I thought the new look Batman was a big improvement over the all the sci-fi crap and the stiff artwork that had been the norm for several years prior.  Actually I was a big fan of the Dick Sprang Batman.  I was too young to have purchased the stuff off the rack but I devoured any Sprang stories that happened to be reprinted in the Batman annuals.  Then the Batman TV show and all that camp garbage really set the character back again.  It wasn't until Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil took over the series towards the end of the Silver Age that I really got into Batman, Detective Comics, and the Brave and the Bold.