I have read a lot of posts on the creation of BATMAN and Bob Kane did not create BATMAN alone. Well, anyone who knows anything about BATMAN knows that Bill Finger had a BIG, BIG hand in what we know as BATMAN including the look and mystique of the character and for whatever reason be it that Kane should have pushed more to have him listed as a co-creator or his something like what Neal Adams and many other creators did back in 76, I think, for Siegel and Shuster to get these guys not only a pension but to be acknowledged as the creators of SUPERMAN. But NO ONE did that for him and that itself is a tragedy and downright wrong but as most of you know that, sadly, is the business of the comics industry. Theres also some things said about Kane not doing anything on his own and just how much in reference to his villains that he did create or contribute to BATMANS mythology or even if he did the artwork. Heres what I do know and what I am stating is based on interviews with Kane himself, his autobiography BATMAN AND ME and other books I have on the characters history and if I have anything wrong, dont blame me, blame the source material. Kane stated that he drew BATMANS creation from three sources: the silent film THE MARK OF ZORRO with Douglas Fairbanks, the artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci and another film THE BAT WHISPERS. Kane also states that the BATCAVE was inspired by Douglas Fairbanks as ZORRO riding out of a cave on his horse, Tornado and updated that with BATMAN riding out of the BATCAVE in the BATMOBILE. He was inspired to create THE JOKER from the movie THE MAN WHO LAUGHS starring Conrad Veidt about a child named Gwynnplaine (please dont quote me on the spelling) who was captured by gypsies and had his face slashed into a grin. This image was immortalized by JOKER co-creator Jerry Robinsons artwork. As far as Kane doing the artwork, there are two examples that you see above. The first one is from DETECTIVE COMICS # 32 1939 and the second is from the back cover of BATMAN #1 1940. He even continued to do artwork long after BATMAN and had a lithograph that he sold when the when the BATMAN movie was released in 1989. And here is something a lot of you may not know but a lot of my old school fans do. If you ever seen the cartoons COOL McCOOL and COURAGEOUS CAT AND MINUTE MOUSE, then you have Bob Kane to thank for that as well. He may not have done it all but he still created the character and someone needs to do something to make sure that Bill Finger gets his due.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 00:36:03 +0000
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