Batman #194

Batman #194 (On Sale: June 6, 1967) has a wonderful cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson. No damn Go-Go Checks makes for plenty of room for Infantino to work his magic. Great work!

I also think this cover was Infantino's attempt at doing Jack Kirby. The DC editors were being told to make their books look more like Marvel comics and I think this cover was part of that attempt.

We start off with "The Blockbuster Goes Bat-Mad" by Gardner Fox, Sheldon Moldoff and Joe Giella. Mark Desmond formerly known as Blockbuster has reformed and taken a job as a handyman at the Wayne Foundation. During a trip to a department store, Mark seems a Batman display which sets off an uncontrollable fit of anger. Mark soon reverts to his Blockbuster persona and goes on a rampage against anything and everything connected to Batman.

Batman is called to stop Blockbuster. In the past, Mark has calmed down when Bruce Wayne is present, so Batman unmasks. This time the strategy fails, and Blockbuster continues his rampage.

We end with "The Problem of the Proxy Paintings" also by Gardner Fox, Sheldon Moldoff and Joe Giella. Martin Tellman contacts his friends in the Mystery Analysts club to help solve a mystery in which he possesses authentic paintings worth thousands of dollars instead of worthless copies. With Batman's help the Analysts discover that Tellman's wealthy friend Reginald Stonefellow switched the paintings. He gave Tellman the paintings as a gift, but Tellman wouldn't accept them if he didn't use the ruse.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.