Background
The 1996, the Batman TV series starring Adam West prompted a Batman craze in Japan. In response to this, the shōnen magazine Shōnen King and its publisher Shōnen Gahōsha licensed the rights to make their own Batman stories, with the full consent of the original Batman publisher, DC Comics. In 1967, the stories stopped and were never compiled into volume format.
David Mazzuchelli, creator of Batman: Year One, became aware of "Batman" manga's existence when he went to Japan for a cartoonists convention. The Japanese told him about a manga adaptation of Batman, information he later passed along to his good friend, premiere designer and novelist Chip Kidd. Chip Kidd had been a serious fan of Batman ever since the age of two. When the TV series came out in the US, Chip stayed loyal to the series even while his friends started watching Happy Days.
Chip Kidd met Batman collector Saul Ferris through eBay when Kidd was bidding on what he thought was a rare, mint Japanese Batmobile toy. Ferris emailed Kidd that Batman's original tin head had been extracted from the Batmobile and replaced with a cheap imitation, rendering the toy virtually worthless. Shortly afterward, Chip Kidd and Saul Ferris became friends. Ferris has an extensive collection of non-U.S. Batman comics, including Japanese comics. Once Kidd saw the extensive amount of Batman Japanese manga and toys in Ferris' collection, Kidd put together a book proposal to DC Comics. Paul Levitz, then head of DC Comics, who is likely the most knowledgeable person in the world regarding DC publications, was not aware the Japanese published a series of unique Batman stories in 1966 and 1967. The Bat-Manga! project was given the green light with Mr. Levitz' blessing. The Batman manga was released in English in the book Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan. Chip Kidd designed the book while Geoff Spear photographed Saul Ferris' collection of toys and Batman manga stories. Anne Ishii and Chip Kidd translated the Japanese into English. DC Comics' archives contained none of the manga stories and unfortunately, Ferris' collection had holes in the run so not all the stories could be published in their entirety.
Read more about this topic: Bat-Manga!: The Secret History Of Batman In Japan
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