Charles Apple

A SAMPLING OF A1 BATMAN PROMOS

After careful combing through the pages posted at the Newseum, here are my top-10 favorite across-the-top-of-A1 promo treatments. They’re rated primarily on how unpredictable and inventive they struck me.

10. BANGOR DAILY NEWS
Bangor, Maine

We’ve all seen this studio art by now. But the reverse nameplate really pops and the typography is very nice.

Does the fisherman look like he’s about to smack Heath upside the head?

9. THE TIMES
Munster, Ind.

Another use of the handout art, but the reverse treatment incorporating the nameplate works for me. We should mess with nameplates more often.

8. LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER
Lexington, Ky.

Still, that same art and still, that same treatment as in the previous two. But nicely done.

7. CENTRE DAILY TIMES
State College, Pa.

As nice as I found those black reverse promos, this much lighter, whiter one works very well for the Times. That’s the best crop I’ve seen yet for that particular handout photo.

6. SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

A handout photo, perhaps, but one we’ve not seen umpteen million times. Very sophisticated treatment, with the translucent strip. The clever pun head — and not one everyone else was using — helps a lot.

5. PENSACOLA NEWS-JOURNAL
Pensacola, Fla.

Pensacola zigs while everyone else is zagging by ignoring the studio art and going with something straight out of the comics. The interplay with the nameplate is particularly sweet.

4. THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Norfolk, Va.

Handout art, but cropped and used in a way that no one else could get away with. This is why they’re the Pilot and the rest of us are not.

3. THE POST-STANDARD
Syracuse, N.Y.

Was that a handout photo? If so, I can’t believe more folks didn’t use it. The reverse around the nameplate is dramatic; the typography is immaculate. And the abundance of blue above the fold makes for an attractive package.

2. THE FRESNO BEE
Fresno, Calif.

Here’s another photo I’ve only seen in one or two places. A fabulous use of a dramatic shot. Loses points because of the blue box in the upper left and the “7″ in the upper right. Is that a page number? It’s unclear.

And my favorite A1 Batman treatment…

1. THE HERALD
Rock Hill, S.C.

I have to admit, I cheated on this one. For some reason, The Herald’s Friday front wasn’t posted at the Newseum today.

But Friday morning — only my fifth day back in town — I stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast, spotted this in the rack and couldn’t pay my 35 cents fast enough.

Not quite sure who was the designer, but my hat’s off to presentation editor Virginia Wilcox. She and her folks are kicking major ass. The paper — at which I worked from 1988 to 1993; I even redesigned it in 1990, but that was a couple of redesigns ago — has looked great all week.

This one goes into my slide show as another fabulous small-paper example. I recently added their July 4th page, too. Average daily circulation for The Herald: 31,600.

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A SAMPLING OF A1 STORY PLAY

A handful of papers found a way to avoid having to promo Batman on A1. They ran a story about Batman on A1. Some, as a lede story.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. On one hand: Dude, it’s only a movie. On the other hand: Hey, if it sells papers…

Papers running Batman on A1 included…

THE OREGONIAN
Portland, Ore.

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL
Albuquerque, N.M.

METRO
New York and Philadelphia

USA Today
Tyson’s Corner, Va.

The Vindicator
Youngstown, Ohio

These guys did a story on a local guy who worked on Batman comic books. Pretty good, except true batfans really, really hate that ‘Holy this’ and ‘Holy that’ stuff.

A few papers worked up A1 stories on local Batman fans.

Kalamazoo Gazette
Kalamazoo, Mich.

Oh, this guy looks very, very creepy…

TribP.M.
Pittsburgh, Pa.

This guy looks less than intimidating…

The Oklahoman
Oklahoma City, Okla.

And OKC split the difference, leading A1 with Heath Ledger and, as secondary art, going with local women dressed up as bat-characters.

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MORE FEATURE TREATMENTS

On with our show…

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THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT and LINK
Norfolk, Va.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this paper. But I thought I’d include them anyway…

The Pilot’s Bob Voros writes:

The Daily Break and Link Batman pages came out today; they look really good. Nick Mrozowski did a great job on the photo-illo and the inside page of Link was very sweet!

Here’s Nick’s illustration in the Friday Pilot:

On the left is what Nick’s illo looked like in Link. On the right is the Joker bio that Bob wrote:

As you can see, poor Bob got a dogleg in the Pilot. His piece got a much better ride in Link:

And here is the Link front page for Friday:

Find more of Nick’s stuff and Bob’s stuff in their respective NewsPageDesigner galleries.

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SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL
Santa Cruz, Calif.

Anthony Solis posted this one:

See more of Anthony’s stuff in his NewsPageDesigner gallery.

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BALL STATE DAILY NEWS
Muncie, Indiana

Shelby Murphy posted this tab cover design:

See more of Shelby’s stuff in her NewsPageDesigner gallery.

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KITSAP SUN
Bremerton, Wash.

Jon Williams calls this one a:

Pretty risky page.

See more of Jon’s stuff in his NewsPageDesigner gallery.

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GWINNETT DAILY POST
Lawrenceville, Ga.

Nicole Puckett posted this tab cover…

…and Tori Boone designed this inside tab spread:

Find Nicole’s stuff and Tori’s stuff in their respective NewsPageDesigner galleries.

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EXPRESO
Matamoros, Mexico

Juan Jose Palma posted this pair of pages:

See more of Juan Jose’s stuff in his NewsPageDesigner gallery.

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VALEPARAIBANO
São José dos Campos, Brazil

Flavio Forner posted this Friday:

See more of Flavio’s stuff in his NewsPageDesigner gallery.

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ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
St. Petersburg, Fla.

St. Pete produced a four-page Batman section in its weekly entertainment tab. Jennifer DeCamp writes:

I wanted to allude to both characters in the movie without having to show each. Fabulous illustration by John Corbitt.

Pages 2&3 of our Batman coverage. John created two more images in the same style as the front, so we wouldn’t have to use traditional movie art.

Page 4 of our Batman coverage. A brief history of the suit.

See more of Jennifer’s stuff in her NewsPageDesigner gallery.

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FLORIDA TIMES-UNION
Jacksonville, Fla.

Patrick Garvin writes:

Here’s the cover of our Weekend section today. Kyzandrha Z. Pratt orchestrated this cover, and Jason Pratt shot and produced a “behind the scenes” video of the process of how this Dark Knight cover came to be.

It’s a fun cover and the video of how they pulled it off was really
interesting.

Click here for the high-definition version or here for the standard version.

You may recall that Jacksonville built one of the more inventive Indiana Jones pages, too. Interesting their solution to The Dark Knight is so damn good as well.

Find more of Kyzandrha’s stuff in her NewsPageDesigner gallery.

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See more Dark Knight pages here and here.

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