Batmania is a term coined by Billy Joe (Biljo) White in the early 1960s and the title of his influential fanzine dedicated to the DC comic book character Batman.
[3] The term "Batmania" was used extensively — and without apparent awareness of White's publication — in the popular press to describe the high level of interest surrounding the premiere of the 1960s TV Show[4][5] and was revived in media references to levels of interest displayed around the premiere of the 1989 Batman film (e.g., People Magazine, July 1989[6]).
"[3] With editor Julius Schwartz replacing Jack Schiff, and "assign[ing] his favorite writer, John Broome, to raise the level of the stories, and his most popular artist, Carmine Infantino, to upgrade the visuals," White's fanzine helped revive interest in the character.
The title – "no doubt inspired by the Beatlemania that had swept the U.S. earlier in the year" – released by long-term Batman fan and firefighter White from his home in Columbia, Missouri, swiftly became one of comics fandom's most important fanzines.
[3][7] White was himself an "aspiring artist showing considerable potential," who had once written to Batman-creator Bob Kane and produced a regular cartoon during World War II called "The New Bunch.
)[3] Batmania had the tacit approval of DC, after White sent a copy of his first issue to renowned fan-friendly editor Julius Schwartz, who liked it, and even gave it a plug in the pages of Batman #169, causing the membership of the fledgling "Batmanians" group to grow "nearly 1,000-strong".
[3] The first issue, published in 1964,[3] was in such demand that White: The pages of the fanzine provided, wrote fan historian Bill Schelly for Roy Thomas' Alter Ego revival from TwoMorrows Publishing: As the 1960s reprints of Golden Age Batman stories did not stretch back to his very beginnings, these articles were crucial in educating new Batman fans about the history of the character — including his (short-lived) early tendencies to both use a gun and kill various of his foes.
[3] Batmania also included advertisements and checklists, occasional non-Batman features, and revealed to fandom the existence of Rutland, Vermont's Halloween Parade, which Tom Fagan led in Batman-garb; the parade — and Fagan — would later feature in several in-comics storylines, most notably in those written by long-term fan Roy Thomas.
[3][10] Part of Kane's logic hinges on Finger's signature/by-line not appearing on the strip, even though such anonymity and relinquishing of credit was commonplace in the comics industry of the 1930s and 1940s.
His magazine had focused the energy of fans of the Caped Crusader at a time when he was at an all-time low, and rallied support for Julius Schwartz' successful effort to resuscitate the strip.
The era of Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams brought a welcome return to the days of Batman as an eerie creature of the night, very much as he had been originally envisioned by Bob Kane.
[3]The title Batmania was used in the late 1980s and early 1990s in a series of three books written by James Van Hise which detailed the history of the Batman character.
Culled largely from the earlier VHS releases (minus material retrospectively having clearance problems — most notably that featuring Yvonne Craig's Batgirl character), the re-release was designed in part to tie-into the hype and Bat-releases surrounding the then-upcoming Batman Begins movie.