There is much talk on the Internet about the announcement that some time next year, Bob Kane will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I mentioned it here and joked that protestors would show up for the ceremony with signs that said "WHAT ABOUT BILL FINGER?" Apparently, some folks are talking about actually organizing something of the sort. I'm thinking I may even go out and join them.
For those who don't know: Bill Finger wrote the first Batman story and most of the early ones that established key things about the character and his world. He was a friend of Kane's and a very good writer, and while Kane argued with some accounts of exactly what Finger had invented, even Bob had to admit that Bill made a vital contribution to the property.
In Kane's 1990 autobiography, he stunned many with the following paragraph. The book, like most of the "Bob Kane" art in the comics, was largely the work of someone else. Still, Bob wanted this in there so it's as good as if he'd typed the words himself…
Now that my long-time friend and collaborator is gone, I must admit that Bill never received the fame and recognition he deserved. He was an unsung hero. I often tell my wife, if I could go back fifteen years, before he died, I would like to say "I'll put your name on it now. You deserve it."
But Kane did not do this and I really wish he had. He could have picked up the phone, called Paul Levitz or someone at DC and said, "Look, as long as it doesn't impact how much I'm paid, I'd like to add Bill's name wherever mine appears." If he had, Finger's friends and family would not have to deal with this injustice.
I suspect that it's caused some pain to Bob's loved ones, as well. They can't be pleased by that little black cloud that still hangs over Batman and Bob Kane. No one is. Had he made that call, people would not now be discussing Bob as someone who wronged a friend who made him rich and famous. We'd now be hailing Bob as a helluva great guy who, like the fellow in the cowl, righted injustices.
Around 1946, when DC was afraid of him suing them over ownership of Batman, he secured a very lucrative contract with the company. One of its provisions stated that Bob Kane — and only Bob Kane — would be credited as the creator of Batman and that hero's major supporting players. Kane often acknowledged that certain supporting players were created by others but he insisted on his credit and thereafter refused to give it up or modify it.
His deal also called for him to "draw" a certain number of Batman pages per month. I put "draw" in quotes because everyone at DC knew Kane was not going to draw them by himself and some probably suspected he'd do what he did, which was to hire someone else to do all of that work. Early on in this arrangement, Kane may have occasionally redrawn a figure here or there but at least 99% of the art was by a ghost, usually Sheldon Moldoff. DC was paying Kane a high-enough rate that he could pay his ghost and then live quite well off the remainder of the money. At the same time, many Batman stories were done outside this arrangement with DC editors commissioning the usual freelancers to produce work that would also be signed with Kane's name.
Due to the fluctuating art styles, fans got hip that "Bob Kane" art was drawn by many people. Even as a kid, I noticed that some Batman stories did not look like others appearing simultaneously. Some of it was obviously the work of whoever was drawing the Supergirl strip…which was not signed "Bob Kane."
If a fanzine blew the whistle, they sometimes received an angry letter from Bob or some friend of his scolding them for spreading stupid lies. In at least one, he was outraged by the suggestion that Bill Finger was in any way, shape or form a creator of Batman.
Kane's main "proof" that Finger didn't create any part of Batman was that Finger's name did not appear on the strip. If you read that letter to which I just linked, follow that up by re-reading the above quote from Kane's autobiography — written years later, when Finger was dead and Kane was much more secure in his financial position. Taken together, the logic goes roughly like this: "The proof that Bill Finger didn't create or co-create Batman is that I didn't allow his name on the strip." It still is not there.
In the mid-sixties, Kane negotiated a new deal and the timing couldn't have been better for him. Batman, after many years of not being a hot property, was on TV and bigger than ever. Moreover, the folks who owned DC Comics were itching to sell the company to a big corporation and so had to make sure that Mr. Kane would not queer that sale. He got an awful lot of money or at least what seemed like an awful lot at the time. Thereafter, his working arrangement with DC changed and he no longer supplied pages that he'd allegedly drawn. Instead, DC editors hired all the artists and those men were credited. So, for the first time, were the writers.
Sadly, by this point, Bill Finger was not one of them. As reported by author Les Daniels in DC's official history: "A group of veteran writers, including Bill Finger, Gardner Fox and Otto Binder, pressured DC to provide pensions and insurance; they ended up losing their jobs." (Gardner Fox was the other writer who wrote early, formative Batman stories, as well as being the unquestioned creator of many of DC's top characters.)
Since then, DC has credited Finger for writing certain stories and credited ghost artists for drawing them but the company continues to take heat, probably undeserved, for the absence of any creator credit for him. I don't know the current status but a few years ago, certain folks at the company were actively trying to persuade the Kane family to waive that provision and permit, "Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger." Last I heard, they refused to entertain the notion despite the fact that sole credit is probably doing Bob's reputation more harm than good.
