Bob Kane's early unused Batman design

[returntovoid]

Here's Bob Kane's early unused design for Batman before Bill Finger suggested that He should wear a batlike cowl instead of a domino mask, the eyes should be hollow white to make him look more mysterious and the color combination should be black & grey instead of black & red.

 

[Drz]

Lol that is so bad. But hey he kinda looks like Robin there.

 

[SuperFerret]

This is why Bill Finger is even more of an unsung hero. Kane doesn't deserve as much of the credit that he gets.

 

[FlawlessVictory]

Interesting, thanks for posting. I had heard about Finger suggesting the cowl but I had never seen this original version that Kane designed. Kane has even gone on record as saying he should have given a byline to Finger as co-creator of Batman. It's a shame and travesty about the absence of credit Finger receives in creating Batman.

 

[Drz]

Indeed.

 

[returntovoid]

I agree, Bill Finger should have received credit.

 

[Travesty]

Oh man, thats really bad. Someone should dress up like that fro Halloween.

 

[Crook]

Really dodged a bullet there. Imagine, had Finger not stepped in, Batman would have probably never gotten as famous as he did, and we all wouldn't be here.

 

[bunk]

And his name was to be "Bird-Man" before Finger suggested the bat motif.

 

[Motown Marvel]

actually i believe that is not a bob kane drawing. i dont think there are any of kanes designs for batman in known existence. but the drawing above is actually an artists rendition based on descriptions of kane's original idea.

 

[Jack O Lantern]

Really dodged a bullet there. Imagine, had Finger not stepped in, Batman would have probably never gotten as famous as he did, and we all wouldn't be here.

Batman's popularity led to your birth? WOW!

 

[randyf]

They do this all the time, but this was a nice tribute on the very first page of Gaiman & Kubert's "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" (part 1, Batman #686):

That's actually the 2nd panel. The first panel includes a reference to Jim Aparo.

 

[returntovoid]

actually i believe that is not a bob kane drawing. i dont think there are any of kanes designs for batman in known existence. but the drawing above is actually an artists rendition based on descriptions of kane's original idea.

I found that drawing on Dial B for Blog's the Secret Origins of the Batman entry and yeah, that's not drawn by Bob Kane but it's an recreation done by Arl[FONT=Lucida Grande, Helvetica, Arial][/FONT]en Schumer, that appeared in Comic Book Artist #5.

Here's the link to the entry.

http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/389/

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

Batman:

Concept by: Bob Kane

Developed by: Bill Finger

 

[The Guard]

That looks a lot like One Year Later Robin.

 

[Saint]

actually i believe that is not a bob kane drawing. i dont think there are any of kanes designs for batman in known existence. but the drawing above is actually an artists rendition based on descriptions of kane's original idea.

I believe you are correct. I remember this image popping up before.

 

[simplysuperhero]

Good catch and great info here. Did you know this Saturday marks the 70th anniversary of the first Bat-Man issue of Detective Comics?

 

[GameSlave_08]

Looks sweet

 

[BatScot]

actually i believe that is not a bob kane drawing. i dont think there are any of kanes designs for batman in known existence. but the drawing above is actually an artists rendition based on descriptions of kane's original idea.

The image in question was created by Arlen Schumer for a kane expose that was published in AlterEgo magazine (which is the flip side of Comic Book Artist #5):

... which went on to show that even kane's 'original' Batman:

... wasn't really a kane drawing either but a swipe of an earlier Alex Raymond Flash Gordon image:

... tada:

RAISE THE FINGER

 

[Bathead]

Yah, apparently Kane had a habit of copping other's drawings. He also had a habit of re-using the same drawing more than once. Very Lazy artist.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Wow, so glad that never saw the light of day.

 

[simplysuperhero]

Fascinating stuff. Had no idea how much they "took" from one another.

 

[tekken]

that's robin with blond hair!

 

[Nepenthes]

you can read all about this in a very extensive article at Dial B for Blog. lots of nice pictures and examples, highly respectable work

Pointing the Finger and Bob Kane pt1
Part 2
Part 3

 

[simplysuperhero]

you can read all about this in a very extensive article at Dial B for Blog. lots of nice pictures and examples, highly respectable work

Pointing the Finger and Bob Kane pt1
Part 2
Part 3

Thanks!