If you try to run out and sell your own comic book starring Batman or some popular video game character, your ass will get sued before the ink dries. The owners of these characters are hell-bent on making sure some other dumbass doesn't make bootleg versions that tarnish their good name.
In America, anyway. When it comes to translating these same characters into foreign comics, it seems like pretty much anything goes. That's why if you find yourself browsing in comic book shops abroad, you may be surprised to find ...
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Robin's Manly, Racist Adventures, Co-Starring Batman (Spain)
Julio Ribera & J. Fernandez
If you have always wished the Batman franchise was really about Robin beating criminals to death with blunt objects and gunning down Asians with a machine gun, well, the people of Spain agree with you.
In 1948, Batman was well-known and even popular in the U.S., but perhaps not so much in other countries, so it is almost understandable why Spanish cartoonist Julio Ribera and writer J. Fernandez thought they could just start making their own Batman comics and pretend they invented him.
Julio Ribera & J. Fernandez
They also claimed to have invented Asians and racism.
Oftentimes artists will blatantly trace panels from Batman comics, but to be fair, these two guys made entirely new stories when they could have easily just reprinted the originals and put their names on it. We are glad they did, because their version is crazier than a clown fighting a howler monkey.
Julio Ribera & J. Fernandez
Is Batman throwing a grenade or his poop?
There are a few changes between the Batman you know and the one these two guys pulled out of their asses. Some of them are small, like calling the Batmobile the Catmobile, for some reason. The biggest change, though, is their version of Robin -- a relentless badass who is constantly getting Batman (known here as simply "The Bat") out of tough spots.
Julio Ribera & J. Fernandez
We can think of several explanations for that bloodstain on his shirt and none of them are good.
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