GRIMSHAW'S ATTIC MEDIA

Bob Kane (Left) and Bob Finger (Right)

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While he was alive Bob Kane wanted his audience to believe he was the sole creator of Batman. Thanks to his deal with what is now called today DC Comics, Kane made sure that until 2016 he was the sole credit. Kane was so determined to make sure that this was always remembered to be the case, that his open book-shaped tombstone claims that "GOD bestowed a dream upon Bob Kane. Blessed with divine inspiration and a rich imagination, Bob created a legacy known as BATMAN."

 

In a sense, Kane was right in claiming he created a character called 'Batman'. Except Kane's 'Bat-Man' was a blonde haired character wearing a red suit, domino mask and a pair of batwings. Writer and co-creator Bill Finger took that concept Kane had created and added in what Kane, if he were in a generous mood, would probably call the 'minor details' of the characters. These 'minor details' amounting to the character being a billionaire called Bruce Wayne who, after a mugger fatally shot both of his parents in an alley, secretly works as a detective in wearing a black and grey costume with a cape and cowl. All while working alongside his sidekick Robin to fight the costumed criminals of Gotham City including the Joker, Penguin and Catwoman.

 

Essentially Finger created most of the major details associated with the character, yet died in obscurity in 1974 without getting the claim to fame one would expect from having created an internationally recognised American icon. Readers might now by wondering how such a thing could have happened, before blaming the comic industries' legendary reputation for screwing over creators for their money printing franchise creations. But this time around, it appears that it was not DC Comics that did the funny business, but Kane himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bob Kane's Tombstone

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Finger was a writer and part-time shoe salesman who joined Kane's studio in 1938. While he was a talented writer and creator, he lacked that same level of talent as a businessman. As described earlier, Kane came up with the concept, while Finger developed it into the property that we know today. And when then-editor Vin Sullivan was shown this character by Kane, Sullivan decided to run the Batman scripts and Bob negotiated a deal for the character. One that would not include Finger.

 

The deal turned Finger into a ghost-writer for his own co-creation, but a unfortunately slow one as well as he tended put a lot of research into his work. As issues of both the monthly Detective Comics and Batman series would have multiple Batman stories that needed to be produced quickly, this meant that Finger had to be replaced for a time with another writer, Gardner Fox. Finger's fortunes would not improve when Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster tried to buy the rights back the Superman rights from DC. Siegel and Shuster recruited Kane to help them achieve this goal, which Kane agreed to do. Kane then immediately went behind the duo's backs and warned DC of the duo's plans and take the opportunity to renegotiate his own contract at the same time. All while scaring DC into doing so by lying about his original contract being invalid thanks to Kane having apparently signed it as a minor (he was in fact 24 at the time of the original contract).

 

With Kane having got a higher page rate and a percentage of subsidiary rights to Batman, he also got the final nail in the coffin for any attempt on Finger's part to gain credit for his work creating Batman. This was the mandatory by-line giving Kane sole credit for being the creator of Batman that all Batman comics and their adaptations have. This meant that the only times Finger got any public credit for a Batman story in his lifetime was two-part "The Clock King's Crazy Crimes/The Clock King Gets Crowned" serial for the Adam West Batman TV series, and the letter page of Batman #169 in February 1965 where editor Julius Schwartz named Finger as the creator of the Riddler. However, many comic professionals and historians would often claim in favour of the Kane/Finger partnership creating the character.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Kane's Original Design for Batman

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Kane, however, had his story was sticking to it. Kane claimed that if Finger had really helped create Batman "he would most certainly have a by-line on the strip along with my name, the same as Siegel and Schuster had as creators of Superman. However, it remains obvious that my name appears on the strip alone, proving that I created the idea first and then called Bill in later, after my publisher okayed my original creation." While Kane would start to claim he would think otherwise after Finger's death in 1974 from an occlusive coronary atherosclerosis by his death in 1998 Kane decided to die still holding onto the claim he was the sole creator of Batman. But his tombstone conceded that may have had just a little bit of help from none other than God himself.

 

Despite Kane literally taking his lie to the grave, eventually this changed. Finger's granddaughter Athena successfully managed to make a deal with DC Comics wherein from October 2015, the mandatory by-line Kane had used has proof that only he created the character was updated with the acknowledgement "Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger", the credit first appearing in Batman and Robin Eternal #3 and Batman: Arkham Knight Genesis #3 (both of which were released on the same day). While tragically never getting the public acknowledgement for his work that he deserved in his lifetime, Bill Finger has been vindicated by history as one of the true co-creators of Batman.