Today is the 100th birthday of legendary Batman artist Dick Sprang. Though he passed away in 2000, Sprang’s influence and contributions to the Batman mythos are still felt to this day.
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Sprang illustrated the majority of Batman and Robin’s Silver Age adventures throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Illustrating the cover and pages of Detective Comics, Batman, and Batman’s newspaper strips. As the first major ongoing Batman artist after Batman creator Bob Kane, Sprang’s lighthearted interpretation of Batman and Robin became the unofficial “house style” that other artists conformed to in other Batman titles. Sprang brought a whimsical and family-friendly take to the Caped Crusader, often sending him to outer space or placing him on flamboyant set-pieces (anyone else remember the giant typewriter?. He brought some of era’s most memorable Batman stories to life, including “Joker’s Millions” “Batman #20” and more.
Even after Sprang left Batman to illustrate Superman’s adventures in 1955, his visual stamp on Batman endured. It wasn’t until 1964 that the Batman comics moved past Sprang’s design for the “new look,” which incorporated a more realistic style and the now-classic yellow oval over Batman’s chest symbol.
Sprang was born on July 28, 1915, and passed away on May 10, 2000 at the age of 84. But as the artist’s memory enters its first centennial, his legacy and importance to Batman will endure for years to come. Happy Birthday, Dick Sprang!
