Japanese Batman manga comics of the '60s finally released in the U.S.

Contributed by

Jan 12, 2015

Back in the early 1960s, when Batmania was surging toward its pop-culture heights, Japanese artist Jiro Kuwata created a storied manga version of the Caped Crusader that, sadly, never made it across the Pacific Ocean to the United States. These brash, space-age stories took Bruce Wayne back to his elemental, scientific detective roots. Behold the dawn of Batmanga!

After 50 years, an all-English translation of this hard-to-find Asian interpretation of the Dark Knight was just released last month by DC Comics, with Batman and Robin busting heads and battling bad guys like Lord Deathman, No-Face and the Human Ball. The 352-page paperback, titled Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga: Volume 1, compiles the first 19 out of 53 original chapters serialized in a popular manga magazine from the '60s, all drawn and written by Jiro Kuwata. Volume 2 is set to be published on July 14, 2015. A third and final volume is yet to be announced. Kuwata's sensational black-and-white stories show Batman from a unique Japanese perspective and contain an old-fashioned crimebusting flair consistent with the time period they were created in.

Here's a sample of the stylish artwork to savor until you can get your mitts on a copy.