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mrbarbar
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Due to Bob Kanes lifelong habit of fictionalising his own life, his autobiography (with Tom Andre) Batman & Me cannot be relied upon to represent a truthful & accurate account for the creation of Batman. It is probably safer therefore to draw upon interviews with the many people who worked with Kane. Fortunately the number of people who worked with Kane and are eager to talk about him are legion.
This post is an honest attempt to look at the FACTS & possibly answer some of the more contentious issues that surround the creation of Batman.
1938
In order to capitalise on the huge success of the recently released comic book hero Superman, the then editor of National Comics (before it became DC) Vin Sullivan sets a mission for his many contributors Give me another Superman, he asks his many writers and artists. He asks them to bring forward ideas for costumed heroes that would become the cover feature of an upcoming issue of Detective Comics. Among those he talked to was Bob Kane. Kane told him he would be back on Monday with a new Hero.
Bob Kane & Bill Finger told different versions of what happened next. Kane in fact told several different versions over the years. The earlier ones excluded Bill Finger entirely. He would later under pressure from fans acknowledge a small contribution from Finger.
Inspired by the latest issue of Action Comics # 7 depicting Superman leaping over a city street towing a crook by his ankle and Alex Raymonds Flash Gordon comics he set about creating a new hero. Once he has completed his sketches he met with his friend Bill Finger. What he showed was a red-garbed crime fighter with mechanical wings called Bird-Man.
Finger didnt think it would fit a Detective Comic and suggested something more along the lines of The Shadow- nocturnal, secretive, dark & cloaked. Kane & Finger worked out a spooky Bat-Man figure in grey & black, with a ribbed cape and a pointy eared cowl. They put the outline of a bat on his chest in imitation of Supermans S and gave him a utility belt.
Kane took the sketches to Vin Sullivan that Monday who immediately approved the strip as a monthly six page feature, but in a move that would show great business acumen Kane did not sell his pages outright. Instead he struck a deal that guaranteed control of the material & security.
Kane brought the good news to Finger, not mentioning the long term deal hed signed, and Finger began writing for a piece of the page rate. Finger scripted what would become Detective Comics #27 and Kane drew it. What Kane succeeded through his crude drawings in that first issue was to repeatedly place his hero against a full moon, or to draw him in silhouette. He gave him mood and mystery. However it is highly unlikely that the cover was drawn by Kane. The image is too elegant and well crafted.
No one has ever taken credit for the art in the second Batman story, but the quickest glance will tell you it isnt Kane. Kane had already begun to bring in one of the many Ghost Artists that would secretly draw for him over the years.
By the third issue Kane brought in 17 year old Jerry Robinson to ink for him, and within months he had taken over all art completely. A great partnership was formed in Jerry & Bill. Jerry would commend Fingers visual imagination high praise from an artist to a writer. Bill Finger in turn took the young artist to the Metropolitan Museum and movie theatres introducing him to German expressionist films. It was Robinson & Finger that created the Joker, and it was Finger who weaved Batmans origin of murdered parents and revenge in issue #33. Finger continued to write Batman for many years, weaving and building Batmans mythology. Kane had long left, leaving all his artistic duties to his many Ghost Artists. The lone moniker By Bob Kane remained.
In late 1946 Kane pulled off the most ingenious stunt in a career full of ingenious stunts. He single-handedly wrestled legal ownership of Batman from National Comics while simultaneously flushing Superman creators Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster down the toilet. Siegel & Shuster were taking legal action against National owners Harry Donenfeld & Jack Liebowitz over the rights to Superman. They wrongly assumed they could form a united alliance with Bob Kane, thinking they would hold greater clout if the creators of both their BIG Superheroes challenged ownership at once. It would prove a costly mistake for Jerry and Jo. Kane went to talk to Jack Liebowitz and told him that Siegel & Shuster were planning legal action and it would be better all round to re-negotiate Kanes original deal. Furthermore Kane insisted the previous contract was invalid as he was a minor when it was signed, and his parents would be happy to testify to that effect. As Kane had no birth certificate to prove or disprove his accusation, Liebowitz buckled. He returned legal ownership of Batman to Kane, including rights of reversion, a guaranteed number of pages per month at a staggering page rate, and a percentage of subsidiary rights. Kane then told Jerry Siegel that he would not be joining him in a lawsuit. Jerry & Joe were on there own.
By the late 60s Bill Finger was still writing comics for a page rate, while Kane negotiated a million dollar fee for a TV show based upon Batman. Yet Finger remained strangely silent about his co-creation. It was only when fans sought him out that he began to tell his story. Kane blasted him in print for his hallucinations of grandeur. To the victor belong the spoils Kane wrote in Batmania Fanzine. I am assured that in folklore of legendary comic history of our times, I know that Bob Kane will be remembered as the creator of Batman and no one else. Finger didnt press the issue much after that. Decades of drinking took their toll on Finger. He missed more deadlines and his family came apart. Jack Liebowitz refused to give him Health & Retirement benefits. He then stopped getting assignments, and stopped talking to the fans. Bob Kane told of meeting him after his career had ended He was a haunted man, said Kane. Bill Finger, who had dreamed to be a great novelist, was finished as a writer and penniless by his early fifties. He died a few years later at the age of sixty. He has never been credited, acknowledged or received any financial reward for co-creating Batman. Only after his death would Kane begin to acknowledge what his friend had given him, but didnt regret enough to try and readdress the balance by giving Finger Co-Creation credit.
Bob Kane would continue too reap financially from Batman, receiving a percentage from all Bat-Merchandise sold. Other old habits died hard as he continued to have artists Ghost for him, this time selling Michael Keaton & Jack Nicholson painting for thousands of dollars apiece all signed Bob Kane.
