Bill Finger’s Batman contributions noted in “Superpowered” documentary
Word Balloons #1175: Flashback includes look at 2008 column
Joe Dorman, the former Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate who does great things for kids as CEO of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, popped up in my messages the other day.
I thought it might be about the recent successful Heroes Ball the organization puts on. Speeding Bullet donated some items to their auction, tying in with the evening’s “X-Men” theme. Joe himself suited up as Wolverine. You can find more about the great evening the organization put on in Joe’s column: https://oica.org/not-all-heroes-wear-costumes-but-many-did-at-the-oica-heroes-ball/
But that wasn’t what this message was about.
“Good to see your Bill Finger story in the first episode of Superpowered!” Joe wrote.
It turns out that a 2008 story I had written about the lack of credit writer Bill Finger received at the time as Batman’s co-creator appeared on the program. I had interviewed Alan J. Porter, who wrote an essay about the situation for a book called “Batman Unauthorized.” “Superpowered” is a documentary on the Max streaming service about the history of DC Comics.
Joe suggested I share the link to the story here, and I did find the link below, though it’s somehow missing the original lead, which stated:
In every “Batman” comic book, in the credits to the 1960s TV show, even in the credits to this weekend’s “The Dark Knight” are the words “Batman created by Bob Kane.” While Kane is the only one officially credited with the character, writer Bill Finger is considered by most to have had a large input in bringing Batman to life.
You can read the rest of the article here:
As mentioned in the story, Finger suggested changes to Bob Kane's original design, adding the cowl mask and the cape resembling bat wings. Finger named the characters Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon in the original Batman story. Finger created more of the elements of the Batman legend as Batman continued, including naming Gotham City and creating Catwoman. But for years, he received no credit. Finger died in 1974 at the age of 59.
I don’t remember if I had anything to do with the clever headline, or if that was entirely the work of our outstanding copy editors at the newspaper, who often came up with witty puns and other erudite introductions to my articles.
DC Comics even in 2008 credited Finger as the writer of the original Batman stories when those stories were reprinted. And following the efforts of Finger biographer Marc Nobleman and others, in 2015, Finger was recognized officially by DC Comics as the co-creator and had his name added to the credit appearing on Batman material.
Bill Finger today continues to be honored as the namesake of the Bill Finger Award in Comic Book Writing given by Comic-Con International. He was posthumously inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame and the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame.
In addition to the “Superpowered” documentary, which covers the history of DC Comics, fans wanting to know more about Finger might want to seek out the Hulu documentary “Batman & Bill” from 2017. Marc Nobleman’s book with illustrator Ty Templeton, “Bill the Boy Wonder,” is a good read for 3rd-5th graders telling Bill Finger’s history.
Matthew Price, matthew@matthewlprice.com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman.
Thanks, amigo!