs.
    The most amazing of all his nocturnal eccentricities is the black Bat-mobile, a great mix of dream car and experimental safety vehicle (ESV), whose craftsman is Mr. Cooper, a skilled and unwanted mechanic, left out by the automotive industry. Are some gangsters shooting to the Bat-mobile --as best we can say: are they kidding? Maybe they are new in town...
    The legend is living on www.batman.com.
    (*) The voice is of Kevin Conroy. (**) From the Gotham Gazette.



    IV. R3.

    [For Joy and her brave children. For living 2gether]
    The Magnificent and The Marvelous --two children-- started wearing the masks a day during the last Carnival period. At motherly school the nursery teacher organizing the fancy dress party asked the parents for help.
    We would like - thanks to your aid - to enhance the disguise corner in the class by means of objects and materials... When we watch the children while they are working alone or with us, we are going to realize the imitations, gestures, words, and the mime are directly related to the richness of materials, as for quantity and quality... (from the letter to the families.)
    A list of recyclable goods followed in order to suggest what the school managers needed, for example:
    • uniforms
    • old carnival disguises
    • aprons
    • mechanic overalls
    • white coats
    • hats
    • underskirt
    • cloaks
    • handbags
    • sunshades
    • high-heels shoe
    • boots
    • belts
    • ribbons
    • wigs
    • clocks
    • bangles
    • crowns
    Many objects can be found on cellars, attics, or just lumber-rooms containing materials that haven't been using anymore...
    If not chucked nor reused for the children, those formerly unload objects would have gone onto the cartoons with a flash and a roar! There you can recognize those declining or forgotten goods revamped by an impromptu technology transfer beside our tetchy super-heroes or their grim hyper-enemies, alive and kicking in the joy fantastic of strips, movies, cartoons...
    Moral of the story. The Magnificent went out to the school masked as Batman, The Marvelous as Spiderman. The little one often confusing his mask for Superman, because of the same colors in their masquerade (red+blue). No kid would have done it, but he's only 3-year old. Next year better he gets into Robin so they will face the same adventures 2gether.
    (While I follow them busting a move and filling supermen's shoes I know they won't look like the imposters walking uphill on Hollywood Boulevard, L.A.. They are just two brave brothers fighting the evil as all the children used to do: they know their FUTURE lay in acting!).
    PS. R3 stands for Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. A formula worthy of the green-maniac reigning on Robinson Park at Gotham City.



    V. Direct Marketing.

    The DIRECT MARKETING glossary is available on DMLR in a 3-document edition (PDF) you can browse here or easily download onto your desktop. It consists of 19 pages as a whole, 311 paragraphs/terms, 236 Kb, 7450 words, 44772 types!
    Select and print the three parts of the glossary in English from PDF::Menu.
    Sure the Internet has been changing the traditional snail-mail based direct marketing. And yet the Internet marketing is a consequence of the old direct marketing somehow. Many terms you'll find inside the DM glossary are suiting for the e-mail marketing too...


    VI. Linked Resources.

    Finally, this is an active link to creative opportunieties for the comics designer.


    VII. MyQuiz.

    What is a 'trademark'?
    Fine, it's
    a logo, sign or symbol that distinguishes organizations and/or products from one another It is a form of intelelctual property right, which endorses a particular product or organization in order to protect consumers from counterfeit, fake or substitute goods that are not produced by the trademark holder. As for the whole meaning of trademark, read it on The Penguin Dictionary of Marketing.
Copyright 2009 - All rights reserved (except where indicated). Issued: September 25th, 2009.
Roberto Dondi --word processing, HTML and the ropes.