From "Holy hole in a doughnut, Batman," of the 1960s, to the vindictive dark knight of today, the return of Batman to his original comic book character has continued to influence many aspects of American culture.

From T-shirt and toy merchandising to movie profits, Batman has "cut across" all sections of society, said William Uricchio, professor of communication and film.

Uricchio and Roberta Pearson have co-authored the forthcoming The Many Lives of the Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and His Media, a collection of critical analyses about the caped crusader.

The book uses "a lot of new theory to explore something that has a very wide cultural presence," Uricchio said.

The book will examine the many ways Batman has affected our culture, said Pearson, assistant professor of mass communication.

"(The book) applies a variety of academic perspectives to analyze Batman as a cultural phenomenon," she said.

Uricchio and Pearson said they believe their book will be a significant contribution to critical analyses of modern media.

Uricchio said the book will be important because little scholarly research has been done about Batman. It will tie together Batman and the many new types of media, he said.

Uricchio and local comic book merchants said the 1989 movie Batman was not the biggest reason for today's wide popularity of the character. Instead, they said, the changes within the comics play the major role.

"There is a big transformation in Batman's character within the comics, and it is that which is capitalized on," Uricchio said.

George Warner, a comic book collector and employee at Dianna's Comics, 223 S. Allen St., said much of the credit for the revitalization of the character goes to the senior editor of DC Comics, Dennis O'Neil. DC Comics is the company that has published the Batman comics since they were created in 1939.

O'Neil will speak about Batman and other superheroes at 3 p.m. today in 121 Sparks Building.

He will also make a rare store appearance on from 1 to 4 p.m. tomorrow at Dianna's Comics.

Warner said Batman's popularity in the 1980s really broke loose after author Frank Miller created The Dark Knight Returns in 1986.

Lane Carpenter, owner of Book Swap, 110 S. Frasier St., also credits Frank Miller for the Batman comeback of the 1980s.

"I think Frank Miller can be credited with a huge revival in comics of all ages," he said.

The next big Batman publication, arriving in the comic book stores soon, will be Digital Justice, the first computerized graphic novel about Batman.

"The cutting edge has become a cliche, but that certainly can apply to this,"O'Neil said of the forthcoming graphic novel. A graphic novel is a more sophisticated comic book in format and style.

"Comic books have generally been purely entertainment, light subjects and fluff material," Carpenter said. "(The graphic novel) is catering toward a more serious audience."

Because of computers, O'Neil said DC Comics will be able to publish Batman archives consisting of the caped crusader's first two years.

O'Neil said the creation of comics using computers is the way he sees the entire industry in 10 years.

"Instead of working with a pencil (you are) working in front of three monitors with a mouse and a keyboard and actually making the changes on the screen," he said.