Batman 1940 #395 Direct ed. - back issue - $5.00

The Film Freak holds a 44 magnum to Batman's head a la Clint Eastwood.

Batman and Catwoman team up to track down The Film Freak, a one-time actor turned theatrically-themed thief, while Robin teams up with Harvey Bullock to do the same.

Dick Giordano writes of his love for the character of Batman since his childhood years of 1941-1942 and introduces the soon-to-be historically groundbreaking graphic novel The Dark Knight, by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varley. He also introduces the then-new and unique format for this series of four volumes: "The books are 48 pages long, full-process separations on good paper with heavy-weight covers, perfect bindings, and square-backed, in every way graphic novels, except they fit in a standard comic book rack. All this for 2.95 each, a bargain any way you look at it!"

On-sale date from DC Releases #24.

• - Colors credit confirmed by Anthony Tollin.
• The Film Freak - Story continues in Detective Comics #562. Story title from Ralf H. Kienzle. First appearance of The Film Freak. The character of Frank, Picture News entertainment editor, is visually based upon then-popular TV personality and film critic Gene Shalit, known for his distinctive, outsized handlebar moustache. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Shalit META MOMENT: To catch The Film Freak, Robin and Bullock stake-out the North Gotham Art Gallery where valuable movie memorabilia is to be sold at auction. BULLOCK: "Sure wish I could go in there an' browse. I hear they got one o' Bogie's [Humphrey Bogart] hats an' a yellow brick from The Wizard O' OZ." ROBIN: "And no doubt Burgess Meredith's pointy false nose." - referring to Meredith's portrayal of The Penguin on the Batman TV series (1966-1968).
• Meanwhile... - The new format that Dick Giordano describes would quickly become an industry-wide standard employed to the present day. Initially dubbed "The Dark Knight Format", it soon became known as "Prestige Format" - a designation it holds to this day. This column shares the page with "DC Check List" ("On sale week of February 13") which is located at the very bottom of the page.
• Bat-Signals - Letters of comment from David Seigler, Thomas Roynane, Brian D. Scott, Chad Cayler, Jeff Mitchell, Glen Hald, Juanita S. Wood, Carlos E. Torres Pizarro and Stan Johnston.