The folks at Mashable have put up a video — which I think is new but I'm not sure — called "5 Facts About Batman (with Adam West)." I've embedded it below.
The first one is about how Bill Finger really created Batman and not Bob Kane. I absolutely agree that Finger has been tragically, almost criminally deprived of recognition for his work. (I am, let us remember, the Administrator of the annual award that bears his name because the comic books and movies of his character do not.) However, there are two large problems with the Mashable video…
- They woefully understate Kane's contribution when they say, "All he really did was drawn a blonde guy in a red suit with bat wings." Well, no. First off, the drawing they show of what folks will assume is Kane's contribution is actually a speculation on what Kane's design might have looked like. I believe my pal Arlen Schumer did this drawing a few years ago. Secondly, Kane also sold the strip to DC Comics and worked quite a bit on the early stories. I don't think any of that makes him the sole creator of the character — others did as much or more — but he did a lot more than that one drawing that's actually by Arlen. He did, for example, a lot of drawings that were actually by Jerry Robinson. (No, seriously, Bob did do a lot of drawing and head up the crew that produced the early material.)
- They say "Finger got no recognition" as they show a photo that they think is of Bill Finger. It's actually a photo of DC writer Robert Kanigher…and I think I know how they made this mistake. The Bill Finger Award goes each year to some writers who, like Finger, have not received proper recognition. Last year, one of the ones who received it was Robert Kanigher. I obtained a photo of Kanigher from his family, did a lot of retouching on it to make it look decent and used it on my site and in our press releases. Obviously, someone at Mashable did a search for "Bill Finger photo" or something of the sort, that pic came up and they grabbed and used it.
So once more, Bill Finger is not receiving his proper recognition. And I don't consider it a welcome change that Bob Kane isn't, either. Here's the video. Adam West's participation is, uh, interesting…
UPDATE: A few folks have written to ask me about the claim in this video that Bill Finger created The Joker. Well, Bob Kane claimed that Finger created The Joker and Jerry Robinson said Jerry Robinson created The Joker working with Finger and I believe the weight of evidence is on Robinson's side. So Jerry was a bit wronged here.