Batman celebrates 75 years with free issue, Dark Knight timeline

DC Comics is celebrating 75 years of the Dark Knight with a free comic book. On July 23, a.k.a. Batman Day, DC Comics will give away copies of Detective Comics issue 27. No, not the actual 1939 comic book that introduced readers to Batman, but a retelling of that original story by best-selling author Brad Meltzer and artwork by the always amazing Bryan Hitch in an all-new, special edition of the mega-size New52 issue, designed by Chip Kidd (Bat-Manga!), and I have to say it’s nice to see one of the original creators, artist Bill Finger, credited on the cover of a Batman comic.

DC Comics, the comic book company responsible for Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and many more, was once National Allied Publications, which was publishing New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine, New Comics, and finally Detective Comics, which became the name of the company itself for awhile, though it was publicized as Superman-DC and only officially christened DC Comics in 1977. It was with the publication of the original Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of the Bat-Man, that DC started to become what we know today.