Nick Cardy draws Bat Lash one more time in the above illo, which is slated for the upcoming collection of the recent Bat Lash miniseries, of which I only read one issue- and can't say that I cared for it at all, to the point where I didn't get the remaining ones.

This is a very nice illo; although it's been Photoshopped to distraction it's (typically) well-composed and expressive. Bat looks a little older than in his 1968 heyday, more full of face and grizzled- but don't we all? Anyway, it's nice to see Cardy draw him again, but one has to think that this piece would have been better served as the cover of a collected edition of the original O'Neil/Aragones/Cardy (and yes, Mike Sekowsky at the end) series, which they really really REALLY should think about putting out. Couldn't they have squeezed one more illustration out of Walt Simonson?

Time once more for...FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

This time, Bahlactus is calling it "sucker punch"...but this is more of a Friday Night Brawl taken from the pages of Bat Lash #4, cover-dated April-May 1968, by Dennis O'Neil, Sergio Aragones, and Nick Cardy. In it, once more our violence-hating cowboy finds himself in a scuffle south of the border with some angry hombres- seems Mr. Lash has been flirting just a little too much with the local ladies. Also involved are a couple of undertakers, reoccuring characters who Cardy drew to look like Laurel and Hardy.

After reading the news that DC was going to try once more to do a Bat Lash comic, this time (at least) with Aragones as scripter, I decided it would be enjoyable to dig out the old Bats from the Vast Bacardi Archives...and they've aged very well, as well as illustrate why subsequent revivals have been mediocre at best. I'd like to do an overview of these issues someday. Don't get your hopes up.

BAHLACTUS SAID KNOCK YOU OUT!

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