Nowadays, when it comes to superheroes, everyone must have been very familiar with it.
Avengers, Justice League, X-Men, Iron Man, Superman, Spider-Man...
After round after round of baptism on the big screen, everyone can say several at once.
But if you want to talk about the world's most influential superhero,
All of the above have to make way for one person.
This is Batman.
If you look at the European and American comic lists,
You will find that on most of the list, Batman not only firmly occupies the top position,
It also often occupies more than half of the seats on the list.
And whether it's sales, or word of mouth, it's the same.
In derivative games, film and television, animation, peripheral and other works,
Batman's exposure and IP value are also far greater than other superheroes.
Comics fans often joke that there is no distinction between Marvel and DC in american comics, only Batman and others.
However, it is one of the world's most successful comic IP,
Such a gold mine that creates countless fortunes for DC and Warner every year,
Bill Finger, the original creator of Batman, was 59 years old.
Because of poverty and illness, he died in pain.
At the time of his death, no one even knew that he was Batman's true "biological father".
It wasn't until 40 years after his death that DC and Warner finally acknowledged him and gave him the title of late.
Today we will tell the story of the man who created Batman, Bill Finger.
One
Bill Finger was born in the United States in 1914 to a Jewish family.
When he was a child, the family moved to New York.
When Finger was 19 years old, his family's tailor shop closed down and he had to go outside to find work.
At an alumni meeting of a high school,
Finger met Bob Kane, who was contributing to Detective Comics.
As a newcomer to the comic book industry, Kane can draw, but he is suffering from not making up stories.
And Finger, who dreamed of becoming a writer, made Kane think he could give it a try.
So Kane asked Finger to be his screenwriter and write the script for the comics.
He divided the proceeds to Finger, but at one point, Finger did not have the right to sign.
In that era when comics were just emerging,
The young Finger didn't understand what the right of attribution meant.
In this way, he began his comic book career in a vacuum.
Influenced by the superhuman popularity of Action Comics at the time,
The Editor of Detective Comics asked Kane to also create a superhero detective character.
So Kane drafted a plan according to his own ideas:
A blond man with Robin-style eye masks and a red tights,
A superhero with two huge bat-like hard wings sticking out from behind.
This is the sketch image of Kane's version of Batman restored by later generations based on the description at that time
Kane showed the sketch to Finger and asked him to give him some advice.
Finger only glanced at it and thought no: too much like Superman.
So Finger took the pen and made some changes to the sketch:
He changed the blindfold to a more mysterious pointed ear hood,
Stiff wings were replaced with a black cape, and gloves were worn.
The most important thing is to change the red tights to a more cold and gloomy black and gray tone,
It set the tone for the later Batman".com.
Just talk about batman's image design level,
Finger's contribution to batman's birth has already surpassed Kane's.
So in May 1939, Finger wrote the screenplay, Kane painted Batman,
Debuted in Detective Comics #27.
Since then, Batman has quickly become a symbol of detective comics,
Stand shoulder to shoulder with Superman to become the two representatives of the world's superheroes,
And started a business saga.
Two
In the shaping of Batman, Finger not only laid the foundation for his artistic image,
For Batman's story and spiritual connotations, Finger is also the most important founder.
First of all Batman's real identity in reality, billionaire Bruce Wayne,
It was Finge who created it.
And Finger also created a classic origin story for Batman:
On the way home after watching the movie, Bruce Wayne's parents are in Crime Alley,
Shot and killed by robber Joe Zill,
This led Bruce to devote himself to the fight against crime when he grew up.
Once at the Wayne Mansion, the bats that flew into the room gave him inspiration,
Let him incarnate as Batman to fear and deter criminals.
In the 80 years since, batman's origin story has been reshaped many times,
But none of them deviated from the framework that Finger had set for that year.
And Finger brings more to Batman than just the origins.
The core elements of almost all the Batman IP we know today,
It was all created by Him.
For example, Batman's biggest villain, the Joker, his debut story was written by Finger.
And Finger also wrote an edition of the origin story for the Joker:
The Joker once encountered Batman while wearing a red hood to a chemical plant to steal,
In order to escape and jump into the chemical waste pool, he is disfigured and goes crazy, and takes revenge on Batman.
Later the legendary screenwriter Alain Moore adapted this outline,
Created one of the most outstanding comics in DC history, Deadly Joke.
In addition, Batman's opponent and only true lover, Catwoman,
We are familiar with the simple folk customs of Gotham City,
And gotham's vote for the classic Batman villain,
Penguin Man, Two-Faced Man, Riddler Man, Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, etc. and so on,
It's all from Finger's ideas.
It can be said that Batman's worldview system can be established,
The story of Batman can endure for 80 years,
Bill Finger is credited with it.
However, as batman comics continue to be serialized, the consequences of Finger's original lack of attribution rights are gradually revealed.
Kane himself from 1943 onwards,
It is no longer for the two major Batman serials of Detective Comics and Batman.
