In honor of the new school year starting, I've compiled an array of old and recent photos of some very old Batman school (and office) supplies I acquired a long time ago. Some items I've used, some I've never touched.
I scoured my old room in my parents' home to see what things I could still find and then grabbed the rest of the photos from my old (now hidden) Facebook album or old blog posts (before I converted it to Batman and Whiskey).
We're starting with my Batman book covers from high school. I so wanted to continue using these in college, but they were getting worn down and warped to the point where they just wouldn't fit anything right anymore. These are old photos, but from way after high school. I put the covers on some books for the photo and I think I threw them away soon after because they were just laying around unused, dirty, and battered. RIP my old Batman book covers. How I loved you. I want to say I purchased these at the Target Dollar Spot, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were from a Staples or Office Depot or somewhere similar.
I believe I received this little The Batman backpack as a gift. It's so tiny! Hah. Because it's made for elementary school children not high school / college work loads. 😏 This is another old photo. I can't remember where I stored it in my old room so didn't get a chance to get a new, better photo. I was never a huge fan of The Batman. A friend told me the story telling wasn't bad, but I couldn't get over the Jackie Chan Adventures art style. Let me know if you've ever watched this series and what you thought.
This next item is one of my FAVORITE Batman items that I've ever purchased. I bought it so long ago I can't remember where I got it, but I definitely bought it in person likely at a local comic book shop. It's a Batman tin storage container that opens up like a book so it fits nicely on your book shelf. Batman✔️. Organizing✔️. What's not to love? I used to keep my middle school notes from friends and tickets stubs in it, but I've since purged a lot of things in an effort to be less of a hoarder. Since then, I've used it as more of comic book storage. I might find a better use for it in the future.
At work in college, when it was slow, I would sometimes make things for myself such as this bookmark. It's really just a trimmed down laminated Batman image, but it gets the job done. The back is identical. This is probably my favorite panel by Jim Lee ever. I ship Batman and Catwoman so much and this kiss between them just seems so romantic and passionate. It fills me with the feels every time I see it.
Fun fact, though, if you see recognizable comic book art in stores on magnets, etc. and it isn't officially labeled as DC Comics merchandise, it's likely boot legged. Granted, I didn't know this when I bought all my current magnets, but I'm going to be more cognizant of it in the future because I want artists to be properly paid for their work!
Next is a hodge podge of Batman pens and pencils I've accumulated over the years! I'm pretty sure these are from various visits to Target's Dollar Spot. The #2 pencils on the left aren't even opened. 😂 The next 2 sets you see with the translucent caps are push pencils! Do you all remember push pencils? It was the worst when you lost just ONE little pencil unit because then the whole thing was useless. That actually happened to a few of mine. The ones pictured are the ones that made it through high school and/or college... when I stopped using pencils entirely. Hah. The last sets you see on the right are some very bad quality pens. I bought them anyway knowing what they were. I should probably toss the pens out that don't properly function anymore. Hoarder problems.
Batman mousepad! I rediscovered this and brought it to my current office. Why let it waste away in a dark space in my room? I love buying useful Batman products for a reason, to use them. I actually still see this same product being sold at local comic book stores fairly often.
Does anybody still use USB flash drives? I know I own several, but rarely find a need for them lately. With that in mind, the next photos are of a Batman Mimobot USB drive! These are old photos so sorry for the lack of focus. You can actually find their various Batman flash drives at a lot of retailers across the web. I first ran into Mimobot at San Diego Comic-Con (maybe even at my first SDCC in 2010), but couldn't pull the trigger on a flash drive I knew I wouldn't use much or at all. BUT THANKS TO MY AWESOME FRIENDS, I HAVE THIS AWESOME BATMAN FLASH DRIVE STILL PRISTINE IN ITS ORIGINAL BOX, UNUSED! And I love it. 😀 Are students still using flash drives nowadays?
Sorry for the lack of focus on these old photos as well. This next product is a Batman pencil case or that's how I would use it. It's a Mixo Kooky Kan! It looks like they're still available here at Gemini Collectibles. I also noticed these at a San Diego Comic-Con, but I believe it was either gifted to me at a later date or I purchased it later at a comic book store.
Next are some old (and dark) photos of coloring and activity books! These were gifted to me or purchased from Target's Dollar Spot (again). A lot of them haven't been used much so maybe I'll donate them? They're definitely still sitting on a shelf somewhere.
This is my most recent coloring book. If you're following me on Instagram, you've already seen these photos. It's an adult coloring book featuring panels from Batman: Hush, but I figured I'd include it in this post for completeness since we're talking about coloring books anyway.
I used to have this amazing tear out book of self-enveloped (is that a thing?) stationery. I believe I've used them all since I got them years ago, but I saved a couple of each version of the stationery to keep as part of my collection. In the photos, you can see that you write your note on one side then fold it in half and all around the sides to seal it.
These are old photos, but I still have this giant photo album where I keep a lot of the random flat Batman items from my collection.
I used to have some awesome Batman notepads also from the Target Dollar Spot. Man, makes me realize I haven't found any useful Batman Dollar Spot items in a while. Anyway, these are just the last sheets I saved from the notepads to display in my giant Batman photo album.
Random assortment of Batman stickers? You bet I have those too. I'm pretty sure I still have all of these. I don't really know where to put all my Batman stickers so they just kind of hang around in my collection for years collecting dust. These are more old photos from the photo album I mentioned.
Speaking of stickers, here are some more that came as part of an art pack that I received from my sister-in-law. There are some Batman note/art pads, a push color pencil, some markers, a cute Batman stamp which I'm sure I still own and is dried up somewhere, a stencil, and various stickers. The first is an old picture (from way before we were sister-in-laws), but I took some more recent pictures of some items as well.
I also owned some regular old lined notebooks from Target's Dollar Spot all of which I've used many years ago. I'm a hoarder though so I saved the front and back covers in my giant Batman collection photo album. I'm sure I have more old photos some where, but the last photo in this batch shows what some of the notebooks looked like before I mutilated them (with a surprise appearance from some of my many Target Dollar Spot Batman socks).
I've got some nicer notebooks that I'm either currently using or waiting to use. I like to keep a journal, but I've been a bit lazy over the last few years so these are still waiting for my return to the pen.
This is one of various Moleskine Batman notebook designs. The cover is a Jim Lee design and he actually signed one of the pages inside. This is my current journal! The pages are blank which I love. I'm not much of an artist, but love the idea of no boundaries when keeping a journal. It came with some (more) stickers. I think the black Batman logo stickers are from something else, but I keep them in the back pocket of my Moleskine.
This next notebook was one of my first ever Batman notebooks and I still haven't used it! I love it, though, because the inside page designs are reminiscent of comic books with designs that read "Meanwhile..." etc. The cover is also holographic so Batman moves when you look at him from different angles. I tried to capture that movement in my photos.
Another notebook I've yet to use features the very common blue/gray Batman logo pattern that you've probably seen on a lot of my Batman collection. This has been on my "to use" list of notebooks for a long time! I'll get there... eventually. Below are photos of the cover, inside pages, and inside cover.
Lastly, here is a Batman address book. I doubt anybody still uses these. I know I don't. I own 2 of these and neither of them are in use, but I love them because each page is different.
Whew. I think that's it. That's at least everything I had photos of to share. This post reminded me a lot of my kitchen blog post in that I had a lot more stuff to share than I thought! I hope you enjoyed this post and wishing everyone an amazing school year ahead, students, teachers, faculty alike! Happy back to school! Do great things. 😃
