Bat-Manga! at Philbrook

Chip Kidd · 2009 · Promotional poster · 18 × 24 in. · matte card stock

Created for Chip Kidd's January 15, 2009 lecture and Bat-Manga! book signing at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, this scarce promotional poster turns a rediscovered Japanese Batman panel into an event-sized collision. Jiro Kuwata's gray-and-black Batman and red-costumed Robin push forward through a radial burst of fractured cream lines, while the enormous Japanese Batman mark locks into the black silhouette of the bat above them. The saturated pink field, vertical Japanese lettering, and distressed reproduction retain the pulp charge of the manga serialized in Japan in 1966–67. Kidd's own name is kept small at the top, capped by the signature on this copy: the designer acts less as illustrator than editor, enlarging and reframing Kuwata's image so the lost history of Batman in Japan becomes immediate from across a room.

I really liked the design of Batman. I liked the concept.Chip Kidd

View this poster in The 29 Collection