私は部屋です。私はバットマンです。*

This fall acclaimed designer Chip Kidd (along with co-writer Saul Ferris and photographer Geoff Spear) will be putting out a book that any Batman fan will be drooling over . . . BatManga!

The book will cover the history of and reprint copies of Batman stories published in Japan in the mid-1960s in Shonen King manga magazine. Long forgotten (and more likely, unknown to the masses) the comics ran in conjunction with airings of the ABC tv show Batman, which were re-aired in Japan.

Mostly drawn by 8-Man creator Jiro Kuwata, the stories ranged over a year, were all-original and mostly featured new, unknown in the US villians. The book promises to be a treasure trove of Bat-goodness for fans and will serve as an amazing companion piece to Kidd's excellent Batman: Collected tome.

Look for it in October 2008 from Pantheon Books in both a soft-cover edition and an expanded limited edition hardcover. Read an interview with the writers here.

*I am the night. I am Batman. (translated from Japanese)