In the meantime, friends and fans of Mr. Finger have done what they could. Each year at Comic-Con International in San Diego, I present the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing, a trophy that goes to a writer whose body of work has not received proper recognition and/or reward. It was suggested by Finger's old friend and co-worker, Jerry Robinson, who himself made early, important (and anonymous) contributions to the world of Batman. DC is one of the sponsors of this award and next month at Comic-Con, I will co-present this year's alongside Bill's granddaughter, Athena Finger. I'll also be on a panel with her to discuss her grandfather and his work.
If I can, there are a few things I will say on that panel in defense of Bob. One is that his original sin of credit-hogging was committed at a time when the industry was not as sensitive on this issue as it is today. No, Bill Finger did not get his name on work he did on Batman. He also didn't get it on 95% of the non-Batman work he did and there's no indication he objected.
Most writers and artists of comic books before the mid-sixties remained largely anonymous and didn't seem to mind. Many writers regarded comics as something they were going to write until something more prestigious and/or lucrative came along. Even the man born Stanley Lieber has spoken of inventing "Stan Lee" as his pen name for comics, figuring to save his real moniker for novels he would someday write. Most artists did not sign their work even when working on comics where it was permitted and all they had to do was write their name somewhere on page one.
Also worth mentioning is that back in the forties, the role models for most guys who did comic books were most guys who did comic strips. In the newspaper strips, it was pretty much standard for one person to get all the credit no matter who did what. That didn't make it right…just sort of customary.
Someone else could write without credit. Most of you know the feature Flash Gordon and many of you know it was created by the great Alex Raymond, who drew it from its inception. I'll bet not ten people reading this know the name of the guy who wrote it for a lot longer than Raymond drew it and who some think contributed as much to Flash Gordon as Finger contributed to Batman. The writer's name was Don W. Moore.
Someone else could draw without credit. Almost all artists who produced newspaper strips had ghosts to help them with the workload and sometimes, those ghosts wound up doing more of the art than the guy whose name was signed to the strip. In fact, sometimes they did it all, including the signing of that name.
Someone else could even write and draw without credit. After the Mutt n' Jeff comic strip was established and bringing in enough cash to permit him to do so, Bud Fisher reportedly never did anything on it; just enjoyed life and let someone else sit at the drawing board day and night. The unrelated Ham Fisher did much the same thing with his Joe Palooka and the Fishers were hardly unique. All those great guys who wrote and drew Disney comics in the newspapers and comics? Anonymous.
The absence of Bill Finger's name on the Batman feature back then has to be viewed in the context of that era. And it might also be fair to recall that Finger did not seem to make a huge stink about it during his lifetime…a little stink but not a huge one. Finger passed away in 1974. He lived through the Adam West era, reaping virtually no attention or rewards as his characters and storylines, for which he was paid meager, comic book money, turned up on a hit network TV series. He did co-write one episode but that was about it. Then came the period when DC wouldn't hire him at all. Fortunately, that ended though not in time to do him much good.
I met Bill Finger ever-so-briefly less than a year before he died. I was up at the DC offices and an older man I did not recognize was walking around. With my vast interest in veteran comic creators, I had to know who he was and Nelson Bridwell, an editor there, told me. I immediately went looking for the older man to express my long admiration for his work but to my great disappointment, could not find him. It seemed like he'd left the office and I'd missed my chance to meet Bill Finger.
A half-hour later as I was leaving the building, I spotted him coming out of a little newsstand and notions shop in the lobby. I went up, introduced myself and said something like, "Your writing has always been an inspiration to me…which is a nice way of saying that I steal shamelessly from you." He laughed, asked me a little about myself and we then spent five minutes talking about New York taxi drivers and the subway system. Not a word about Batman or Bob Kane or anything that I would have liked to discuss with him.
I knew Bob somewhat better. I met him in 1968, which was a time of transition in his life. He'd made that new deal with DC and under it, the guys who actually drew the comics were finally being credited. In fact, that first day I met him, I showed him the current issue of Batman which was the first to credit anyone else — in this case, Irv Novick. Kane knew it was coming but I don't think he was emotionally prepared to lay eyes on a Batman story with a name on it that was not his. He stared at it a long time then closed the comic and changed the subject.
I probably spent time with Bob on about a dozen occasions, not counting his funeral. I was one of only four people connected with the comic book field present at Forest Lawn that day, the other three being Stan Lee, Mike W. Barr and Paul Smith. We'd all decided independently to attend but one of Bob's friends or relatives kept pointing to us and announcing, "The comic book industry sent an official delegation to honor Bob." I can't recall "the comic book industry" ever acting as one in anything.
