Subtitled “The Secret History of Batman in Japan,” the contents were so secret that DC Comics wasn’t aware of these stories until uncovered by Chip Kidd and Saul Ferris. The 1960s “Batman” TV show wasn’t just a phenomenon in the U.S., but throughout the world. Starring Adam West, the “Batman” TV show became a huge hit in Japan. A Tokyo publisher acquired the rights to publish a weekly Japanese version of Batman. In creating these comics, publishers tapped Jiro Kuwata, described as a manga prodigy and creator of the manga cyborg-hero 8-Man. For a year, the Japanese Batman and Robin fought dinosaurs, aliens, a manga Clayface and more. Then, the “Bat-Manga” stopped in the late ’60s. These stories were never published in the U.S. They were never translated into English. They were lost. Until now. DC has translated these stories into English and collected them into a beautiful, hard-cover edition. Forty years ago, American comics had no real manga influence. In the 1960s, in many ways, American comics were still influencing Japanese comics, but the Japanese comics still had a distinctive manga style. The manga illustration style gives everything a hyper-cartoon look, where even the roughest villain and mightiest hero and woman are often depicted as something resembling wide-eyed, elfish children. With the “Bat-Manga” stories, Kuwata uses a realistic-looking Batman and Robin in a wild, fluid and colorful world. One of the interesting factors of this book is realizing how much the world has turned. For more than a decade, the manga style has had a deep influence on American comics. “Bat-Manga” is a fine volume for Batman fans, manga fans, and devotees to comic history and form.