| Bob Kane began his comic book career in
the mid-1930's, originally concentrating on humorous features, such as
Hiram Hick in Wow! What a Magazine (Sept, 1936), edited by
Will Eisner. He did an animal adventure strip, patterned after Mickey
Mouse, called Peter Pupp, which appeared in Jumbo Comics.
He moved into a serious adventure style with
Rusty and His Pals,
a pseudo-Terry and the Pirates, which began in
NewAdventure Comics
26 in May 1938. This was followed by Clip Carson
in Action Comics 14 in July 1939. By this time, Kane was having
his story lines provided by his friend Bill Finger.
At the same time, Detective Comics editor
Vin Sullivan was asking all of his current contributors whether they could
come up with characters like Superman. The colorfully costumed crimebuster
was already turning heads in the industry and publishers were rushing to
see how fast they could jump on the bandwagon. So Kane went home
to work on his own long-john hero.
Inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci, Zorro and
the movie The Bat Whispers. Kane began drawing a man with
stiff bat wings and a Superman-like red and blue costume. He showed
the drawings to Bill Finger who completely re-designed the costume to look
like the outfit we know today. Finger also came up with the name
Bruce Wayne. With Finger supplying the script, Kane soon had a complete
Batman story in Vin Sullivan's hands and the series premiered in
Detective Comics 27 in May 1939. |
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An early Batman page showing
Kane's cartoony roots, from Detective Comics 30 page 10.
August 1939. Bob Kane pencils
and inks, story by Gardner Fox. |
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Vin Sullivan didn't know about Bill Finger's
contributions however, so he soon assigned Gardner Fox to write Batman
scripts. Fox wrote six stories, including Batman's origin,
before he moved on to other assignments. Kane then owned up to Finger's
earlier involvement and got him hired by Sullivan to write directly for
Detective Comics, Inc. It was the beginning of a long and fruitful
career, which included co-creating the Golden Age Green Lantern, dozens
of Superman stories, Green Arrow, Challengers of the Unknown, Wildcat,
Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys and work for other publishers including
Marvel (the All-Winners Squad). Finger died in 1974.
from Detective 33 page 2
November 1939 pencils by Bob Kane, inks and letters by Sheldon Moldoff,
story by Gardner Fox |
| Batman was almost immediately perceived
as a hit. The page count was expanded from 10 to 12 pages a month.
To help handle his increased work load, Kane hired an assistant, Sheldon
Moldoff to ink and letter his Batman work. Moldoff, a much more
accomplished draftsman than Kane was able to provide the dark realism the
strip demanded. Unfortunately for Kane he only stayed for a few months
before getting work on his own strips Hawkman and the Black Pirate.
Ironically, Moldoff would return a decade later to ghosting Kane's work.
Kane then turned the assistant chores over
to a young college student he met while playing tennis. Jerry
Robinson turned out to be a major find, going on to pencil and ink may
important Batman stories solo, as well as doing many other features for
Detective Comics, such as the Vigilante, and other publishers, such
as the Black Terror. before graduating to his own syndicated panel.
from Detective Comics 36
page 5 -story by Bill Finger, pencils by Bob Kane, inks and letters by
Jerry Robinson. Notice Batman's funky new gloves. |
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Robinson did not slavishly follow Kane's
pencils, but freely interpreted them burying the stiffness of Kane's anatomy
behind his own fluid sense of design. The stiff cardboard Bat-Cape
now began swirling and flowing. Figures leaped from the panels.
Fog infested Gotham streets and everything became ominous and dreary.
from Detective 43 page 01
story by Bill Finger, pencils by Bob Kane, inks by Jerry Robinson, backgrounds
and lettering by George Roussos. |
| The last member of the Kane shop of the
early forties to arrive was George Roussos.
Once Batman received his own comic book, things were starting to get really
hectic in the Batman office so Roussos took over the background and lettering
work from Jerry Robinson.
By 1943, with the start of the Batman comic
strip there was now so much work that Robinson
and Roussos had to split up and work on separate stories. Roussos'
solo inking style soon earned him the nickname "Inky" for his generous
use of shadow and silhouette. Roussos would also go on to his own
strip, Airwave
and a long career inking and coloring for almost
everyone in the business.
from Detective 77 page 10
by Bob Kane, George Roussos and Bill Finger. July 1943.
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