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General Chat => Help! => Topic started by: JayzusB.Christ on 16 October, 2009, 08:19:48 PM

Title: Old DC annual
Post by: JayzusB.Christ on 16 October, 2009, 08:19:48 PM
I got a DC Supeheroes annual for my birthday as a kid, and it was actual pretty darn good.  It featured a Batman story (possibly by Alan Moore?) where the Joker locks him up in the 'Rumpus Room' in an ice-cream factory, in which he has to fight a Samurai Jack-in-the-box and a load of deadly toys.  It was my first taste of the dark, scary side of Batman.
There was also an Atom story where Ray Palmer is planning to reveal his identity to his girlfriend, and a JLA story set in space.  Also some other story about a bald guy with an old-fashioned voice; not too well up on my DC Universe, to be honest.
Any ideas what the year and title was? Thanking you
Title: Re: Old DC annual
Post by: Emperor on 16 October, 2009, 09:09:17 PM
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 16 October, 2009, 08:19:48 PM
I got a DC Supeheroes annual for my birthday as a kid, and it was actual pretty darn good.  It featured a Batman story (possibly by Alan Moore?) where the Joker locks him up in the 'Rumpus Room' in an ice-cream factory, in which he has to fight a Samurai Jack-in-the-box and a load of deadly toys.  It was my first taste of the dark, scary side of Batman.
There was also an Atom story where Ray Palmer is planning to reveal his identity to his girlfriend, and a JLA story set in space.  Also some other story about a bald guy with an old-fashioned voice; not too well up on my DC Universe, to be honest.
Any ideas what the year and title was? Thanking you

I have a few of those DC annuals (like the one with the Superman cover by Kevin O'Neill) but not that one. However, I do have the Batman story in a French-language reprint (mentioned in another thread) and it seems to be called "Machiavellian Joker", written by Gerry Conway with art by Don Newton and Dan Adkins. The actual name is "The Joker's Rumpus Room Revenge!" and appeared in Detective Comics 504

http://joker.wikia.com/wiki/Detective_Comics_504

Which might be a start.
Title: Re: Old DC annual
Post by: JayzusB.Christ on 16 October, 2009, 09:29:54 PM
Good work, fella, that's definitely the same Batman story.  Not sure why I thought it was Alan Moore - possibly because it was good.  Great line from Batman too - 'Donald didn't duck'.
Title: Re: Old DC annual
Post by: Emperor on 16 October, 2009, 11:04:53 PM
So I bunged that all in Google with a dash of my sublime web-fu and found the only other place on the Net discussing this:

http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=27390&PN=1&TPN=1

::)

Anyway it also turned up the right volume, The Super Heroes Annual 1984, and it explains why you were thinking of Alan Moore:

QuoteDescription:

UK hard cover annual. Reprints DC comic strips. Full colour art. Stories featured are JUSTICE League of America: Star Fall, The Atom: 'The Umasking of the Atom', Superman: Mister Mxyzptlk's Crime Circus', Batman: The Joker's Rumpus Room Revenge plus the original text story by Alan Moore(illustrated by Bryan Talbot) 'Protected Species'.

www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=993401904&searchurl=an%3DElliot%2B%2526%2BMoore

The Alan Moore Superman story is original to that annual making it quite a collectible item:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Moore_bibliography#Text_stories_and_prose

You can read it here (although I'm assume legality is... iffy at best):
http://home.insightbb.com/~fourcolorheros2/freeread/SupermanUK1984.pdf