Batmaniac

In 1996, Chip Kidd released a beautiful book that showed off his Batman collection called

Batman Collected

. Now, thirteen years later, he’s published a new volume,

Bat-Manga!

. It’s almost a sequel to his other Batbook except that all the Batman artifacts are Japanese and the majority of the content is Japanese Batman comics from the 60s. Kidd is also the world’s most renowned book designer. He was kind enough to let me bother him at his office, which is full of beautiful objects.

Vice: Where did the fascination with Batman start?

Chip Kidd:

Like a lot of people in my age range, it started with the TV show. For a brief shining moment it was as big as Harry Potter is now.

What do you think makes people hold on to childhood interests through adulthood?

There’s a certain segment of our generation, even more so now, with a sense that you don’t have to throw it away. In some ways it’s Peter Pan-ish with a constructive mode. You see people who work in comics who grew up with comics. In the 40s there was a stigma about—not to say that they didn’t love it but it was something you did because you couldn’t get legitimate work. Now you get people like J.J. Abrams or Joss Whedon who make viable, vibrant careers out of fandom.

What drives people to collect?

I’m sure there are many different reasons. I enjoy it. It enables you to grasp on to your childhood and your past. It’s an attempt to not let that go. It’s a preservation.

Do you find it hard to feel the level of excitement you did when you were little?

In some ways yes and in some ways no. When I saw the trailer for

Monsters vs. Aliens

I was insanely excited, and then I saw it and I was insanely excited watching it. You’re interviewing me on June 2. Tomorrow a new

Batman & Robin

title will debut from DC Comics written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quitely. I am insanely excited about that.

Yayyyy! Those guys are so good.

I did the logo for those. I’m so excited it’s ridiculous.

The Frank Miller/Jim Lee Batman disappointed me.

It was very, very strange.

Tell me about Bat-Manga!.

It’s an act of preservation for me as a Batman fan.

Batman Collected

came out in 1996, and I’d been putting it together for two years before that. There is a Japanese section in there but it’s just the toys. For a long time that’s all I thought existed. The Batman show went global in 1966 and was a hit in Japan and they made these toys and that was that. Then ten years ago I became aware of the comics through David Mazzucchelli. He did an extended stay there on a cartoonist’s fellowship. He came back and said, “Did you know that this happened? When I went over there and they found out I had drawn Batman, they went out of their way to say, ‘We had our own Japanese Batman in 1966.’” He didn’t get around to actually seeing it but he became aware of it. The other thing was I grew up watching the

8 Man

cartoons. It turned out that it was the same guy, Jiro Kuwata.

Tell me about the objects in your office. What’s the deal with this original Chris Ware drawing wedged against your window?

I’ve been very fortunate over the years. Chris is one of my best friends and I’m going to see him in Chicago. He’s amazing for about three dozen reasons and he’s been very generous with his talent. For Christmas he’ll make me a Batman drawing or this or that and what you’re seeing here is original art for the box label for a wooden Batman doll he made me many years ago. I keep it in the front of my office so that I can see it when I come in.

What’s up with that sad babyfaced Batman doll over there?

Do you know that comic-book store in LA, Meltdown?

I do, Meltdown’s great.

They were moving and they found this in the basement and just to be nice they mailed this to me. I think it was one of those things you win at a carnival. They came in all different sizes but this is the biggest one I’ve ever seen.

What’s the story on these plaques sidled up to Charlie Brown?

My next-door neighbor, Debbie Bennis, had these when I was little and I was so jealous and I couldn’t figure out where she got them. Eventually I did get them.

Is that target game a repro or an original?

That’s the real thing. It’s a Twin target set from England.

What’s that pretty little rectangular thing?

These are Menko cards that I put in

Bat-Manga!

. But you almost never see them in the wrapper. The colors are all over the place. They would often yank comic-book stories for these cards.

Hey, I see you have that Jimbo book that’s bound in corrugated cardboard. I have that book too.

I love Gary. He was the first underground or alternative cartoonist that I became aware of. The 60s guys never did it for me. I was too young, I was in fourth grade. The style of it freaked me out. Gary brought to comics what punk brought to music.

Some people say that the urge to collect things comes from a fear of dying.

That’s probably quite true.

Checking something off a list allows you to maintain order when you feel like there’s no control.

In

The Learners

, the sequel to my novel

The Cheese Monkeys

, there’s an ad man whose office is so orderly that you can only garner from it that it’s how he makes sense of the world. It’s exactly how he wants it.