Why am I a comics fan?

Because at the age of six, my dad bought me this:

Is that not primal? Is that not perfect? Is that not a thing of joy, and beauty, and untrammelled awesomeness?

We all know that comics covers lie, or set up a bait and switch, or otherwise reek of red herrings left too long on the dock. But this issue? Pure honesty. Batman did traverse the sewers, and he did get attacked by a swarm of rats, and he escaped from the trap by being, well, Batman.

And since that day in 1976, I've been hooked. As Steinbeck said (in a different context), "I fear the disease is incurable."

I was so enamored of that issue, that my dad went back and got me the first issue in this run, and later completed the set with the final issue (which also featured my first encounter with The Flash) in the "Kill the Batman...In Triplicate!" story.

It's never going to show up in any Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told collection. I doubt Bob Rozakis, Michael Uslan, or Ernie Chua look back at this as the high point of their careers. But for me, this is what I think of when I think of Batman.