Many Golden Age comic books were complete rubbish. Publishers, editors, and writers probably produced them for children they considered to be little more than morons, but the fantastic tales of colorful adventurers attracted many children - some bright, some not so. Amidst the lowbrow material the publishers produced, a reader could often find some rather entertaining juvenilia. So who the heck is Don Cameron?

In BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT ARCHIVES VOL. 4 people who love DC's hardback reprints of Golden Age comics will discover Cameron, a newspaperman and pulp writer before he wrote comics. He was the versatile and imaginative writer of some of the most memorable Batman tales of the 1940's. Unlike many scribes of the era, Cameron displayed a real knack for writing in the comics medium. His story structure was solid, and his plots were tight even if the tales were a bit zany and over the top.

This Archives edition reprints BATMAN #13-16 (1942-43), each issue containing 4 tales apiece, and Cameron wrote 12 of the 16 stories reprinted in this volume. His Batman/Bruce Wayne is less a dark knight and more of a playboy adventurer with a penchant for fighting crime. And Robin - well, Cameron's Robin/Dick Grayson is a daring, carefree, and careless boy with a smart mouth, a brave heart, and immense respect and deep love for his father figure/big brother.

Fans of the old Batman shouldn't miss this volume. It's worth the price and filled with the kind of fantastically fun comic book stories we enjoyed as kids. GRADE B+