Even during his camp TV era, Batman’s covers occasionally relied on a spooky vibe. One such was Carmine Infantino’s cover for Batman 189 (Feb. 1967), featuring the revival of the Scarecrow.
Introduced in World’s Finest 3 (The Riddle of the Human Scarecrow, Fall 1941), Jonathan Crane was not so much a mad scientist as a mad teacher.
“The fools!” snarls the shabby-looking psychology professor. “Do they think I would give up my precious books just to buy clothes? They think I’m queer and I look like a scarecrow! — a scarecrow! They judge human values by money — if I had money they’d respect me — and I could buy more books!”
Selecting a “symbol of poverty and fear combined” as his criminal persona, the Scarecrow hires out as a corporate hitman. Captured by Batman, Crane escapes prison two years later in The Scarecrow Returns (Detective 73, March 1943).
“Now, aided by a gang of henchmen, he embarks on a series of spectacular crimes centering around the theme of three-letter words,” noted comics historian Michael L. Fleisher. “His ‘hat’ crime, for example, involves the theft of a collection of priceless antique hats. Batman and Robin finally apprehend the Scarecrow and his henchmen, however, in the act of robbing a curio shop in Gotham City’s Chinatown.”
That was the last we saw of the Dynamic Duo’s fearsome foe until 1967, when DC dusted him off for Fright of the Scarecrow!
Writer Gardner Fox’s cool rationalism — which is often seen in his highly regarded Adam Strange stories — works well in this exploit, enabling Batman to convincingly counteract the frightful situation in which he and Robin find themselves (blinded and trapped in a room with a panther and a leopard). Batman’s advice to Robin about how to handle fear rings true psychologically.
Had this tale been illustrated by Infantino, instead of Sheldon Moldoff doing his faux Infantino, it might have been a minor classic.
“The cover of Batman 189 was the best in a year, in fact one of the best Batman covers I can remember for many past years,” wrote Robert Jennings in Letters to the Batcave. “The subject matter, handled to artistic perfection by Infantino and (Joe) Giella, symbolizes the very spirit and element of Batman. It pitted a weird, fantastic villain against the world’s greatest detective set against an eerie background. By his very nature, Batman is a creature of the night; as one writer expressed, he’s ‘Dracula with a halo,’ and it’s about time the covers began showing him in his most comfortable background again.”
Nor did this reader fail to notice the difference between the come-on of Carmine Infantino’s cover art and the delivery of Sheldon Moldoff’s art on the interior.
“Unfortunately, the art inside was many notches below that on the cover,” Jennings wrote. “It struck me as being unusually drab and lifeless.”
Unfortunately, of course, any artist can only draw so much — and although Infantino had dropped the Adam Strange feature, his art was still expected to sustain the Flash comic and two Batman titles.
“Of course, (Batman co-creator Bob) Kane hated my covers,” Infantino said in an interview with Jim Amash. “Oh, he hated my drawing. Julie wanted him to try to make his drawing look closer to mine, but Kane or Moldoff couldn’t do it. Kane went to Jack Liebowitz and said, ‘This guy’s ruining my character.’ And Liebowitz was nice. He said, ‘I don’t think it’s your character, Bob.’ (chuckles).”
“Oh, I’m sure Julie (Schwartz) laughed at him. He ignored him. Then, at one point, I think Julie told him, ‘You know we’re saving your ass.’ He didn’t like Bob Kane.”
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