He took the high fee paid to him by DC and found many screenwriters and painters to ghostwrite.
At the same time, due to the original contract with DC, the cover of each issue of Batman,
All are marked that Kane is the only author,
And all of Batman's publications have to pay Kane a royalty.
So Kane soon lived a millionaire life like Bruce Wayne.
Bill Finger, on the other hand, could only survive on a meager salary.
Even for the editors in charge of Detective Comics and Batman,
They also didn't know who Bill Finger was.
All I know is that Kane will deliver the manuscript on time every issue.
Finger also tried to speak up for himself.
In 1965, he unveiled all of his creative processes over the years at a comic book show.
However, at this time, the former partner, and the only batman author recognized by DC officially, Kane,
However, it is publicly stated:
I was the only creator of Batman, and I painted Batman throughout the Golden Age.
Bob Kane
In fact, Batman has been serialized for so many years,
Among them, the difference between the painting style and story style of different periods is obvious,
Guess what you can guess is that there must be a lot of unsigned ghostwriters.
At that time, many peers and media in the industry believed that Finger's huge contribution to Batman was buried.
Jerry Robinson, another cartoonist who once worked with Finger on the story of Batman,
After hearing Kane's statement, he broke with him outright.
However, the support of peers, at that time, the public opinion environment was not yet developed enough,
It doesn't really make a decision.
Kane is still the only officially recognized Batman author, and Finger's life remains impoverished.
Even more unfortunately, in 1968, Finger applied to DC for medical insurance.
However, he was directly dismissed by the company with a letter of termination.
At the age of fifty-four, Finger was unemployed and eventually died five years later in poverty and sickness.
The news of Finger's death was not even known or cared about at the time.
No one knows that the "Father of Batman" quietly left this world at that moment.
After the body was cremated, Finger's son sprinkled his ashes on the beach and surrounded them in the shape of bats.
Three
Justice, though late, is not absent.
Fifteen years after Finger's death, Tim Burton's batman live-action film was released in 1989.
At this time, the real author of Batman has once again become the topic of discussion in the world.
Kane, who was 74 years old at the time, published an autobiography shortly after.
Maybe it is the self-knowledge of one's own time and more than five consciences to find,
It may also be that finge is no longer able to compete with himself for the interests of Batman,
For the first time, he publicly acknowledged Finger's exploits for creating Batman.
He wrote in his autobiography:
If time could be turned back, I would like to go back 15 years, back to before Finger died.
I would say to him:
I'm going to put your name on the cover, and you deserve it.
However, although Kane personally acknowledged Finger's contribution,
In the eyes of the public, Finger is still an unfamiliar name.
Although Kane acknowledges Finger, how much of a role Finger played in Batman's creative process,
Still no one can tell.
The official DC level has never recognized Finger,
Still only acknowledging Kane as Batman's only creator.
It was not until the emergence of a writer, Nobelman, that Finge was finally "rehabilitated".
Nobelman was touched by a chance to learn Finger's story.
He spent 5 years tracking down and interviewing Finger's family and friends,
And interviewed almost all the people Finger had worked with.
In 2012, he put the materials he had collected over the years,
Published a book called Fantastic Bill: Batman's Secret Co-Creator,
In the book, Finger's comic book career and deeds are restored.
This gave the public the first time they really and fully understood the life of Bill Finger,
And his great contribution to Batman.
And with Nobelman's encouragement,
Finger's descendants also began to contact DC, hoping to win Finger's due business rights.
Under the pressure of dual public opinion in the public and the comic book industry,
In 2015, DC invited Finge's granddaughter Athena to a closed-door talk at DC Comics headquarters.
As a result, the byline of Batman's creators was officially revised to:
Batman was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.
（BatmancreatedbyBobKanewithBillFinger）
Since October 2015,
All of Batman's titles, whether comics, movies, or episodes, use the above attribution.
Athena, as Finger's descendant, will also receive regular royalty checks from DC every month.
Now if we click on the Douban page of the upcoming "New Batman" movie,
You can also see that in the screenwriting column, there is a name for Bill Finger.
Bill Finger finally waited for his belated testimony and justice.
Douban Bill Finger's page, you can see all the works of the bat series, have his name
Comments
Bill Finger's story reminds me of a phenomenon.
In fact, in today's self-media era, many so-called personal UP masters, public number big V,
Behind them are also ghostwritten copywriting.
This is very common in the industry,
I myself used to be the main author of a game WITH nearly one million fans.
It's just that compared to these symbolic characters who show their faces and make their voices in front of the video,
Most of the real ghostwriting behind it are just obscure, with a small fee or remuneration.
The content is, in a way, a dialogue between the author and the reader,
But who exactly is it that is talking to you that resonates with you?
Have you ever thought about it as a reader or an audience?
Resources:
Black Knight Chronicles: The Gold, Silver, and Bronze Age of Comics by NemoTheCaptain
"Batman's 100th Birthday of the Father Without a Name" by Nemo
Batman Creator: Bill Finger by Demon