@John M.: Good catch John. Thanks.

Glad you like the stuff

"Nyet. That would be a Hovercraft, not a Hydrofoil. The difference being that Hydrofoil’s are somewhat amphibious, where as a Hydrofoil is basically a boat with skis. The latter would be utterly useless."

I think the ... let's see ... second time you say Hydrofoil, you meant to say Hovercraft again. (Actually 'Hovercrafts', with no apostrophe before the S, would be correct.)

I'm still trying to decide if you did it deliberately. Sort of a meta-Zing?

Anyway, just racing through your archives and laughing my ass off. Love the site, and very impressed by the amount of work you put in. Cheers.

It's an interesting problem. The color suggests the road isn't paved -- it's grass. I'm not sure how they keep the Batmobile from wearing ruts in it, but leave that aside.

But if it isn't a paved road, then why did it look suspicious enough to Aunt Harriet to drizzle pitch across?

I dunno -- the only thing that makes sense to me is that it is paved, or at least obviously a road, and that it runs parallel to the rock face, not into it. Right in front of the cliff face is a paved section that might be a place to park if your car breaks down.

But anyway, the question is "Did DC have an art reference book for various seagoing vessels?" My answer, based on Giant Turtle Boy Olsen reprinted in "The Amazing Transformations of Jimmy Olsen" is a firm yes, but it was a terrible book. A "US submarine flotilla" is shown using German Type XXI U-Boats from the end of the Second World War -- even using the German Navy's "U ###" identification numbers on the sides of their sails.

Actually, Who, Me? they were rocket scientists. At least...Bat-editor Julie Schwartz was; he had a degree in physics, and wrote those little half-page science factoids that ran in DC comics in the 50s and 60s. So yeah, he should have really known better. ;)

The road's not paved! It was a dirt road...at least it was in the 60's series.

Eh, I think it's just another case of "Bat-Questionable-Ingenuity."

Even if the fake rock-gate was perfect and, when closed, no one could tell it apart from the mountain wall... Imagine we were all looking for a secret entrance to somewhere...Am I the only one that would have found suspicious to find a paved access to nowhere?

Come on! Did people still hide security boxes behind paintings during the Silver age and feel content about it?

"Wet pith"... Bah!

You'd think they'd have buried magnets under the road and outfitted the Batmobile with magnets of the opposite charge on its undercarriage. That way the magnets would repel each other and they would float down the road.

Now don't be too hard on the writers, Typolad. They write comics for a living. They're not rocket scientists. And in all fairness to the editors, they did change it to "hydrofoil". The writer's originally had down "hydrant". (j/k)

hey onion, shouldn't that be "Bruce with Dick out" ? :D:D:D

I think she'd be suspicious of the paved road leading directly to a vertical cliff. I know I would be.

I'm not pointing out your typo, Typolad, that's just a manifestation of your power.
I'm just pointing out that the 'she' who painted pitch over the surrounding roads was Aunt Harriet, and I want everyone to picture her carting around an enormous barrel of boiling pitch, poor old cow, desperately trying to catch Bruce and Dick out.