I have a lot of mail with questions flowing from my seven-part Batman article and I'll get to as many of them as I can over the next few days. Ken Barrett wrote to ask…
I'm intrigued by your tale of spending time with Bob Kane while he was drinking vodka and telling you his version of history. I understand that for many years, he supplied Batman art to DC and it was actually done by Sheldon Moldoff. That stopped at some time. Did he tell you how and when it had stopped? And how long did you know him? What was your relationship with him like?
He only told me a little of it but I learned the rest from a number of folks including Moldoff, Julius Schwartz and Nelson Bridwell.
I used to roughly estimate when I had my first two meetings with Bob Kane but the other day, it dawned on me that I could figure it out. He invited a bunch of members of our local comic book club up to his apartment and we all brought along comics for him to autograph. For some reason, I brought along a copy of the latest issue of Batman, which was #204. It contained what I'm fairly sure was the first Batman story ever to have actual script and art credits for the men who actually did those tasks instead of a faux Bob Kane signature…
You'll notice that "Story by Frank Robbins" and "Art by Irv Novick & Joe Giella" are crammed in oddly and the lettering is not by the person who did the rest of the lettering on that story. From that, I conclude that the story was finished before its editor, Julie Schwartz — or someone at the office — realized, "Hey! Since we bought out Kane, we can start putting real credits on here like we do on all our other comics!" And the names were added at the last minute.
What had happened was that Kane's contract with them was expiring and DC wasn't about to give him the same terms again. At the time, they were in the process of selling the company and as I understand it, they needed a better release than they had from Kane that said DC owned Batman and he didn't. He got a lot of money from them…or what seemed like a lot of money at the time and probably looked like a bargain in later years.
Batman #204 came out on June 6, 1968 so our visit with Kane — when I was there as part of a group — would have been shortly after, probably the following Sunday, perhaps a week later. I vividly recall showing Kane that issue and noting for him that the comic now carried credits. I'd been puzzled why it didn't when almost all other DCs — especially those edited by Schwartz — did.
And I vividly recall the odd expression on Mr. Kane's face when he first laid eyes on a Batman comic book that credited Frank Robbins, Irv Novick and Joe Giella but not Bob Kane. He was not surprised. He knew it was coming because the new contract he'd signed months earlier had allowed them to do that…but it was still a jarring moment for him to actually see it in print.
Incidentally: The last six months or so of Kane supplying pencil art to DC occurred without the services of Sheldon Moldoff. Stories under the "Bob Kane" signature were ghosted by several men — Chic Stone, Frank Springer, Gil Kane and possibly Joe Certa. Schwartz's records (he kept good records) showed that Bob Kane was paid for the pencils on those stories so one might assume those men were paid by Bob. And one might be wrong.
I never asked Gil and I never met Joe Certa but Stone and Springer told me they were paid by DC. Shelly Moldoff's memory was that he drew all of the Batman stories Kane was obligated to supply until one day, Bob told him it was all over, so long, farewell…and Schwartz didn't recall.
So (I'm guessing here) Kane let Moldoff go prematurely, then realized more stories needed to be ghosted so DC selected and paid those ghosts. And maybe something was worked out where Kane reimbursed DC for what those men were paid or it was deducted from Kane's checks or something and that this "interim ghosting" went on until Kane's new deal was finalized and signed. You probably aren't as interested in this kind of thing as I am.
My second visit with Bob Kane was about two weeks after the first one. It was on that visit that he gave me a very nice (I think) piece of art that he actually drew himself. I wrote about that here. Thereafter, I saw him here and there, off and on, and he sometimes remembered who I was and sometimes didn't.
One evening in the eighties, I hosted him, his wife, Julie Schwartz and a couple of comic-book-writing friends for an evening at the Magic Castle. Bob was chatty and he talked a lot, mainly about himself. He kept worrying aloud that people around us would find out who he was and pester him for autographs and sketches. At no point did he notice that sitting two tables from us — totally unpestered by anyone — was Johnny Carson.
I last saw Bob…well, I last saw him in 1998 but he was dead at the time. I was one of four people from the comic book field who attended his funeral, the other three being Paul Smith, Mike Barr and Stan Lee. One of these days, I should write about that afternoon. Before the ceremony, Stan took me aside and said, "They're expecting me to say a few words. Tell me what to say." I did and later as we both stood graveside, he was bored and he began telling me stories about Steve Ditko. I kept saying, "Shouldn't we be talking about Bob?"
My last memory of Robert "Bob" Kane was that after the services, as his friends filed past the open coffin, several of them shoved little toy Batmobiles and Batman action figures in there with him. If you ever met the man, you'd understand why that was not at all inappropriate.