cover & table of contents for BIFF! BAM! EEE-YOW!: The Subterranean Blue Grotto Guide to Batman ’66–Season Two

Coming in March from Crazy 8 Press is the second volume of the Subterranean Blue Grotto guides to the 1966 Batman TV series, entitled BIFF! BAM! EEE-YOW!. This will cover season 2 of the Adam West series, following 2020’s ZLONK! ZOK! ZOWIE!, which covered season one. Editor Jim Beard, aided and abetted by Rich Handley, have assembled a nifty lineup to examine the longest of Batman‘s three seasons.

• “Shoot a Crooked Arrow/Walk the Straight and Narrow” by Stacey Smith?
• “Hot Off the Griddle/The Cat and the Fiddle” by Paul Kupperberg
• “The Minstrel’s Shakedown/Barbecued Batman” by John S. Drew
• “The Spell of Tut/Tut’s Case is Shut” by Dave Dykema
• “The Greatest Mother of Them All/Ma Parker” by Laura E. Perez
• “The Clock King’s Crazy Crimes/The Clock King Gets Crowned” by Steven Thompson
• “An Egg Grows in Gotham/The Yegg Foes in Gotham” by Brian K. Morris
• “The Devil’s Fingers/The Dead Ringers” by Peter David
• “Hizzoner the Penguin/Dizzoner the Penguin” by Keith R.A. DeCandido
• “Green Ice/Deep Freeze” by Pat Evans
• “The Impractical Joker/The Joker’s Provokers” by Bobby Nash
• “Marsha, Queen of Diamonds/Marsha’s Scheme of Diamonds” by Aaron Rosenberg
• “Come Back, Shame/It’s How You Play the Game” by Alan J. Porter
• “The Penguin’s Nest/The Bird’s Last Jest” by Lou Tambone
• “The Cat’s Meow/The Bat’s Kow Tow” by Andrew Farago
• “The Puzzles are Coming/The Duo is Slumming” by Russ Colchamiro
• “The Sandman Cometh/The Catwoman Goeth” by John Bruening
• “The Contaminated Cowl/The Mad Hatter Runs Afoul” by Chris Franklin
• “The Zodiac Crimes/The Joker’s Hard Times/The Penguin Declines” by Jim Beard
• “That Darn Catwoman/Scat, Darn Catwoman” by Dan Greenfield
• “Penguin is a Girl’s Best Friend/Penguin Sets a Trend/Penguin’s Disastrous End” by Greg Cox
• “Batman’s Anniversary/A Riddling Controversy” by TJ Glenn
• “The Joker’s Last Laugh/The Joker’s Epitaph” by Forrest Helvie
• “Catwoman Goes to College/Batman Displays His Knowledge” by Robert Greenberger
• “A Piece of the Action/Batman’s Satisfaction” by Joe Crowe
• “King Tut’s Coup/Batman’s Waterloo” by Ed Catto
• “Black Widow Strikes Again/Caught in the Spider’s Den” by James Sams
• “Pop Goes the Joker/Flop Goes the Joker” by Frank Schildiner
• “Ice Spy/The Duo Defy” by Michael Jan Friedman
• Batman PSAs by Rich Handley

I’m very pleased with how I tackled “Hizzoner the Penguin/Dizzoner the Penguin,” which was the two-parter where Penguin and Batman ran against each other for mayor of Gotham City. It was one of the show’s best stories, a great political satire.

I must confess to particularly looking forward to the essays by John S. Drew, Peter David, Joe Crowe, and Frank Schildiner the most. John and I have been friends for forty years now, and we’ve been arguing about the relative merits of the Minstrel’s one story for most of those four decades, and I’m looking forward to seeing his argument written down. Peter is covering the Liberace episode, which should be very fun to read. Joe is doing the episode I almost pitched for myself to do, the Green Hornet crossover. And Frank is covering another brilliant bit of satire, the Joker two-parter that magnificently satirized the art world.

No preorder info for this one yet, but hopefully soon…..