Michael Uslan

Michael E. Uslan (born June 2, 1951) is an American producer of the Batman movies and was the first instructor to teach an accredited course on comic book folklore at any university. Uslan has been a resident of Cedar Grove, New Jersey. 2Early life Uslan was born in Bayonne, New Jersey and was an avid comic book collector from a very young age, owning a collection that included the second issue of Batman and the first Superman comic, among others. He grew up in Ocean Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey and graduated from Ocean Township High School in 1969, by which time his collection filled the garage of his home with 30,000 comic books. While still an undergraduate and a graduate at the same time at Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington, attempting to break into the film industry by sending off over 300 résumés (typed on a typewriter), Uslan "developed a course idea for the Experimental Curriculum program at IU". 2Career 3Teaching Uslan recalls that Roger Stern "has been teaching a one-hour credit experimental course on comic book history and art," while he (Uslan) was "having fun with an I.U. Free University course on 'The Comic Book Hero'." Stern and Uslan discovered they shared interests, and when Stern "couldn't stand teaching the course any longer," Uslan took it over and changed it into one that took Uslan intended that his course on comics gives students the full three hours of college credit, on a par with "history, physics, or chemistry." Requiring (as an undergraduate) a sponsor in order to be eligible to teach, Uslan found a "progressive and enthusiastic" one in the form of Henry Glassie, a professor in the Department of Folklore, who, as a "leading expert in the field of folklore" was able to see Superheroes as the somewhat logical descendant to Norse, Egyptian and Greek Mythology. The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences challenged the nature of Uslan's course, but gave his approval. Uslan's course, by then-titled "The Comic Book in Society," thus became "the first accredited course on the serious study of comic books." Uslan won fame for his comic book class by anonymously calling a local newspaper reporter and complaining about the course. TV crews filmed the first five meetings of the course, by then called "The Comic Book in America," including John Chancellor's NBC News. Intending to invite different speakers each semester, Uslan found that Denny O'Neil was voted for by the class so often that he became the regular invitee (Uslan notes that Bob Rozakis was among those passed over in favor of O'Neil