On January 18, 1974, DC comic book writer Bill Finger died alone in his small manhattan apartment. After Bill's death, his son Fred took his ashes to a beach in Oregon, surrounded it with sand to mark Batman, and then dumped the ashes inside, taking his father away by the sea. It wasn't until many years later that the world learned that the man who left the world silently was one of the creators of the world-famous superhero Batman. Why is the creator of this big IP that has been on fire for 83 years poor all his life, and even the name is not known? Today we will talk about the story of Batman's nameless father.
Chapter 1: Bill's Man
Milton Finger was born on February 8, 1914 in Denver, Colorado, United States, and after graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1933, Finge changed his common Jewish name to Bill because his Jewish status was not easy to find a job. Since the United States was in the Midst of the Great Depression at this time, Bill had to do nothing but live, but he always had a writer's dream in his heart.
Fast forward to 1938, when Bill attended an alumni association. Interestingly, Bill's school, Dewitt Clinton High School, is a magical school, and somehow there are a group of big names in the American comic book industry who graduated from it, such as Will Eisner, the godfather of American animation, and Stan Lee, the father of Marvel, who died a few years ago.
Of course, Bill didn't meet these two big men at the alumni conference, otherwise it might be another story. Bill met an alumnus who was a contemporary of him, named Bob Kane. Bob Kane had just joined the comic book industry at the time, and was an unknown newcomer, who could draw but could not write stories. It just so happened that Bill loved literature but had no place to play, so he shared some of his ideas with Bob. The two hit it off immediately, and from then on one was responsible for drawing and the other was responsible for writing, and co-creation. Bill has since become one of Bob's behind-the-scenes writers. Of course, both were still rookies at the time, so some of the comics they published did not get much attention until 1938, when Superman came out, and National Comics (the predecessor of DC) wanted to hit the iron while it was hot and replicate Superman's success, and finally Bob took over the job. Since then, Bill and Bob's lives have taken a huge turn.
Chapter 2: The Birth of Batman
Regarding the past and present lives of the character of Batman, I have already introduced it to you in the last episode of the show, and those who have not yet seen it can go to the last issue first. Simply put, Bob came up with an idea called "Batman" (Bat-Man had a horizontal bar in the middle, later renamed Batman), but Bob got into trouble with character design, so he immediately approached Bill to discuss it. After Reading the first draft of Bob's painting, Bill's first thought was that he was too much like Superman, and he made his own suggestion, first of all, this red tights are too festive, since it is called Batman, it naturally looks scary. Then he suggested changing the small blindfold to a hood and adding pointed ears, and the most important thing is that Batman should have an essential difference from Superman, Superman is an invincible alien, then Batman should be an ordinary person who will be injured. Bob accepted Bill's suggestion almost entirely, and by the time the manuscript was delivered on Monday, it could be said that except for the name Batman, which had not changed, the other designs were full of Bill's ideas.
The head of DC was interested after seeing Batman's design and immediately planned to launch a comic book, Bob Kane showed his business acumen at this time, and in negotiations with DC, he asked the editorial department to give him compensation and attribution rights, which means that all future "Batman" comics and adaptations must be signed with the line "created by Bob Kane". However, Bill Finger was not present at the time of the agreement, let alone wrote his name.
When Bob tells Bill about the batman's publication, he asks Bill to continue writing stories without a name. This was a common occurrence in an era when intellectual copyright was not important, not to mention that Bill had to support his family and writing was not easy to find. Like his own Batman, Bill became an identityless Dark Knight. With the popularity of Batman comics, Bat-Man became Batman, and Bill became a full-time writer and began to refine Batman's worldview.
Bill has created a new origin story for Batman, what exactly can make a person dress like a bat in the middle of the night every day to punish evil? Bill gives a terrible answer, a helpless little boy who witnesses his parents die at the hands of robbers, so he wants to bring fear to all criminals, and grief and anger make the little boy grow into Batman.
After that, he created Classic Batman symbols such as Gotham City, Batmobile, Batc cave, etc., and because Bill's talent was too dazzling, other editors couldn't help but tell the DC editorial board that Bill was the creator of the Batman story. Although the Batman story was written by Bill and Bob together, bill no longer worked for Bob from this point on.
Chapter Three: The Dark Knight Forever
In the 25 years that Bill Finger wrote for Batman, not a single Batman comic book had his name appear in the author's column. Like Bruce Wayne, he hides his other identity, except that Bruce Wayne is a rich man and Bill Finger lives an awkward life. It wasn't until late 1964 that comic book editor Julius Schwartz brought the Hidden Dark Knight to the fore. The following summer, New York hosted a major comic book show, and in this city where Batman is active, Bill and three other screenwriters met the public for the first time as the comic book's creators. The host of this meeting is Jerry Bals, a die-hard fan of Batman, and thanks to the efforts of this hardcore fan, Bill's contribution to the creation of bats is finally known to the world.
Afterwards, Bob publicly accused Bill of exaggerating the facts, but fans demanded that Bob should give Bill a name, but Bill had no intention of competing for fame and profit, ironically saying that his Batman was the greatest fighter, but he could not fight for himself. In 1966, the "Batman" TELEVISION series began broadcasting, bringing Kane great wealth and fame, and Kane also lived the life of Bruce Wayne. Not only did Finger not have any copyright income, did not receive any official recognition, but was constantly marginalized under Kane's "Father of Batman" aura.
In 1968, Bill and a group of comic book creators were fired by the company over health insurance problems, and have lived in poverty ever since, and have been able to support themselves by taking on some less important stories from DC.
On Friday morning, January 18, 1974, Bill still owed DC two scripts, but he only handed them in, so he assured the editor that another one would be filled the following Monday. What no one expected was that on that Friday afternoon, a month before the age of sixty, Bill died in a dream.
After Bill's death, fans spontaneously formed a support group to call on DC to recognize his co-creator name. Soon after, DC praised in an issue of the comics that Batman had lost one of his two true fathers. In another issue of the comic, a full page shows Batman bowing his head in salute in front of Bill's grave. But we all know bill has no tombstone and no funeral.
But Bill's story didn't end with his death, and justice, though late, came. In 1989, the Batman film directed by Tim Burton was released. Seventy-four-year-old Bob Kane reappears in the spotlight with the publication of his autobiography Batman and Me, in which he finally acknowledges Bill's contribution to Batman, in which he writes:
Now that my longtime friend and partner has passed away, I must admit that Bill never received the honor and recognition he deserved. He was an unsung hero. ...... I never thought to sign him because he never asked for it. I used to tell my wife that if I could go back fifteen years, before he died, I would say, 'Now, I'm going to put your name on it, and you deserve it.'
Even though Bob asked in the contract that he would always be the sole creator of Batman and didn't change the contract later, at least more people know about Bill, the hero behind the scenes.
In 2005, Jerry Robinson, one of Batman's creative teams, created an award in honor of his old friend to pay tribute to the screenwriters who contributed to the creation of comic book stories. It's a shame Bill didn't get the award, but the name of the award is Bill Finger Award. To this day, Bill Finger inspires comic book creators to fight for justice, as Bruce Wayne did.
On September 19, 2015, DC struck a deal with Bill Finger's family to officially acknowledge his contributions to the Batman family, and soon after, the name of Batman, the fatherless father, finally appeared on the screen in the list of creators of the latest episode of the TV series Gotham.
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