Batman and the Outsiders Vol. 1

Mike W. Barr has written for some of pop culture’s most enduring icons, including Sherlock Holmes, Ellery Queen, Doc Savage, the Shadow, Captain America, the Hulk, Batman, Star Trek, Star Wars, and The Simpsons. He also created some icons of his own, including the comic book series Camelot 3000, Batman and the Outsiders, The Maze Agency, and Mantra. He has written for the online sites Icebox and Stan Lee Media (and lived to tell the tale), and co-created the web comic Sorcerer of Fortune. In 2003 Barr published the Star Trek novel Gemini, and he was a contributor to the Trek e-novel Mere Anarchy, published in 2009. His book on science fiction comics of the Silver Age, The Silver Age Sci-Fi Companion, was published in 2007 and was followed by the encyclopedic The Wolverine Files in 2009. In 2010 his original science fiction novel Majician/51 was released by the Invisible College Press.

A self-taught artist, Jim Aparo first attempted to break into the industry in the early 1950s at the legendary E.C. Comics group. When E.C. rejected his work, Aparo turned to advertising art in his native Connecticut, where he specialized in illustrating newspaper fashion ads while continuing his efforts to work in comics. His dream was finally realized in 1966 when Charlton Comics editor Dick Giordano hired him to draw a humorous character called Miss Bikini Luv in Go-Go Comics. Sharpening his skills on such features as the Phantom, Nightshade, Wander and Thane of Bagarth, Aparo followed Giordano to DC Comics in 1968 where he quickly gained notice for his smooth, realistic style on such titles as Aquaman, The Brave and the Bold, The Phantom Stranger, The Spectre, The House Of Mystery, The House Of Secrets, Batman, Detective Comics, and Batman and the Outsiders. An artist whose work is still considered a high-water mark for the industry, Aparo died on July 19, 2005.