Comic Book Men

How did Batman get Robin?

Bruce Wayne adopted Dick Grayson

after Bruce Wayne saw Dick Grayson's parents murdered

at a circus.

He watches the kid's parents get killed.

He immediately scrambles out there.

He's like, "you want to live with me?"

Is that the way it went?

- No. - No.

- Actually... - he does a little private-eying.

- Okay. - He goes and checks the ropes.

He's like, "acid on the ropes."

- Right, of course. - "This was murder."

Mm-hmm.

So he goes and solves the murder,

but he also sees himself in Dick.

- Grayson. - Oh, okay.

- He's a multi-billionaire, man.

It's like if Donald trump today was like,

"I want a ten-year-old boy, pronto!"

- He has a ten-year-old boy. - He's got it there.

It's there yesterday.

One of the celebrity apprentices is on it like that.

All right, imagine that.

Getting adopted by a billionaire.

I don't care what I had to do.

I-I would dress up like a ten-year-old boy.

Have a giant lollipop, pinwheel hat.

Kinda like you, man.

Comic Book Men 1x01.

"ON THE AIR".

Hello, and welcome to comic book men.

I'm Kevin Smith.

Bryan Johnson.

- Walt Flanagan. - Ming Chen.

And Michael zapcic.

If you've ever listened to this show,

you know that anytime I'm anywhere near the motherland,

uh, my home and native land, New Jersey,

I love to sit down with my fellow podcasters...

the meat in the sandwich here, if you will,

at Jay and silent Bob's secret stash.

Comics.

Walt runs the secret stash,

and he's kept it alive in an economy

where comic book stores are failing left and right.

Oh, my God. Get a room.

As long as I've known Walter,

my friend Bryan Johnson here

has known Walter much longer.

They go back to even grade school.

Bryan, one of the funniest people in the world,

he's here at the stash all the time.

Doesn't quite work here, though.

No.

What do you do here all the time?

you guys must have, in your youth,

read comics with an eye towards the hot superheroines.

Who was your dream heroine?

My favorite has always been Caitlin Fairchild,

gen 13.

You couldn't handle that.

Oh, I could definitely handle that.

How dare you?

He's ready to flip the table.

What a moronic answer!

- Zap? - I'm a Catwoman guy.

- Are you really? - I am. I love Catwoman.

Which version of Catwoman?

Uh, goggles' Catwoman.

Goggles paisano Catwoman, yeah.

- Really? - I like the purple...

purple dress Catwoman for me.

With the slit. With the little cape.

Slit up to the thigh.

And she had the cat o' nine tails.

- Oh, yeah? - Uh-huh. No.

I'm going with goggles.

I'd go, uh,

zatanna, chick magician.

She wears a little tuxedo and fishnets.

- Right. - She's already in fishnets.

She's half-undressed already.

And she's magical.

So if you're a terrible lay, she could be like,

"I forgot."

- Hey, how's it going? - Hey, how you doing?

We have a toy store down by the shore,

and we got a bunch of comic books in,

which we don't really mess with. Okay.

I was hoping that you could take a look at them.

- I'd be happy to. - Cool.

Hey, Walt!

I just brought some stuff that I thought would be key.

Wow. Look at that.

Whoa. Hypodermic needle.

Have you ever seen this?

You know what?

I've only heard about this book.

"SET IN NEW YORK CITY - BATMAN'S CITY WASN'T NAMED 'GOTHAM' 'TIL ISSUE #48"

Back in the '40s, it wasn't as scandalous,

I don't think, to put a needle on the cover

as it came to be in the '60s and '70s.

There was no code back then, right?

No code.

And a hypodermic needle, I guess,

wasn't as synonymous with...

Drugs?

Illicit activities as it is today.

At a certain point, they were banned.

Really?

D.C. tackled heroin, remember?

With Green Arrow discovering his kid's sidekick, Speedy,

was sitting there shooting up.

Still shocking to this day

when you see Speedy

shoving that needle into his arm,

and then you see Green Arrow in the background,

you know, shocked.

- Heartbroken. - Heartbroken.

And green lantern, you know...

- has to hold him back. - Yeah.

What do you think he's holding him back from?

Like, "I must help him!"

Or "I'll beat him

within an inch of his life!"

'Cause it was the '70s, and you could get away with that.

You don't know what Green Arrow's gonna do.

If you remember, in that comic,

- he smacked him around. - Did he really?

- Yeah, he slapped him. - Well, how old was Speedy at this point?

Speedy was 17.

But Speedy is not Green Arrow's son.

He's just his sidekick,

the way Robin is not related to Batman.

Are you allowed to slap some sense into him?

- Of course. - He's not your kid.

That's like walking up to somebody else's kid and be like, hey!

are you allowed to bring Robin in to fight the penguin

and the joker?

Good point.

I was wondering if you could give me

some kind of value or what we're talking about here.

In the condition it is, 300.

But I think I couldn't make a profit on it.

It just seems like it's...

it's the condition that hurts it so much.

Yeah.

I actually have one more Batman item I brought.

This I thought was really, really unique.

Oh, ho, ho.

Whoa.

Bob Kane, 1970.

The creator of Batman.

"BOB KANE SIGNED ORIGINAL SKETCH CIRCA 1970"

"FIRST APPEARANCE OF BATMAN AND ROBIN WAS IN DETECTIVE COMICS #38"

This is amazing.

How did you get this?

This came in with this collection.

The collector who got this apparently was eating in a place

that Kane was eating in New York.

And, uh, he asked him if he would do a quick sketch,

and Bob did it for him.

In 1970. Bob Kane, no longer with us.

This is a one-of-a-kind.

I mean, this has gotta be priceless.

It was the classic Kane, you know.

Grinning ear to ear.

Happy to be fighting crime.

Happy to be fighting crime.

- Batman used to be happy? - Yeah.

At least, that was the Bob Kane.

And every time he drew Batman,

he had, like, this giant smile, and Robin too.

- That would be off-putting, though.

Like, you're mugging somebody, and then someone

dressed like the Batman shows up,

but he's smiling.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Even with those smiles, behind it,

there's still something spooky and eerie about it.

Unnerving, like, "why are you smiling at me?

Stop it." And he's...

still, you talking about Batman and Robin.

I mean, I think it's Santa claus, Michael Jackson,

Batman, and then Robin are the most recognized faces

on the earth.

- Robin? - Yeah.

I think so. Batman and Robin together.

Jesus nowhere on that list.

It looks like whatever Kane drew this on,

there looks to be... you can see some words

coming through the other side.

Like, it almost looks like a script

or a document of some kind, something typed.

I've always been curious what was under there,

but I was always worried it was gonna diminish the value

of the piece by opening it.

That's a concern, but it doesn't look like

- it was a professionally framed piece. - Right, yeah.