Batman:
What is Batman
Day?
Is it
the Anniversary of Batman's First Appearance? Or
what?
According to DC
Comics, Batman Day is September 17. Ok, that is nice, but
what is it supposed to really mean? While any event
celebrating the Dark Knight is worthy of celebration,
September 17 is not, in reality, the anniversary of
Batman's First Appearance.
First, let us
look at what DC Comics is saying about Batman
Day:
From DC Comics
official
Batman Day announcement:
Get
ready for the celebration of a legendary superhero
who we all love, the Dark Knight himself, Batman.
DC Entertainment has made it official, Saturday,
September 17th 2016, will be BATMAN DAY.
The
annual fan-favorite event, now in its third year,
was first introduced to honor the iconic
character's 75th anniversary.
Based on that
statement, you typical Batman fan would naturally assume
that Batman first appeared on a September 17 long, long
ago. Unfortunately, reality, and historical evidence,
does not support this idea.
Batman's first
appearance was in the pages of a comic book called
Detective Comics. In issue #27 of that title, DC Comics
(then called National Comics), introduced a frightening
vigilante in a Bat costume who called himself The
Bat-Man. The cover date on this comic is May, 1939. So,
does that mean that Batman Day should be in May?
No, since the
official cover date on comics is more an indicator of
when the comics should be pulled from the shelf, rather
than the actual publication date. Multiple sources
(including the Library of Congress Copyright Office's
Catalog of Copyright Entries for Periodicals for 1939),
show the actual publication date of Batman's first
appearance as March 30, 1939! That is the date that this
now-historical issue of Detective Comics was
copyrighted.
Thanks to
Mark
Seifert at Bleeding Cool
for the original research on this topic.
So, while the
geek in us loves the idea of Batman Day, the historian in
us wishes that DC had picked a date that actually meant
something. Oh well, at least they got the year
right!
Happy "Batman
Day!"
