Batman Birthday: The Great Bill Finger

If you don’t know Bill Finger you don’t know Batman. Sadly, most people don’t.

Bill Finger was the co-creator of Batman along side Bob Kane, but just like Jack Kirby he was overshadowed by their partner and screwed by a one-sided contract. Finger barely saw a dime for his work on The Caped Crusader, but he was the man responsible for naming Gotham City, creating Jim Gordon, revealing the Bruce Wayne alter ego and introducing The Joker and The Riddler. All of which were credited to Bob Kane or Jerry Robinson.

"In 1989, Kane acknowledged Finger as “a contributing force” in the character’s creation, and wrote, “Now that my long-time friend and collaborator is gone, I must admit that Bill never received the fame and recognition he deserved. He was an unsung hero … I often tell my wife, if I could go back fifteen years, before he died, I would like to say. ‘I’ll put your name on it now. You deserve it.'” Comics historian Ron Goulart has referred to Batman as the “creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger”.Finger’s contemporary, artist and writer Jerry Robinson, who worked with Kane from the beginning, said, “[Bill] had more to do with the molding of Batman than Bob. He just did so many things at the beginning, … creating almost all the other characters, … the whole persona, the whole temper,” Batman inkerGeorge Roussos, another contemporary, said, “Bob Kane had ideas while Bill sort of organized them”. A DC Comics press release in 2007 stated flatly that, “Kane, along with writer Bill Finger, had just created Batman for DC predecessor National Comics.” Likewise, DC editor Paul Levitz wrote, “The Darknight [sic] Detective debuted in [Detective] #27, the creation of Bob Kane and Bill Finger.”-wikipedia"

Finger was born on this day in 1914. He died on January 18th, 1974 having received little to no credit until years after he left us. We should all take time to appreciate and celebrate everything he gave us. Go read a Batman comic and remember where it came from.