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In 1939, 24-year-old comics artist Bob Kane
was not having a lot of success. One day, though, he got a phone call from DC Comics, who were trying to come up with a costumed superhero to
capitalize on their success with Superman and wondered if Kane had any ideas. Looking for
inspiration, Kane thought of the swashbuckling movies of Douglas Fairbanks, a flying apparatus designed by Leonardo da Vinci, and a movie thriller
called The Bat Whispers, and came up with a character called "The
Bat-Man."
Unfortunately, that "Bat-Man" wore red tights
and a domino mask and looked about as threatening as Little Orphan Annie. Seeking help, Kane turned to writer Bill Finger,
who junked most of Kane's ideas and implemented his own. He put the
character in grey and black, added a scalloped cape, purple gloves, and a cowl with
bat ears. Finger's final touch was the name "Bruce
Wayne." With that, the Batman
we more or less know today was created.
Today, we note the 70th anniversary of the publication of Detective Comics #27, which featured the first appearance of Batman,
supposedly created solely by artist Bob Kane. But despite the credit line
that still appears on every Batman comic, cartoon, and movie,
Kane was probably the least involved of the team members that created the
Caped Crusader. Kane was a poor artist
and "swiped" many of the images in those early stories. Where
Kane excelled was in his business sense and marketing ability, so he signed a
contract with DC that gave them exclusive rights to Batman in exchange for sole credit going to Kane for "creating" the Dark Knight.
Kane soon farmed out the actual work of drawing Batman to such artists as Sheldon Moldoff, George Roussos, Ray Burnley, Charles Paris, Lew Sayre Schwartz, and, most notably, Jerry Robinson and Dick Sprang.
Robinson was responsible for refining the look of Batman and creating the Joker, Alfred Pennyworth,
and Dick Grayson, AKA Robin. Well, actually, Robinson only named Robin. The Boy Wonder was one
of Bill Finger’s many creations, along with The Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face, The Riddler, Commissioner Jim Gordon, the Batmobile, the Bat Cave, the name "Gotham City,"
and dozens of other characters and concepts.
While Robinson moved on to other things (including becoming an award-winning
editorial cartoonist, teaching at the School of Visual Arts,
The New School,
and the Parsons School of Design, and writing the first history of the comic art form) Finger continued working more or
less anonymously for DC, co-creating the Green Lantern
(this time for credit), and turning out classic Superman and Batman stories
in the '40s, '50s, and '60s.
Bob Kane died in 1998, never fully acknowledging the contributions of
his collaborators. Robinson, however, now 87, has worked tirelessly to ensure
creators' rights (including shaming DC Comics into giving a pension to Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster).
Robinson was also greatly responsible for founding the Bill Finger Award, given annually at San Diego's Comic-Con International to writers who were not sufficiently honored in their own
lifetimes.
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