*DC: Our second visit to our Batmania Max event this week features something different. In the mid-1970’s, when comics sales were at their lowest ebb, desperate publishers were trying new formats and wonky ideas, and Batman Family – on the surface, a silly idea – developed into a popular and well-produced title. Originally intended for an issue of the showcase title First Issue Special, a team-up of Batgirl and Robin by Elliot S. Maggin and Mike Grell languished in an inventory cupboard until someone decided to use it to front an extra-thick title of mostly reprints, focussing on the supporting cast of the Batman mythos. Batman Family #1, released in 1975, proved an unexpected hit, and after an all-reprint #2, subsequent issues featured the “Dynamite Duo”, as the Batgirl/Robin combo became known, either teamed up or in solo stories. The unlikely crimefighting partnership blossomed into an even less Likelier romance between the teenage (but legal) Boy Wonder and the twentysomething Dominoed Daredoll,and they found true lurve while battling the Cavalier, Killer Moth, and Joker’s Daughter – who made her debut in issue #6, before returning in #’s 8 & 9 – as well as teaming up with forgotten characters like Batwoman (#10 and subsequent) and the original Bat-Girl. The reprints were sidelined as the series went all-new in its teens, and a Man-Bat series was added, while some interesting art by (then) relatively new illustrators was featured; Marshall Rogers, Michael Golden, and some stunning Mike Kaluta covers being the highlight. When, with issue #17, the title went to ‘Dollar Comic’ size, and the Huntress series was added, it was a varied and intriguing read – but sadly, the infamous ‘DC Implosion’ of the late ’70s took its toll, and the title as cancelled with #20, with several features being absorbed into Detective Comics before it, too, shrank back to normal size. Great fun while it lasted, and often a quirky experimental read. This high grade complete run features as highlights a VF/NM first issue at £40, and all three early stories featuring the Joker’s Daughter character: #6 NM- £75 (pictured), # 8 VF/NM £15, and #9 NM £40 (pictured, first cover app). At best patchily distributed in the UK, and with many issues never released to newsagents, BatFam, as it’s familiarly called, is one of the scarcer DC’s on these shores in any grade.