The Creation of The Bat-Man

[BatmanBeatsAll]

I was doing some research on the history of the creation of the Batman. For those of you who don't know, you will find this very interesting.

In response to the success of Superman in 1938, a man named Bob Kane created "The Bat-Man." Kane's influence for the Batman came from films called The Mark of Zorro (1920) and The Bat Whispers (1930), as well as Leonardo Da Vinci's diagram of the ornithopter, a flying machine with huge bat-like wings. So Batman's character was influenced by popular culture of the 1930's.

Kane devised the Batman with help of a man named Bill Finger, who is an uncredited co-creator. Kane only acknowledges Finger as a "contributing force." Kane has also acknowledged his key contributing role in the design of Batman's costume. Finger helped create nemeses. The Joker, The Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face, The Riddler, and others.

Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May of 1939. Batman gained his own comic book title in 1940 due to popular demand.

This isn't in full detail, but if you want to learn more, its easy information to find.

Aaron
http://www.PopFunk.com

[Chad]

However, the plot thickens. I had a croney I went to De Witt Clinton with named Bill Finger. I didn't know him in high school - he was a couple years older than I was. I met him at a party. He was a shoe salesman then and deeply into pulps like Doc Savage and The Shadow. But he had aspirations of becoming a writer. I called Bill and said, "I have a new character called the Bat-Man and I've made some crude, elementary sketches I'd like you to look at." So he came over and I showed him the drawings. At that time I only had a small halloween mask, like Robin's, on Batman's face. So he said "Why not make him look more like a bat and put a hood on him, and take the eyeballs out and just put slits for eyes to make him more mysterious." He wore a red union suit; the wings were black, the mask was black. I thought red and black would be a good combination. Bill said it was too bright - color it dark gray and make it more ominous. So I followed his suggestions. The cape looked like two stiff bat wings attached to his arms. But this was cimbersome and would get in the way of his derring-do when he was fighting or swinging on a rope. So Bill suggested making it a cape that scalloped out like batwings when Batman jumped through the air or swung down with a rope.

So Bill was a contributing force right from the beginning and wrote the first story "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate". Bill wrote most of the great stories and was influential in setting the pace of the early stories and the genre the other writers emulated. He was like the "Cecil B Demille" of the comic strips. He would write a script by getting a photograph of a giant prop - the Statue of Liberty, a giant typewriter or sewing machine - and that would generate an idea for a story and he would build the story around the giant prop. He was also a very good mystery writer because of his interest in the pulps.

Bill was an unsung hero, he never realised his full potential, ever. He wrote a lot of comics for DC, created a lot of characters. But he never made much money and died broke. I never thought of giving him a by-line and he never asked for one. I often tell my wife if I could go back 13 or 14 years before he died, I would like to say, "I'll put your name on it now. You deserve it". I feel a slight sense of guilt that I didn't do it. I really loved the guy. Without Bill, Batman wouldn't be as great as he is now. Now they put everybody's name on a strip - the artist, writer, inker, letterer, colorist. My editor felt that only the creator's name should be on it. I think they were afraid writers would demand more of a piece of the action, so they tried to keep them down.

Interviewed by Thomas Andrae

[Captain Jim]

That's very interesting. I've never seen Kane give Finger that much credit in print before. In most of the other written pieces, he minimizes Finger's involvement. Maybe he was feeling guilty.

[Purple]

It's a shame that Finger had to die broke. At least Kane gives him a bit of credit now.

[daredevil1990]

That's pretty sad stuff to read, makes you wonder how Batman would be now if Kane had never met Finger, if he'd even be around at all. It's good that he's recognised now, but dieing broke, that's got to tore up Kane inside.

I thought it was interesting how Finger wrote stories built around a photo, wonder how many guys wrote like that and if any still do?

[Chad]

A lot of stories I wrote with Bill or would give him an idea and he would go home and write it. He would come over to the house and we'd kick ideas around. We would kind of co-create an idea and then he would go and write it. Bill had one problem - he was a little tardy in getting things in on deadline. He wasn't a natural writer - he had to sweat over his stuff - it didn't flow. But it came out good in the end. He was one hell of a writer.

Q: Who came up with the idea of making Batman a master detective?

Kane: We both came up with the fact that he would be a crime fighter. I made him a superhero vigilante when I first created him. Bill made him into a scientific detective.

Q: How did you come up with the idea of making Batman a vigilante?

Kane: I thought it was more exciting for him to work outside the law rather than inside it. I guess growing up as a rough kid in the bronx, we used to be vigilantes to survive. Not that we'd steal anything, but we'd be tough. We were outsiders - outside the law. We'd break a few windows and a cop would chase us. We'd meet at our clubhouse and cook Mickey's from potatoes our mothers would throw out the window and charbroil them over the fire.

Q: How did you create Bruce Wayne?

Kane: Bruce Wayne was a collaboration with Bill Finger. I suggested the dual identity from Zorro, and he saw Zorro also, so that influenced him, too. We draw ourselves or people we know into our strips. Bruce Wayne looked like me when I was young and handsome with aqualine features. Bruce Wayne was my image, Pat Ryan was Milt Caniff's when he was thinner, and Li'l Abner Al Capp's when he was younger. We emulate ourselves to a degree; the creation doesn't fall far from the creator's pen. The alliteration of the names - Bruce Wayne - Bob Kane - was probably one reason Bill came up with the name.

Q: Did you encounter much censorship?

Kane: In the first Batman book, he originally had a gun. He had a machine gun on his plane and used it fighting monsters. The editorial policy was to bring him over to the side of the law and get away from the vigilante he originally was and not to carry a gun. They thought this was more in keeping with the social mores of the times, and making him a murderer would taint his character. The policy was to make him an honorary member of the police force who was outside the law but still working within it. The whole moral climate changed after 1940-1941 -you couldn't kill or shoot villains. Bill Finger wrote one story in which Batman had a gun. It was his idea, not mine. It was inspired by The Shadow. We didn't think anything was wrong with it, because The Shadow used a gun. But I can't remember Batman ever killing anyone with a gun except the monsters in Batman no.1.

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

Bill Finger most certainly deserves to be credited with a bi-line next to Bob Kane's, like Siegel and Shuster for Superman.