Bob Kane died in 1998, he is still to this day known as the sole creator of Batman.
This post is an honest attempt to look at the FACTS & possibly answer some of the more contentious issues that surround the creation of Batman.
1938
In order to capitalise on the huge success of the recently released comic book hero Superman, the then editor of National Comics (before it became DC) Vin Sullivan sets a mission for his many contributors Give me another Superman, he asks his many writers and artists. He asks them to bring forward ideas for costumed heroes that would become the cover feature of an upcoming issue of Detective Comics. Among those he talked to was Bob Kane. Kane told him he would be back on Monday with a new Hero.
Bob Kane & Bill Finger told different versions of what happened next. Kane in fact told several different versions over the years. The earlier ones excluded Bill Finger entirely. He would later under pressure from fans acknowledge a small contribution from Finger.
Inspired by the latest issue of Action Comics # 7 depicting Superman leaping over a city street towing a crook by his ankle and Alex Raymonds Flash Gordon comics he set about creating a new hero. Once he has completed his sketches he met with his friend Bill Finger. What he showed was a red-garbed crime fighter with mechanical wings called Bird-Man.
Finger didnt think it would fit a Detective Comic and suggested something more along the lines of The Shadow- nocturnal, secretive, dark & cloaked. Kane & Finger worked out a spooky Bat-Man figure in grey & black, with a ribbed cape and a pointy eared cowl. They put the outline of a bat on his chest in imitation of Supermans S and gave him a utility belt.
Kane took the sketches to Vin Sullivan that Monday who immediately approved the strip as a monthly six page feature, but in a move that would show great business acumen Kane did not sell his pages outright. Instead he struck a deal that guaranteed control of the material & security.
Kane brought the good news to Finger, not mentioning the long term deal hed signed, and Finger began writing for a piece of the page rate. Finger scripted what would become Detective Comics #27 and Kane drew it. What Kane succeeded through his crude drawings in that first issue was to repeatedly place his hero against a full moon, or to draw him in silhouette. He gave him mood and mystery. However it is highly unlikely that the cover was drawn by Kane. The image is too elegant and well crafted.
No one has ever taken credit for the art in the second Batman story, but the quickest glance will tell you it isnt Kane. Kane had already begun to bring in one of the many Ghost Artists that would secretly draw for him over the years.
By the third issue Kane brought in 17 year old Jerry Robinson to ink for him, and within months he had taken over all art completely. A great partnership was formed in Jerry & Bill. Jerry would commend Fingers visual imagination high praise from an artist to a writer. Bill Finger in turn took the young artist to the Metropolitan Museum and movie theatres introducing him to German expressionist films. It was Robinson & Finger that created the Joker, and it was Finger who weaved Batmans origin of murdered parents and revenge in issue #33. Finger continued to write Batman for many years, weaving and building Batmans mythology. Kane had long left, leaving all his artistic duties to his many Ghost Artists. The lone moniker By Bob Kane remained.
In late 1946 Kane pulled off the most ingenious stunt in a career full of ingenious stunts. He single-handedly wrestled legal ownership of Batman from National Comics while simultaneously flushing Superman creators Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster down the toilet. Siegel & Shuster were taking legal action against National owners Harry Donenfeld & Jack Liebowitz over the rights to Superman. They wrongly assumed they could form a united alliance with Bob Kane, thinking they would hold greater clout if the creators of both their BIG Superheroes challenged ownership at once. It would prove a costly mistake for Jerry and Jo. Kane went to talk to Jack Liebowitz and told him that Siegel & Shuster were planning legal action and it would be better all round to re-negotiate Kanes original deal. Furthermore Kane insisted the previous contract was invalid as he was a minor when it was signed, and his parents would be happy to testify to that effect. As Kane had no birth certificate to prove or disprove his accusation, Liebowitz buckled. He returned legal ownership of Batman to Kane, including rights of reversion, a guaranteed number of pages per month at a staggering page rate, and a percentage of subsidiary rights. Kane then told Jerry Siegel that he would not be joining him in a lawsuit. Jerry & Joe were on there own.
By the late 60s Bill Finger was still writing comics for a page rate, while Kane negotiated a million dollar fee for a TV show based upon Batman. Yet Finger remained strangely silent about his co-creation. It was only when fans sought him out that he began to tell his story. Kane blasted him in print for his hallucinations of grandeur. To the victor belong the spoils Kane wrote in Batmania Fanzine. I am assured that in folklore of legendary comic history of our times, I know that Bob Kane will be remembered as the creator of Batman and no one else. Finger didnt press the issue much after that. Decades of drinking took their toll on Finger. He missed more deadlines and his family came apart. Jack Liebowitz refused to give him Health & Retirement benefits. He then stopped getting assignments, and stopped talking to the fans. Bob Kane told of meeting him after his career had ended He was a haunted man, said Kane. Bill Finger, who had dreamed to be a great novelist, was finished as a writer and penniless by his early fifties. He died a few years later at the age of sixty. He has never been credited, acknowledged or received any financial reward for co-creating Batman. Only after his death would Kane begin to acknowledge what his friend had given him, but didnt regret enough to try and readdress the balance by giving Finger Co-Creation credit.
Bob Kane would continue too reap financially from Batman, receiving a percentage from all Bat-Merchandise sold. Other old habits died hard as he continued to have artists Ghost for him, this time selling Michael Keaton & Jack Nicholson painting for thousands of dollars apiece all signed Bob Kane.
Bob Kane died in 1998, he is still to this day known as the sole creator of Batman.
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