The other twelve or so encounters were interesting, though I was never sure which Bob Kane I was going to get. Sometimes, he was the Bob Kane who'd single-handedly created Batman and drawn every single story for around 27 years. Other times, he'd realize that I — and others present if others were present — knew better and he'd talk about the other artists ("my ghosts") and Bill Finger, acknowledging, though perhaps undervaluing, what he believed they'd done.
I may be dead wrong about this but my sense is that he was troubled by Finger's lack of recognition and financial benefit but at the same time, terrified that even the slightest thing he did to rectify matters might slightly diminish his own income and celebrity. He is not the only person in comic book history credited with creating lasting, valuable properties who feels that way about past collaborators. One in particular has really disappointed me over the years.
None of what I wrote above defending Kane mitigates my belief that Bill Finger's name should appear in connection with Batman every time Bob Kane's does. It isn't so much that I object to Bob having his name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Bob Kane was at the very least one of the two people responsible for the creation of one of fiction's most enduring, popular characters. That sidewalk up in Hollywood is full of the names of people who achieved a lot less than Bob did by any accounts. The problem is all the places, including that pavement, where Milton "Bill" Finger goes — and if nothing changes will continue to go — unmentioned.
Before I close this off, I want to get back to that line in Bob's autobiography and I'll quote it here again to save you the chore of scrolling back up to it…
Now that my long-time friend and collaborator is gone, I must admit that Bill never received the fame and recognition he deserved. He was an unsung hero. I often tell my wife, if I could go back fifteen years, before he died, I would like to say "I'll put your name on it now. You deserve it."
When that book came out, that little admission — the first-ever, I believe, from Bob — gladdened the hearts of some who said, "Well, at least it's something." I didn't feel that way. If anything, it had the opposite effect on me.
It would be one thing if Bob seriously believed he deserved sole credit; that what he recalled doing constituted the act of creation and what Finger and others did was all merely embellishing his creation. I wouldn't agree with that but I have met some people — in comics and other forms of entertainment — who have some strange, self-serving ideas about what constitutes the act of creation or even writing. Often, their definition is, "Whatever I did."
If that had been Bob's view of who created Batman, I wouldn't have concurred but it would be a matter of his definition of "creation" versus mine and others. When he admitted Bill deserved credit but did nothing to make that happen…well, that's when I lost a lot more respect for the guy.
I did not lose it all. Bob was kind of intermittently nice to me. Our first two meetings, he was willing to spend an awful lot of time with a 16-year-old kid who was interested in comics and when he figured out that I wasn't buying this line about him drawing it all, he told me about Dick Sprang and Jerry Robinson and many of the other folks who did the work signed with his name. Finding out I was an aspiring writer, Bob asked to read some samples of my work, did…and told me I had no talent for writing and should give it up. I still intend to take his advice but I've been working so steadily as a writer for the last 46 years that I haven't had time to look for another career.
Later, I logged hours with him at conventions or at gatherings involving Jack Kirby or Julius Schwartz. Twice, he joined dinner parties I was hosting up at the Magic Castle and a few days after one of them, I ran into him in Greenblatt's Delicatessen on Sunset Boulevard. Sometimes — not always but sometimes — he was quite cordial and I was able to talk to him the way I talk to any veteran of the comic book field. (If you're ever in Greenblatt's, check out the back stairwell. There's a nice framed drawing up there of Batman and Robin that Bob did for the proprietors.) I helped arrange for him to make a guest appearance on Bob, the situation comedy I wrote for in which Bob Newhart played a comic book artist and later, Mr. Kane phoned to thank me for that. That was gentlemanly.
Even after a few unpleasant encounters in which Bob (Kane, not Newhart) was too busy being The Creator of Batman to talk to anyone, I still did not lose all my respect for the man. The guy did something that gave us one of the five-or-so greatest characters ever in comics. How many people reading this can ever claim that? I would love to be able to celebrate him for that without my mind instantly going, as so many minds do at the mention of Bob Kane, to how Bill Finger remains seriously undercelebrated. Bob could have fixed that and he didn't.
Since then, the cry to credit Bill Finger has only grown and it will not go away. When Bob receives that deserved honor of a star on or about Hollywood Boulevard, there may well be protest signs about and I may be holding one of them. I just hope that someone in his family or close to them will realize that unless they do what Bob said should be done and didn't, an ever-expanding group of people will not think of him as the creator of Batman. They'll think of him, first and foremost, as a guy who didn't do right by the man he himself called "…my long-time friend and collaborator."