Of all the strange habits that my friends have, combing through back issues of Starlog on the Internet Archive is probably at the top of the list in a walk. Occasionally, though, sifting through promo pieces for V and Alien Nation turns up something gold, which is exactly what happened this week. While reading the November, 1988 issue of Starlog, Andrew Weiss came upon a contest that offered readers a trip to London to visit the set of Tim Burton's Batman '89. All you had to do was write in and explain why you wanted to meet Batman.

ME ME PICK ME I WANT TO MEET HIM MORE THAN ANYONE PICK MEEEEEEEEE

 

Batman contest, Starlog
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Sadly, as you can see, the contest limited its entrants to only fifty words to explain their love of the Caped Crusader. While you'd think this would've been a shoo-in for the six year-old who was well on his way to becoming the World's Foremost Batmanologist, but if the last five years of ComicsAlliance have shown us anything, it's that there is no way I can cut things down to only fifty words.

Instead, as revealed in a later issue, the contest was won by one Andrew Seward Duncan of Riverdale, GA -- yes, the kid who won the Batman contest is from the South also lived in a place that shared its name with Archie's hometown, which makes me think that there's a strong possibility that he is actually me having gone into time-travel witness protection -- who scored the victory by writing an amazing free verse poem:

 

Batman Contest, Starlog
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I would like to believe
that there exists
a man consumed
by an obsession

to exact a price from that which took
his humanity

A lost soul amongst shadows.
A demon amongst men.
A bane to all that is evil.

"Hello again. Beware... forever."

 

There is a strong possibility that I will request "Hello again. Beware... Forever." to be etched into my tombstone.

Sadly, a quick search does not reveal what role Duncan ended up playing during Burton's production. There is, however, an Andrew Seward Duncan listed on the IMDB as having been part of the crew for movies like Cheerleader Autopsy and Pet Semetary II, so maybe it was a trip to the set of Batman that sparked an interest in filmmaking.

Sadly, this remains unconfirmed, as IMDB does not list a love of poetry among his accomplishments.

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