April 25: The Batman

Detective Comics #27 was published on this date in 1939, introducing Batman, created by illustrator Bob Kane (Kahn) with major creative input from Bill Finger. Finger wrote scripts, redesigned Batman’s costume, named him Bruce Wayne, coined such key literary devices as “the dynamic duo” and “Gotham City,” and helped to create several of the Batman’s nemeses, including the Penguin, Two-Face, Catwoman and others. Both artists were from Jewish families in New York and attended DeWitt Clinton High School, though they didn’t know each other as teens. “I made Batman a superhero-vigilante when I first created him,” said Kane, who signed a contract with DC that gave him an exclusive by-line for Batman. “Bill turned him into a scientific detective.” Their creation built upon DC’s great success with Superman in 1938 and turned DC into the giant of the comic publishing world. DC fired Finger, however, along with several other veteran artists and writers when they asked for health insurance in the 1960s; Finger died poor in 1974. The Bill Finger Award for Achievement in Comic Book Writing has been given annually since 2005 to unsung or underappreciated artists and writers of the comic industry.

“These guys span out of the Depression-era pulp magazines and street gangs of the 30s. Back then, justice was swift and uncompromising, so in their early years you’d have Batman throwing people out of windows to their deaths.” -Bill Finger