Batman

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Creation and publication

In early 1939, the success of Superman in Action Comics prompted editors at the comic book division of National Publications (later DC Comics, now a subsidiary of Time Warner) to request more superheroes for their titles. In response, Bob Kane created a character called "Birdman". His collaborator Bill Finger offered such suggestions as renaming the character "Batman", giving the character a cowl instead of a simple domino mask, giving him a cape instead of wings, giving him gloves, and removing bright red sections of the original costume. Finger wrote the first Batman story, while Kane provided art. Because Kane had already submitted the proposal for a Batman character to his editors at DC Comics, Kane was the only person given official credit at the time for the creation of Batman.

Related Topics:
1939 - Superman - Action Comics - National Publications - DC Comics - Time Warner - Bob Kane - Bill Finger

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A number of other sources have been cited as inspirations for Batman's personality, character history, and visual design and equipment, including Zorro, Doc Savage, The Shadow, 1926's The Bat, The Phantom, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Douglas Fairbanks, Superman, Dick Tracy, and even the technical drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci.

Related Topics:
Zorro - Doc Savage - The Shadow - The Bat - The Phantom - Dracula - Sherlock Holmes - Douglas Fairbanks - Superman - Dick Tracy - Leonardo Da Vinci

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The character was a breakout hit, with sales on Detective soaring to the point that National's comic book division was renamed "Detective Comics, Inc." Soon after, National suggested that the violence be toned down, and that the character receive a youthful sidekick whom the readers could use as an audience surrogate. Kane initially suggested an impish character like Puck, while Finger suggested a more down-to-earth character, Robin. The Batman and Robin team was a hit, and the character soon gelled into the hero that generations of readers and pop culture fans would come to recognize.

Related Topics:
Sidekick - Audience surrogate - Puck - Robin

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Kane, the more business-savvy of the Kane-Finger creative team, negotiated a contract with National, signing away any ownership that he might have in the character in exchange for, among other compensations, a mandatory byline on all Batman comics stating "Batman created by Bob Kane", regardless of whether or not Kane had been involved with that story. At the time, no comic books and few company-owned comic strips were explicitly credited to their creative teams. Bill Finger's contract, by comparison, left him with a monetary pittance and no credit even on the stories that he wrote without Kane. Finger, like Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel, and many other creators during and after the Golden Age of Comic Books, would resent National for cheating him of the money and dignity that he was owed for his creation. By the time Finger died in 1974, he had never once been officially credited for his work. In comparison, Kane parlayed his official sole creator status into a low level of celebrity, enjoying a post-comic book career as a painter. Ironically, much of Kane's later comics work, and even some of his non-comics art, was written or illustrated by other, uncredited writers or artists, ghosting under Kane's name.

Related Topics:
Byline - Joe Shuster - Jerry Siegel - Golden Age of Comic Books - Ghosting

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