Someone called Hipster Dad has perhaps the final word on Chip Kidd’s ego and the lack of true author credit on Bat-Manga! After collecting links on the topic and summing up the project’s history, Kidd’s response drives him to try and dispose of the book:

… to see the shoddy way the comics are presented, to know that a properly restored reprint would have been a million times more preferable, to see bloggers I respect raise a reasonable eyebrow over the issue of credit, and to see the “artist” respond by being such a complete and utter heel in his e-mail to Mautner… well, I have an obligation to my local comic shop to actually pay for the material that I requested he order, but that’s not a mistake I’m going to make with Chip Kidd again. And if anybody would like to buy this book from me once it arrives, well, I am fortunate enough to at least receive a generous discount from the comic shop, and would happily pass that discount along to you.

I share the Dad’s feeling, by the way, that Kidd’s style — high-contrast out-of-context fetishism of the object — has become a stereotype. It feels like people, insecure about their likes, craving the approval that comes from having their tastes memorialized in an “art book”.