Bob Kane
Bob Kane (nee
Robert Kahn,
October 24,
1915 –
November 3,
1998) is an
American comic book artist and
writer credited as the creator of
Batman.
Early life and career
Robert Kahn legally changed his name to Bob Kane at age 18. He entered comics in 1936, and for Detective Comics Inc. — one of the companies that, with National Periodicals and
All-American Publications, merged to form the eventual
DC Comics — created a character called The Bat-Man. Kane said his influences for the character included actor
Douglas Fairbanks' movie portrayal of the
swashbuckler Zorro, and author
Mary Rinehart's mysterious villain
The Bat.
Batman
 |
Detective Comics #27 (May 1939). The first appearance of Batman. Art by Bob Kane. |
His collaborator and studio writer,
Bill Finger, recalled that Kane
Finger said he offered such suggestions as giving the character a cowl, and a scalloped cape instead of wings; adding gloves; and removing the bright red sections of the original costume, suggesting instead a gray-and-black color scheme. Finger additionally said his suggestions were influenced by
Lee Falk's extremely popular
The Phantom, a
syndicated newspaper comic strip character with whicvh Kane was familiar as well; this included leaving the mask's eyeholes blank to connote mystery. Finger wrote the first Batman story, while Kane provided art. Because Kane had already submitted the proposal for Batman to his editors at DC Comics, he is the only person given official credit for the creation of Batman.
The character was a breakout hit and editors suggested that the character receive a youthful
sidekick whom the readers could use as an
audience surrogate. Kane, partly inspired by the Junior character from the
Dick Tracy comic strip, initially suggested an impish character named Mercury, while Finger suggested a more down-to-earth character. The name "Robin" was suggested by
Jerry Robinson (Kane's inker) after the then-popular
Errol Flynn movie
The Adventures of Robin Hood. Robinson also introduced Batman's archenemy the
Joker, in
Batman #1.
When DC wanted more product than Kane's studio could deliver, the company assigned
Dick Sprang and other in-house pencilers as ghost artists, drawing uncredited under Kane's supervision. Kane himself, unknown to DC, used
Sheldon Moldoff [Moldoff, in a 1994 interview given while Kane was alive, described his own clandestine arrangement:]"I worked for Bob Kane as a ghost from ' 53 to ' 67. DC didn't know that I was involved; that was the handshake agreement I had with Bob: 'You do the work don't say anything, Shelly, and you've got steady work'. No, he didn't pay great, but it was steady work, it was security. I knew that we had to do a minimum of 350 to 260 pages a year. Also, I was doing other work at the same time for [editors] Jack Schiff amd Murray Boltinoff at DC. They didn't know I was working on Batman for Bob. ... So I was busy. Between the two, I never had a dull year, which is the compensation I got for being Bob's ghost, for keeping myself anonymous". (1994 Sheldon Moldoff interview, first published in Alter Ego #59, June 2006, p. 15)
from 1953-1967, as well as
Lew S. Schwartz.
Later life and career
As Kane's comic work tapered off in the 1960s, Kane parlayed his Batman status into minor celebrity. He enjoyed a post-comic book career as a painter, showing his work in art galleries, although even some of these paintings were produced by ghost artists. In 1989, he published his autobiography,
Batman and Me, with a second volume
Batman and Me, The Saga Continues in 1996.
He was set to have a cameo in the 1989 movie
Batman as the newspaper artist who prepares the drawing of the "Bat-man" for Alexander Knox, but scheduling conflicts prevented this. Kane's trademark square signature can still be seen clearly on the drawing.
Kane is interred in
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) in
Los Angeles, California.
Jerry Robinson: "A lot of people don't give him [Kane] as much credit for his art, but I thought he had a flair. It was rudimentary, but in a way that worked to his benefit in the strip. He didn't know much about perspective and anatomy, so he had to improvise".
[Jerry Robinson interview, The Comics Journal #271]Batman and Me, by Bob Kane and Tom Andrae
