A Poem Earned a Man Cameo in 'Batman 89'

Back when the only real way to get geek news was through the printed word, Starlog Magazine was the gold standard. I remember sifting through my parents old issues of the mag, seeing all the ‘breaking news’ they brought fanboys and girls on things that used to be called ‘cult’ interests. Now, I get paid to write about Batman.

Thanks to the awesome Internet Archive it’s easy to look back at a lot of the highlights in geek culture from yesteryear. Check out this promotion that has been recently discovered from a 1988 issue of Starlog:

That’s right. all one had to do was write into Starlog and British Airways would fly them to London to appear in Tim Burton’s Batman!. Little Andrew Seward Duncan decided to enter the contest with this poem:

"I would like to believethat there existsa man consumedby an obsessionto exact a price from that which tookhis humanityA lost soul amongst shadows.A demon amongst men.A bane to all that is evil.Hello again. Beware… forever."

Not too bad, considering the contest limited entrants to 50,000 words. Supposedly, Duncan made the trip and made the appearance since they printed this in the next issue:

Sadly, there is almost no evidence that Duncan made the cameo in the film. He was not credited on IMDB and Google searches have proven fruitless. It’s a mystery that perhaps only the Dark Knight Detective can solve. Either way, he should be proud.

A Poem Earned a Man Cameo in ‘Batman 89’

By Skip Harvey | Jan 14, 2015