It took about a split-second after meeting Michael Uslan to know that I’d encountered one of the coolest people on the planet. We met at the Buzz Aldrin event I wrote about recently, and he overwhelmed me with his effervescent enthusiasm toward one of my secret loves: Batman.

Uslan is the creator and executive producer of the Batman movies (all of them since 1989′s Batman with Jack Nicholson, up to and including the most recent Batman Begins and The Dark Knight). He also has a compelling new book out, titled The Boy Who Loved Batman.

Ever since 1975, I’ve been a serious Batman fan. I collected many comics through high school and college (“Mom, did you throw them away? They’re worth a bundle now!”) but the only titles I purchased consistently were Batman and Detective Comics.

Throughout elementary school I dressed up like Batman and walked through town. In costume!! I built my own utility belt out of oaktag and paper fasteners, and thought that every umbrella in our house might be one of the Penguin’s trick umbrellas.

On my 6th birthday my father said, “It’s time for your birthday party, Steven.” Wearing cape and cowl, I replied, “I’m not Steven, I’m Batman.”

Dad threatened, “Well if Steven is not here, then there won’t be any birthday party.” I swiftly ducked into my room, took off my costume, and transformed into my alter-ego, little Steve Cohen.

Last night, I enjoyed a presentation about Batman, given by Michael Uslan at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in Soho. [...]

Back in 2002, in London, England, I met an artist named Van Howell. I was so impressed with his distinctive style of illustration that I commissioned him to create a poster for my show.

The cast of characters that he included in the poster is impressive. I’ve received emails from people who own the poster, requesting information about each character. Fortunately Van provided me with a detailed schematic list that describes his inspirations. He went on a treasure hunt through the National Gallery in London to find the perfect cast. Click the links below to see many of the truly gorgeous originals.

First, here’s the outline view: [...]

A piano with a two-foot cutaway hole stood alone on the mezzanine of MOMA, New York’s Museum of Modern Art. I asked a security guard what the piano was for — he replied, “For performances. Come back later.” My family and I wandered off to enjoy other exhibits, and later rushed back to the mezzanine when we saw a large crowd surrounding the piano.

There was a person standing INSIDE the piano. Right inside the hole.

She was playing the piano and walking around the open floor, rolling the instrument in wide arcs. Her body was bent forward at the waist, at a full ninety degree angle, and her hands were flying up and down at a breakneck pace. [...]

A photo montage of my thought process, starting with a golden age comic book illustration, then a pencil sketch, followed by a gorgeous hand-painted poster, and finally, an iconic photo. The artist, Gino d’Achille, and the photographer, Clay Patrick McBride, did brilliant jobs [...]

Here is a gallery of some original Chan Canasta paintings. They were for sale through a Belgian art dealer I came across online. There are 21 images in this gallery – enjoy the vivid colors!

Nostalgic blog post! Growing up in Westchester County, I joined the Boy Scouts (Troop 174) and have happy boyhood memories of paging through the Boy Scout Handbook. Norman Rockwell’s scouting images were scattered throughout the handbook, and I fell in love with his painting style. To my knowledge, Norman Rockwell painted two images that included [...]

This art exhibition by Austrian designer Stefan Sagmeister is very clever and inspirational. The artist mounted 7200 bananas onto the wall, each at various levels of ripeness. It’s a Lego-like building environment, and the greenest bananas contrasted with the yellowest ones enough to spell out words: “SELF CONFIDENCE PRODUCES FINE RESULTS”

I have fond memories of Sunday mornings as a boy, searching the Arts page of the NY Times for the “Nina’s” hidden in Al Hirschfeld’s illustrations. It was a clever game of hide-and-go-seek, since Hirschfeld hid his daughter’s name so well, and in such whimsically obscure spots – in the folds of a coat sleeve, [...]