I see many articles online about how wonderful it was that Joye Murchison Kelly and her husband came out to Comic-Con in 2018 to be honored with the Bill Finger Award and lots and lots of loving applause. I agree with that but I feel like I'm getting too much credit for making that happen.
That we knew at all of Ms. Kelly is due to the detective work of Jill Lepore, author of the book, The Secret History of Wonder Woman. Several different folks suggested Joye for the Bill Finger Award, then the Blue Ribbon committee that decides on the award — Jim Amash, Scott Shaw!, Kurt Busiek, Charles Kochman, Marv Wolfman and Yours Truly voted that she should have it and comic historian Richard Arndt got me in touch with her.
Jackie Estrada, who supervises the Eisner Awards for Comic-Con, expedited all this. The major sponsor for the 2018 awards was DC Comics, our supporting sponsors were Heritage Auctions and Maggie Thompson, and I persuaded Dan DiDio (who was then running DC Comics) to raise their contribution so Joye and her husband Jack could be flown first-class. Once Joye was here, many folks helped take care of her and Jack, and made their trip wonderful but I have to mention Trina Robbins, Anina Bennett and (again) Maggie Thompson. And of course, the Bill Finger Award has a lot to do with the late Jerry Robinson (who invented it) and the lovely Athena Finger, granddaughter of Bill…
…I'm probably leaving someone out. If you met Joye at that convention and made her feel honored and welcome, I'm leaving you out. The point is that the credit for that presentation should be divided up — as the credit for creating Batman wasn't for far too long.