Miscellaneous content: Batgirl To Dare The Darkness Audio Adventure by Doug Moench

Another audio adventure tied in to the Batman & Robin movie was Batgirl: To Dare The Darkness. 

Written by Batman comic book regular Doug Moench and starring the movie version of the character Barbara Wilson. The story is set just after the movie and sees the character go on a solo adventure against Black Mask. 

This was originally published as a short paperback in 1997 and aimed at kids/teenagers (it's only 122 pages). Unfortunately an adaptation was not made of the other spin off novel Robin: Facing the Enemy by Alan Grant.

Anyway, this is an interesting curiosity being one of the only stories to feature the Barbara Wilson character and worth a listen. I don't have the cast list for this by the voice actress does a great Alicia Silverstone.

Miscellaneous content: Batman & Robin Audio Adventure by Kid Rhino

Some of the most popular videos on my youtube channel are the audiobook adaptations of Batman Returns and Batman Forever. Both are three hours long and read by supporting actors from the films. They are really worth a listen because they pull little extra details from the novelisations that flesh out the stories.

Unfortunately for the more kid friendly Batman & Robin they chose to do this - a short 35 minute audio drama. It's more like listening to a movie than having a book read to you - with only minimal narration. Anyway, it's still interesting to hear the 2 hour plus movie be condensed to a quarter of it's length. 

The cast is as follows:

Don Leslie as Batman

Jim Soriero as Robin

Todd Cummings as Mr Freeze

Deborah Stoll as Poison Ivy

Peter Waldren as Alred

Jay Gregory as Batgirl/Narrator

Cards: Storyboard Card Series 3 & 4 from Skybox

 Following on the previous post - here are the other two sets of storyboard cards from Skybox that cover Mr Freeze's imprisonment and then escape from Arkham Asylum. 

Sadly that's all Skybox released for the Storyboard card line however I have found an interestingly interview with Tim Burgard - the storyboard artist that drew these. Check it out here.

Cards: Storyboard Card Series 1 & 2 from Skybox

Skybox held the licence to produce trading cards for Batman & Robin (taking over from Fleer who handled the Batman Forever line). They produced a massive range of cards for the movie - all of which were produced in "widescreen" format making them a couple of centimetres longer than most trading cards.

Probably my favourite set is these collection of cards featuring storyboards of some of the key sequences - I believe the artist for these was Tim Burgard. They offer a fascinating look at what the early concept for the movie looked like - in particular notice how Robin is still wearing his old costume.

Here are series 1 and 2 - which cover some of the battle at the museum from the beginning of the film.

Concept Art: Robin costumes

This week we're looking at concept art of the Robin costume used in the movie. These were designed by Miles Teves and based on the then fairly new Nightwing costume that Dick Grayson wore in the comics. The only change was the addition of a cape and a red bird logo on his chest (rather than the blue in wore in the comics).

I always felt it was a shame that the Robin costume from Forever didn't get reused as it's really only briefly seen in the last 15 minutes of the previous movie. Interestingly the storyboards do depict that costume so the filmmakers must have at least considered that option. 

Concept Art: Batman costumes

It's about time we looked at some of the concept art for Batman & Robin. I've always had a bit of the problem with the blue suit they used. I really missed the yellow oval and hated the raised eyebrows they added to the cowl. These designs - by Miles Teves - are all vastly superior. I particularly like the second one with reminds me of something DC might have used in an Elseworlds Batman story.

Magazine Article: Film Review Special #20 - Part 3

Last part of the Film Review Special is a few photos from the premiere and then a long interview with Alfred Gough about his long career.